Marketing Information Management Marketing Research

Objectives:  Define marketing research  Discuss the primary uses of marketing research and why it is important  List the four types of marketing research  Explain the limitations of marketing research

What is marketing research? The systematic gathering, recording, and analyzing of information about problems related to marketing goods and services.

Primary uses of marketing research Obtain information about potential customer: Preferences Opinions Habits Trends Plans

Why is marketing research important? Marketing research helps companies answer the following questions:  What products to produce?  Who is your primary customer?  Where should the products be sold?  How will the products be promoted?  At what price will the product sell?

4 Areas of Marketing Research:  Market Research  Product Research  Advertising Research  Sales Research

1. Market Research Customer Trends Buying behavior or how buying decisions are being made Market Trends What the customers are buying Focuses on the customer and the market

Common Techniques for Market Research  Questionnaires  Focus Groups  Mall Interviews  Phone Interviews  Mystery Shoppers

2. Product Research Focuses on the product itself  Product design  Product usage  Product acceptance  Package design  Competitive products

Common Techniques for Product research  Test Market  Product Samples  Mail  Newspaper  In Store

3. Advertising Research Media Type Two Areas: Advertisement Itself

Media Type  TV  Radio  Newspaper  Magazine Focuses on:  Is it reaching your target?  Reach  Do they remember the message?  Recall  How many times are they seeing it?  Frequency  Return on cost

Advertising Design Ad Layout Message

Testing Advertising Research  Consumer panels  Usually a group of people who share common characteristics  Target audience  Ad recall  Written Diaries

4. Sales Research The study of sales data

Primary use  Sales Forecasting: determining the potential sales for a product  Economic Forecasting: determining the potential economic conditions

Limitations of Marketing Research  Cost $$  Time  Customer commitment / Validity of data  The time lag between research and the application

Review  What is marketing research?  Primary uses of marketing research is to obtain what type of information about potential customers?