KT325H
Marketing Research
Dr Nguyen (Beo) Thai (nthai@[Link])
Senior Lecturer in Marketing
University of Wollongong, Australia
Introduction to
Marketing Research
MODULE 1
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Learning objectives
• What is the relationship of marketing research to
marketing, the marketing concept and marketing
strategy?
• What is marketing research?
• What are the functions and uses of marketing research?
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What is marketing?
Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for
creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging
offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and
society at large.
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What does this mean?
• Marketing is not a random activity
• It requires thoughtful planning
• Firms assess their market position and decide on their
marketing strategy
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What is the marketing concept?
The marketing concept is a business philosophy that holds
that the key to achieving organizational goals consists of the
company’s being more effective than competitors in creating,
delivering, and communicating customer value to its chosen
target markets.
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What does this mean?
• Customer satisfaction is the major focus of the marketing concept
• A managerial philosophy that an organisation should try to provide
products that satisfy customers’ needs through a coordinated set
of activities that also allows the organisation to achieve its goals
• Modern marketing thought holds that firms should collaborate
with and learn from consumers (service-dominant logic).
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What is a marketing strategy?
A marketing strategy consists of selecting a segment of
the market as the company’s target market and designing
the proper “mix” of the product/service, price, promotion,
and distribution system to meet the wants and needs of
the consumers within the target market.
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What does this mean?
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What is marketing research?
Marketing research is the process of designing, gathering,
analyzing, and reporting information that may be used to
solve a specific marketing problem.
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AMA Definition
Marketing research: the function that links the consumer,
customer, and public to the marketer through information –
information used to identify and define marketing
opportunities and problems; generate, refine, and evaluate
marketing actions; monitor marketing performance; and
improve the understanding of marketing as a process
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Marketing or Market Research?
• Marketing research: a process used by businesses to
collect, analyze, and interpret information used to
make sound business decisions and successfully
manage the business
• Market research: a process used to define the size,
location, and/or makeup of the market for a product
or service
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Marketing research function
• Marketing research links the consumer to the marketer by
providing information that can be used in making
marketing decisions (e.g., develop marketing strategies)
• What is the connection between marketing, marketing
concept, marketing strategy, and marketing research?
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Uses of Marketing Research
• Identify marketing opportunities and problems
• Generate, refine, and evaluate potential marketing actions
• Monitor marketing performance
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Identify market opportunities and problems
• Some marketing research studies are designed to find out
what consumers’ problems are (e.g., problem identification
research) and to assess the suitability of different proposed
methods of resolving those problems (i.e., problem-solving
research).
• Problem → discovery of opportunities
– E.g., declining sales → identification of new market
segment(s) → new marketing strategies
– Think PLC and extension strategies
– E.g., rising gasoline prices and concerns about fossil
emissions → Toyota Prius
– Focus beyond declining sales and falling market share
– Problem → opportunity → segmentation → marketing
strategy
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Generate, refine and evaluate potential
marketing actions
• Selecting target markets
• Product research
• Pricing research
• Promotion research
• Distribution research
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Problem-Solving Research
Segmentation Research Product Research
• Determine the basis of • Test concept
segmentation
• Determine optimal product
• Establish market potential and design
responsiveness for various
segments • Package tests
• Select target markets • Product modification
• Create lifestyle profiles: • Brand positioning and
demography, media, and repositioning
product image characteristics • Test marketing
• E.g., Qantas and Jetstar, Lexus • Control score tests
and Toyota • E.g., luxury electric cars
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Problem-Solving Research
Pricing Research Promotional Research
• Pricing policies • Optimal promotional budget
• Importance of price in brand • Sales promotion relationship
selection • Optimal promotional mix
• Product line pricing • Copy decisions
• Price elasticity of demand • Media decisions
• Initiating and responding to • Creative advertising testing
price changes • Evaluation of advertising
effectiveness
• Claim substantiation
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Problem-Solving Research
Distribution Research
Determines:
• Types of distribution
• Attitudes of channel members
• Intensity of wholesale & resale coverage
• Channel margins
• Location of retail and wholesale outlets
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Monitor marketing performance
• Tracking data collected at point-of-sale terminals as consumer
packages goods are scanned in grocery stores, mass-
merchandisers, and convenience stores
– Providing objective data to measure effectiveness
• Tracking social media
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Improve marketing as a process
• Basic research is conducted to expand our knowledge rather
than to solve a specific problem
– Not conducted for any specific company problem
– E.g., understand the psychological process consumers go
through in evaluating service quality
• Applied research is conducted to solve specific problems
– Research conducted to solve a specific problem confronting
a company
– E.g., Uber Eats conducting an analysis of consumer reactions
to different wait times
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Marketing research is sometimes wrong
• Marketing research does not always provide management with
the right answer (e.g., research suggests yes but actual results
show otherwise) .
• Most marketing research studies are trying to understand and
predict consumer behavior, which is a difficult task.
– E.g., iSnack 2.0
• The marketing research industry
would cease to exist if it did not
provide value
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Any questions?
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