Specific

C H APT E R
marketing
research
techniques
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I
INTRODUCTION

12

Marketing research is about finding out about the market behaviour and its structure, competitors,
consumer and the needs and wants of customers. All organisations require marketing research and there
are many different marketing research techniques to assist this quest for information.

By far the biggest users of marketing research have been large fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG)
companies, Sainsbury, Tesco, Asda and Litttewoods. In Singapore, we have the NTUC, Shop & Save,
etc.

This chapter looks at some applied areas of marketing research:

product research,
segmentation research, promotion research, distribution research and
pricing research. These applications of marketing research are
substantive enough to warrant specific consideration in their own right.
In the case of product research, attention is given to product
generation and testing, consumer product testing and packaging
research. In the case of segmentation research, attention is given to
researching ways of segmenting the market. Attention is given to
competition research in which understanding the market strategies of
competitors is seen as a focal point. The identification of competitors
and sources of information about competitors are also seen as key
issues. Next, in promotion research, attention is focused on the ways of
assessing its effectiveness. This is followed by a discussion of various
approaches to pricing research. Finally, aspects of distribution research
are considered
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Essential Readings
1) Proctor, Essentials of Marketing Research, 4/e, Pearson Education
Limited 2005
2) Management Information for marketing & sales, BPP publication,
2010.
3) John Boyce, Marketing research (2nd edition), McGraw Hill, 2005
4) Salkind, N. (2005) Exploring Research, 6th edn, Prentice Hall,
Singapore
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Advanced Diploma in Business Management

5) Marketing Strategy Ferrell, & Hartline ,5th South Western

Publisher, (Cengage, 2011)
6) Lecture PowerPoint Presentation Slides Chapter 12
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LEARNING OBJECTIVES
After reading this chapter, students should have an understanding
of :

The scope of marketing research

Market research

Product research

Sales research

Price research

Distribution research

Advertising and communications research

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PRODUCT RESEARCH
Most new products fail, so the use of research in developing and
evaluating products
is important since it reduces the risk of failure. Product research covers
several different kinds of research. The aim of product research is to
provide company management with information about the likely
acceptance of a new product, a modified product or an existing
product. Product research has three roles to play in this aspect of
marketing :
1 getting ideas for new products
2 evaluating new product ideas
3 consumer product testing.
PROMOTION RESEARCH
Much of promotional research is aimed at the development of
advertising
appeals. The type of research this requires may be classified as
psychological (or
motivational), sociological (focus groups) and anthropological
(observation).
Advertising media research
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Research here tries to eliminate waste in advertising by systematically

examining
the media available for promoting products and services.
MEASURING ADVERTISING EFFECTIVENESS
Measurement of advertising effectiveness is one of the most
difficult aspects of
marketing research. Many factors influence sales besides advertising.
The other
factors include all the elements of the marketing mix, together with the
availability
of the product and the effect of competition. It is perhaps only when
people
place orders in response to advertisements, however, that we can be
reasonably
sure about its effectiveness in terms of producing sales.
PRICING RESEARCH
Research into pricing explores pricing approaches both for new
products before
they are launched and any proposed changes once they have been
launched.
There are two general approaches to pricing research. The first19
involves presenting
different prices for a product to respondents who are then questioned
about whether or not they would buy. A buy-response curve of
different prices
associated with positive purchase intentions is then constructed.
Another
approach involves people being shown different sets of brand in the
same product
category, at different prices. They, too, are then asked which ones they
would buy. This latter approach enables competitors brands to be
taken into
account by respondents.
DISTRIBUTION RESEARCH
A variety of research can be conducted to cover distribution. The
relevance
of such research often reflects whether the sponsors are engaged in
businesstobusiness or consumer marketing. There are many commonalities in
terms
of requirements. Possibly the main difference reflects the fact that
research is
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Advanced Diploma in Business Management

required at the retail level the consumer interface in the case of

consumergoods
marketing.
Product life cycle research - Information for PLC control

It is possible to summarise the different information and financial

control needs of
different stages of the PLC as follows.

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Conclusion
This chapter has examined several applied areas of
marketing research: product research, segmentation
research, competition research, promotion research, pricing
research and distribution research. In the case of product
research, attention has been paid to product generation and
testing, consumer product testing and packaging research. In
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Advanced Diploma in Business Management

the case of segmentation research, attention has been given

to researching ways of segmenting the market. In promotion
research, attention has been focused on the ways of
assessing its suitability and effectiveness, and various
approaches to pricing research were examined. Finally,
attention was paid to some aspects of distribution research.
In particular, the following areas are discussed indepth:

Marketing research typically embraces six major areas: market

research; product research; sales research; price research;
distribution research; and advertising/communications research.
Market research tries to quantify information to provide sales
forecasts and assess potential sales.
Product research seeks to achieve a marketing orientation to the
orsanisation's research and development focus.
The product life cycle(PLC) is a useful model for marketing
planning and control, although there are difficulties in predicting
the precise shape of PLC curve for any given product/ service.
Financial control measures have to be varied for each of the four
phases in the product life cycle.
Price sensitivity is influenced by five major factors, including the
extent to which customers use the 'just price' concept, the
nature of the purchase involved, and perceptions of price versus
'value'.
Distribution research addresses such issues as timeliness of
distribution channels, the distribution options available ( and
whether traditions can be challenged) and the profitability of
various distribution methods.
Advertising is normally measured against four specific criteria:
impact, persuasion, message delivery and liking.

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