Marketing principles update...

Week of 2/17

For this class we covered the uses of marketing research, and the types of marketing research. The purpose of marketing research is to improve the quality of decision making, trace a problem, to focus on keeping existing customers, and to understand the market place. The marketing research process is 1. Define the problem 2. Create a plan design/collect primary data 3. Specify sampling procedure 4. Collect data 5. Analyze data 6. Prepare and present the report 7. Follow up. Primary data answers a specific question. The primary data is current and the source of it is know, unlike secondary data. The disadvantages of primary data is that it is expensive to collect, and piggybacking although convenient may confuse respondents. Study research is the most popular technique of acquiring primary data. Other types are observation research which is watching what people do, and ethnographic research which is the study of human behavior in it's natural context. Another form is Internet surveys, which has many advantages, there has been rapid development in this area and also makes real-time reporting available, it allows reduced costs, and personalized questions and data. Not only that but it also allows consumers to do the surveys on there own time when it's convenient for them. Online focus groups is another example, it has fast speed, reduced costs, broad geo-graphic scope, and people tend to be more open and honest when they are in their own environment. The final part is scanner based research. There are two types of scanner research, BehaviorScan- which is panel information from a specific groups of people, and InfoScan- which is information on all products sold. Another are of research is Competitive Intelligenge, which is an intel system that helps managers assess their competition and vendors in order to become more efficient and effective over their competitors.