BMGT451 Consumer Analysis Notes Market Research Methods for Conducting Consumer Research Why should firms conduct research with consumers Find out where consumers are Where they use media Where they spend their time Intuition trap you think you know what consumers want but only so much Why would you use product Not just a number scale also use what the consumers are thinking Look at the underlying motivations Exploratory methods Used to identify important variables o Interviews and focus groups o Observation and projective techniques o Qualitative data not quantitative something that you cant sum up o Open ended questions on exams Confirmatory methods Used to quantify relationships among variables o Surveys o Experiments Participants are randomly assigned to conditions Manipulate one or more independent variables to measure the effect on one or more dependent variables Independent Product features Package color Advertising Brand name Adding a sixth feature to a product is independent more favorable attributes Dependent A result you can measure Consumer attitudes Repeat purchases How much people are willing to pay Learning Direct methods Ask consumers to answer explicit questions o Interviews and focus groups o Surveys All respondents are asked the same questions in the same order Mail Online Mall intercept Telephone Cost Immediacy Response rate Potential for bias During administration Sample selection Face to face makes it more honest will maybe take out potential for bias Sample selection difference between telephones and those who didn t most people who had telephones were republicans and everyone else voted for Truman o Survey Question Order R is correlation Positive answer on first would bring a positive answer on the second In the second box being asked your marriage first then about your life brings 2 positive answers Specific question should come first Indirect methods Require researchers to infer consumers attitudes o Observation and projective techniques o Experiments Start by using exploratory then lead into confirmatory research Interviews One to one conversation between interviewer and respondent Questions are not pre specified Avoid influencing responses Have to be flexible when you are interviewing go with the flow during an interview Focus Groups o Could miss out on other exploratory variables o Avoid leading questions you think their food is good right o Instead ask what do you think about their food Group dynamics Prescreen questionnaire usually pick by demographics if you fit the target market of the product May be getting paid benefits Idea generation Individual interview ideas pooled together can produce more ideas than using a focus group may feel more productive Snowballing o Someone says something someone else builds on it Want to get people in the same target market together Pros Easier to manage less expensive maintain anonymous Cons Don t get the face to face factor Observation Recording purchases o Sales data Tracking Internet usage Observing behavior while consumers are shopping or using products Zaltman s Metaphor Elicitation Technique ZMET Storytelling Identify concepts sensory metaphors Participants collect images from magazines catalogs family albums Create collages using digital imaging Theory that uses more images than words Losing something in describing photos in words lost in the translation so it allows them to use pictures Base storytelling on the photos they picked to describe company brand Things to include in a survey Move from general to specific o Ask interesting involving questions first o Ask threatening questions and demographic questions last Be sure each question is needed and that questions are sufficient to generate Use consistent numerical response scales with one word at each endpoint the needed information e g disagree and agree Consider an open ended format for frequency questions o How many hours day do you watch TV hours day Don t ask questions you already have the answers to