Research Driven Decision Making (MBA 8652)

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Research Driven Decision Making (MBA 8652)

• Jeremy Kees, Ph.D.

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Tonights Agenda

1. Review Course Structure / Expectations
2. Get to know each other
3. Introduction to Research
4. Start forming teams

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Who is Jeremy Kees??
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My (Academic) Research

• I am consumer researcher
• research focus on consumer behavior
• I am interested in public policy / social
  marketing issues
• e.g., nutrition, obesity, tobacco, pharma
• I have authored 20 articles in peer-reviewed
  academic journals
• invited research talks in various countries
  around the word
• lots of popular press mentions

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My (Practitioner) Research

• Pharma
• Spent a semester as a Special Government Employee
  for FDA
• Sit on the FDA Risk Communications Advisory
  Committee
• Consult for major pharma firms around risk
  communication and fair balance
• Food/Nutrition
• Work closely with FDA on nutrition-labeling
  initiatives
• Consult for Grocery Manufactures Association and
  Food Marketing Institute on food labeling
  initiatives
• Advertising
• Consult for Saatchi Saatchi and other major ad
  agencies
• Animal Health

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Course Overview

• Application Focused
• Focus on non-technical research topics
• Real examples
• Experienced guest speakers
• No text
• Project-focused weekly assignments
• Exam

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General Course Outline

• The Research Process
• Problem Identification
• Study Design
• Measurement
• Sampling
• Data Collection
• No data analysis

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Classroom Environment

• Come prepared!
• Speak freely
• Bring your experiences
• Please.no cell phones

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Lets get to know each other...

1. Your name
2. What you do
3. One thing you like about the Villanova MBA
   Program
4. One thing you dislike about the Villanova MBA
   Program
5. Something you have done that nobody else in this
   room has done

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Break time.

• Over break, think about 2-3 other people you
  might want to work with over the next few weeks
• Perhaps people that work in a similar industry
• Or people that have a similar background

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• So, lets get started with some
• basic content.

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• The purpose of research within an organizational
  context is.
• __________________

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The Need for Information

• Marketing research focuses on the use of
  information as a source of strategic advantage
• As managers, we should strive for a thorough
  knowledge of customers, and their attitudes,
  tastes, preferences
• We should also want to keep an eye on competition
  (e.g., benchmarking)
• This information will help us making strategic
  marketing decisions (e.g., 4 Ps)

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Lets examine what marketing research is

1. Managerial Function
2. It is the marketers (or firms) link to
3. The External Environment
4. Customers
5. Consumers
6. Contributes to Marketing Knowledge

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Who Uses Marketing Research?

• Fortune-500 Firms
• e.g., product tweeks, shelf location, IMC
  campaigns, determining price points
• Entrepreneurs
• e.g., Market size, growth potential, viability
• And everyone in-between

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Research Can Tell Us.

• How our customer service is perceived by our
  customers and what particular areas we can
  improve on or emphasize
• How customers shop and how we can adjust our
  atmospherics to maximize sales
• What new products or new product features do
  customers want
• How customers perceive us in relation to our key
  competitor (or do they even recognize us as a key
  player in the industry)
• Who our most loyal customers are and how do we
  cater to this important segment (CRM)
• Who our prototypical customer is
• How can we segment the market in more manageable
  groups
• What marketing communications are most effective
  at reaching various segments of the market
• What is going to be the demand for a new product
  or an existing product in a new market
• Where should we build our next retail location
• At what price point we can maximize profitability
  and maintain consumer demand
• Which media vehicles will be most effective to
  communicate our advertising message
• Etc.

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Project vs. Process Approach

• Process Approach
• Ongoing Research
• Marketing Information Systems (MIS)
• Decision Support Systems (DSS)
• Based on the premise of collecting as much data
  as possible and building decision models that
  help us achieve optimal decisions

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Project vs. Process Approach

• Project Approach
• Our perspective for this course
• Unique problems require unique designs, measures,
  samples, analyses, etc.
• Each component is separate, but all components
  are highly interrelated

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Research Projects as Starting rather than Ending
Points

• More often than not, a project reveals more
  questions than answers
• Research is an iterative process each project
  contributes to knowledge (hopefully)

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Research Projects as Starting rather than Ending
Points

• MOST research is exploratory in nature
• Secondary sources informal observations,
  personal interviews, and focus groups
  convenience samples, etc.
• Output of exploratory research is ____?

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Research Projects as Starting rather than Ending
Points

• Once exploratory research has been exhausted and
  relationships are hypothesized, then we can move
  onto descriptive or causal designs
• Much more structuredmust lay out the who, what,
  when, where, why before data collection begins

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Formulate Problem
Stages in the Research Process (Researchers Pers
pective)
Determine Research Design
Design Data Collection Method and Forms
Design Sample and Collect Data
Analyze and Interpret the Data
Prepare the Research Report