Marketing Research – Process of designing, gathering, analyzing, and reporting information that may be used to
solve a marketing problem .
-TQM movement: focus on consumer satisfaction
-Currently: Big Data collected on Customer Orientation to predict customer behavior, profile entire journey,
personalize
● Be able to discuss how marketing research is the means by which firms acquire information about
customers, which informs the strategic decisions they make.
–Management gathers data from consumers so they can adjust how they run business to solve problems
-Ex: Company asking current minivan users and mothers how they can adjust them to better fit needs
● Be able to articulate and give examples of how marketing is far more empirical/quantitative than
most people believe.
-Various types of research and data collected: ACSI, primary/secondary data, applied/basic research, etc
—Big data revolution is constantly collecting data on consumer behavior and entire journey to personalize products
-Amazon collects info on laptop shopping on, Google finds search recommendations based on geographic economic
-Product price is looked at to see what people prefer. Ex paperback, hardcover- Same book, dif price points for profits
-Waiting time: explained is shorter, longer is higher quality
● Two types of Data:
○ Secondary Data – information that has been collected for a purpose other than the research at
hand. ACSI gathers satisfaction for various brands. Can lack reliability
○ Primary data – information that has been gathered specifically for the research objectives at hand
-Three types: Exploratory, descriptive, experimental
● Approaches to a Market Research Study
○ Exploratory – Qualitative: describes less structured data collection methods to Clarify Problem
-Focus groups, observation, secondary sources (data from other reasons)
