116) If a cable television company had 100 million subscribers at the end of the year, and 2
million of its subscribers left its service, it would have a churn rate of
A) 1 percent.
B) 2 percent.
C) 5 percent.
D) 10 percent.
E) 20 percent.
117) Before deciding on a new promotional campaign, Jeffrey’s Muffins looked at its customers’
buying patterns over a 15-year period as determined by their use of a loyalty card. What method
did Jeffrey’s use to make sense of the data that were available?
A) biometrics
B) neuromarketing
C) data mining
D) data warehousing
E) panel data
118) Scanner data are used in quantitative research obtained from scanner readings of Universal
Product Code (UPC) labels at checkout counters. The data from these purchases are likely to be
acquired by leading marketing research firms such as ________, which use this information to
help leading consumer packaged-goods firms (e.g., Kellogg’s, Pepsi, Kraft) assess what is
happening in the marketplace.
A) MediaMark Research and NOP World
B) NOP World and Yankelovich
C) Roper Center for Public Research and Research and Markets
D) Yankelovich and Research and Markets
E) IRI and Nielsen
119) Both major political parties have developed proprietary databases that contain vast
information about voters, broken down by demographic and geographic information. This kind
of information is
A) primary data.
B) secondary data.
C) syndicated data.
D) neuromarketing.
E) qualitative research.
120) Marketing executives at Diet Pepsi want to analyze the number of Diet Coke customers
who switch to its product when Diet Pepsi is offered at a deep discount. What data would likely
show this information?
A) secondary panel data
B) internal secondary data
C) primary panel data
D) primary internal data
E) scanner data
121) ________ is a disadvantage of secondary research, while ________ is a disadvantage of
primary research.
A) Cost; outdated information
B) Time required for collection; sources not original
C) Potential bias; costliness
D) Outdated information; information not relevant to data needs
E) Sophisticated training required to obtain it; potential bias
122) During a recent budget cutting session, the finance manager at Eastern Shore Bank
proposed eliminating the marketing research budget. You are the marketing director. What
general arguments would you use to defend expenditures on marketing research?
123) Marketing researchers have access to a great deal of information about consumers. What
kinds of pressure might be brought to bear on a marketing researcher that might cause ethical
dilemmas?
124) Why would a researcher want to change the sequence of steps in the marketing research
process?
125) In 2005, a new federal law allowed consumers once-a-year free access to their credit
reports. Many consumers who accessed their credit reports were surprised by the amount of
information collected. What can marketers and marketing researchers do to minimize consumers’
privacy fears?
126) Marketing researchers should assess the costs and benefits of conducting research as they
define objectives and research needs. What are key benefits and costs?
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127) The CEO of a bank in Montana approaches the marketing director, explaining that the bank
is considering expanding into Wyoming. The CEO asks the marketing director to design a
research project to collect demographic data about Wyoming residents by county and zip code.
What is an inexpensive option for collecting this data?
128) The text lists a number of major syndicated data services including Nielsen and IRI.
Obviously, these firms provide value to marketers or they would go out of business. What
advantages do syndicated data services provide relative to marketers conducting primary
research to address their research needs? What are the disadvantages associated with using
syndicated data services?
129) What kinds of internal information might be of value to a marketing researcher?
130) With a huge influx of Hispanic consumers into his marketplace, Bill Deal, owner of
Columbia Ford Motor Dealership, wants to know if Hispanic consumers make car purchase
decisions differently from his other customers. Assuming that the information does not already
exist, which primary data collection method would you recommend and why?
131) What are some of the problems with using secondary data?
132) In what type of research situations would marketing researchers use in-depth interviews?
133) Thomas has just conducted a focus group for Apple, asking participants their opinions
regarding new features Apple is considering for its iPhone. Apple’s marketing manager wants to
use the results of this focus group to justify immediate product changes and new promotional
strategies. As the marketing researcher, how would you respond?
134) How can developing a questionnaire be part art and part science?
135) Why are more and more marketing researchers using online surveys?
136) What are the most important elements in the presentation of marketing research results?
137) Robert was extremely embarrassed. He was giving a presentation on the research findings
to the senior executives of the company. The CEO of the company stopped him in the middle of
the presentation and said, “This is not what I asked for or needed. This meeting is over.
Reschedule the meeting when you’re prepared.” What do you suppose could have gone wrong,
and what should Robert do?
138) Marketers often have huge amounts of information about their customers. What ethical
issue should marketers include in their decisions regarding how to use this information?
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139) If senior management already has made its decision, should marketing research be
conducted? What questions should be considered?
140) If your manager asked you to review invoice data for the last six months to look for any
trends or changes, what kind of marketing research activity would you be engaged in? List and
fully define the process.
141) Chesnee is analyzing census data, looking for demographic segments that she can target for
her new insurance products. For Chesnee, what are the advantages of using census data?
142) What is the major advantage of primary data collection, compared to the use of secondary
data?
143) In-depth interviews are expensive and time-consuming. Why do marketing researchers
sometimes use in-depth interviews in spite of these disadvantages?
144) T‘Lene is putting together a focus group to discuss students’ concerns about the business
curriculum. What should her focus group include?
145) What is the difference between data and information?
146) Define qualitative research and list two examples of qualitative data collection techniques.
147) Imagine that you are a marketing executive at a major food conglomerate that is preparing
to launch a new line of diet food products to women. Using the information presented in the text
regarding Kraft’s South Beach product line, describe how would you obtain information
regarding women’s frustrations and difficulties in managing their weight.
148) How might Dell Computer use sentiment mining to identify ways to improve its customer
service?
149) McDonald’s introduced its Favorites Under 400 Calories menu, attempting to change
consumers’ negative views of McDonald’s as a seller of unhealthy food. It would like to survey
customers to see if attitudes are changing, but it would like to collect some qualitative data first.
Suggest two approaches—one offline, and one online—that McDonald’s could use to collect
qualitative data before designing a survey.
150) George decided to open a health club. His girlfriend Lydia, a marketing manager at a small
company, tried to convince him to do some marketing research, but he said, “I know what I don’t
like about health clubs; that’s all the information I need. Besides, I can’t afford an expensive
research project.” He opened the club in a shopping center about 15 miles from his home. Six
months later, his club had very few members and he was running out of cash. List some key
types of primary and secondary data George could have collected before opening his club that
might have helped him be more successful, keeping in mind his limited budget.