International Marketing Quiz 2 Study Guide

Marketing quiz 2 Study Guide Inexpensive External Secondary Data: -Some sources of external data can be quickly accessed at a relatively low cost. -Often, however, inexpensive data sources are not adequate to meet researchers' needs. Because the data initially were acquired for some purpose other than the research question at hand, they may not be completely relevant or timely. -The U.S. Census is a great source of demographic data about a particular market area, and it can be easily accessed at a low cost. However, the data are collected only at the beginning of every decade, so they quickly become outdated. -Researchers must also pay close attention to how other sources of inexpensive secondary data were collected. Despite the great deal of data available on the Internet, easy access does not ensure that the data are trustworthy. Syndicated External Secondary Data: -Although the secondary data described previously are either free or inexpensively obtained, marketers can purchase external secondary data called syndicated data, which are available for a fee from commercial research firms -Consumer packaged goods firms that sell to wholesalers often lack the means to gather pertinent data directly from the retailers that sell their products to consumers, which makes syndicated data a valuable resource for them. -Some syndicated data providers also offer information about shifting brand preferences and product usage in households, which they gather from scanner data and consumer panels. -Overall, both panel and scanner data provide firms with a comprehensive picture of what consumers are buying or not buying. - The key difference between scanner research and panel research is how the data get aggregated. Scanner research typically focuses on weekly consumption of a particular product at a given unit of analysis (ex: individual store, chain, region); panel research focuses on the total weekly consumption by a particular person or household. Both types are valuable. scanner data: -are used in quantitative research obtained from scanner readings of UPC labels (barcodes) at check-out counters. -Whenever you go into your local grocery store, your purchases are rung up using scanner systems. -The data from these purchases are likely to be acquired by leading marketing research firms which use this information to help leading consumer packaged goods firms assess what's happening in the marketplace. EX: a firm can use scanner data to determine what would happen to its sales if it reduced the price of its least popular product by 10% in a given month. In the test market in which it lowers the price, do sales increase, decrease, or stay the same? **analyzes consumption of a particular product at a given unit of analysis (ex: kind bar sales in boston) panel data: are information collected from a group of consumers, organized into panels, over time. - Data collected from panelists often include their records of what they have purchased (i.e. secondary data), as well as their responses to survey questions that the client gives to the panel firm to ask the panelists (i.e. primary data). -Primary panel data could give insights into what they think of each option. **analyzes consumption of particular person Internal Secondary Data: -Internally, companies also generate a tremendous amount of secondary data from their day-to-day operations. -One of the most valuable resources such firms have at their disposal is their rich cache of customer information and purchase history. -However, it can be difficult to make sense of the millions and even billions of pieces of individual data, which are stored in large computer files called data warehouses. -For this reason, firms use data mining techniques to extract valuable information from their databases -Some retailers try to customize their product and service offerings to match the needs of their customers. EX: Tesco uses its loyalty card to collect massive amounts of information about its individual customers. But these specific data are basically useless until Tesco mines and analyzes them to identify 3 income groups: upscale, middle income, and less affluent. With this mined information, Tesco has been able to create appealing private-label product offerings for each group, according to their preferences, and began targeting promotions to each customer according to his or her income classification. data warehouses: large computer file where all customer info and purchasing history is stored data mining: **way to turn raw data into valuable data that provides insights (information) -uses a variety of statistical analysis tools to uncover previously unknown patterns in the data or relationships among variables. -Data mining can be useful for a broad range of situations and organizations. By analyzing the enormous amount of information that it possesses about its customers, companies have developed statistical models that help identify when a customers is dissatisfied with his or her service. -Once the company identifies an unhappy customer, it can follow up and proactively address that customer's issues. By mining customer data and information, the company also reduced its churn levels. -The purpose of converting data to information is to describe, explain, predict, and/or evaluate a particular situation. -Overall, firms hope to use data mining to generate customer-based analytics that they can apply to their strategic decision making, and thereby make good customers better, and make better customers their best. -Firms can also use secondary data to assess the profitability of their customers by determining the customer life-time value (CLV). churn levels: -Churn is the number of participants who discontinue use of a service, divided by the average number of total participants. -With this knowledge, the company can focus on what it does best. Primary Data Collection Techniques: -In many cases, the information researchers need is available only through primary data, or data collected to address specific research needs. -Depending on the nature of the research problem, the primary data collection method can employ a qualitative or a quantitative research method. Qualitative research: -is used to understand the phenomenon of interest through broad openended responses. -It provides initial information that helps the researcher more clearly formulate the research objectives. -Qualitative research is more informal than quantitative research methods and includes: observation, following social media sites, in-depth interviews, focus groups, and projective techniques. quantitative research: -Once the firm has gained insights from doing qualitative research, it's likely to engage in quantitative research, which are structured responses that can be statistically tested. -Quantitative research provides information needed to confirm insights and hypotheses generated via qualitative research or secondary data and helps managers pursue appropriate courses of action. - Formal studies such as specific experiments, scanner and panel data, or some combination of these are quantitative in nature. research methods include: surveys, experiments, panel and scanner Observation (Qualitative research): -entails examining purchase and consumption behaviors through personal or video camera scrutiny. -Observation can last for a very brief period of time (i.e. 2 hours watching teens shop for clothes in the mall), or it may take days or weeks (i.e. researchers live with families observe their use of products). -When consumers are unable to articulate their experiences, observation research becomes particularly useful. -Observation may be the best method, and sometimes the only way, to determine how consumers might use a product, and therefore be useful for designing and marketing them. These insights might be helpful, both for the company that gathers them and for consumers who ultimately benefit from better products social media (Qualitative research): -Social media sites are a booming source of data for marketers. -contributors to social media sites rarely are shy about providing their opinions about the firm's own products or its competitors' offerings. -If companies can monitor, gather, and mine these vast social media data, they can learn a lot about their customers' likes, dislikes, and preferences. -They then might cross-reference such social media commentary with consumers' past purchases to derive a better sense of what they want. -Customers also appear keen to submit their opinions about their friends' purchases, interests, polls, and blogs. - Another creative use of social media for market research involves building online communities for companies. EX: Kraft created a virtual community of target consumers: 150 women who wanted to lose weight, the participants openly shared their frustrations and difficulties managing their weight, because the community environment prompted them to sense that everyone else on the site struggled with similar issues and concerns. -By monitoring the community, Kraft learned that it would need to educate consumers about the Diet plan it was offering and would need to offer products that could address cravings throughout the day, not just at mealtimes. -Noting these various opportunities and market research sources online, many companies have added "heads for social media" to their management teams. These managers take responsibility for scanning the web for blogs, postings, tweets, or Facebook posts where customers mention their experience with a brand. -By staying abreast of this continuous stream of information, companies can gather the most up-to-date news about their company, products, and services, as well as their competitors. -These social media searches allow companies to learn about customers' perceptions and resolve customer complaints they may never have heard about through other channels. -The data gathered through the searches also undergo careful analyses: are customer sentiments generally positive, negative, or neutral? How many customers are talking about the firm's products, and how many focused instead on competitors'? -This data analysis is understandably challenging, considering the amount of data available online. -However, monitoring consumer sentiments has grown easier with the development of social media monitoring platforms. -Some companies take it a step further, by joining the online conversation with customers, a process called social engagement blogs: -Blogs in particular represent valuable sources of marketing research insights. -Part of what makes blogs so valuable is also what makes them challenging for firms. - Bloggers are usually, but not always, unaffiliated with the companies that produce the items they review, which means they have no reason to hold back from negative commentary. Sentiment mining: is data gathered by evaluating customer comments posted through social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and online blogs. -The data are then analyzed to distill customer attitudes toward and preferences for products and advertising campaigns. -Scouring millions of sites by combining automated online search tools with text analysis techniques, sentiment mining yields qualitative data that provide new insight into what consumers really think. -Companies plugged into this real-time information can become more nimble, allowing for quick changes in a product roll-out or a new advertising campaign. social engagement: when companies join the online conversation with customers in-depth interview (Qualitative research): -trained researchers ask questions, listen to and record the answers, and then pose additional questions to clarify or expand on a particular issue. -In-depth interviews provide insights that help managers better understand the nature of their industry, as well as important trends and consumer preferences, which can be invaluable for developing marketing strategies. -Specifically, they can establish a historical context for the phenomenon of interest, particularly when they include industry experts or experienced consumers. -They also can communicate how people really feel about a product or service at the individual level. -Finally, marketers can use the results of in-depth interviews to develop surveys. -In-depth interviews are, however, relatively expensive and time consuming depending on the length of the interaction and the characteristics of people included in the sample (i.e. if it includes medical doctors more expensive than if interviewing teenagers in a mall). focus group interviews (Qualitative research): -a small group of persons (usually 8-12) come together for an intensive discussion about a particular topic. -Using an unstructured method of inquiry, a trained moderator guides the conversation, according to a predetermined, general outline of topics of interest. -Researchers usually record the interactions by video- or audiotape so they can carefully comb through the interviews later to catch any patterns of verbal or nonverbal responses. - focus groups gather qualitative data about initial reactions to a new or existing product or service, opinions about different competitive offerings, or reactions to marketing stimuli, like a new ad campaign or point-of-purchase display materials. - not limited to new products though--services too -focus groups now often takes place online the company saves costs but also gains access to a broader range of potential customers who live in various places -However, these online focus groups rarely include video feeds, so companies lose some important information that can be gleaned from body language Survey Research (quantitative research): -Arguably the most popular type of quantitative primary collection method is a survey - a systematic means of collecting information from people using a questionnaire. -marketing surveys can be conducted either online of offline, but online marketing surveys offer researchers the chance to develop a database quickly with many responses, whereas offline marketing surveys provide a more direct approach that includes interactions with the target market. - Web surveys have steadily grown as a percentage of all quantitative surveys. -Online surveys have a lot to offer marketers with tight deadlines and small budgets. The response rates for online surveys are relatively high, and they are also inexpensive and the costs likely will continue to fall as users become more familiar with the online survey process. -Results are processed and received quickly. Reports and summaries can be developed in real time and delivered directly to managers in simple, easy-to-digest reports, complete with color, graphics, and charts. -Diverse online survey software, like Qualtrics or Surveymonkey, make it very easy to draft an online survey, using questions from existing survey libraries. -A survey link can be sent easily in an e-mail to potential respondents as well as posted on specific sites that are likely to attract the target audience or people who are willing to perform online work. questionnaire: - is a form that features a set of questions designed to gather information from respondents and thereby accomplish the researchers' objectives. -Individual questions on a questionnaire can be either unstructured or structured. -Developing a questionnaire is part art and part science. The questions must be carefully designed to address the specific set of research questions Unstructured questions: -are open ended and allow respondents to answer in their own words. Structured questions: are closed-ended questions for which a discrete set of response alternatives, or specific answers, is provided for respondents to evaluate. to obtain meaningful results on questionnaire:: -questions cannot be misleading at all -questions must address only one issue at a time. -questions must be worded in vocabulary that will be familiar and comfortable to those being surveyed. -The questions should be sequenced appropriately: general questions first, more specific questions next, and demographic questions at the end. -Finally, the layout and appearance of the questionnaire must be professional and easy to follow, with appropriate instructions in suitable places. Panel and Scanner-Based Research (quantitative): -can be either secondary or primary. - we consider the use of a panel to collect primary data. Walmart's U.K. subsidiary Asda uses an 18,000-customer panel to help determine which products to carry. Asda sends e-mails to each participant with product images and descriptions of potential new products. The customers' responses indicate whether they think each product should be carried in stores Experimental research (quantitative): - (an experiment) is a type of quantitative research that systematically manipulates one or more variables to determine which variables have a causal effect on other variables. EX: McDo's research team was trying to determine the most profitable price for a new combo item. McDo's puts the item on the menu at 4 different prices in 4 different markets . In general, the more expensive the item, the less it will sell. But by running this experiment, McDo's determines that the most profitable price is the second least expensive ($5.00). In this experiment, the changed in price likely caused the changes in quantities sold and therefore affected the restaurant's profitability. The American Marketing Association provides 3 guidelines for conducting marketing research:: 1. It prohibits selling or fundraising under the guise of conducting research. 2.It supports maintaining research integrity by avoiding misrepresentation or the omission of pertinent research data. 3. It encourages the fair treatment of clients and suppliers A strong ethical orientation must be: an integral part of a firm's marketing strategy and decision making. The bottom line of marketing research: marketing research should be used only to produce unbiased, factual information Emerging Technology and the Ethics of Using Customer Information: the potential threats to consumers' personal information grow in number and intensity **Marketing researchers must be vigilant to avoid abusing their access to these data. -consumers are more anxious than ever about preserving their fundamental right to privacy. -They also demand increasing control over the information that has been collected about them. Reaction to privacy concerns: -firms voluntarily notify their customers that any information provided to them will be kept confidential and not given or sold to any other firm -organizations have emerged as watchdogs over data mining of consumer information -national and states governments require companies to disclose their privacy practices to customers on an annual basis **But laws have yet to catch up with advances in other area, like social media, neuromarketing, and facial recognition software. social media and facial recognition privacy: -Regarding social media, protecting consumers' privacy is mainly up to the consumer. - In contrast, consumers have little control over facial recognition software that allows companies to detect demographic information based on their appearances. Biometric data: include one or more physical traits such as facial characteristics, iris scans, or fingerprints. neuromarketing: -claims the ability to read consumers' minds, using wireless electroencephalogram (EEG) scanners that measure the involuntary brainwaves that occur when they view a product, advertisement, or brand images. -Such insights would be invaluable for marketers, to discover what truly appeals to consumers. The potential for abuses of such tools are immense. product: **central for the creation of value to the customer -is anything that is of value to a consumer and can be offered through a voluntary marketing exchange. In addition to goods, products might be places (i.e. Six Flags theme parks), ideas (i.e. stop smoking), organizations (i.e. MADD), people (i.e. Oprah Winfrey), or communities (i.e. Facebook) that create value for consumers in their respective competitive marketing arenas. complexity of products: -there's more to a product than its physical characteristics or its basic service function -Marketers involved with the development, design, and sale of products think of them in an interrelated fashion core customer value: which defines the basic-problem solving benefits that consumers are seeking. EX: When Mars manufactures M&Ms, what are customers looking for? Is it a sweet great tasting snack or is it an energy boost? actual product: -the physical attributes of a product including the brand name, features/design, quality level, and packaging are important, but the level of their importance varies, depending on the product. **marketers convert core customer values into actual product associated services or augmented services: -include the nonphysical aspects of the product, like product warranties, financing, product support, and after-sale service. -The amount of associated services also varies with the product. Developing a product: marketers start with the core customer value to determine what their potential customers are seeking. Then they make the actual physical product and add associated services to round out the offering. Types of Products: -marketers consider the types of products they are designing and selling, because these types affect how they will promote, price, and distribute their products. -two primary categories: consumer vs business products Consumer products: -are products and services used by people for their personal use. -Marketers further classify consumer products by the way they are used and how they are purchased: -specialty, shopping, convenience, and unsought products/services Specialty products/services: are those for which customers express such a strong preference that they will expend considerable effort to search for the best suppliers. EX: luxury cars, legal or medical professionals, or designer apparel. Shopping products/services: -are products or services for which consumers will spend a fair amount of time comparing alternatives, such as furniture, apparel, fragrances, appliances, and travel alternatives Convenience products/services: -are those products or services for which the consumer is not willing to spend any effort to evaluate prior to purchase. -They're frequently purchased commodity items, usually bought with very little thought, like common beverages, bread, or soap Unsought products/services: -are products consumers either don't normally think of buying or don't know about at all. -Because of their very nature, these products require lots of marketing effort and various forms of promotion. -When new-to-the-world products are first introduced, they are unsought products. product mix: -The complete set of all products and services offered by a firm -typically consists of various product lines -reflects the breadth and depth of the company's product lines. product lines: -which are groups of associated items that consumers tend to use together or think of as part of a group of similar products or services. -adding unlimited numbers of new products can have adverse consequences Product line depth: equals the number of products within a product line. product mix breadth: -represents a count of the number of product lines offered by the firm. -Too much breadth in the product mix becomes costly to maintain, and too many brands may weaken the firm's reputation.