Chapter 3 - Field Research, Observation & Experimentation

Question 1

Types and Methods of observation

Answer 1

1) Structured - preconceived ideas what looking for & hypothesis/Unstructured
2) Disguised - dont know being observed (convert)/Undisguised - eye sensor (overt)
3) Natural- situation/Contrived - lab
4) Persona- person l/Mechanical - cookies
5) Participative/Non-participative 

Advantages 

- less respondent bias - cannot easily lie/distort, respondents who cannot be questions - infants/animals - pet food

Disadvantages 

- purely observational - respondents cannot explain their behaviour, ethical issues with disguised observation - don’t know watching

Question 2

Experimentation

Answer 2

• exploratory (no preconceived ideas), descriptive (describe reality but not explaining, often hypothesis - poor conclusions from correlation 3rd variable) or causal (explain reality), experimentation only way to prove causal relationships

• in pure science (dependent/indept isolated environment), social science, and marketing research

Question 3

Test Marketing - marketing research experiment

Answer 3

• test new offer (full launch limited geographic area- assume typical of the whole market) without risk/expense full launch 

• experiment using marketing mix variable as independent variables (price, advertising) to discover the effect on dependent variables like (sales), market share and profit
  1) Expensive (still big area)

  2) Slow (months)

  3) Low internal validity - pure science isolated but in this distortion by extraneous variables (weather, local economy, sabotage by competitors change own offers) 
4) Tips off competitors (copy product if more faith full scale launch)

  5) Limited number of good TM areas, good ones get ‘over-tested’ (everyone knows good areas)

  6) Failure can damage company morale (sales demotivated launch withdraw modify launch corrosive) & reputation with customers and channels (customers product keep changing annoy, shops give up shelf space to failure)
  1) Trial rate: what proportion of customers will try the offer (high trail low repeat, good communication, bad product

  2) Repeat rate: what proportion of those who try will buy again (low trial high repeat, good product, bad communication)

Question 4

‘Simulated supermarket’/ ‘Simulated test market’ Advantages & Disadvantages

Answer 4

• Volunteers exposed to (TV) different product advertising and promotion, then invited to shop in a simulated supermarket 

  Advantages
  
- good for getting trial rate, faster and cheaper than full test market, more laboratory-like conditions: greater internal validity than full test market, confidential, no damage to company by failure 

  BUT - Laboratory conditions: questionable external validity - valid outside in the real world (ask behave like in supermarkets, not own money, shown ads not see before)

Question 5

Mini Test Market/Controlled Test market Advantages & Disadvantages

Answer 5

• Like a full test market but with limited distribution/selected channels (create own shop, only few shops).
  
Advantages 
- good getting repeat rate (dont over time), faster cheaper (more controlled and smaller full test marker), better confidentiality than full test market (comp might not know), little damage to company by failures, more control conditions gives better internal validity than full test market

  BUT - still some vulnerability to extraneous variables (freak weather etc)


Question 6

Data & Information

Answer 6

• Market research initially produces raw DATA (surveys), no user unless ANALYSIS turn DATA into INFORMATION
  
- qualitative: use the subjective skills of the research - quantitive: important numbers quantitive techniques, ratios averages