Exam 5: Managing Marketing Information to Gain Customer Insights

Jason West, owner of A-1 Cleaning, began his enterprise in 2001. Jason's primary focus had been on office cleaning for large corporations. But in recent months Jason has seen a decline in demand for office cleaning. Surprisingly, the competitive environment appears relatively stable with no new competitors. However, Jason understands that office cleaning is a high-frequency service that is usually performed daily; therefore, competitors must be doing something to attract his customers. Building a competitive advantage seems to be the only option to offset competition. But as Jason pondered his dilemma, he realized that he needed to better understand how customers assess service quality and what they are looking for in a superior cleaning service before he could build his competitive advantage. Jason developed a research plan. First, he gathered competitor information—primarily through pamphlets, but also from a few phone calls—to find out exactly what competitors offer in their cleaning packages. In addition, Jason obtained from the area Chamber of Commerce an updated list of local corporations to which he would send a short survey. Though the list of corporations contained 141 local company names, Jason chose to survey 75 of them. To better understand customer service expectations in both small and large corporations, Jason divided his surveys into two categories. The survey questions were designed to extract specific data from respondents with regard to service quality expectations in correlation to service frequency and price. Jason awaited the results. Though his primary focus had been on large corporations, he was flexible and would aim his efforts differently if needed. -How might Jason assure ethical conduct toward his respondents?

Why is it difficult to obtain relevant and reliable secondary data when conducting international marketing research?

Competitor intelligence can be collected ________.

ABC Company has decided to use mail questionnaires to collect data. Management recognizes this method has the following advantage.

To create value for customers and build meaningful relationships with them, marketers must ultimately ________.

Marketing intelligence can help ________ to gain insights into how customers talk about and connect with their brand.

Your colleagues are confused about using the marketing research process, as they know that something is wrong but are not sure of the specific causes to investigate. They seem to be having problems with ________, which is often the hardest step to take.

________ is the systematic design, collection, analysis, and reporting of data relevant to a specific marketing situation facing an organization.

Identify ways that a researcher should evaluate secondary data.

Which of the following statements regarding marketing intelligence is true?

Provide the advantages/benefits of each of the contact methods.

Discuss several ways in which smaller organizations can use marketing research techniques at little or no expense.

Which of the following has the highest rating for speed of data collection and compilation?

The availability of which of the following is most problematic in international marketing research?

Which contact method for marketing research is flexible, allows for explanation of difficult questions, and lends itself to showing products and advertisements?

Videoconferencing and Internet technology have changed how focus group interviews can be observed.

What type of research would be best suited for identifying which demographic groups prefer diet soft drinks and why they have this preference?

You have been asked to locate secondary data for your small organization's research needs. Which of the following is a common source for this type of research?

Once the research problems and objectives have been defined, researchers must first determine the exact information needed and then present that information to management.

The real value of a company's marketing research and information system lies in the ________.