The systematic and objective process of generating information to aid in making marketing decisions 

-Links the consumer, customer, and public to the market through information used to identify and define marketing

- Generates, refines, and evaluates marketing actions 

-Monitors marketing performance

 Underlines the understanding of marketing as a process

- Internal Departments (consumer sales, B2B)

-Support (Ad agencies, Government, and Consultants)

-Suppliers (full service, field service, and syndicated)

U.S

Japan

U.K.

Germany

France

Brazil

relevance

quality

timeliness

completeness

customized information

regular data flow

interactive (within limits)

the storage and acquisition of data

a data system and a model system goes into a dialog system and then becomes information

A great deal of basic research is used to...

(example of basic research)

prioritizes decision making in a way that emphasizes technical superiority in the product.

-input from technicians and experts in the field are very important in making critical decisions

prioritizes efficiency and effectiveness of the production processes in making decisions. 

-input from engineers and accounting becomes important as the firm seeks to drive costs down.

-large firms manufacturing in large quantities.

a central idea in modern marketing thinking that focuses on how the firm provides value to customers more than on the physical product or production process.

the corporate culture existing for firms adopting the marketing concept. It emphasizes customer orientation, long term profitability over short term profits, and a cross functional perspective.

a set of decisions that constitute a plan of attack for conducting an investigation

a detailed plan or method for obtaining data in a scientific method.

the research design is driven by...

characteristics...

...the research problem

it is characteristics in any given situation depend on how much is already known about the problem.

Exploratory Research

focuses on understanding the problem and related issues, and trying to understand and identify what are the important issues.

Examples:

focus groups

case studies

concept tests

Why conduct exploratory Research?

Conclusive research...(two types)

A: Descriptive Research

attempts to characterize the who, what, where and when of an object or process/activity

It is design to test specific hypotheses and examine relationships between variables

examples:

Surveys

Observation data

Scanner data

-the info needed is clearly defines

-the research process is formal and structured.

-the sample is usually lare and representative

-the data analysis is quantitative in nature.

Cross-sectional - camera (sample surveys and experiments)

Longitudinal - camcorder (continuous panel, discontinuous panel, scanner data)

includes studies designed to evaluate and develop new products and to learn how to adapt existing product lines.

(product testing, brand-name evaluation, and package testing)

-involves finding the amount of monetary sacrifice that best represents the value customers perceive in a product after considering various market constraints.

-investigates the way people respond to pricing strategies.

-addresses consumer quality perceptions by its very nature.

involves the marketing channels that will physically distribute products from a producer to a consumer.

-necessary to remove the physical seperations between buyers and sellers.

-studies aimed at selecting retail sites or warehouse locations.

investigates the effectiveness of advertising, premiums, coupons, sampling, discounts, public relations, and other sales promotions

a conclusion that when one thing happens, another specific thing will follow.

1. Temporal Sequence

2. Concomitant Variation

3. Nonspurious Association

-deals with time order of events

-having the appropriate causal order of events

-the cause must occur before the effect

-two events "covary"

-co-movement, both variables move

-when change in the cause occurs, a change in the outcome also observed.

-Causality cannot possibly exist when there is no systemic variation between the variables.

-covariation between a cause and an effect is indeed due to the cause and not simply due to some other variable.

commercial providers of marketing research services.

Example Companies:

Burke

Walker Info Research Comp

JWT Worldwide

Nielsen Comp

-used when some projects are too expensive to perform in-house

-a marketing research supplier that provides standardized information for many clients in return for a fee.

-can provide expensive info economically to numerous clients.

-standardized info, measure media audiences, wholesale and retail distribution data.

-Example: JD Power sells research about customers' ratings of cars quality and reasons for satisfaction.

-companies that develop a unique methodology for investigating a business specialty area.

-useful when conducting research in a foreign country in which the necessary human resources and knowledge to effectively college data are lacking.

specialize in particular research activities, such as syndicated service, field interviewing, data warehousing, or data processing.

-research projects that are tailored specifically to a client's unique needs. 

-employs people with titles such as: account exec, account group manager, statistician, librarian, director of field services, data processor, and interviewer.

-fewer then 100 employees

-VP of Marketing may be in charge of all significant marketing research.

-sales manager collects and analyzes sales histories, trade statistics, and other internal data.

-between 100-500 employees

-multiple positions such as director of marketing research, research analyst, research assistants, manager of decision support systems, and forecast analyst.

-provides leadership in research efforts

-integrates all staff-level research activities.

plans, executes, and controls the firm's marketing research function.

-responsible for client contact, project design, preparations of proposals, selection of research suppliers, and supervision of data collection, analysis, and reporting activities.

-several projects simultaneously

-provides technical assistance with questionaire design, data analyses

-aka junior analyst

-supervises the collection and analysis of sales, inventory, and other periodic CRM data

-assisted by a forecast analyst

-provides technical assistance, such as running computer programs and manipulating data to forecast sales.

-composed of individuals from various functional areas such as engineering, production, finance, and marketing who share a common purpose.

-focus on core business process such as customer service or new product development.

-goal is to increase customer value

the application of morals to behavior related to the exchange environment

principles that reflect beliefs about what is ethical and what is unethical.

refers to a situation in which one chooses from alternative courses of action, each with different ethical implications.

the degree to which one rejects moral standards in favor of the acceptability of some action.  this way of thinking rejects absolute principles in favor of situation-based evaluations.

-Ethical Relativist may argue that cheating is acceptable because a lot of other students will be doing it.

the degree to which one bases one's morality on moral standards.

-The Golden Rule

-Ethical idealist may apply a rule that cheating is always wrong.