A chapter such as this can only scratch the surface in terms of informing the reader what techniques are available, what they do, how they do it, and what are the pitfalls, so it must be seen as purely introductory. Nevertheless, it attempts to introduce the subject in as undemanding a way as possible, using verbal rather than mathematical descriptions of the techniques wherever possible. Complex mathematical descriptions are, we hope, kept to a minimum. Multivariate analysis is broadly concerned with the relationships between a set of variables. How similar are they? Are they correlated? Can they be summarised effectively? Are they predictive of outcomes in any sense? Are there groups of respondents with similar behavioural or attitudinal patterns as measured by these variables? Multivariate techniques attempt to answer questions such as these.
Trade research is a collective term for a series of specially developed techniques serving the needs and objectives of marketing management at the various stages of the distribution network. Just as the elementary methods of consumer research have been adapted and improved to gear them more specifically to particular problems, so the basic techniques of research among the distributive trades have been refined from the original to meet current demands. This chapter deals with the basic techniques and illustrates a few of the applications and developments that have occurred. It makes no attempt to be comprehensive. Of all the expenditure on trade research, by far the most is spent on retail and wholesale audits; the remainder is probably divided evenly between distribution checks and ad hoc research at the point of sale, in particular surveys among the retail trade. Almost inevitably, therefore, the emphasis in this chapter will be upon trade audits.
This chapter concentrates upon research to measure television audiences in relation to the use of television as an advertising medium. The general principles of audience research discussed here also apply to the measurement of programme audiences and television in its public service role. The choice of research methods is affected by the way in which advertising is presented in the medium and the way in which advertising time is bought and sold.
This chapter is still concerned with occasions when the standard forms of interviewing are inappropriate, though before a fourth edition of this work appears it seems likely that such a definition will need revision. In general terms three situations call for the use of techniques other than standard interviewing. The first of these is when those to be interviewed are, widely scattered or otherwise difficult (and expensive) to contact, or when a large number of interviews are required in a very short space of time. It involves the use of: (a) telephone surveys; or (b) mail surveys.
In this chapter, the emphasis will be on the analysis and interpretation aspects of statistics dealing mainly with simple descriptive measures calculated from survey data and the testing of hypotheses about those data. The more advanced statistical techniques used for interpreting market research data will be covered in chapter 13. The techniques and significance tests described below are those which have been found most useful in interpreting survey tabulations. This is not an exhaustive list, by any means, and the reader who wishes to know more about statistical analysis in market research may consult the texts given in the references at the end of the book.
The purpose of this chapter is to provide an outline of some prominent issues in the area. There is particular emphasis upon marketing considerations and applications. The marketing man can be faced nowadays with bewildering volumes of data, gathered from mammoth surveys, and analysed by highly abstruse techniques. There is a danger of both marketing people and researchers becoming lost in a forest of complexity. In the present chapter it is hoped to illustrate how even the most sophisticated techniques can have clear and practical applications for both long-term planning and day-to-day decisions. Given the generality of the segmentation concept, some of the points discussed below are also dealt with elsewhere in the book, usually in greater detail.
This chapter sets out to explain the concepts behind the use of sampling in market research. It outlines some of the main options available to the survey designer and discusses the way sampling is carried out in practice. More complex topics are only introduced, with recommendations for more detailed reading. If at the end you are still not sure that you understand sampling, you are recommended to read the clear exposition by Ehrenberg; if you want practical advice on how to draw a random sample, try the chapter by Hedges; and if you want to follow the subject through in detail, go first to Kish.
This chapter deals with the contribution of research, both in the planning and evaluation, of below the line activity. Any definition of below the line assumes a false dichotomy since many promotions are dependent on media advertising. This would be so, for example, when reduced offers are backed by national press advertising. In the current context below the line expenditure is defined to include the following, whether or not they are supported by media advertising: (a) any in-store promotional activity to the consumer such as premium offers, reduced price offers, stamps and coupons, competitions and banded packs; (b) any trade incentives or discounts to the retailer; (c) all display material whether in support of specific promotions or not; (d) any point-of-scale aids such as leaflets, brochures, store demonstrations; (e) any direct promotion to the consumer such as couponing or free samples. Expenditure on items such as sales force incentive schemes and sponsorships is excluded for the purpose of this chapter.
It would be convenient, not only for the purposes of this chapter but also for marketing companies generally, if new products were developed by a logical step-by-step approach by surmounting a succession of hurdles which remained constant from product to product, so that new product development could be learned by rote. The facts, of course, are quite the opposite. The majority of new products are developed by a series of fairly unordered steps, the order and the degree of attention paid to each varying from company to company and from project to project. There are many reasons for this lack of formality. Principal amongst these are: (a) the large contribution which is undoubtedly made by sheer creativity to most new products which have much chance of success; (b) the interaction of all the elements in the total marketing mix (product, price, pack, name, advertising, etc.); (c) the cost and time-scale pressures which are ever-present in most competitive situations.
The attention of the media researcher is not unnaturally concentrated on the two main advertising media. Relatively little attention is given in the UK to the cinema, radio and posters as subjects for audience research, and the reasons are not hard to find. In UK advertising expenditure terms they are minor media
This chapter is mainly concerned with the design of structured questionnaires for use in face-to-face interviews. It does not deal with the development of guides for depth interviewing nor with the problems of questionnaires for special populations, such as retailers or professional investors, since these are covered in other chapters.
Qualitative research is usually exploratory or diagnostic. It involves small numbers of people who are not sampled on a probabilistic basis. They may. however, be selected to represent different categories of people from a given target market or section of the community. In qualitative research no attempt is made to draw hard and fast conclusions. Motivation or motivational research is not synonymous with qualitative research. Very often, motives are sought and explored by qualitative techniques, but these techniques are used for a wide range of purposes other than being concerned with motives.