Our industry commonly accepts as a given that shoppers take a journey as they come to make a purchase decision. This paper will contradict that belief, suggesting that while a path to purchase may be useful from a marketing research perspective, its utility for marketing researchers is at best limited. The paper will discuss why this concept is not useful for researchers and what we researchers should be worried about instead.
Our industry commonly accepts as a given that shoppers take a journey as they come to make a purchase decision. This presentation will contradict that belief, suggesting that while a path to purchase may be useful from a marketing research perspective, its utility for marketing researchers is at best limited. The presentation will discuss why this concept is not useful for researchers and what we researchers should be worried about instead.
How big is Big Data to the marketing research industry? We haven't seen this much zealotry and paranoia since Internet interviewing was first proposed or since FIFA abandoned the Golden Goal. As it turns out, Big Data is not such a big deal. We are worrying way too much about what it is, what it means, how to work with it, and who's going to do it. In this paper, we'll explain why Big Data is not such a big deal, why you shouldn't worry so much, and why you'll be just fine in the future.
How big is Big Data to the marketing research industry? We haven't seen this much zealotry and paranoia since Internet interviewing was first proposed or since FIFA abandoned the Golden Goal. As it turns out, Big Data is not such a big deal. We are worrying way too much about what it is, what it means, how to work with it, and whos going to do it. In this paper, we'll explain why Big Data is not such a big deal, why you shouldn't worry so much, and why you'll be just fine in the future.
Marketing Research is embroiled in an attempted coup d'etat, where many of the old values of a scientific discipline are being shed in favor of the exciting new possibilities of a Web 2.0 world. This paper suggests that it is not yet time to abandon science; there remains a fundamental need for going beyond observational research to gain a deeper understanding of our brands and our research methods. We argue that there are many frontiers remaining to be understood (advertising, branding, category management, etc.) and that our science is better served by solving our existing problems than by looking for new ones.
In this paper the genesis of category management and the research techniques that have been applied against this area are considered. We generally find a disconnect between the application of findings from traditional research to category management solutions. The reason for this lack of cohesion stems from the misapplication of current technologies and, often, an overly simplistic view of the mapping of consumer attitudes and opinions to category management solutions.Virtual reality shopping techniques are discussed as a time and cost efficient method of determining whether a category management solution produces the end goal - more sales for the manufacturer and more sales for the retailer.
This paper describes recent attempts to use virtual reality components for improving the generation and presentation of experimentally varied tasks in discrete choice analyses. These tasks, particularly in consumer purchase situations, have historically shown a notorious lack of realism for the consumer, with obvious disadvantages for an accurate understanding of purchase behavior. Virtual shopping systems, on the other hand, offer intriguing opportunities for a flexible generation and realistic presentation of consumer choices within typical retail environments and product categories. A recently completed research study of consumer purchases of baby napkins is used to demonstrate the advantages of this approach.
The practice of marketing research is moving towards an emphasis on consumer behaviour as compared to consumer attitudes, impressions, needs, wants, and so forth. This paper discusses problems with typical methods of collecting and analyzing behavioural data and provides a custom research solution to these problems. The Visionary Shopper research system allows us to extend our understanding of the consumer through a virtual reality trip to the store, where we, the researchers, control the retail environment. We can vary such factors as pricing, promotions, packaging, and shelf sets and assortments and examine the consumer's purchasing behaviour under these controlled experimental conditions.
Marketing researchers are constantly attuned to the methodology of data collection, understanding this facet of research on a number of dimensions: collection procedure validity, demand characteristics, length of field execution, and research cost. Todays marketing efforts require researchers to operate faster, better, and at a lower cost than we do now. MarketWare has commercialized a technology for collecting consumer purchasing data which addresses the issues of speed, validity, and expense. Using a virtual reality computer simulation, the Visionary Shopper® research service puts consumers in a laboratory type setting where consumers are asked to shop as they would normally on a 3-dimensional virtual reality computer system. Consumers can maneuver around store shelves, pick up, examine, and purchase products. The computer system automatically records what they choose to pick up and look at and what they choose to buy. This technology has been used in many parts of the world to investigate the impact of pricing, promotion, packaging, shelf set, and shelf assortment on consumer purchasing behavior. As a simulation, Visionary Shopper provides the consumer with the ability to realistically interact with realistic products in a familiar context. The system is predictive, in that it relies on measures of consumer behavior (not intent) and does not require back data or norms to have the data be understood. Compared to in-market tests, the system is fast (usually 03-Apr weeks per test), flexible (changes are to a computer program, not a store), and relatively inexpensive. The system is confidential, both to the client, who does not expose marketing strategies to the world, and to the respondent, who interacts with a computer rather than an interviewer, avoiding demand characteristics This paper will discuss virtual reality in relation to marketing research, specifically the Visionary Shopper system, presenting its advantages and comparing its use to other technologies.