Consumer Research

Learning Outcomes

Highlight the steps in the consumer research

process.
Emphasize on setting specific research
objectives as the first step in the design of a
consumer research project.
Appreciate the purposes and types of secondary
consumer research that is available for making
decisions or planning future consumer research.
Instill specific features and applications of
different research methods to be carried out in
consumer research studies.
Follow how each element of the consumer
research process adds to the overall outcome of
the research study.

Steps in Consumer Research

Process
Developing Research Objectives
Collecting & Evaluating Secondary Data
Designing Primary Research & Collecting Primary
Data
Analyzing the Data
Reporting Research Findings

Developing Research
Objectives
Is it to segment the market for HD Television Sets?
To find out consumer experiences about cellular
phone?
To determine what percentage of men use cologne?
For new ideas for products extensions or concept for
promotional campaigns (positioning or re-positing of a
product) then Qualitative study is undertaken
involving focus groups & one to one depth interviews
(consumer participants to highly trained interviewer
analyst who does analysis & presents research report.

If the purpose of the study is to find out how

many target consumers there in the population
(what percentage consumer) Who use a particular
products how frequently they use it (Usage
Pattern) comes under Quantitative study which
provides information to derive strategic insights
about how to better market a particular product
to the appropriate consumer segment.
Examples:
A jug of milk holds one gallon.
A painting is 14 inches wide and 12 inches long.
A baby weighs six pounds and five ounces.
A bag of broccoli crowns weighs four pounds.
A coffee mug holds 10 ounces.
John is six feet tall.

Purposes & Types of Secondary

Consumer Research for Decision
Making or Planning Future Consumer
Research

Secondary Data
(Existing information available for research
purposes & serves as a good starting point)
Internal Secondary Data
(Conducted within the company)
External Secondary Data
(Conducted for free or at a cost)

Internal Secondary Data

Previously collected in-house information gathered
for sales audit, customer service calls, Letter or
inquiry, via warranty cards from customers
Internal Secondary Data is used to compute
customer lifetime value profiles involves resource
needed to establish a relationship with the
customer, profits generated from individual sales
to each customer, the cost of handling customers
& their orders with expected duration of the
relationship

External Secondary Data

Newspapers
Books
Online Search Engines (ProQuest & Lexis Nexis
to assess New York Times & Wall Street
Journal)
Consumer Panels (Consumer paid for recording
their purchases &/ or media viewing habits in
dairies that are then combined with thousands
of households and analyzed by data providers
along with competitors brand

Designing Primary Research

Specific features & Applications of
Different Research Methods in
Consumer research

Qualitative Research
Depth Interviews
Focus Groups
Projective Techniques

Quantitative Research
Observational Research
Experimentation
Surveys

Qualitative
Research

Depth Interviews

one -on-one Interviews

Length is generally 30mins to an hour
Non Structured
Respondents are encouraged to talk free about
their activities,attitudes,interests,in addition to the
product category or brand under study
Such studies provide marketers with valuable ideas
about the product design or redesign & provide
insights for positioning/ repositioning the product
Depth interviews are preferred because of the
greater personal attention are more likely to reveal
private thoughts

Focus Groups
Consists of 8 to 10 respondents meet with a analyst for
a group discussion focused on a particular product or
product category according to research interest
Two hours to complete & usually conducted 3 times in
a day.
Respondents are encouraged to discuss their interests,
attitudes, reactions, motives, lifestyle, feelings about
the product or product category, usage experience
Focus groups are being preferred because it takes less
time overall to complete the study with having group
discussions generate a greater number of new ideas &
insights

Projective Techniques
In qualitative marketing research, projective
techniques explore associations with brands,
symbols, products, advertising, and images.
It explores peoples subconscious feelings,
beliefs, and desires.
Respondents project their feelings and beliefs
about other people or objects. In doing so, they
reveal feelings and beliefs about themselves.
With sensitive subjects, the technique works well.

Quantitative
Research

Observational Research
In-depth understanding of the relationship
between people & products is by watching them
in the process of buying and using products ( In
Stores, in malls, watching TV & home)
By watching people, observational researchers
gain a better understanding of what product
symbolize to a consumer and give insight into the
bond between people & products that is the
essence of brand loyalty
It is widely used to understand the buying &
consumption process

Experimentation
Its major application is test marketing
Conducted after conducting depth interviews, focus
groups and survey research because there is
realization by the marketing firm that it still needs to
secure additional real-world feedback for a new
product, service or marketing communications
program before it commits to full time marketing roll
out
Test marketing is about checking the actual response
of consumers to the marketing effort under actual
marketing conditions from which they can have an
idea about the response of the public as well over it

Surveys

Personal Interview Surveys

Telephone Interview Surveys
Mail Surveys
Email Surveys
Online Internet Based Surveys

How Element of the consumer research

process adds to the overall outcome of
the research study

If a researcher is asked to develop a

segmentation strategy for coffee, he or she would
be 1st collect secondary data. Then together with
marketing manager the researcher would specify
the parameters (i.e. define the sampling unit) of
the coffee market to be studied (e.g. instant,
decaffeinated or regular ground coffee drinkers)
A Qualitative study then applied to gather ideas
about the consumer needs, motivation,
perceptions, benefits sought & attitude towards
coffee drinking in general and towards specific
brands through focus groups in several areas of
various countries which will give us an idea about
product qualities & consumer preference

 Marketing manager then instruct the researcher

to conduct quantitative research to study in order
to find the percentage from the focus groups.
After refining the questionnaire of the research
design, a full scale quantitative survey would be
launch in order to project the findings to the total
population of coffee drinkers
The analysis should cluster consumers into
segments based on relevant life-style
characteristics and on attitudes, perceptions &
habits