Quantitative Methods in Marketing Research

The course focuses on the quantitative methods in market and consumer

research (U&A, price test, brand image tracking, ad test, concept tests,

satisfaction studies, segmentation studies as well as observation studies).

The participants will learn how to plan, design and prepare a quantitative

study. They will work on various types of questionnaires and will choose

one that will be used in practice, analyzed and reported.

The course is thought as a workshop, during which participants will learn,

how to plan, prepare and conduct a quantitative market research – what

are their characteristic features, strengths and weaknesses, when to apply

which method etc. We will deal with various types of questionnaires:

- Short, ad hoc questionnaires

- More advanced, U&A studies

- Segmentation studies

- Price studies

- Satisfaction studies

- Need gaps analysis

- Testing products

- Testing concepts

Students will learn how to operationalize various types of studies, how to

develop questions and answer categories (cafeterias), and how to create

a proper flow of the questionnaire. We will also discuss issues connected

with the proper sample selection, as well as analytical issues.

Students will be divided into small teams, which will work on a set of

questionnaires, out of which they will choose one, that they will have to:

- Conduct on an agreed sample

- Create a database

- Conduct statistical analyses

- And present the results.

Seminar 1: Introduction: On marketing research (2 hrs)

What is marketing research? Why some companies do it, and some don’t?

What are the motives and barriers connected with marketing research?

What types of research are there – quantitative vs. quantitative? Which to

use when?

Homework: bringing examples of ‘visible’ marketing activities

Reading:

C. McDaniel, R. Gates, Marketing Research.

Chapters: 3. Problem Definition, Exploratory Research and the Research Process.

Seminar 2: Marketing research in practice: analysis of the selected case

studies (2 hrs)

Based on selected cases from the market we will discuss the key concepts

related with this area, such as: target group, sample, emotional and

functional brand image, price, shopper activation, effective display… We

will also look at various examples from the market, and discuss what kind

of studies can be used to put a given brand/ product a positive ‘kick.’

Reading:

R. Clifton (ed.), Brands and Branding.

Chapters: 1. Introduction, 2. What is a brand, 5. What makes brands great, 6. Brand strategy, 7. Brand

experience

Seminar 3-4: Types of quantitative research studies (2+2 hrs)

What types of quantitative research do we have at our disposal: syndicate

vs. dedicated studies; omnibus, U&A, segmentation, price studies, need

gaps, tracking, satisfaction studies, test products…

We will also discuss types of studies divided based on the method of

access to the respondent: face-to-face; telephone, online, post polls,

passive observation…

Homework: choosing a research type in order to address a given research

problem (preparing research offer)

Reading: M. R. Leary, Introduction to Behavioral Research Methods.

Chapters: 3. The Measurement of Behavior, 4. Approaches to Psychological Measurement

G. Fripp, Market Segmentation Study. Online: http://www.segmentationstudyguide.com/

Navigation bar, read the following areas: market segmentation, segmentation examples,

segmentation profiles, product positioning

Seminar 5: Planning research (2 hrs)

How to design a study? What are the key stages of a quantitative study?

How to make a step from the research question(s) to the questions in a

questionnaire? What types of scales are used in quantitative studies?

What is a plan of analyses, and when should it be made?

Homework: making a list of areas that need to be studied in order to

answer a given research question

Reading:

C. McDaniel, R. Gates, Marketing Research.

Chapters: 11. Using measurement, 12. Questionnaire Design

J.J. Shaughnessy, E.B. Zechmeister, J.S. Zechmeister, Research methods in psychology.

Chapters: 4 and 6

Seminar 6: Research sample (2 hrs)

How to choose a sample type for a given marketing problem? How to

define it? What is an ‘operate’?

What sample size is sufficient? What is statistical error?

Homework: choosing a sample for a given research problem

Reading:

M. R. Leary, Introduction to Behavioral Research Methods.

Chapters: 5. Selecting Research Participants, 6. Descriptive Research

C. McDaniel, R. Gates, Marketing Research.

Chapters: 13. Basic sampling decisions, 14. Sample size determination

Seminar 7-8: Questionnaire (2+2 hrs)

The whole seminar will be very practical. Based on the seminar 5

homework assignments we will work on questions for various research

topics, developing answer cafeterias etc.

We will discuss various mistakes often made in questionnaires, discuss

advantages and disadvantages of various questions types.

Homework: working on a set of questions for a questionnaire

Reading:

Online resources: http://www.fao.org/docrep/w3241e/w3241e05.htm

Chapter 4. Questionnaire Design

Seminar 9: Conducting an interview & creating database (2 hrs)

How does a quantitative interview look like in practice? How to prepare it?

What are the biggest challenges? How to cope with them?

The second part of the study will be focused on how to create a database

to make further analyses easier/ possible.

Homework: finalizing questionnaires, conducting interviews, creating

database

!!! For this seminar the participants should come with computers, with

SPSS (at least one program per a pair of students)

Reading:

online resource: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZlV_y9FQMY [30 minutes tutorial]

Seminar 10: New methods in marketing research: neuro

We will discuss the relatively new methods used in the marketing: based

on reaction times, tracking eye-movement, virtual shopper studies…

*This seminar is placed here in order to give students more time to finalize

their projects. In case of multiple questions regarding the projects, this

seminar will be ‘replaced’ by a consultation session.

Seminar 11-12: Analyzing and interpreting results (2+2 hrs)

In this class we will look at various types of results and will interpret them.

In the second part of the class we will conduct various types of analyses –

based on the data collected by students, and will discuss how these results

can be interpreted.

Homework: working on the projects, conducting analyses

Reading: Online resource – M.J. de Smith, Handbook of statistical analysis:

http://www.statsref.com/HTML/index.html?introduction.html

Chapters: 2. Statistical data, 4. Descriptive statistics, 7. Data exploration