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Chapter 9: Marketing Research
21
and tongues. In 2015, FritoLay conducted their latest “Do Us A Flavor” contest, asking fans to
submit flavor suggestions for new potato chips. The four winning flavor combinations were
gyros, Reuben sandwiches, biscuits and gravy, and truffle fries.
Then January 2016 brought not just the beginning of a new year but the beginning of
FritoLay’s next market research venture, Flavor Swap. This time, instead of asking fans to
submit flavor ideas, the campaign paired a current flavor of Lay’s potato chip against a new
flavor. Fans were asked to vote for their favorite of each pair, and the winners would remain part
of the company’s permanent flavor lineup.
To increase interest before the contest began, Lay’s took to social media. They tweeted out
emoji riddles for followers to guess the new flavors. For submitting a guess (even a wrong one),
Lays offered one person per day a chance to win $1,000. As happens with all ventures into social
media, the guesses that came in were both positive and negative. While some fans were able to
correctly guess “smoked gouda,” others submitted “goat fart” and other unsavory flavor guesses.
Chapter 9: Marketing Research
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© 2018 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
to enjoy,” Jeannie Cho, Frito-Lay’s VP of marketing said in a statement.
Sources: B. Miller, “Lay’s Potato Chips announces ‘Flavor Swap’ winners,” Chew boom, April
25, 2016, accessed October 19, 2016, http://www.chewboom.com/2016/04/25/lays-potato-chips-
announces-flavor-swap-winners/; C. Davison, “[Updated] Lay’s Finally Rolls Out Its 4 New
Chip Flavors for 2016,” Delish, February 26, 2016, accessed October 19, 2016,
http://www.delish.com/food-news/a45557/lays-4-new-potato-chip-flavors/; W. White, “Flavor
Swap: Lay’s Announces New Flavors Contest for 2016,” InvestorPlace, January 22, 2016,
accessed October 19, 2016, http://investorplace.com/2016/01/lays-new-flavors-
pep/#.WAVCfjKZOHo.
TRUE/FALSE
1. Marketing research is the business function that links the consumer, customer, and public to
the marketer through information.
2. FritoLay used social media monitoring to determine which flavors customers would prefer.
3. Since not all customers who tried the new flavors voted online, the results were only a sample
of the flavor preferences of their customer base overall.
4. FritoLay asked customers to try the new flavors and then go to FlavorSwap.com to participate
in online focus groups.
© 2018 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
5. FritoLay could have used scanner-based research to compare the votes cast online with the
actual purchases of the different flavors.
MULTIPLE CHOICE
1. FritoLay used which research method to gather results about customers’ preferred flavors?
a. mall intercept interviews
b. online questionnaires
c. mail surveys
d. focus groups
2. If FritoLay asked “Do you prefer the flavor of our Honey Barbecue chips or our Korean
Barbecue chips?” this would be an example of a(n) __________ question.
a. open-ended
b. closed-ended
c. scaled-response
d. observation
3. If FritoLay asked “On a scale of 1-10, how much do you enjoy the flavor of our Fiery Roasted
Habanero chips?” this would be an example of a(n) __________ question.
a. open-ended
b. closed-ended
c. scaled-response
Chapter 9: Marketing Research
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d. observation
4. If somehow only males in their 20s ending up casting votes in the Flavor Swap, this would be
an example of a __________ error in the research.
a. measurement
b. sampling
c. frame
d. random
5. Which of the following is NOT an advantage of internet surveys?
a. rapid development, real-time reporting
b. improved respondent participation
c. standardized questions and data
d. dramatically reduced costs
Great Ideas for Teaching Chapter 9
James S. Cleveland, Sage College of Albany
Discussion Board Topics to Encourage Participation
Discussion board questions provided to students to encourage them to engage in thinking and
writing about the content of the Principles of Marketing course usually take the form of a
provocative statement to which students are asked to respond. An example of this would be “All
Chapter 9: Marketing Research
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PR is good PR.”
Discussion topics such as this one are abstract and often require that the instructor provide an
initial reply to show students what is expected of them in their own replies. For students with
limited work experience, this approach may be quite appropriate. For adult students with
extensive experience as employees and consumers, however, the abstract nature of such topics
can be frustrating.
I have developed, therefore, a series of discussion board questions to use with experienced, adult
students. These questions are designed to encourage them to use their experiences as employees
and consumers as doorways to better understand the course material, and to make their own
responses more interesting to themselves and to the other students in the class who will read and
comment on them.
Each question has three parts:
1. First, there is a sentence or two from the students’ textbook introducing the topic. By using
the text author’s own words, students are enabled to locate relevant material in the text
more easily, the text content is reinforced, and confusion resulting from use of variant
terms or expressions is minimized.
2. Second, there is a reference to text pages the students should review before proceeding.
Since the goal of the exercise is for students to apply the course content to their own
experiences, reviewing the content first is important.
3. Third, there is a request for the students to think about or remember some specific situation
in their experiences to which they can apply the text material, and a question or questions
for them to address in their replies.
Here are additional such discussion board questions developed for Chapter 9 of MKTG11. Each
is written to fit the same text cited above but could easily be rewritten and revised to fit another
text.
Series A
1. Marketing research is the process of planning, collecting, and analyzing data relevant to a
marketing decision.
2. Review the information on the role of marketing research from section 9-2 of your text.
3. Then describe how your employer uses marketing research or, if you do not think your
employer does, how it could use marketing research.
Series B
1. All forms of survey research require a questionnaire.
Chapter 9: Marketing Research
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2. Review the information on questionnaire design from section 9-3c of your text.
3. Suppose you wished to design a questionnaire that could be used by your employer to do
marketing research. Describe what the questionnaire would be designed to find out and
write one good closed-ended question that could be used on it.
Deborah C. Calhoun, College of Notre Dame of Maryland
Secondary Research Data Hunt and Marketing Strategy Development
The purpose of this assignment is to acquaint the student with the many diverse business
information sources available to them in their college library as well as introduce them to the
types of data marketers often use when making a strategy decision. As you are aware, the ability
to locate and analyze secondary data in an efficient and effective manner is critical to their
success as a business student as well as a future business decision maker. It has been said that
“To manage a business well is to manage its future, and to manage the future is to manage
information.” Increasingly, marketers view information not just as an input for making better
decisions but also as an important strategic asset and marketing tool.
I write a new data hunt every year around one of the cases in the marketing principles text book
and assign it relatively early on in the semester. I have treated it as either a pass/fail or a graded
assignment, and both approaches seem to work. I used to suggest to the students which sources
might be consulted in completing each question but found certain logistical problems with this
approach. I now provide the students with a list of sources that include a brief description of
some of the key sources available. A business library tour and a demonstration on accessing
information through the Internet and the various online indexes are also provided. After the
students complete the data hunt, I ask them to analyze the case using the secondary data they
have gathered. The students often aren’t very excited about the assignment in the beginning, but
many have indicated on course evaluations later that the data hunt was one of the strengths of the
course and a worthwhile learning assignment. The following is an example of the type of
questions I include on the data hunt.
Petco Products Data Hunt
1. Who are Petco Products’ competitors in the dog-food and cat-food industry? Identify the
competitors by both brand name and manufacturer. You may wish to supplement your
library research with a trip to the local grocery or pet store. While at the store, note shelf
space allocation, types of product offerings, packaging, and pricing among the brands.
2. Ralston Purina is one of the largest competitors in the dog- and cat-food market. Develop a
profile of the Ralston Purina Company. Include information such as ownership, history,
market share (both domestically and internationally), and marketing practices such as
Chapter 9: Marketing Research
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© 2018 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
product/brand offerings.
3. What Standard Industrial Codes (S.I.C.) do dog food and cat food fall under? What S.I.C.
codes do pet stores and dog kennels come under?
4. Before investing a significant sum of money into the “First in Show” (F.I.S.-27) dog food
product, Petco Products needs to further investigate the domestic and international pet food
industry, in particular the dog food market. What are the significant trends, and what do
sales and profitability forecasts look like for both the consumer market and the pet
store/kennel market?
5. Trade Associations and trade journals are excellent sources of industry specific
information. The American Pet Products Manufacturers Association supplied much of the
pet ownership information in the case. What is the address and phone number of the
American Pet Products Manufacturers Association? Should Petco Products join the
Association? Why, or why not? Does your library carry any of the Association’s
publications? Name three other associations Petco may wish to join.
6. The case describes the characteristics of a pet owner nationally. How would you describe
dog and/or cat owners in your area? How do pet owners in your area differ from pet
owners nationally?
Kay Tracy, Gettysburg College
In-Class Exercise in Research
To illustrate a few of the trials and tribulations of conducting marketing research, I have the
students do the following exercise in class. This exercise is intended to demonstrate, through an
experiential approach, how market research should and should not be conducted.
Students are asked to survey ten of their classmates as to what brand of a personal-use item they
own and to collect benefit; demographic; psychographic; and activities, interests, and opinions
(AIO) information from each interviewee. Those students conducting the “survey” on the same
item then meet together; compile the data they have gathered; and, based on the pooled results,
present a short oral report of their findings to the class.
Time Required: One 50-minute class period
Materials: Survey forms for each class member and signs indicating where groups should meet
after interviews are completed
Procedure: Before class, reproduce survey forms for different products based on the format
below. You will need enough different products so that five students are interviewing about the
same product. (So, if you have 35 students, you will need a total of 35 forms, 5 for each of 7
Chapter 9: Marketing Research
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different products.) Substitute products such as toothpaste, stereo system, shampoo, etc. for the
automobile in (1) on the student form below.
Marketing Exercise
Directions
Interview 10 of your classmates by asking them to answer the following:
1. Which brand of automobile they own
2. Why they own that brand
3. Demographic information (sex, age, fraternity or sorority affiliation, major)
4. Psychographic information (lifestyle)
5. AIO information (favorite type of movie, hobby, music)
After you have interviewed ten individuals, team up with four of your classmates—meet under
the sign for the product about which you are interviewing. Pool the results of your interviews
with your research team. Based on the pooled results, do the following:
1. Determine the market segment that the top three brands appear to target (based on
demographic data).
2. Do a benefit analysis for the top brand. (Hint: What benefits do people seek from their
ownership of a certain brand?)
3. Prepare a profile of the top brand target market based on the psychographic and AIO data
you have collected.
Debriefing
At the conclusion of the various teams’ reports, ask participants if they would care to base a
product decision on this survey. Students are quick to point out the shortcomings of collecting
marketing research data in a classroom setting. They are apt to mention duplication of subjects,
social desirability of answers, limited data, failure of interviewers to ask questions exactly (e.g.,
“What brand of toothpaste do you like?” rather than “What brand of toothpaste do you use?”),
assumptions on part of interviewer, lack of a random sample, etc. For each of the problems they
mention, ask the class to provide an appropriate solution.
Elwin Myers, Texas A&M University – Corpus Christi
Collecting, Creating, and Market Researching Direct Mail Sales Letters
Direct mail advertising continues to comprise a substantial component of the advertising budget.
In spite of the large sums spent on producing millions of pieces of direct mail sales letters, many
Chapter 9: Marketing Research
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of those pieces are not read by their intended readers.
This assignment helps students observe the current writing practices used by direct mail sales
letter writers and suggests ways of improving upon what they observe. The assignment consists
of two components; instructors interested in using the assignment in class may use one or both
segments as time and interest permit.
Collecting and Analyzing Direct Mail Sales Pieces
1. Students are required to locate 20 different direct mail sales writing pieces—ten from local
advertisers and ten from national advertisers. The pieces may be ones received by students,
their friends, family, or from the post office trash receptacle.
2. Students carefully analyze each piece to determine distinctions between local and national
advertisers. Students will notice that the local pieces are more likely to be a single page—
often in a postcard format. The national advertisers are more likely to include an actual
sales letter and perhaps several enclosures placed within an envelope.
3. Since many sales letter recipients discard letters unopened, sales letter writers realize the
need to include some form of persuasive message on the outside of the envelopes.
Therefore, students should not fail to analyze whether envelopes include written messages
on the outside of the envelope.
Students will notice that some of the written messages may entice or encourage readers to
open the envelope, while other messages may distract or annoy potential readers. The
better written envelope messages generally contain the following three elements: 1) a
clever verbal or graphic attention getter, 2) a phrase that informs the reader that the product
or service is targeted toward their interests (such as “Attention: For Accomplished Golfers
Only”), and 3) the irresistible word “free” if such an offer is discussed within the letter
inside.
4. After examining the sales letter envelopes, students should peruse the sales matter inside
the envelope. Although all enclosed pieces should be inspected, students should
concentrate on the actual sales letter itself.
An effective sales letter should be organized as other sales messages: attention, interest,
desire, and action. Most sales letters excel on the first and last sections and flounder on the
sections in between.
Conducting Market Research on Student-Written Sales Letters
5. After students have analyzed their 20 sales letters including the envelopes and enclosures,
Chapter 9: Marketing Research
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they should be qualified to identify effective sales letter concepts. Their next assignment is
to write a complete sales letter, including enclosures and an envelope design, incorporating
the effective concepts, and avoiding the ineffective concepts they observed during the first
part of the assignment.
6. After writing what students think are effective sales letters, their last task is to conduct a
marketing research investigation designed to find out the likely outcome of their creations
if they were to be used in a sales campaign.
Gregory S. Martin, University of West Florida
Using Secondary Data for Marketing Decisions
Marketing Principals students should have a direct experience with using market research data as
an input for marketing decision making. Time constraints and large class sizes can make the
collection and use of primary data impractical. (I know, I’ve tried!) Cases can provide a context
for the consideration and use of secondary data, but most deprive the student of the experience of
actually doing “research” to develop decision-relevant information. I’ve found the following
exercise to be manageable and at the same time provide some hands-on experiential benefits. It
makes use of one of the most widely available sources of basic secondary market data, the
annual Sales & Marketing Management Survey of Buying Power. The following example
assignment is customized for use in my classes, but variations on the basic format are endless.
Students will develop many different variations of the decision process (e.g., ranking methods,
weighting schemes, etc.) that can be discussed and compared in an in-class debriefing session
after completion of the assignment. This discussion does a good job of illustrating the “fuzzy”
nature of most marketing decision processes.
Assignment:
Copies of the Florida section of Sales & Marketing Management Survey of Buying Power are on
reserve in the Library. Use this secondary source of market information to complete your choice
of one (1) of the following tasks. Report your findings in a one-page report.
a. A home electronics company wants to test market a new product in a Florida Metro Area.
This area has a high proportion of (a) residents of age 24 to 31 and (b) household EBIs of
around $42,000. Recommend a metro area for this test market, and explain why you made
this decision. Be sure to also consider and report median household EBI, BPI, and an
estimate of per capita sales for the retail store group that includes stores selling home
electronics. (Instructor note: Don’t assume that all students understand the concept of “per
capita”—many don’t have a clue.)
b. A growing regional retailer of furniture not currently doing business in Florida wants to
Chapter 9: Marketing Research
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expand its market coverage into two Florida counties by August 1, 2015. The firm’s
market planners know from past experience that a county must have a population of at least
300,000 people to support a store and that the bulk of its sales are to people between the
ages of 27 and 32. Based only on information available in the Survey of Buying Power,
which two counties would you recommend for new stores, and why? Be sure to also
consider and report median household EBI, BPI, and an estimate of per capita sales for the
retail store group that includes stores selling furniture.
Michael C. Murphy, Langston University at Rogers University
Jon Shapiro, Northeastern State University at Rogers University
Storytelling: Metaphor Generation as a Customer Understanding Research Tool
Traditional market research techniques such as surveys and focus groups often fail to reveal the
customer’s hidden inner feelings that are not easily verbalized or quantified. As a result,
storytelling is gaining recognition as a useful tool that gives marketers a richer insight into
consumer behavior and attitudes. Researchers such as Gerald Zaitman—the creator of Harvard’s
Metaphor Lab, have successfully utilized variations of storytelling to aid DuPont and other
consumer product companies.
In our classrooms, storytelling is an informative and entertaining way to help students expose
non-verbalized feelings as well as behaviors associated with product usage. We typically work
with a class of 30 and proceed as follows. First, we divide the class into three groups of ten
students and assign each group one specific product to analyze. (Products such as backpacks,
athletic shoes, cereals, candy bars, pens, sandals, and automobiles typically elicit student interest.
Merchandise such as perfumes, jeans, and undergarments elicit even more interest due to their
inherently hedonistic nature).
Next, each student is instructed to clip out magazine pictures and to assemble them into a collage
that serves as a metaphor for that student’s experiences and emotions associated with the
product. We generally give participants three weeks to create their collages. This allows them
time to purchase (if necessary) and experience the product. We believe that current usage yields
a richer description of product–user interaction than past consumer experience(s).
After three weeks, each student brings his or her collage to class and is allotted several minutes
to display it while explaining why he or she chose certain clips and what they mean (i.e., to tell
his or her collage-related story).
In the next learning phase, each product group of 10 meets outside of class to interpret the
metaphorical meanings within the stories. The final task of each group is to produce a paper
Chapter 9: Marketing Research
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detailing product uses, consumer preferences and dislikes, opportunities, and threats. For this
phase, students are typically allotted two weeks.
We think both you and your students will have fun utilizing one of the new emergent tools in
marketing research—storytelling!
PART 2—Integrated Case Assignments
Marketing Miscues
Four Loko Targets Young College Hedonists
Phusion Projects, LLC was founded in 2005 when three friends from Ohio State University had
the entrepreneurial idea to start their own company. From this company came the Four Loko
product that caused much panic in the fall of 2010. While news reports focus on Four Loko’s
ingredients—caffeine and alcohol—the real marketing mistake likely came from the market
segment that enjoyed the product. That is, Four Loko had quickly become the drink of choice for
college students across the United States.
The Product
Referred to as an alcoholic energy drink, Four Loko comes in a 23.5-ounce can, with alcohol
content of 12 percent (comparable to four beers). The Four Loko product, in several fruit-
flavored varieties, was displayed on store shelves in brightly colored cans at a retail price of
$2.50 to $3.00. In addition to the alcohol, the energy drink is packed with caffeine (equivalent to
that found in a cup of coffee), taurine, and guarana. What sets Four Loko apart from other energy
drinks, however, is wormwood oil. Wormwood oil is the key ingredient in absinthe, a very high-
proof spirit believed to cause hallucinations. The hallucinogenic aspect of absinthe, from the
thujone in the oil, resulted in its prohibition for years in many countries. However, federal
regulators now allow absinthe as long as the thujone has been extracted from the wormwood oil.
Health advocates contend that the caffeine masks the effects of the alcohol that is being
consumed when drinking Four Loko. Thus, a person is likely to consume more alcohol than he or
she would normally. Four Loko and other caffeinated alcoholic beverages have been referred to
as “blackout in a can” and “wide-awake drunk.”
The Target Market
Today’s college students grew up with energy drinks on store shelves. From the high school
sports field with Gatorade and Powerade, today’s younger generation easily graduated to Red
