CB: Session 2 Market Research and Consumer Behaviour

Market Research is the management function within marketing that links company to consumer, customer and publics through information. It aims and identifying the marketing opportunities and problems and suggesting the possible solution to it. It works on the goal of marketing i.e. sustain and retain its current customers by giving them satisfactions and grow new customers by offering them value. In all, the marketers need to know its customers. 

Knowing and satisfying consumer needs is the key to success these days. Consumer research is an extension to market research that aims at predicting and analysing consumer needs. It also aims at knowing the targets consumers’ decision making process. This helps them in designing the brand building exercises that are more efficient and communicable. Designing and delivering a product and service to consumer is an expensive exercise. Consumer research provides the marketer to test its offering at several stages. Pre-testing involves concept testing and product testing before it is available to consumers at large. Post testing deals with knowing how far the product or service is capable of satisfying the purpose it was made for.

Also, with the rapid growth in technology when the world is becoming market to everyone, the consumer research is also expanding to global level. It is therefore imperative to study cross cultural impact on consumer behaviour.

The Consumer research Process:

Qualitative Research in Consumer Behaviour

The most difficult part of understanding consumer behaviour is that many a times, consumers are not very well aware of their own needs. They look for products are services with the great deal of familiarity yet with new appeal. Qualitative Research techniques are designed to probe the subconscious mind of the consumers to know their thinking process.

Some of the techniques are:

In-depth Interviews: 

Detailed interviews are conducted to know consumers buying and consumption habits. Here, researcher do not ask direct question but would rather try to find subconscious motives for product purchases. The aim is to know the inner feelings which consumers themselves are unaware about. It is done through one-to-one interview where questions are not predetermined. The researchers use Laddering, where they regularly ask ‘why’ leading the respondent to the answer related to the objective of the research. 

The Zaltman Metaphor Elicitation Technique (ZMET) is an interview technique used for metaphor analysis. This technique uses visual images to assess consumers' deep and subconscious thought processes about products, services and  marketing strategies.  The respondents are asked to express their feeling in form of pictures. In one of such experiment, the respondents were given some magazines and were asked to cut pictures to illustrate value of advertising. They were suppose to take pictures other than print ads. There were 
Ambivalent respondents - the one who showed both positive and negative sides, 
Skeptic respondents - mostly negatives and few positive and
Hostile respondents - only negative

Applications of In-depth Interviews

(a) This technique is very useful in motivational research, where the researcher can identify the motives of the consumer to buy a product or service

(b) It is also very helpful in designing a product or service as per thinned of the consumer.

(c) It also helps in designing the effective communication program.

Evaluation of In-depth Interviews:

This is one of the best techniques to probe the minds of the consumer. However, this technique is time consuming and it is difficult to interact with large number of respondents.

Focus Groups

Focus group is a group of 8 to 12 people, who discuss on a topic given to them. The focus group consists of a moderator who encourages the group to discuss and also keeps the discussion on track. Here also no formal structure is defined by the researcher. The group may or may not come to consensus after a discussion. The researcher notes down important points put forth by the focus group during the discussion.

Applications of Focus Group

(a) It is used in evaluation of a product or advertising concept.

(b) It can also be helpful in comparing two or more product designs or advertising campaign ideas.

Evaluation of Focus Group

During the discussion, some very important points may come out but it is time consuming and inconclusive. The research is based on the opinion of very few people and it cannot be generalized to population at large.

Projective Techniques

These are the set of techniques widely used for probing the subconscious minds of the consumers. The projective techniques work on situational reaction from the consumers. Originally thought by Sigmund Freud in his Psychoanalytical Human Behaviour theory, these techniques are very useful in identifying what a person do in a given situation. Some of the projective techniques are – Word Association Test, Picture Completion Test, Sentence Completion Test, Storytelling and Role Playing.

Applications of Projective Techniques

(a) Projective techniques are very important for Branding decision. It helps researcher identify how a particular word or phrase means to a person.

(b) It probes the imagery of the consumer that can help in identifying different usage of the product and also help in designing an effective communication program.

Evaluation of Projective Techniques

Like all other qualitative research techniques, projective technique gives a lot of insight to the consumer mind but it is limited to small sample size. Also, data collected may be inconsistent and can be used for a limited objective.

Quantitative Research in Consumer Behaviour

Quantitative research aims at quantifying the consumer responses. It uses instruments like, questionnaire, schedules and physiological measure to record the opinions, perception and experiences. These instruments are scaled or calibrated to convert the responses into quantities. These quantities then analysed using statistical tools like correlation, regression, multi-dimensional scaling and so on.

Survey Research

Survey Research technique uses set of questions to invite responses. The consumer behaviour is analysed on basis of the answers of the questions given by the respondents. The questions are designed based on perceptions or experiences of the respondents. They are mostly structured are capable of quick replies. The can collect information through personal interviews, telephonic interview, mail questionnaires or online surveys.

The most popular instrument used in survey research is questionnaires. The questionnaires are designed to support the research hypothesis. The questionnaires are disguise, if they do not reveal the purpose of the research to the respondents. They are non-disguise when the research objective is very well informed to the respondents. 

Survey research may also use schedules, a special kind of questionnaires. Schedules are used when the research is highly technical in nature and the respondents may not likely to understand the questions. Schedules are highly structured questionnaires with set of multiple choices close ended questions. They are usually filled by the trained personnel called as enumerators. Enumerators are appointed and trained by the researchers to fill the schedules on the basis of the replies given by the respondents.

Applications of Survey Research

1. Forecasting: On the basis of past behaviour, experiences and perception, future can be predicted to a certain extent using regression.

2. Correlation: Consumer behaviour is affected by host of factors. Analysis of survey can lead to important correlation among these factors. For example, use of celebrity and purchase intent.

3. Perceptual Mapping: Positioning of a brand or a product is very important for the marketers. Survey research can help marketer understand how the product is positioned in the minds of consumers using multi-dimensional scaling.

Evaluation of Survey Research

Data is collected from a large sample and hence more capable of being generalized. Also, it provides objective view of the research in question. However, data is collected on the basis of the questions prepared by the researcher. They are not capable of finding insights to minds of consumer. The scope is limited as the respondents are reluctant to answer to many questions. Survey research may be affected by researcher’s bias.

Experimentation

This type of quantitative research uses a group of respondents for the purpose of research. Experiments can be conducted in laboratory or on field. This group is called as control group. The response is recorded before and after a treatment is given to the group. This treatment is given to only one independent variable and the respective effect on dependent variable is studied. This helps researchers in understanding the change in consumer behaviour due to efforts of the marketers or in other words effectiveness of a marketing program. For example, experimentation is very useful in assessing change in buying intentions after a new advertising campaign or popularity of a sales promotion scheme. 

Applications of Experimentation

The main application is to test a marketing program before it's launch. The control group gives valuable inputs to the marketers which may be very helpful and saves them from committing an expensive mistake. 

Evaluation of Experimentation

It help marketers in the conceptualization of an important marketing program and help them save a lot of cost and efforts of launching an ineffective program as they test it on control group. On the other hand, information is collected on control group only, hence generalization may be inappropriate. Validation of the research analysis is difficult if the same group is not available.

Observational Research

Many a times, it is not feasible to ask questions to the respondents. The researchers collect data by careful observation of the subject. They are trained in studying body language and aims at understanding consumer traits. They observe the respondents in the natural settings and hence would give more realistic results. Observations may be conducted in disguised and non-disguised form and can be qualitative or quantitative. Consumers may be observed inside the shop where there typical shopping behaviour is studied. Consumer tracking studies, track the activities of the consumer related to product purchase, consumption and disposal. 

Applications of Observational Research

Observational research is very helpful in product advertising. retail shelving and important spacial factors related to consumer buying. 

Evaluation of Observational Research

It examines the respondent in their own natural settings and is generally free from researcher’s bias. However, it is not very feasible to track large number of consumers. Observational research requires experts are required to record the changes or observations. Also, in quantitative research, scaling of the responses is difficult.