Table Of Content

The Market Research Toolbox Fourth Edition 2 3 The Market Research Toolbox A Concise Guide for Beginners Fourth Edition Edward F. McQuarrie Santa Clara University 4 FOR INFORMATION: SAGE Publications, Inc. 2455 Teller Road Thousand Oaks, California 91320 E-mail: [email protected] SAGE Publications Ltd. 1 Oliver’s Yard 55 City Road London EC1Y 1SP United Kingdom SAGE Publications India Pvt. Ltd. B 1/I 1 Mohan Cooperative Industrial Area Mathura Road, New Delhi 110 044 India SAGE Publications Asia-Pacific Pte. Ltd. 3 Church Street #10-04 Samsung Hub Singapore 049483 Copyright © 2016 by SAGE Publications, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Printed in the United States of America. A catalog record of this book is available from the Library of Congress. ISBN 978-1-4522-9158-1 This book is printed on acid-free paper. Acquisitions Editor: Maggie Stanley Supervising eLearning Editor: Katie Bierach Editorial Assistant: Nicole Mangona Production Editor: Bennie Clark Allen Copy Editor: Terri Lee Paulsen Typesetter: C&M Digitals (P) Ltd. 5 Proofreader: Susan Schon Indexer: Wendy Allex Cover Designer: Scott Van Atta Marketing Manager: Liz Thornton 6 Contents Preface Part I: Introduction 1. Nature and Characteristics of Market Research 2. Planning for Market Research Part II: Archival Research 3. Secondary Research 4. Big Data Part III: Qualitative Research 5. Customer Visits 6. The Focus Group 7. Interview Design 8. Qualitative Sampling and Data Analysis Part IV: Quantitative Research 9. Survey Research 10. Questionnaire Design 11. Experimentation 12. Conjoint Analysis 13. Sampling for Quantitative Research 14. Quantitative Data Analysis Part V: The Big Picture 15. Combining Research Techniques Into Research Strategies 16. The Limits of Market Research Index About the Author 7 8 Preface This book is aimed at managers and business people. I assume that however accomplished in your own field—computer engineering, perhaps—and however experienced in business, you approach the topic of market research as a beginner. The aim, then, is an initial orientation, a guided tour of the topic—an overview. Until this book came along, the manager seeking such a briefing had few good options: (1) purchase a bona fide market research textbook, up to 1,000 pages in length, and try to extract what you need; (2) purchase a series of small volumes on specific market research techniques, aimed at specialists and often written at an advanced level, and try to integrate these accounts on your own; (3) put your faith in a consultant and their research technique of choice; or (4) wing it. The goal, then, is a thin volume intended to provide an overview to the interested reader seeking a place to begin. My assumption is that you need to get your bearings (What is conjoint analysis anyway?), or maybe to conduct some market research (Would a focus group make sense here?), or perhaps to interpret a market research effort that someone else has championed (Can I trust the results of this survey?). I want to emphasize that this book is written primarily for decision makers. In tone, manner, and approach, the envisioned reader is a manager who has to decide whether to do market research, what objectives to pursue, and what specific kind of research to implement. This is not a standard textbook, as a glance through the pages will make clear: it lacks the boxed inserts, the snazzy graphics, and the chunking of text into bite-size morsels expected in that marketplace. And as will soon be apparent, it doesn’t read like a textbook: the tone is direct and the style more oral than written. Instead, the treatment strives to be concrete and specific: Do this. Don’t do that. Watch out for this problem. Try this solution. The guiding idea is that managers are impatient people subject to conflicting demands who must act now. This book offers a practical approach addressed to their needs. On the other hand, the book has been used successfully for many years at diverse educational levels, often as a supplemental reading, and this fourth edition includes a number of 9 adaptations to address its use in a classroom (see “Note on Pedagogy,” below). In my view, because of its intended focus on adult learners, it is best adapted to an MBA course aimed at working professionals, or to similarly targeted Executive Education offerings. The instructional materials that accompany the book assume an MBA class setting and further assume that the book will be combined with other readings and with Harvard-style cases. The book has also been used at the undergraduate level, but here the instructor should have a definite reason for not adopting a conventional market research textbook (i.e., distaste for that style or the typical topic coverage), and a plan to supplement this book with other material. Whatever the level, the more the class consists of adult learners with some business experience the more successful this book is likely to be. In this fourth edition I have tried to keep these two audiences clearly in mind, labeling certain content as aimed at the one or the other, and incorporating some pedagogical material into the text, so that the nonstudent reader can grapple with it if he or she chooses to do so. This book is distinctive in one other way: It focuses on business-to-business and technology examples. Modern market research as we know it was pioneered in the early middle of the 20th century to meet the needs of companies like Procter & Gamble, Quaker Oats, and Ralston Purina. Soap, cereal, pet food, and the like continue to be prominent among the examples and illustrations used to teach market research in the typical university course. This is entirely appropriate for textbooks aimed at a broad audience because consumer packaged- goods companies continue to spend large sums on market research and to provide many of the career opportunities in market research. However, living in California’s Silicon Valley, my experience base is different. The research problems with which I am familiar preoccupy companies like Hewlett-Packard, Apple Computer, Cisco, and Oracle. Markets may be small and concentrated, products are often complex and expensive, customer expenditures are driven by the need to solve real business problems, and technologies are dynamic and rapidly changing. Although much of the accumulated wisdom of market research is just as relevant to Hewlett-Packard as to Procter & Gamble, I have found it has to be taught differently. The readers I have in mind are impatient with examples based on the marketing of soap. They don’t want to have to make the translation from mass markets, simple products, and stable technologies to their own rather different situation. If you fall within the core audience for this book, then you are a beginner and not a specialist. One of the important contributions of the book is to direct you to further reading. There 10