MKT 344

Fall 2015

Chapter 2

Consumer Research Process

CONDUCTING CONSUMER RESEARCH

Consumer

research has been strongly influenced by

the academicians and research practitioners of

psychology, sociology and anthropology.

OVERVIEW OF CONSUMER
RESEARCH PROCESS
For

research purpose you need both Primary

information and Secondary information.

In

Primary research method, marketers look

for both Quantitative and Qualitative data.

The

overall research process can be divided into six

steps; defining the objectives, collecting &

evaluating secondary data, designing primary
research study, collecting primary data,
analyzing the data and preparing a report.

DEVELOPING RESEARCH OBJECTIVE

It

is the most difficult part of overall

research process.
Marketing

managers and researchers should

agree on to a specific objective before

beginning of the research.
To

define the problem of the research,

marketers can undertake a preliminary

Exploratory study.

COLLECTING SECONDARY DATA

Secondary

data are those which are already gathered

for another research purpose by someone before the

current research began.
These

secondary data can be collected from the

Internal and External sources.

Internal Secondary data

mostly collected in-

house, originally used for other purposes.

Increasingly, it is being used for computing Customer
lifetime value profiles.

COLLECTING SECONDARY DATA

(cont..)

External Secondary data

these are outside data sources and can

be either free of cost or for a nominal fee.

Major sources are

Public & Government data collected by the government bodies or
agencies and generally made available for very nominal cost.
Online Periodicals & Articles

these sources contain business

relevant data. Example: Pro-quest, Lexis Nexis etc.

Syndicated Commercial Services

there are syndicated and

subscriber-based studies offered by marketing companies that sell

data to subscribing marketers.
Consumer Panels

these are paid sources of collective

information of households and individuals.

DESIGNING PRIMARY RESEARCH

Designing

and Conducting Qualitative Research it

contributes extensively to the initial identification and

development of new promotional campaigns and new products
development effort, including the creation of new products and
future advertising messages.

The key types of data collection method of qualitative

approach are depth interviews, focus groups, discussion
guides, projective techniques, metaphor analysis, online focus
groups, looking-in (online) research.

DESIGNING PRIMARY RESEARCH

(cont..)
i.

Depth Interviews generally provide marketers with valuable

ideas about product design or redesign, and provide insights
for positioning or repositioning of products.

ii.

Focus Groups

it is a discussion group of 8-10 persons with

the direction of a single moderator.

The dynamic interaction between group participants, tends to
yield a greater number of new ideas and insights. Also, it
takes less time than a depth interview.
iii.

Discussion Guide a step-by-step outline that sets out the line

of questioning that the researcher needs to cover with the
respondent in a depth interview or a focus group.

DESIGNING PRIMARY RESEARCH

(cont..)
iv.

Projective techniques

consists of a variety of disguised

questions which contains incomplete sentences, untitled

pictures or cartoons.
All of these are designed to make it easier for the respondents
to express themselves.
v.

Metaphors

it is the use of one form of expression to

describe or represent feelings about another. Such as use of

sound, music, pictures and drawings etc.
vi.

Online Focus Groups

it varies greatly than physical focus

groups. Although some aspects can be similar to the traditional

one.

DESIGNING PRIMARY RESEARCH

(cont..)
vii.

Looking-In Research

online consumer communities and

blogs can be systematically studied to understand consumer

activities.
This is a powerful research approach to include consumers in
the product development process.

DESIGNING PRIMARY RESEARCH

(cont..)

Designing and Conducting Quantitative Research

it is used to

better understand the acceptance of various products or specific

brands and the impact of promotional message.

Key types of quantitative research are Observational research,

Experimentation, Survey.

i.

Observational research

carefully watching and observing

consumers actions of purchasing and consuming especially in

realistic surroundings.
Some research technicians are using physiological observation
devices to monitor respondents.

DESIGNING PRIMARY RESEARCH

(cont..)
Experimentation

ii.

one way of testing the cause and

effect relationship is controlled experiment.

Another technique of doing causal research is test
marketing.
Some researcher also employ Virtual reality methods.
Survey

iii.

some researcher may wish to ask consumers about

their purchase preferences and consumption experiences.

They can do so through various ways

Personal interview survey

Telephone interview

Mail survey, E-mail survey

DESIGNING PRIMARY RESEARCH

(cont..)

Data Collection Instruments

to judge validity and

reliability, various instruments are used. These instruments are

pretested and debugged before they are used.
Major instruments include
a)

Questionnaires

these questionnaires must be interesting, objective

and unambiguous and easy to motivate the respondents.

- Questions can be disguised or undisguised. It can be done through e-mail
as well.
b)

Attitude Scales

here the respondents are often presented with a list

of products and are asked to express their relative feelings or evaluations.

most frequently used attitude scales are- Likert scales, Semantic
differential scales, Rank-order scales, Behavior intention scales.

DESIGNING PRIMARY RESEARCH

(cont..)

Customer Satisfaction measurement

it includes quantitative

and qualitative measures as well as various contact methods

with customers.

Major measurement techniques are:

Customer Satisfaction Survey
Mystery Shoppers
Complaint Analysis

DESIGNING PRIMARY RESEARCH

(cont..)

Sampling & Data Collection

integral plan of a research

design is Sampling Plan.

Sample is a subset of an overall population.
Basically there are 2 types of samples probability sample
and non-probability sample.

Combining qualitative & quantitative findings

researchers do quantitative and qualitative research
simultaneously to get the accurate ratings.

some

DATA ANALYSIS & REPORTING

FINDINGS
In this stage, all the findings are tabulated and analyzed

using sophisticated analytical programs that correlate the

data by the selected variables.
In both, quantitative and qualitative research there will

be an Executive summary to summarize the findings.

CONDUCTING RESEARCH STUDY

A

qualitative study might be undertaken first to

gather information about the target populations

attitude and concerns.
In

all cases the research is designed based on the

purpose of finding information.

END OF CHAPTER 2