CONDUCTING MARKETING RESEARCH AND FORECASTING

DEMAND

The Marketing Research System

• We define marketing research as the systematic design, collection, analysis, and reporting of data and findings relevant to a specific marketing situation facing the company.

The Marketing Research Process

The Marketing Research Process

• Step 1: Define the Problem, the Decision Alternatives, and the Research Objectives

• Step 2: Develop the Research Plan • Step 3: Collect the Information • Step 4: Analyze the Information • Step 5: Present the Findings • Step 6: Make the Decision

RESEARCH APPROACHES • Observational Research. Consumers can be unobtrusively observed

as they shop or as they consume products. • Focus Group Research .A focus group is a gathering of six to ten

people who are carefully selected based on certain demographic, psychographic, or other considerations and brought together to discuss at length various topics of interest.

• Survey Research. Companies undertake surveys to learn about people's knowledge, beliefs, preferences, and satisfaction, and to measure these magnitudes in the general population.

• Behavioral Data Customers leave traces of their purchasing behavior in store scanning data, catalog purchases, and customer databases.

• Experimental Research . The most scientifically valid research is experimental research. The purpose of experimental research is to capture cause-and-effect relationships

RESEARCH INSTRUMENTS

• Questionnaires • Qualitative Measures

SAMPLING PLAN

• 1. Sampling unit: Who is to be surveyed?• 2. Sample size: How many people should be

surveyed? • 3. Sampling procedure: How should the

respondents be chosen?

Probability and Nonprobability Samples

CONTACT METHODS

• Mail Questionnaire • Telephone Interview • Personal Interview • Online Interview

MDSS

• MIT's John Little defines a marketing decision support system (MDSS) as a coordinated collection of data, systems, tools, and techniques with supporting software and hardware by which an organization gathers and interprets relevant information from business and environment and turns it into a basis for marketing action.

Marketing Metrics

• Marketing metrics is the set of measures that helps firms to quantify, compare, and interpret their marketing performance.

Sample Marketing Metrics

MARKET DEMAND

• Market demand for a product is the total volume that would be bought by a defined customer group in a defined geographical area in a defined time period in a defined marketing environment under a defined marketing program.

COMPANY DEMAND

• Company demand is the company's estimated share of market demand at alternative levels of company marketing effort in a given time period.

Estimating Current Demand

• To estimate current demand, companies attempt to determine total market potential, area market potential, industry sales, and market share.

• To estimate future demand, companies survey buyers' intentions, solicit their sales force's input, gather expert opinions, or engage in market testing.

• Mathematical models, advanced statistical techniques, and computerized data collection procedures are essential to all types of demand and sales forecasting.