MKT 400 Marketing Research

Lecture 3

Dr. Anjala Krishen

Dept. of Marketing

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Research Design:
Delineating What Data to
Collect and How to Collect It
A research design is the basic plan
that guides data collection and
analysis. It must specify:
 the type of information to be collected
(consistent with the project objectives)
 possible data sources
 the data collection procedure
(accurate, economical and timely)
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A Classification of Marketing
Research Designs
Research Design

Exploratory Conclusive
Research Research
Design Design
Descriptive Causal
Research Research

Cross- Longitudinal
Sectional Design
Design
Single Cross- Multiple Cross-
Sectional Sectional
Design Design 3
 Exploratory & Conclusive Research
Differences

Exploratory Conclusive
Objective: To provide insights and To test specific hypotheses
understanding. and examine relationships.

Character- Information needed is Information needed is

istics: defined only loosely. clearly defined. Research
Research process is process is formal and
flexible and unstructured. structured. Sample is large
Sample is small and non- and representative. Data
representative. Analysis analysis is quantitative.
of primary data is
qualitative.
Findings/
Results: Tentative. Conclusive.

Outcome:
Generally followed by Findings used as input into
further exploratory or decision making. 4
3-1c Conclusive Research: Narrowing
Down Strategic Alternatives
Conclusive research aims to narrow the field
of strategic alternatives down to one. Two
types:
 Descriptive research characterizes
marketing phenomena without testing for
cause-and-effect relationships. It is used for:
 determining the frequency of certain marketing
phenomena
 determining the degree of association between
marketing variables
 making predictions regarding marketing
phenomena
 Causal research gathers evidence on cause-
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 A Comparison of Basic Research
Designs
Exploratory Descriptive Causal
Objective: Discovery of Describe market Determine cause
ideas and characteristics or and effect
insights functions relationships

Characteristics Marked by the Manipulation of

: Flexible, prior formulation one or more
versatile of specific independent
hypotheses variables

Preplanned and Control of other

Often the front structured design mediating
end of total variables
research design
Methods: Secondary data: Experiments
Expert surveys quantitative
Pilot surveys analysis
Secondary Surveys
data: Panels
qualitative Observation and 6
Uses of Exploratory Research
 Formulate a problem or define a problem
more precisely
 Identify alternative courses of action
 Develop hypotheses
 Isolate key variables and relationships for
further examination
 Gain insights for developing an approach
to the problem
 Establish priorities for further research

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Use of Descriptive
Research
 To describe the characteristics of relevant
groups, such as consumers, salespeople,
organizations, or market areas.
 To estimate the percentage of units in a
specified population exhibiting a certain
behavior.
 To determine the perceptions of product
characteristics.
 To determine the degree to which marketing
variables are associated.
 To make specific predictions.
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 Examples of Descriptive
Research
1. Market studies that describe the size of the market,
buying power of the consumers, availability of
distributors, and consumer profiles.
2. Market share studies that determine the proportion
of total sales received by a company and its
competitors.
3. Sales analysis studies that describe sales by
geographic region, product line, type, and size of
the account.
4. Image studies that determine consumer perceptions
of the firm and its products.
5. Product usage studies that describe consumption
patterns.
6. Distribution studies that determine traffic flow
patterns, and the number and location of
distributors.
7. Pricing studies that describe the range and
frequency of price changes and probable consumer 9
response to proposed price changes.
When is Causal Research
Appropriate?
 Causal research is appropriate to use
when the purposes are to understand
which variables are the cause and
which variables are the effect, and to
determine the nature of the
functional relationship between the
causal variables and the effect to be
predicted.
 What is a good example of causal
research?
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Cross-sectional
Designs
 Involve the collection of information from any
given sample of population elements only once.
 In single cross-sectional designs, there is only
one sample of respondents and information is
obtained from this sample only once.
 In multiple cross-sectional designs, there are
two or more samples of respondents, and
information from each sample is obtained only
once. Often, information from different samples is
obtained at different times.
 Cohort analysis consists of a series of surveys
conducted at appropriate time intervals, where
the cohort serves as the basic unit of analysis. A
cohort is a group of respondents who experience
the same event within the same time interval. 11
Longitudinal
Designs
 A fixed sample (or samples) of
population elements is measured
repeatedly on the same variables
 A longitudinal design differs from a
cross-sectional design in that the
sample or samples remain the same
over time

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 Cross-sectional vs.
Longitudinal

Cross- Sample
Sectiona Surveye
l Design d at T1

Same
Sample Sample
Longitudina Surveyed also
l Design at T1 Surveyed
at T2

Time T1 T2
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Uses of Casual
Research
 To understand which variables are the cause
(independent variables) and which variables
are the effect (dependent variables) of a
phenomenon
 To determine the nature of the relationship
between the causal variables and the effect
to be predicted
 METHOD: Experiments

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 Alternative Research
Designs
Exploratory
Research
(a) • Secondary Data Conclusive Research
Analysis •Descriptive/Causal
• Focus Groups

(b) Conclusive Research

•Descriptive/Causal

Exploratory
(c) Conclusive Research Research
•Descriptive/Causal • Secondary Data
Analysis
• Focus Groups 15
Secondary Data
 internal secondary data generated
within the organization
 lower cost
 accurate
 more available
 external secondary data – generated by
government or syndicated sources
 government publications
 trade association data
 books
 bulletins
 reports
 periodicals 16
 Role of Secondary Data
 first step in data collection: determine
whether the data have already been
collected
 advantages of secondary data
 less expensive and time-consuming to collect
 aid formulation of decision problem
 suggest methods for meeting information needs
 source of comparative data for primary data
 disadvantages of secondary data
 don't exactly fit the information needs of the
project
 aggregated without the breakdown or cross-
tabulations required by the project 17
Six W’s of Descriptive
Research
1. Who: who should be considered?
2. Where: where should the respondents
be contacted to obtain the required
information?
3. When: when should the information be
obtained from the respondents?
4. What: what information should be
obtained from the respondents?
5. Why: why are we obtaining information
from the respondents?
6. Way: the way in which we are going to
obtain information from the
respondents. 18