Transcript 2.2_A.Sirsi_Tab_2_Marketing_Research

Marketing Research and Analysis:
Understanding the Customer
Dr. Ajay K. Sirsi
Schulich School of Business, York University
[email protected]
Source: Marketing: A Roadmap to Success by Ajay Sirsi
Agenda
• Increasing the profile of marketing research
• Research design
• Conducting secondary research
• Conducting primary research
A Customer’s Question
• “How can you help me
make more money?”
Why could Mike not answer the
customer’s question?
What is the customer really saying?
What the customer is saying …
• My market share is declining
• My industry is mature
• Our products have become commodities
• Low-cost competitors are here!
• My customers are price sensitive
• My brands face declining loyalties
• My time-to-market for new products is slow
• My firm lacks customer focus
What the customer is saying …
• I cannot distinguish between suppliers
– “They are all the same”
– “They say the same thing”
• You are a commodity
• I need help
• If you want to help me, differentiate yourself
– By creating value for me
What Are Customers Looking For?
• “Be a thought leader”
– Strategic business partner
– Help me build my business
– Provide expert knowledge
– Provide latest trends in industry
– What are my competitors doing?
– What are best practices?
Agenda
• Increasing the profile of marketing research
• Research design
• Conducting secondary research
• Conducting primary research
Research Design
Problem
Definition
Secondary Research
Causal Research
Exploratory
Research
Improved
Decision-Making
Descriptive
Research
The World is Your Market Research Agency
• Pringle Prints, launched in 2004
• Old P&G model (two years to launch product)
– Do everything in-house
– Shoulder all investment and risk
• New model (less than one year to launch new product)
– Develop
• Top ten consumer needs
• Product adjacencies
• Technology game boards
– Source
• Proprietary networks
– Technology entrepreneurs
– Suppliers
• Open networks
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NineSigma
InnoCentive
YourEncore
Yet2.com
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Open Networks
• NineSigma
– Connects companies with science and technology problems with
companies, universities, labs …
• InnoCentive
– Developed by Eli Lilly
– Brokers solutions to narrowly-defined scientific problems
• YourEncore
– Connects 800 high-performing retired scientists and engineers with
businesses
• Yet2.com
– Brokers technology transfer into and out of companies, universities,
government labs
Research Design
Problem
Definition
Secondary Research
Causal Research
Exploratory
Research
Improved
Decision-Making
Descriptive
Research
Agenda
• Increasing the profile of marketing research
• Research design
• Conducting secondary research
• Conducting primary research
Primary Research Techniques
• Focus Groups
• Depth Interviews
• Ethnographic Research
• Questionnaires
Successful Focus Groups
• 8 - 12 participants
• Careful screening of participants
• Homogeneous participants
• Relaxed atmosphere
• Room with one-way mirror, recording
• Session between 1 - 3 hours
• Trained moderator
• Good discussion guide
• Compensation for respondents
Steps In Conducting A Focus Group
• Define the research objectives
• Create a discussion guide (including focus group
length)
• Select focus group facility
• Develop screener
• Recruit participants
• Select moderator
• Conduct the group
• Prepare the focus group report
Discussion Guide
Attitudes and feelings
toward eating out
Fast foods
Food and décor of a
particular chain
Improving Focus Groups’ Success
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Ask how respondents are recruited
Ask fewer questions
Increase focus group length
Give participants “homework” assignments
– Have respondents do tasks during session
• Tap into naturally occurring groups
• Develop customer advisory boards
Depth Interviews
• Elimination of group pressure
– No group dynamics
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Customer decision-making process
Focus on respondent
Rapport with interviewer
Probing for answers
More expensive than focus groups
Depth Interviews
• Spend 60 - 90 minutes with each customer
• Pre-scheduled
• Telephone or face-to-face
• Respondents compensated
• Saturation point is quickly reached
– Excellent insights
Typical Depth Interview Questions
• How customer spends his/her day
– Bottlenecks
– Frustrations
– Challenges
• Customer decision making process
• Key players involved
– Criteria used to make decisions
Ethnographies
• Excellent insight generating technique
– Participant observation
– Depth interviews
• Pattern analysis
Basic Rules for Effective Market Research
 talk to your customers, whenever and wherever
you can
 use the data you already have
 talk to your market research people
 clarify marketing problems before you do the
research
 create research that you will be prepared to act
on...
 ...and then act on it !
Designing Better Research
• Purpose of the Research
–
What is the information to be used for?
• Give examples of Questions this Research is to answer
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Market segmentation
• Action Standards
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What criteria will be used to translate research results into action?
• Value of the Research
–
What is the value of the information? What is the cost of incorrect
decision making?
• Timing
–
When do you want the research to start? When do you need the
results?
In Chapter 2 - you will learn about effective
ways to conduct market research to
understand customer needs