Marketing Research

1
Chapter 16

• Marketing Research
• ROWENNA SHARNE

2
Discussion Point

• The Internet provides small firms with the
  ability to compete more fairly with larger firms,
  through the provision of global advertising
  market research, low-cost electronic mail to
  communicated with customers, and mobile
  technologies such as cell phones and lap-tops for
  order-taking, etc. Firms have been able to
  establish a local presence with a global reach on
  a shoe-string budget. ???

3
Mkt Research the Internet

• Market research is VITAL for effective mktg
• Internet is changing traditional market research
• Provides mkters access to the largest and most
  significant storehouse of info ever, for both
  consmer and competitor intelligence
• Provides up-to-date info
• Both primary secondary information
• Better info???? (publishing standards)

4
Disadvantage of the Internet

• limited and skewed samples innovative,
  intelligent financially secure people How
  will this change in the future???
• anonymity provides for easier misrepresentation
  do you realy know who someone is???
• difficult to validate results (hard to generalise
  results to general pop)

5
The market research process

• Stated the basic process
• Three basic research methods observation,
  survey, experiment???? There are others, eg
  Interviews.
• OBSERVATION ON THE NET cybercommunities, USENET
  a worldwide hierarchy of newsgroups clustered
  around 7 major topic areas. User messages are
  broadcast across the news servers around the Net.

6
Basic research methods contd.

• Surveys via Web-site or email surveys. (Karen)
  Sampling methods unrestricted samples, screened
  samples, recruited samples
• Experiments interactive web pages (Daniel)
• COLLECTING INPUTTING DATA
• Major ge of Net instant data input, removes
  error, much less tedious

7
Types of Market Research(can be classified in
two different ways)

• Objective of Collection
• descriptive
• diagnostic
• predictive

• Method of Collection
• observational
• survey
• experimental

8
The Internet is changing Marketign Research

• Changing Environments
• Can now reach a larger pop with ease
  cross-cultural research
• Geographic location irrelevant for focus groups
  and interviews more valid data???
• consumer empowerment easier more discrete form
  of customer complaints. Advantageous for the
  firm????
• potential for real time data
• competitor information easier to find
• global access Researcher to researcher
  communications (Tim Beal) for advice, to share
  experiences???
• Unrestricted publication more info but is it
  better info-overload??? How valid is the
  source???

9
Main types of info sought from the Net for mktg
purposes are

• competitive intelligence (82)
• conducting research such as on-line surveys and
  focus groups (81)
• determining broad market trends (72)
• information about new production techniques and
  technology (46)
• information about international markets (36)
• What do you use it for???

10
Scanning the Environments in Internet Market
Research

• Scanning is vital (internal external
  environments). Internet makes scanning easier,
  esp detecting change.
• Environmental scanning (four key styles)
• undirected viewing
• conditioned viewing
• informal search
• formal search
• Market Intelligence through Internet based market
  research
• CONSUMER INTELLIGENCE (Internet esp good for
  small firms)
• primary consumer intelligence data
• cookie technology ethical???
• secondary consumer intelligence data govt web
  sites, consumer survey sites(validity??? )

11
Competitive Intelligence

• One of the skills of effective web-based mktg
  from a strategic perspective is to allow
  customers access to the max amount of info while
  trying to minimise the amount of strategically
  valuable info available to the competitors.
  INTERESTING (balance)
• search engines web sites
• trade associations
• personal web pages
• survey competitors customers on-line
• specialist company information sites
• news items
• discussion groups

12
Conducting On-line Market Research On-line Focus
Groups

• main advantage
• anonymity allows for more frank discussion
• main disadvantages
• technical limitations including the fact that non
  verbal cues are missing in most on-line
  environments
• biased and potentially misleading samples
• the difficulties inherent in relying on concept
  descriptions and pictures to get an accurate feel
  for new products on-line.

13
Opportunity for Marketers through the Internet

• Ethnography involves the researcher living
  with becoming part of a community while
  recording their view, opinions behaviour.
• Traditionally been neglected (mainly b/c of time)
• gives marketers a deeper understanding of the
  market
• Online acceptance into a community is easier than
  off-line acceptance (lack of visual and social
  cues for discrimination)

14
The Internet provides new research methods

• Both the addition of new features into existing
  methods and the creation of new methods of
  research, eg surveys can include virtual reality
• unobtrusive observation
• USENET
• lurking
• telepresence
• click tracking
• intrasite tracking
• visitor tracking
• surf tracking

15
Issues concerning On-line Research

• Anonymity
• Internet has potential to eliminate anonymity of
  user (good for user, bad for company??) However,
  potential is decreasing due to sophisticated
  tracking software loss of surfing freedom.
• Privacy lurkers may be present
• three levels of public-private space
• public space (personal web sites)
• telepresence (IRC MUD)
• private space for point-to-point conversation
  (but how private is it? George Bush).

16
Limitations of online research

• information overload
• information quality
• Speed (downloading, slow websites TEDIOUS)
• security
• skewed demography
• ease of access (not easy for everyone)
• TRENDS FOR FUTURE how dispersed will the
  Internet come? (like the telephone??)