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DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. Give five reasons research objectives must be established before marketing research is conducted.
Research objectives must be established in order to:
avoid spending inefficiently
make certain that the implicit questions that led to the research are answered
2. Why are both qualitative and quantitative research methods needed in a service marketing research
program?
Qualitative research is needed to frame the questions to be asked in quantitative research. It allows
3. Why does the frequency of research differ across the research methods shown in Exhibit 5.1?
Frequency of research depends on several things, among them how frequently respondents are willing
to participate in a given type of research and how rapidly performance changes and therefore needs to
be monitored. When a given pool of respondents is repeatedly monitored over the years, as is true
4. Compare and contrast the types of research that help a company identify common failure points (see
column 2 in Exhibit 5.1). Which of the types do you think produces better information? Why?
The three types of research used to help a company identify common failure points include complaint
solicitation, critical incident studies, and trailer calls. Complaint solicitation is voluntary on the part
of customers and does not draw equally from the full population of customers. For that reason, it
5. In what situations does a service company need requirements research?
A service company needs requirements research when it is creating a questionnaire, when it is
6. What reasons can you give for companies’ lack of use of research information? How might you
motivate managers to use the information to a greater extent? How might you motivate front-line
workers to use the information?
The three main reasons managers do not use market research information are: (1) they do not
understand it; (2) it fails to support their view of the situation or issue; and (3) they are too busy. One
7. Given a specific marketing research budget, what would be your recommendations for the percentage
to be spent on customer research versus upward communication? Why?
The percentage spent on customer research should be considerably higher than that spent on upward
8. What kinds of information could be gleaned from research on intermediate customers? What would
intermediate customers know that service providers might not?
When a company has intermediate customers, the intermediate customers are the ones who interact
9. For what types of products and services would research on the Internet be preferable to traditional
research?
First, products and services sold primarily through the Internet would be ideal candidates for research
through that vehicle. Users of electronic media would be very comfortable with the medium and
