A MARKETING INFORMATION SYSTEM AND MARKET RESEARCH

FOR KNOWING YOUR VISITOR

A workshop presentation to BGANZ by

Dr Richard W. BenfieldCCSU

Or is Memory and intuition better?

% Adults who garden? US UK % people who say shopping as #1 tourism

activity and % who say “Visiting Historic Sites”

Ave time spent in Mall How many museum visits are there per

day in the USA? % Managers/Management in Disneyworld Average spending per visit in restaurant

per person (which city is highest?)

Average Hotel Room rate ______ ? Of Americans say they have

visited an art museum, history museum, aquarium, zoo, botanical garden, or science and technology centers within the past six months.

82 % 86%

35% 14% 3 hours

2.3 million 48%

$25.00 Seattle $137.00

One third

A Marketing Information system

People, equipment and proceduresTo

Gather, sort, analyze, evaluate and distribute

TIMELY AND ACCURATE INFORMATIONTo Marketing managers

MARKETINGINFORMATION

SYSTEM

Marketing ResearchGovernment ReportsTrade Associations

The Media

Channel Members

Historic Data and Internal records

Salesreports

SpecialReports

Quarterly reports

Territory Reports

Sources

Market Research

Emphasizes External information Focuses on solving problems Operates on a project basis Is past and present oriented…for use in

the future

How to do Market Research I

1. What is our problem and thus management decision needs to be made?

2. What information do we need to make that decision?

3. What extent/quality of information does the problem require?

4. What is the time frame we have?

How to do Market Research II

1. Recognize a problem2. Identify, define and delimit the problem3. Set Research objectives4. Create the research design5. Collect the data6. Analyze the data7. Communicate the results

How to do Market Research III

There are two types of data:

1. Primary data.Data collected specifically for this project often called hard/original data…THE SURVEY METHOD OR OBSERVATIONAL RESEARCH OR THE semi- structured interview

2 Secondary dataData collected by some others (Census, tax rolls, Visitor info center) for some other purpose but usable for this project.

Secondary DataSecondary Data Primary DataPrimary Data

•Existing Data•Surveys, letters, etc.

•External•Proprietary•Non-proprietary•Census data

•Existing Data•Surveys, letters, etc.

•External•Proprietary•Non-proprietary•Census data

•Focus Groups•Surveys•Observation•Interviews•Experiments

(Conducted in-house or contracted)

Sources of Information

Instrument Design and Development

Five Types of Typical Question Design Errors

Double-Barreled Wording

Double-Barreled Wording

Loaded WordingLoaded Wording

Missing/Overlapping Alternatives

Missing/Overlapping Alternatives

Ambiguous Wording

Ambiguous Wording

Inappropriate Vocabulary

Inappropriate Vocabulary

1. Loaded wording1. Rate the Excellence of our staff

2. Inappropriate Vocabulary1. Do you think our exhibition is Kid friendly

and they would think it cool?

3. Ambiguous wording1. Would you describe our exhibition as “Not

bad” or “good”?

4. Double Barreled wording1. Did you and your children enjoy the

exhibition?

5. Missing alternatives1. Will you come to the extra events we put on

in conjunction with Escher? Yes No?

Primary Data Gathering methods

Personal Interviews Intercept Interviews Participant Observation Focus Groups Mail surveys Telephone interviews Delphi Techniques

Here is the issue: YOU DO NOT KNOW THE ANSWER …YOU MAY ONLY SUSPECT (WHO USES THE WEB?)

GET THE NUMBERS YOU CANNOT ARGUE

Participant Observation in Queens Botanic garden

GPS (The Stalking Pervert!) Video Photographs Semi-Structured interviews Survey

Data Gathering methods; a note on each

Mail surveys Hard to get back… No incentive (unless you

slip the buck like Dr Truly 15% 30% ) No guarantee of consistency of result Relatively cheap Can buy targeted mail lists Anthrax (and now Ricin) hurt the method

Focus Group

8 people become the decision for 15 million? Cost (You must pay them) ($50.00 x 20 =$ 1000 x 3

= $3000)

Moderator must be very good to elicit the best out of the people

Not empirical: all qualitative/opinion

Telephone Surveys

Only a specific clientele (Those who will give info over the phone – Elderly? Unemployed?)

Lots of refusals Lots of answering machines Expensive for Long Distance No control

(Semi-structured) Personal interviews

Rambling One person does not an expert make Reluctance on part of interviewee Qualitative Time consuming

Video to Face book and Delphi Technique

Intercept Methods

Where can you do it (Not in a mall)? Many do not stop…representative? Inconvenient Bias (Young ladies/men?) Long, boring and tiring

One overriding principal

GI - GO

THE TEN RULES OF SURVEY DEVELOPMENT

1. Obey my rules about wording

2. Open with a wiffle question

What do you do in your leisure time? How many times have you been to our

garden?

3. End with the sensitive questions

Sex (Its OK now to use “Sex’ it used to be gender) but it is still NOT a “Yes or No” proposition !

Income Age

4. Group Demography together

Age Income Education Ethnicity Gender Household structure Zip (Not where do you live)

5. Do not ask dumb questions

What gender are you?

6. Quantify the qualitative

Likert scale 1-5 1-7 1-10

7. Ask direct questionsKISS

What media do you watch?

8. Ask specific questions

Special event Special exhibition Special showing

9. Make the survey progressive/logical/ sequential

10.Always ask yourself

…is this question useful? What was the weather like when …

Can I do something with the results?

There seem to me to be five types of Garden survey

Basic Visitor surveys: who is our visitor? Demographic Psychographic

Satisfaction (upon exit) Did you like garden/ event/special show (exit interview)

How people find out about your Garden Economic surveys = Spending and origin

(often called Economic Impact IMPLAN) How do you reach (new) visitors =Media

habits and Social media is now hot.

A couple of things you should know:

Demographic (Empirical or Quantitative) Data, cost, numbers

Psychographics (or qualitative) (Values, attitudes and lifestyles)

Tough (how do you quantify/describe?) BUT it may be the way people behave (what if all the people going to Mark Twain House are history buffs i.e. not a demographic, income, age variable?)

Likert scale: a graduated scale to express degree of preference (not an absolute proposition) or attitude

Heavily qualitative 1. Strongly agree 2 Agree 3. Neutral 4, Disagree 5. Strongly disagree

OK Now you do a survey …

First survey ever WHO IS OUR VISITOR?

How did they find you? Want to know patterns of movement within

the garden (do they use café?) Spending outside/at/in the garden (Local Council

is on your but to justify your existence)

BIG ONE: Attitudes towards … (what did they like in your garden?)

What is their Demographic profile What is their Psychographic Profile?

In Garden Tourism Market Research we usually need to know:

1. Origin2. Destination3. # in party4. # of days stayed5 Types of Transportation used6. Amount of planning for a trip7. Attractions visited8. Events attended

9. Preferred activities10. Opinion of events/attractions11. Complaints12. Purpose of visit13. Reason for visit (Goals)14. Extent goals met (Satisfaction)15. Repeat visits

Tourism Market Research Data (contd)

16. Types of accommodation17. How did you hear of us? Source of info

Media habits18. Length of trip19. Constraints on travel20. Personal influences21. Use of Tour operator/travel agent22. Opinions, values, perceptions attitudes

(Psychographics)

23. DemographicsAgeSex Family CompositionIncomeEmploymentEducation level

24. Information consulted esp web and now social media

25. Decision making process/time/makers

26. Special Needs (Cultural, linguistic, disabilities)

Analyzing the data

SPSSFirst Tab Data View

Second Tab – Variable View

Quantitative methods available through SPSS

Descriptive (mean, medium, frequencies) Simple Regression essentially predictive (on

one variable) Multiple regression (on multiple

variables) Factor analysis (what emerges as the

strongest factor) Analysis of Variance Analysis of Covariance Simple correlation Cluster analysis Commonalities in

“cluster” Canonical correlation