Marketing Research for Managers

Sunny Crouch, Matthew Housden

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2012
• ISBN:
  9781136379666
• Edition: 3
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Business General
• Index: Business

The purpose of Marketing Research for Managers is to enable managers to become more informed research users and buyers. The more managers know about how marketing research works, the more effective they can be in using it as a management tool. This new edition of the text includes: * The development of the "knowledge economy"
* Analysis of customer relationship management
* Comprehensive discussion of electronic techniques
* New and updated case studies and examples

1	Introducing marketing research

1.1	Introduction
1.2	Who needs marketing research?
1.3	Who should read this book?
1.4	What does the book cover?
1.5	Using this book

1.1 Introduction

Politicians look anxiously at the results of political polls, as they indicate the standing of the party in the country and the standing of its leader. They show what issues are most significant to the electorate and which seats are most likely to be marginal at the next election. Focus group politics has reached such an extent that politicians react to the results of polls by putting extra effort into areas of the country that are marginal, i.e. where additional effort to market the attractions of the party are more likely to pay off. When the polls say the leader is unpopular, pressure is put on the leader to change stance so as to become more popular; when negative reaction to a leader is strong and sustained, the party thinks of appointing a new one; which issues to push as the main planks of the party's electoral platform are also influenced or even determined by the polls. There is no point in strongly pursuing issues about which the electorate is unconcerned – that is not the most effective way to win votes.

In a rare display of humility one of the world's best known companies admitted to making a big mistake when it unveiled a secret weapon to take on the UK's supermarket chains. McDonald's, the hamburger chain that brought the world the Big Mac, thought it had another winner when it announced the new product to its expectant staff.

Enter the McPloughmans, a cheese, pickle and salad sandwich. A spokesman told the conference that the McPloughmans was designed to compete with supermarkets in the cold sandwich market. Instead of applauding this marketing innovation however, staff were unimpressed. Mr Preston admitted: ‘If we had done our homework we would have found that our customers didn't want the product and our staff were embarrassed even to have to say McPloughmans let alone to have to sell it to our customers.’

In a masterly piece of understatement he added that if the company had carried out market research ‘We would have found that this was not a highly desirable product.’

When it did a survey of customer attitudes it found even more shocks in store. ‘Customers’, he said ‘told McDonald's they were loud, brash, American, successful, complacent, uncaring, insensitive, disciplinarian, insincere, suspicious and arrogant.’ He said, ‘We thought we knew about service. Get the order in the customer's hands in 60 seconds – that was service. Not according to our customers. They wanted warmth, helpfulness, time to think, friendliness and advice. What they told us we were giving was horrifying. What we had failed to see was that our customers were now veterans in the quick service market and their expectations had gone through the roof.’ The McPloughmans market test was restricted to central London and short-lived. Only now, more than three years after the sandwich debacle and the first customer survey, has the company felt confident enough to reveal the episode.

The spokesman said the research had been a turning point for McDonald's in the UK, which had led to a radical change in its business approach. Rather than relying on gut feeling that it knew what customers wanted, the company had developed a fact-based approach to planning.

Financial Times

Coke's World Cup tactics

In the 1998 World Cup, Coke produced just one global ad called ‘For the fans’ by Wieden and Kennedy. Although it is using a re-edited version of that ad this time round, it is augmenting it with around 25 commercials specifically tailored to local markets.

‘We simply haven't been this diverse before,’ says Nastia Orkina, who as group marketing services manager is responsible for coordinating Coca-Cola's pan-European World Cup efforts. ‘Previously it's been a big event advertisement and some vertical stuff. McCann–Erickson in the US would probably have done everything. But this time the national ads have been created after researching local attitudes to the World Cup around the world. . . .

Football fans have changed. Compared with just 12 years ago global audiences are far more sophisticated. They are far more likely to include women and children and fans are far more likely to have travelled abroad, appreciating the cross-cultural power of the tournament. Brand advertising must reflect this. . . .

Coca-Cola's management also believes that local marketers, frustrated for so long by Atlanta's “one-size-fits-all” outlook have been liberated by the approach and are becoming much more productive. . . .’

In a world of diversity, and increasing distrust of US cultural hegemony, one suspects the soft drinks giant has finally got its football strategy right.

And whoever brings home the Jules Rimet trophy, it is likely that a certain team in red and white will be celebrating.

Marketing Week

New Brand of the Year winner: Shell UK Oil Products

Fierce price competition between supermarkets and reducing marketing support from the major petroleum corporations have led many motorists to view petrol as a commodity.

In response, Shell made use of market research that identified several different customer segments to create Shell Optimax. Launched last year, it targeted real drivers willing to pay a premium for a fuel offering extra performance and engine protection.

With the technical task of product development, came the need to re-engage customers emotionally. Optimax was given a £5m budget, with the advertising's innovative fish theme rigorously adopted in all through the line communications.

By the end of 2002 Shell Optimax will have been rolled out to all 11,000 Shell service stations. It has met and exceeded all its targets, including winning new customers, upgrading existing customers, and improving margins. The payback period of 15 months was achieved in eight.

The Marketing Society Awards 2002

Customer Insight winner: Walkers Snack Products

Walkers’ dilemma was how to meet a 7% sales growth target in a mature and static snacks market.

An extensive segmentation study established that the ‘snacking occasion’ was the biggest factor in determining what was bought. The biggest was in-home evening snacking where Walkers was underrepresented.

Doritos Dippas was an existing product that had enjoyed only modest success, but seemed to fit this brief perfectly. It was different from daytime snacks, a bit of a treat and adult oriented.

Qualitative research then identified the most motivating positioning as a ‘chill out’ snack to share with friends after a hard day's work. So was born ‘Friendchips’.

Advertising ran from April 26 to May 26. In the immediate aftermath sales of Dippas Big Bags rose 76% year on year. Thanks to the halo effect, total sales of Doritos rose 13.2%, contributing almost 40% of the required uplift in sales across all brands.

The strategy was copied in other markets, including Belgium, Holland and Spain.

The Marketing Society Awards 2002

Shoppers shun shoddy websites

Badly designed websites are damaging the prospects of firms doing business via the web.

Research carried out by Abbey National has revealed that when people have one bad experience online they tend to regard all websites the same way.

It suggests that websites that take too long to load, are hard to navigate, bombard consumers with pop-up adverts and force them to register to get access to services could be stunting the growth of e-commerce in the UK.

Instead customers prefer websites that have a consistent look, are easy to navigate and do not try to cram too much information on one page.

Website woe

A seven month research project by Abbey National and market analysis firm Taylor Nelson Sofres has revealed that companies have only 20 seconds to grab the attention of web shoppers.

During that 20 seconds, consumers must be able to see a page that has almost loaded, that is relevant to their needs and looks easy to navigate. If it does none of these consumers will look elsewhere. . . .

Internal research by Abbey National has shown that web customers are 57% more profitable than the average customer and have 50% more products such as loans, than those who avoid the Internet. Now 20% of the Abbey National's personal loan business comes via the web.

‘It's got real critical mass and has a real impact on the cost of the cost base of the whole organisation’, . . . Abbey National has rebuilt its website around many of the principles revealed in the research project.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_1842000/1842142.stm

Victor won't believe it – how young Meldrews are now

Britain's ‘grumpy old sods’ have got younger, according to a poll of social attitudes which nails the middle-aged as the nation's new champion grumps and complainers.

Years of relentless grind in the country with Europe's longest working hours has soured the 35–54-year-olds into ‘premature pensioners’, claims the MORI Social Research Institute, which labels them as ‘consistently cross and fed up’.

Christening them the ‘Meldrews’, after Victor in the television series One Foot in the Grave, MORI says that the middle-aged have learned to grumble early partly because their seniors are enjoying a relatively good life. Over-55s are generally looking forward to decent pensions, while the middle-aged fear that theirs will be worth less than they had been led to believe.

Rising house prices are also seen as ruling out hopes of a comfortable retirement move, while the media's traditional portrayal of the world as completely disastrous is now accessible and round the clock.

‘The 35s–54s are of prime working age in the most over-worked nation in Europe, bearing the brunt of commuting on ever more congested roads or using public transport that is still a byword for failure’, says the report. ‘There is rising dissatisfaction, made worse by the feeling that things used to be more challenging and interesting when they were younger.’

Some of those in the category are already adopting Meldrew as their icon, including the Rev Chris Morris of Rawdon, Leeds, whose parish magazine describes his ‘holiday in hell among fractious, nasty and downright vulgar’ younger revellers at Disneyland Paris. ‘As I walked round in my Victor Meldrew T-shirt, featuring a mugshot of Victor with the caption Miserable Sod, I was astounded at the rudeness of the crowds.’

The survey finds the Meldrews are undeferential and unwilling to trust ‘those in char...

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Foreword
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• 1 Introducing marketing research
• 2 Getting started
• 3 Marketing research begins at home
• 4 ‘Off-the-peg’ research
• 5 ‘Made-to-measure’ research
• 6 How are the data collected?
• 7 Who provides the information?
• 8 How do you ask the questions?
• 9 Who asks the questions?
• 10 What happens to the answers?
• 11 How do you buy good research?
• 12 Using research in experiments
• 13 Using research in business-to-business and industrial markets
• 14 Using research in online markets
• 15 Using research in international markets
• 16 Using research in marketing decision making
• 17 Where do you go from here?
• Index