1. Introduction to Marketing Research MAR 6648: Marketing Research January 4, 2010

2. Welcome! Today’s agenda: – Introduce ourselves! – Go over the syllabus – Get our feet wet

3. So what is Marketing Research? A vague, official definition: – “Marketing Research is the function that links the consumer, customer, and public to the marketer through information” Basically, figuring out what consumers want and expect from your company This information is used to: – Identify and define marketing opportunities and problems – Generate, refine, and evaluate marketing actions – Monitor marketing performance

4. The Marketing Research Industry A $12 billion industry Biggest marketing research company: – The Nielsen Company ($5B)—they do more than TV Large CPG companies have internal research departments Marketing Research skills are always in high demand by organizations

5. Marketers and Marketing Researchers Competition Customers Company & environment Customers Competition Company & environment Marketing Researche r Marketing Decision Maker Marketing Decision Maker/Research TraditionalEmerging

6. The Marketing Planning Process Marketing Strategy Marketing Program Evaluation Market Situation Analysis Product Analysis Assess Opportunities & Threats Targeting Segmentation Positioning Marketing Mix Plan Refinement Customer Analysis Competitor Analysis Company Analysis Price Analysis Promotion Analysis Distribution Analysis Performance Monitoring Customer Satisfaction Decision Analysis & Research

7. Qualitative Research Usually done to get a feel for a problem before really digging in analytically – Projective techniques – Individual Interviews – Focus groups and group interviews – Ethnographic consumer research

8. Quantitative Research More systematic investigation of quantitative properties and their relationships – Descriptive research Syndicated data sources Surveys and attitude measurement Statistical techniques – Causal research Experimentation

9. Technology and Marketing Research New technology means new techniques Some “traditional” approaches – Focus groups – Design questionnaires and sample a set of your customers – Recall tests – Phone interviews

10. Technology and Marketing Research Some modern approaches – Use customer databases to analyze customer behavior Frequent shopper databases Direct Mail Databases – Monitor web discussion forums – Monitor social networks, blogs, etc.

11. Technology and Marketing Research Some really modern approaches – Forecasting Track downloads and other activity on peer-to-peer file-sharing networks Prediction markets – Live tracking of customer behavior TiVo RFID

12. The Four Ps Product Price Place Promotion

13. Some key lessons to anticipate Modern marketing research is much more than focus groups! Marketing research is an integral part of the Marketing Planning Process The best managers use marketing research as a key tool in decision making The future/the present: Marketing research and marketing will be intertwined Maybe the most important class you’ll take in marketing!

14. What this class will do (I hope!) Convince you that Marketing Research is fun, cool, and invaluable Add a variety of Marketing Research techniques to your toolbox Help you identify, think through, and solve marketing problems

15. Summary Marketing Research is vital to the success of any firm There are many tools in a Marketing Researcher’s toolbox—let’s add to them! Welcome to class!