Review and Assignments for Chapter 9
Review Quesons
1. The task of marketing is to create exchanges. What role might marketing research
play in the facilitation of the exchange process?
2. Give an example of (1) the descriptive role, (2) the diagnostic role, and (3) the
predictive function of marketing research.
Descriptive marketing research examples should describe gathering and presenting factual
3. Marketing research has traditionally been associated with manufacturers of
consumer goods. Today, we are experiencing an increasing number of organizations,
both profit and nonprofit, using marketing research. Why do you think this trend
exists? Give some examples.
Students will need to explain that every type of firm should be endeavoring to serve their
4. Why are secondary data sometimes preferred to primary data?
Secondary data are readily available and much less expensive than primary data. Often the
5. What is a marketing research aggregator? What role do these aggregators play in
marketing research?
The role of marketing research aggregators is to acquire, catalog, reformat, segment, and resell
6. Ethnographic research is a new (and expensive) trend in marketing research. Find an
article on ethnographic research. Read and summarize the article. What is your
opinion of ethnographic research? Do you think it will be the wave of the future?
Explain your reasoning.
7. Describe the advantages and disadvantages of online surveys.
Advantages of Internet surveys include speed, low cost, creation of longitudinal studies, cost
Disadvantages include skewing of online survey results because the composition of people
8. Why has scanner-based research been seen as “the ultimate answer” for marketing
researchers? Do you see any disadvantages of this methodology?
Scanner-based research provides an accurate, objective picture of the direct causal relationship
between different kinds of marketing efforts and actual sales. Many non-scanner marketing
Applicaon Quesons
1. Write a reply to the following statement: “I own a restaurant in the downtown area. I
see customers every day whom I know on a first-name basis. I understand their likes
and dislikes. If I put something on the menu and it doesn’t sell, I know that they
didn’t like it. I also read the magazine Modern Restaurants, so I know what the trends
are in the industry. This is all of the marketing research I need to do.”
Although students’ answers will vary, they should address some of these points: Making
correct decisions is as important to small firms as it is to larger ones; managers at any level
2. Critique the following methodologies, and suggest more appropriate alternatives:
a. A supermarket was interested in determining its image. It dropped a short
questionnaire into the grocery bag of each customer before putting in the
groceries.
b. To assess the extent of its trade area, a shopping mall stationed interviewers in
the parking lot every Monday and Friday evening. Interviewers walked up to
persons after they had parked their cars and asked them for their ZIP codes.
c. To assess the popularity of a new movie, a major studio invited people to call a
900 number and vote yes (they would see it again) or no (they would not see it
again). Each caller was billed a two-dollar charge.
a. The supermarket should have short intercept interviews or phone interviews to get
b. They are surely going to scare customers by casually approaching them and asking
c. People are not going to be willing to pay to vote for a movie. Exit interviews are the
3. You have been charged with determining how to attract more business majors to
your school. Write an outline of the steps you would take, including the sampling
procedures, to accomplish the task.
The first step is to define the problem or questions that this research needs to examine. The
next step, planning the research design, specifies the method that will be used to collect
4. Discuss when focus groups should and should not be used.
Focus groups are used when a researcher needs detailed information or needs to brainstorm.
5. Divide the class into teams of eight persons. Each group will conduct a focus group on
the quality and number of services that your college is providing to its students. One
person from each group should be chosen to act as moderator. Remember, it is the
moderator’s job to facilitate discussion, not to lead the discussion. These group
sessions should last approximately 45 minutes. If possible, the groups should be
videotaped or recorded. Upon completion, each group should write a brief report of
its results. Consider offering to meet with the dean of students to share the results of
your research.
6. Go to http://www.strategicbusinessinsights.com/vals/presurvey.shtml, and take the
VALS Survey. Report on how marketing researchers are using this information.
7. Divide the class into teams. Each team should go to a different opt-in survey site on
the Web and participate in an online survey. A spokesperson for each team should
report the results to the class.
8. Detractors claim that scanner-based research is like “driving a car down the road
looking only in the rearview mirror.” What does this mean? Do you agree?
This is a major disadvantage to scanner-based research: it gathers information on the past but
FOR the statement: Past purchasing behavior does not necessarily predict future behavior.
AGAINST the statement: Scanner-based research can predict future buying behavior. For
9. Why do you think that competitive intelligence (CI) is so hot in today’s environment?
10. Prepare a memo to your boss at United Airlines, and outline why the organization
needs a CI unit.
Students’ responses will vary depending on the specific reasons that the student chooses to
11. Form a team with three other students. Each team must choose a firm in the
PC-manufacturing industry. Next, each team will go to the website of the firm and
acquire as much competitive intelligence as possible. Each team will then prepare a
five-minute oral presentation on its findings.
12. Why do companies hire mystery shoppers?
Mystery shoppers are researchers posing as customers who gather observational data about a
store. Companies also hire these shoppers to study customer–employee interactions.
Mystery shoppers also:
enable an organization to monitor compliance with product/service delivery
standards and specifications
Applicaon Exercise
For its Teens and Healthy Eating: Oxymoron or Trend? study, New York–based BuzzBack
Market Research focused on snacking. Among its findings, teens eat an average of three snacks
per day, and breakfast is the meal they skip most often. Though scads of snacks are stacked on
store shelves, when it comes to healthier treats targeting adolescents, it’s a bit of a teenage
wasteland. BuzzBack asked 532 teen respondents to conjure up new foods they’d gobble up. The
following are some of their ideas:
“Travel fruit. Why can’t fruit be in travel bags like chips or cookies? Canned fruit is too
messy. Maybe have a dip or something sold with it, too.”—Female, age 17
Source: Becky Ebenkamp, “The Market Is the Message,” “What If Teenagers Ruled the R&D
Roost?” Brandweek, July 11, 2005, 16 and 17.
Activities
1. You are a new-product development specialist at Kraft. What guidance can you get from
the BuzzBack study?
2. Choose one of the suggestions from the above list of healthy snack concepts. Imagine that
your company is interested in turning the idea into a new product but wants to conduct
market research before investing in product development. Design a marketing research
plan that will give company managers the information they need before engaging in
new-product development of the idea. Once you have finished your plan, collect the data.
Depending on the data-collection methods you have outlined in your plan, you may need to
make adjustments so that you can collect actual data to analyze.
3. Analyze the data you collected, and create a report for your company, either recommending
that the company pursue the idea you chose or investigate another.
Purpose: To show how marketing research supports all of the marketing functions
Setting It Up: This exercise is well-suited to small group work in class. Once groups have made
their lists, have groups come together to share their results as a class.
This exercise was inspired by the following Great Ideas for Teaching Marketing.
Matthew D. Shank, Northern Kentucky University
Fred Beasley, Northern Kentucky University
Understanding the Importance of Marketing Research (Or Why Do I Have to Take This
Class?)
What three words best describe how students feel about marketing research before entering the
The exercise begins by asking students to list and describe the basic functions of marketing. This
task may be facilitated by providing the students with any product or service (e.g., athletic
Basic Marketing
Functions
Examples of Research Activities
Promotion Planning Ad Effectiveness
Media Research
Sales Promotion Effectiveness
The broad purpose of this in-class exercise is to stress the importance of marketing research and
set the tone for the semester. More specifically, the exercise has the following benefits:
It serves as a review of the basic marketing functions.
Ethics Exercise
John Michael Smythe owns a small marketing research firm in Cleveland, Ohio, which employs
75 people. Most employees are the sole breadwinners in their families. John’s firm has not fared
well for the past two years and is on the verge of bankruptcy. The company recently surveyed
1. Should John Smythe sell the names?
This dilemma is particularly tricky because it involves the interests of John as both a
marketing research provider and an employer. The situation does not specifically state that
2. Does the AMA Code of Ethics address this issue? Go to
http://www.marketingpower.com, and review the code. Then, write a brief paragraph
on what the AMA Code of Ethics contains that relates to John Smythe’s dilemma.
The AMA Code of Ethics does have verbiage requiring marketers to “apply confidentiality
and anonymity in professional relationships with regard to privileged information.” If the
Video Assignment: The Nederlander Organizaon
1. Using information collected for Ricky Martin’s fan club would be considered:
a. primary data.
b. meeting the research objective.
c. secondary data.
d. survey research.
2. Broadway Direct offers a collection of people who have signed up to receive a newsletter
about Nederlander theater events. Most of these individuals also purchased tickets to see a
show at a Nederlander-owned theatre. If used as a sample for a marketing research project,
Broadway Direct would be a(an):
a. judgment sample.
b. probability sample.
c. observation research.
d. convenience sample.
3. When the Nederlander Organization “retargets” recipients of e-mail pre-sale blasts (such as
the one used for Evita) based on whether they clicked “buy tickets” and did not make the
purchase, they are:
a. using behavioral targeting to send follow-up messages.
b. using behaviorscan to understand why they didn’t purchase tickets.
c. performing observation research on e-mail marketing success and failure.
d. demonstrating how virtual shopping can use personal selling techniques.
4. When someone opts in to receive Broadway direct newsletters, what step in the CRM
system are they fulfilling for the Nederlander organization?
a. They are helping Nederlander understand its interactions with the current customer
base.
b. They are helping Nederlander capture customer data based on interactions.
c. They are helping Nederlander identify its best customers.
d. They are helping Nederlander leverage stored information.