11. How to Research Common Marketing Problems

(Textbook page 429)

This textbook unit profiles some of the more common issues that marketing research can address and the methodologies that can be applied.  Each area of specialization may require adaptations to solve distinctive problems. 

Consumer Understanding (P.431)

Understanding the behavioural patterns and attitudes that motivate consumers gives marketers direction on tailoring the development of their products, services and messaging.  

• This is often exploratory, starting with qualitative research or ethnography to discover new insights, explore consumer language and develop new hypotheses. 
• Quantitative research will validate and quantify hypotheses and model and map out behaviours and motivations.  Often under the umbrella of a Usage and Attitude (U&A) study, it might include:
  • market mapping
  • key driver analysis
  • motivation mapping
  • segmentation 
• The sample is broadly defined but generally excludes those who would not be likely to participate in the product or service category being studied. 
• The questionnaire generally has a behavioural component (consumption and shopping patterns, occasion profiling) and an attitudinal component (cognitive, affective and conative).  The latter is difficult to measure but crucial to any modelling work; clever techniques have been developed to collect this information.   

Market Landscaping and Brand Equity (P.435)

These focus on how consumers perceive the marketplace and its products and services and identifies gaps that may be exploited through innovation or repositioning. 

• Perceptual brand mapping uses correspondence analysis to create a visual representation of perceived similarities and dissimilarities among brands and their relative preferences for brands.  
• A brand health pyramid shows conversion from brand awareness to trial to repeat purchasing to loyalty to pinpoint where marketing dollars should be directed.
• Brand equity calculates the value of the brand derived from consumer perceptions and preferences.   This is tracked over time to measure the effectiveness of marketing efforts. 

Innovation Development (P.437)

This research is used to fine tune or develop new positionings, create new product or service offerings that meet the needs identified in market understanding studies or fine tune existing products.

• Insight screening helps us narrow our focus and concentrate on a few insights that would be most effective in meeting our innovation needs. 
• Concepts (simple representations, built on insights, of what consumers will encounter when making a purchase decision) are tested with key performance indicators to produce a relative measure of how each would perform if launched.  
  • Volumetric sales forecasting models expected unit sales, and forecasts cannibalization of existing products to help determine if the company can make a profit if the product/positioning is launched.
• Product testing is used to see how consumers react to a physical product, compare it to other products, like/dislike it and whether they would use it again.
  • Sensory testing collects feedback on physical characteristics (e.g. taste, aroma, colour, mouth feel, skin feel, residue, durability, ease of use etc.) with interviews at central locations (if preparation is sensitive) or in-home (to consider usage patterns and family reactions). It can be ‘blind’ or ‘double blind’.   This unit provides detailed scenarios. 
  • Monadic - each respondent tries only one product, useful if the product would be easily recognized if presented in comparison with others
  • Sequential monadic – each respondent tests two or more products, each on its own, generally in a randomized order
  • Paired comparisons – each product is tried without evaluating it, then a questionnaire asks for a comparative evaluation
  • Proto-monadic Paired Comparison – each of two products is evaluated individually, then the pair are evaluated comparatively at the end 
  • Triangle Test – used only to see if consumers can discern a difference between two products.  Two of the products are identical, and any different observed between them measures the degree of ‘false differences’.  The third product is the different one. 
• Simulated test markets are mathematical models that use consumers’ reaction to an initial exposure (e.g. an ad) and in-home usage, and add in the marketing plan to project trial and repeat sales projections, net cannibalization.  These can help the finance team (who know internal costs) determine if the profit projected would offset the investment. 

Marketing Communications Research (P.453)

Most advertising research measures how well advertising is persuading consumers to buy a product or service.  It must provide support for the key advertising decisions: what to say in an ad, whom to say it to, how to say it, how often to say it, where to say it, how much to spend on it and when it time to change the ad. 

o    Hierarchy-of-effects models describe the stages that a consumer is hypothesized to pass through during the purchase cycle (e.g. Awareness, Interest, Desire, Action).
o    The most common measures we use are brand recall, message recall, change in attitudes, brand or user image, purchase intent and strengths/weaknesses.  
o    Perception analyzer measures the creative value of a commercial, second-by-second, as the respondent views it.

Advertising studies are designed to either optimize advertising material before it is released (copy testing) or track how effective it is once it has been launched (ad tracking). 

• Day-after-Recall asks respondents about ads they may have seen the day before and picks up unaided and aided recall and ‘validated recall’.  
• Two other important measures used in advertising tracking are: brand linkage and wear out. 

Go-to-Market Tactics (P.459)

• Pricing Research – A company must gauge supply and demand to set a price that will attract customers while covering costs and earning a profit.  This textbook unit describes key input questions, possible secondary sources for inputs and a range of pricing research techniques:
  • Monadic price testing – each respondent sees one price, with multiple cells covering the full range of prices under consideration.
  • Gabor Granger – to find the price that optimizes revenue, asking purchase intent for a series of price-points, repeating with a higher price if the answer is ‘yes’ or lower if ‘no’.
  • Van Westendorp – asking (open-ended) the price that is too expensive, expensive but would be considered, a real bargain and so cheap it would not be considered to generate the range of acceptable prices, optimal price for penetration and optimal price for revenue.
  • Conjoint Analysis – the most robust alternative, described in Unit 9. 

• Packaging Research – depending on whether we are testing just the graphics (can use virtual mock-ups) or if there is a functional element (needs hands on experience).  We use interactive, digital shelves and digital packaging to do early-stage evaluations.  Findability and brand link are important measures.  Eye-tracking helps us understand what attracts the eye and where it dwells when looking at alternative pack designs. 

• Line optimization – ensuring each new addition to the shelf brings incremental sales.  Total Unduplicated Reach and Frequency (TURF) is the most common approach, asking how likely respondents would be to buy each item and how often.  

Research for Specialized Fields (P.467)

• Business-to-business – respondents answer on behalf of their organization.  Important considerations are defining whom to interview, how many are needed, how to accurately and intelligently word the questionnaire, who should conduct the interview and what costs are to be expected. 
• Pharmaceutical Research – Research on over-the-counter products is conducted like any other consumer research where the consumer makes the purchase decision.  Pharma research carried out with physicians, pharmacists etc. require different sample sources and sample sizes, more specialized questionnaires and interviewers and higher incentives.
• Legal Research – focus on specific purposes: claims support, copyright infringement, libel / defamation claims, test jury trials.  The researcher may required as an ‘expert witness’.  
• Polling – tracks the fortunes of politicians and parties, governments and institutions and corporations.  It measures where the public stands on issues and how it might impact how they vote.  Polling is highly visible, particularly at election time, and is often considered a test of how accurate marketing research is.