Chapter 2 Consumer Research What Is Consumer Research

Chapter 2 Consumer Research

What Is Consumer Research? The systematic methods used by marketers to study consumer decisions and exchange processes.

Understanding The Consumer z Information about the purchase situation z Information about the buyers z Information about product use z Information about customer loyalty z Information about market segments z Information about customer satisfaction

Sources of Information z. Secondary data Information or statistics not gathered for the immediate study at hand. z. Primary data Information or statistics originated by the researcher for the purpose of the investigation at hand.

Methods of Gathering Primary Data z Observation of consumers y. Via human observers vs. mechanical methods y. Disguised vs. undisguised observation y. Natural vs. contrived observation z Consumer Surveys: Personal; intercept; telephone; mail; on-line z Focus groups z Experiments: Lab; field z Test markets z Consumer panels: True vs. omnibus panels

Current Issues in Consumer Research z Using the Internet y. Tracking Internet visitors y. On-line surveys y. Data acquisition y. Receiving advice z Database marketing y. Maintaining specific information on prospects z Data mining y. Sifting through mounds of data for meaningful relationships

Station Break z Firms today are increasingly developing profiles of their customers in their databases. z Learn more about database marketing by visiting www. db-marketing. com and www. neovista. com z What do you think about the privacy issue associated with database marketing?

Ethical Issues in Consumer Research z. Protecting participants z. Avoiding deception z. Informing participants z. Honoring promises of confidentiality

Ethical Issues: Protecting Participants Researchers have the obligation of protecting participants from any physical or psychological harm.

Ethical Issues: Avoiding Deception Consumers are often victims of deceit practiced by some unscrupulous marketers and fund-raisers who, under the guise of conducting research, attempt to sell them something or solicit donations to some cause.

Station Break z Many companies conduct focus groups which involve children. z Visit the web site of Focus. Vision at www. focusvision. com It is a company that employs children to moderate focus group sessions. z Discuss the ethical issues you feel are associated with such practice. z Do you approve of kid-moderated focus groups? Why or why not?

Motivation Research Explores the why aspects of human behavior with qualitative rather than quantitative research approaches.

Revealing Respondents’ Hidden Motives z Projective Techniques y. Subjects project themselves in a scene to interpret it hence reveal their own feelings. z Association Tests y. The immediacy of subjects’ responses to stimulus words or phrases works to curtail their self-censorship. z Other Techniques y. Subjects’ picture choices reveal their stereotypical perceptions.

Forms of Projective Techniques z Thematic Apperception Test (TAT( y. Subjects interpret a photograph depicting a consumer -related activity z Cartoons y. Subjects interpret a drawing or provide a missing portion of a dialog between its characters z Verbal Projectives y. Subjects interpret, explain, or complete a situation described verbally to them

Forms of Association Tests z Free Word Associations y. Seeks immediate word responses that a subject utters after hearing a stimulus z Controlled and Chain Word Associations y. Seeks to discover subjects’ specific consumption habits or associated thought patterns z Sentence Completions y. Incomplete sentences are completed with first thought that comes to a subject’s mind

Other Motivation Research Techniques z Picture-sorting Technique y. Subjects’ stereotyping is revealed as they sort out a stack of specially designed pictures z Shopping List Technique y. Subjects surmise the type of person who buys items appearing on a shopping list z Zaltman Metaphor Elicitation Technique (ZMET( y. Subjects provide pictures that express their feelings about a topic or situation