Principles of Marketing

BAMK1205/BSMK1102
Semester 1
AY 2022 – 2023
Marketing Research
LEARNING OUTCOMES COVERED:

Learning Outcome 4:

Know how to collect relevant information

about the marketing environment
 What is Marketing Research?
The systematic design, collection, analysis and reporting of data to a
specific marketing situation facing an organization” (Kotler et al, 2008:
p333).
Basic Purposes of a Market Research
1.Exploring opportunities. Marketing research may help
companies determine emerging trends, consumer changes
and other marketing opportunities.
2. Evaluating the performance of marketing decisions,
strategies or programs. Marketing research may be used to find
out the effectiveness of the marketing programs of a company.
3. Understanding consumers’ behaviors and attitudes.
Marketing research is used to understand consumer behavior.
4. Marketing research alone can provide first-hand knowledge for
consumers and changes in the pattern of demand
Basic Purposes of a Market Research
5. Marketing research enables management to anticipate, meet and
adopt change and creativity and accelerate conditions of change,
particularly in consumer demand.
6. Marketing research can solve the problem of catching up with new
developments brought about by unprecedented growth of science and
technology.
7. It can help management to bring about promote adjustments and
innovations in product design, packaging, advertising, sales promotion
and distribution policies so that the business can keep itself up-to-date
in the dynamic market place
Scan the QR Code or click on the link to learn more about the
importance of market research

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMeW876qpqc
The Marketing Research Process

Develop the Implementing the

Define the Interpreting and
research plan for research plan -
problem and reporting the
collecting collecting and
research objective findings
information analyzing the data
 Marketing Research
1. Defining the Problem & Objectives

Illustration:
Scenario: Sales at the new store have not met management expectations,

Marketing Research Questions:

Why are sales levels not meeting management
expectations?
1. Has customer disposable income in the area
declined in the last six months?
2. Is a new competitor, Al Meera, taking away
customers?
3. Are customers bored/tired of the current
product range in the existing supermarket?
4. Were management expectations set too high
and/or market potential overestimated?
1. Defining the Problem & Objectives

Exploratory Descriptive Causal

Objective Discovery of ideas and Describe market Determine cause and

insights characteristics or functions effect relationships

Characteristics Flexible, versatile Marked by the prior Manipulation of one or

Often the front end of total formulation of specific more independent
research design hypotheses variables
Pre-planned and
structured design

Methods Pilot surveys, expert Secondary data, surveys, Experiments

surveys, primary, and observational and other
secondary data, data
qualitative research
2. Developing Research Plan

This stage focuses on creating a plan to collect data in effective and efficient
manner and then presenting the plan to management

The Research plan determines the following:

A. Type of data needed
B. Research Approach
C. Contact methods
D. Sampling plan
E. Data Gathering Instrument
2. Developing Research Plan
Understanding Data

• The data should be up to date.

• It needs to be relevant – in other words, it
needs to fit the needs of the research
project.
• It must be reliably collected and reported.
 2. Developing Research Plan

• Secondary data
• Information already exists somewhere
• Have been collected for another purpose
• Internal or external to the organisation
• Primary data
• Information collected for the current research purpose

In general, secondary data can be obtained more quickly and cheaper than primary
data

Always start with exploring the secondary data first – and only then
start thinking about how you'll go about gathering primary data
Classification/Sources of Secondary Data

SECONDARY DATA

INTERNAL EXTERNAL

Ready Needs
Published Syndicated Computerised
to further
materials services databases
use processing
External Sources of Data
Source Description Example
Published materials Copyrighted works done by Books, magazines, research
experts on a particular field articles, journals
Syndicated services a third-party Market reports published by
company in the business of companies like AC Nielsen,
designing and preparing Lowe Lintas, Simmons.
research See example at:
report and data to multiple https://www.nielsen.com/
clients.

Computerized Data bases Company collected and Financial records, excel files
stored data about their of companies etc.
transactions
 Class Activity/Discussion

1. Are small business owners at a disadvantage if they lack the marketing research resources
that large companies have? Why or why not?
2. Online marketing research seems to be the wave of the future. What drawbacks do you see
associated with conducting surveys online? Are privacy issues greater with online surveys
than with other forms of administering surveys, such as phone, face-to-face, or mail?
3. Watch this following video and encourage discussion:
◦ Why Starbucks Failed In Australia: https://youtu.be/_FGUkxn5kZQ
◦ What was the biggest mistake? Discuss the following:
1. Business model?
2. Uncalculated expansion?
3. Australia coffee market?
4. Starbucks style?
5. Pricing strategy?
 Research Approach

◦ 1. Quantitative research
Quantitative research is expressed in numbers and graphs. It is used to test or confirm theories
and assumptions. This type of research can be used to establish generalizable facts about a topic.
Common quantitative methods include experiments, observations recorded as numbers, and
surveys with closed-ended questions.
◦ 2. Qualitative research
Qualitative research is expressed in words. It is used to understand concepts, thoughts or
experiences. This type of research enables you to gather in-depth insights on topics that are not
well understood.
Common qualitative methods include interviews with open-ended questions, observations
described in words, and literature reviews that explore concepts and theories.

Source: Published on April 12, 2019 by Raimo Streefkerk. Revised on February 7, 2022:
https://www.scribbr.com/methodology/qualitative-quantitative-research
Primary Data: Types and Collection Methods

Method

Quantitative Qualitative

Survey Experiment

Focus Depth Observation

Groups Interviews
Self-
Self- Interviewer
Interviewer
completion
completion conducted
conducted
Primary Data Sources
Source Description Illustration/Example
Survey an activity in which many people are asked Bank Muscat sends online
questions in order to gather information about questionnaires to its customers
what most people do or think about something to find out if they are satisfied
with the bank
Experiment a scientific test in which you perform a series of A food company tests how
actions and carefully observe their effects in order customers will react to
to learn about something different taste profiles of their
products
Focus group qualitative research method in which a selected 3 groups with 8 members each
discussions group of people discusses a given topic or issue were asked to discuss their
in-depth, facilitated by a professional, external insights about green marketing
moderator
In depth involves conducting intensive individual Few students were asked
interviews interviews with a small number of respondents to certain questions about their
explore their perspectives on a particular idea, product preferences
program, or situation
Observation Also called the eyes and ears approach A market researcher observes
the shopping behavior of
women
Research Instruments

Closed-end questions include all possible answers, and subjects make choices among them.
• Provide answers that are easier to interpret and tabulate
Open-end questions allow respondents to answer in their own words.
• Useful in exploratory research
Contact Methods: Evaluation
 Contact Methods: Evaluation

Mail Contact Challenges:

Large amount of respondents Not Flexible
Low cost per respondent Low response rate
No interviewer bias Little sample control

Personal Contact Challenges

Individual interviewing
Expensive
Group interviewing (Focus Groups)
Six to 10 people with a trained Difficult to generalize from small group
moderator Consumers not always open and honest

Online Contact
Low cost Challenges
Speed Restricted Internet access
Higher Response Rates Not sure who is answering
Good for Hard to Reach
Sampling Plan
◦Sample is a segment of the population selected
for marketing research to represent the population
as a whole. Your sampling strategy should answers:
• Who is to be surveyed? (sampling unit)
• How many people should be surveyed? (sample
size)
• How should the people be chosen? (sampling
procedure)

◦ The two types of sampling are:

1.Probability samples : the likelihood of you being
asked to participate in a research study.
2.Nonprobability samples: Non-probability is the
cheapest, quickest, most convenient
Probability versus Non-Probability
Sampling
Probability sampling is a method in which all the members of the population
has a pre-specified and an equal chance to be a part of the sample. This
technique is based on the randomization principle which to reduce the possibility of
bias. Probability sampling is more complex, more time-consuming and usually
more costly than non-probability sampling.

Non-probability sampling happens when NOT all the individuals of the

universe are given an equal opportunity of becoming a part of the sample,
Under this technique, the selection relies on the subjective judgment of the researcher
rather than random selection. Researchers use this method in studies where it
is impossible to draw random probability sampling due to time or cost
considerations.
3. Implementing the Research Plan

• After designing the research and data collection plan, the researcher now
implements the plan.
• This involves collecting, processing and analysing the information and findings.

Step 4
3. Implementing the Research Plan

Implementing the plan involves the three steps of collecting, processing and
analyzing the data:
 Collecting data and is the most expensive phase. This can take a long
time and may even extend into weeks and months.
 Processing is when you check the data for errors, missing data (such as
survey forms not correctly filled in and so on) and when the data are coded
for entry.
 Analysis – using statistical software packages like SPSS and AMOS.
 The data collection phase of the marketing research process must be
carried out very carefully to make sure the plan is implemented
correctly.
 Researchers must process and analyze the collected data to isolate important
information and findings.
 4: Interpreting & reporting
findings

• The researcher must now interpret the findings, draw conclusions and report
them to management.
• The researcher should present the major findings that are useful for the main
decisions faced by management.
• Be careful of biased interpretations
• The manager is the one who must decide what actions need to be taken
based on the findings
Putting it all
together

On-line
 ACTIVITY 2 :
MARKETING RESEARCH