Week 8
Week 8
Dan Cushing
3/11/2018
Over the past week, we were introduced to several concepts revolving around the idea of customer discovery. First we can look at the Marketing Research Process. This is a three step process utilized by a firm to solve problems with the assistance of collected data. The first step is to determine what the problem is. To do this, the firm will collect information through either primary or secondary research. These two collection methods will be discussed in a later paragraph. Next, the firm will analyze the gathered information. A common method to do this is through cross tabulation, which refers to the comparison between gathered data responses and additional responses from other questions. The third step to this is to report the findings from the research. By doing this, the firm will also present the best solution to the problem available. Relating this back to my AP Statistics class, we can look at the mathematical side of this concept. My partner and tested air resistances of different papers. We conducted an experiment by essentially making paper helicopters out of four different paper types. This is our data collection. Next, we analyzed the information gathered through several statistical tests. While this is not directly the same as the Marketing Research Process, we can see the association through the two as they are strongly linked together.
As mentioned in the previous paragraph, there are two types of research, primary and secondary. Primary refers to research that is collected for the first time and is used specifically for that investigation. The four types of primary research are: survey, observational, ethnographic, and experiments. Survey research occurs when a researcher interacts with people in order to obtain facts, opinions, and attitudes. The three types of survey questions are open-ended questions, close-ended questions, and scale-response questions. Observational research refers to customers being watched in order to see how employees treat them. Examples of this include mystery shoppers and focus groups. Ethnographic research is the study of human behavior in its natural context. This also usually involves observing behavior in a physical setting. Finally, Experimentation is when one or more variables is altered in order to observe their effects on another fixed variable. Secondary refers to information that has already been collected and is now being used for this investigation. For my smart project team, HydroFit, we will likely be employing both primary data (survey) and secondary data in order to determine the market potential for us which will then translate to being the target market.
A third concept to discuss is the idea of marketing research. This refers to the process of planning, collecting, and analyzing data relevant to an impending marketing decision. Two common explanations for why a firm will do this is to create quality decision making and to trace problems within the firm. Quality decision making involves decision making revolving around cutting prices, advertising budgets, and customer service. When tracing problems, a firm will look at several different areas that could threaten the long term success of the company. They will do this by researching about competitors in the market place, the explosive growth of online stores, and their current loyal customer base. When the firm analyzes the market, they are actually conducting research on three distinct markets. The total available market (TAM) refers to every single person who could possibly have a use for their product. Next is the service available market (SAM), this refers to the total number of people who can be reached through the firm's distribution channels. Lastly is the target obtainable market (TOM) or simply target market. The target market refers to the market of customers who will be most likely to purchase the product. There are often several similarities about the customers within this market such as age, career, regions, ect.
Something I would like to learn more about is how to create a survey that does not create bias in answer choices but rather results in accurate depictions of the general public.
Dan Cushing
3/11/2018
Over the past week, we were introduced to several concepts revolving around the idea of customer discovery. First we can look at the Marketing Research Process. This is a three step process utilized by a firm to solve problems with the assistance of collected data. The first step is to determine what the problem is. To do this, the firm will collect information through either primary or secondary research. These two collection methods will be discussed in a later paragraph. Next, the firm will analyze the gathered information. A common method to do this is through cross tabulation, which refers to the comparison between gathered data responses and additional responses from other questions. The third step to this is to report the findings from the research. By doing this, the firm will also present the best solution to the problem available. Relating this back to my AP Statistics class, we can look at the mathematical side of this concept. My partner and tested air resistances of different papers. We conducted an experiment by essentially making paper helicopters out of four different paper types. This is our data collection. Next, we analyzed the information gathered through several statistical tests. While this is not directly the same as the Marketing Research Process, we can see the association through the two as they are strongly linked together.
As mentioned in the previous paragraph, there are two types of research, primary and secondary. Primary refers to research that is collected for the first time and is used specifically for that investigation. The four types of primary research are: survey, observational, ethnographic, and experiments. Survey research occurs when a researcher interacts with people in order to obtain facts, opinions, and attitudes. The three types of survey questions are open-ended questions, close-ended questions, and scale-response questions. Observational research refers to customers being watched in order to see how employees treat them. Examples of this include mystery shoppers and focus groups. Ethnographic research is the study of human behavior in its natural context. This also usually involves observing behavior in a physical setting. Finally, Experimentation is when one or more variables is altered in order to observe their effects on another fixed variable. Secondary refers to information that has already been collected and is now being used for this investigation. For my smart project team, HydroFit, we will likely be employing both primary data (survey) and secondary data in order to determine the market potential for us which will then translate to being the target market.
A third concept to discuss is the idea of marketing research. This refers to the process of planning, collecting, and analyzing data relevant to an impending marketing decision. Two common explanations for why a firm will do this is to create quality decision making and to trace problems within the firm. Quality decision making involves decision making revolving around cutting prices, advertising budgets, and customer service. When tracing problems, a firm will look at several different areas that could threaten the long term success of the company. They will do this by researching about competitors in the market place, the explosive growth of online stores, and their current loyal customer base. When the firm analyzes the market, they are actually conducting research on three distinct markets. The total available market (TAM) refers to every single person who could possibly have a use for their product. Next is the service available market (SAM), this refers to the total number of people who can be reached through the firm's distribution channels. Lastly is the target obtainable market (TOM) or simply target market. The target market refers to the market of customers who will be most likely to purchase the product. There are often several similarities about the customers within this market such as age, career, regions, ect.
Something I would like to learn more about is how to create a survey that does not create bias in answer choices but rather results in accurate depictions of the general public.
Comments
Post a Comment