Exam 9: Decision Support Systems and Marketing Research

The first step in the marketing research process is to plan the research design and gather primary data.

Discuss two advantages and two disadvantages of using secondary data.

A simple random sample is a carefully developed probability sample set up to ensure that every member of the population has an equal chance of being selected as part of the sample.

Callaway Golf Co. Callaway Golf Co. has long been a leader in women's golf equipment, but it wanted to expand its lead in this growing sector of the market. While Callaway's technical people knew what could be done with design, they did not know exactly what women wanted in their clubs. Callaway management decided what it needed to do was to bring the technicians and women golfer together. Beginning about three years ago Callaway sent a team of researchers, designers, and golf pros out to visit with 40 women golfers of various abilities in locations from California to Florida. In selecting the golfers to study Callaway decided to focus on women that were just beginning to play and experienced, competitive golfers that wanted to own the latest equipment. Callaway management felt that these two extreme groups of golfers had been overlooked by golf club manufacturers. Further, Callaway felt that if they could learn enough about these two groups they would also learn enough to serve the rest of the women golfer market. Basically the research team observed the women playing golf and listened to their comments and concerns. The information gathered by this research team was built into every aspect of the design of a new golf club, including the feel of the club, the length of the club shaft and size of the club head, and the weight of the club. When prototypes of the new clubs were completed they were sent to the women golfers to get their feedback. That feedback was then used to refine the club design. This process went on until the women said the new clubs worked. The entire process from original prototype to final product took a little less than one year. -Refer to Callaway Golf.The Internet would be an excellent means for Callaway Golf to conduct follow-up research because of all the following reasons,EXCEPT:

Mystery shoppers engage in a form of:

A small brewery has noticed a 20 percent decrease in the sale of its dark beer over the last three years.The company's owner wants to determine why the decline has occurred and how to reverse the trend.Once the owner has identified the problem as a consumer perception that dark beer is bitter and calorie-laden,its next step in the marketing research process should be to:

Questionnaires include three basic types of questions: open-ended,closed-ended,and scaled-response.

Martina was interested in how students perceive the health service provided by her university.To collect data on this issue,she interviewed the students in her evening class.Martina has used a random sampling procedure.

What is the last step of the marketing research process?

_____ specifies the research questions to be answered,how and when the data will be gathered,and how the data will be analyzed.

A marketing decision support system is an interactive,flexible computerized information system that bypasses information-processing specialists and gives managers access to useful information from their own desks.

Sav-More Supermarkets Observers of the supermarket industry see no letup in the use of checkout-counter-based target marketing. Sav-More supermarkets have installed an electronic marketing system in their stores. The system allows the stores to do more direct mail promotions by combining the current Sav-More's check cashing cards with the new Sav-More's Bonus Club frequent-shopper cards. The new system uses bar-code scanners and magnetic cards issued to shoppers to track all purchases. As with most customer databases, demographic information is gathered for subsequent offers to frequent-shopper club members, and psychographic information is tracked whenever customers use the magnetic strip cards to make purchases. Generally, marketing to these consumers achieves better results than free- standing insert (FSI) coupons. -Refer to Sav-More Supermarkets.The Sav-More management is continually provided with information to make better marketing decisions.These data are easily accessed and manipulated.This type of system is called a:

A researcher wants to determine what percentage of the population in the southeastern United States would use a mass transit system if it were well-maintained.He gets telephone books from every city with over 200,000 people in those states and selects the fifteenth name in the middle column on every hundredth page as his sample.He has made a _____ error.

The most popular technique for gathering primary data is by observation.

If a researcher wanted to look at responses to vacation home ownership questions as they relate to age and occupation of the respondent,the analysis approach he or she would use is:

A snowball sample is a type of probability sample.

_____ specialize in arranging interviews for data collection on a subcontract basis.They also conduct focus groups,mall intercepts,retail audits,and other data-collection services.

Telephone interviews offer:

All of the following are types of nonprobabilty samples EXCEPT:

What is marketing research? Name and briefly describe the three functional roles of marketing research.