Exam 5: Marketing Research and Information Systems

One common mistake in questionnaire construction is developing the questionnaire before objectives have been established.

Wendy Simmons is a marketing consultant for Top Research Inc., and often recommends ______ focus groups, which are more convenient for participants and enable a company to gather data from large and geographically diverse groups in a less intensive manner than traditional focus-group interviews.

Unethical behavior in the research process is not a major problem in the reporting of research findings.

The use of marketing research is

Why is it essential that a questionnaire be carefully designed and prepared? What problems can arise when a survey has not been well thought out?

The first step in launching a research study is problem or issue definition. The first sign of a problem is usually a departure from some normal function, such as a failure to attain objectives.

Participants in ____ frequently get to see pictures, products, advertising samples, and diagrams.

A research technique is said to be reliable if it produces almost identical results in successive repeated trials.

Which of the following survey methods has the potential to offer quick response at a lower cost than traditional mail and telephone surveys?

In quota sampling, all elements in a population have an equal chance of appearing in the sample.

According to the text, ____ interpretation focuses on what is typical or what deviates from the average.

Marketing research is a process designed to gather information

The two basic types of sampling that marketing researchers use are

Scenario 5.1 Use the following to answer the question. Because of the development of optical scanners and cable television, marketing researchers can now test the effectiveness of advertising more precisely. Volunteers in a minimum of six cities are offered food discounts in return for allowing marketing research firms to monitor grocery purchases and send trial commercials to their homes through cable television. The research subjects shop only at stores equipped with UPC scanners, and their purchases are identified by a special card. Respondents are also told that some of the commercials they see on cable television may differ from those seen by their neighbors. Buying patterns are then compared. For example, Kashi cereals tested a Crunchy Wheat promotion using this system. Half of the 5,000 participating homes in one city saw a commercial announcing the promotion; the other half saw a commercial that did not mention the promotion. Kashi used scanner data to evaluate the promotion's success and offered the commercials nationwide. Refer to Scenario 5.1. Kashi's testing of the Crunchy Wheat promotion is an example of

The second phase of international marketing research should involved a detailed search for and analysis of secondary data.

Primary data are best described as the

Hershey wants to know why sales of its new dark chocolate product is soaring in one country but not in another. After extensive research, Hershey believes the answer lies in demographic and cultural differences among the populations. It conducts in-depth research that asks consumers in each country about their ages, occupations, eating habits, as well as how often they purchase its chocolate bars. It uses statistical analysis and predictive tools to come up with strong conclusions. Although Hershey is fairly certain about its research, it realizes that it is still limited in providing evidence to definitively link demographic and cultural differences to being the cause of why sales differ so significantly among the two countries. Hershey has most likely conducted _________________ research.

If a marketing researcher is interested in observing group interaction during an informal, unstructured, and open-ended data collection process, he or she should use

Steve Ribbon is the owner of Windows & More, a company specializing in replacement windows, remodeling services, and siding. Steve is interested in determining the characteristics of individuals who would be most likely to need replacement windows and interested in remodeling services, such as siding, awnings, and sunroom additions. He would like to identify characteristics of potential consumers who would be most likely to spend the most and utilize their services. This information will be quite helpful to Windows & More as they make design changes to the store, select merchandise, create advertising messages, and determine what type of remodeling services to offer. Windows & More would like to identify the customers based on factors such as gender, age, marital status, age of home, and discretionary income. What type of research would be most appropriate for Windows & More to utilize?

One of the most overlooked sources of secondary data is the organization's own accounting records.