USC Marshall School. MKT 512: MARKETING AND CONSUMER RESEARCH Professor Dina Mayzlin Spring 2013

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1 Office: Hoffman Hall, Room 619 E mail: mayzlin@marshall.usc.edu Office Hours: Mon, Wed 11 12:00 Administrative Assistant: Ruth Joya rsantiag@marshall.usc.edu Course Description USC Marshall School MKT 512: MARKETING AND CONSUMER RESEARCH Professor Dina Mayzlin Spring 2013 In the Core Course, you learned about the importance of market segmentation, targeting and positioning in formulating marketing strategies. But as a marketing strategy consultant or as a brand manager, you are faced with the question: How does one implement these strategies in practice? This course will introduce you to qualitative and quantitative research methodologies that are critical in obtaining the relevant market information to aid managerial decision making. The first part of the course focuses on the data collection process: both exploratory methods (such as focus groups and ethnography) and descriptive methods (survey design). The second part of the course covers methods of data analysis, such as discriminant and logit analysis, cluster analysis, factor analysis and conjoint analysis. The final project involves all aspects of the market research process: conducting focus groups, designing a questionnaire, collecting and analyzing the data. Learning Outcomes The learning outcomes of the course are to: Conducting exploratory market research: designing a focus group questionnaire, conducting a focus group, collecting qualitative data online. Conducting descriptive market research: designing a questionnaire based on interviews and data collection, collecting word of mouth data online. Analyzing data: market segmentation and targeting techniques (discriminant analysis, factor analysis, cluster analysis), product design techniques (conjoint analysis). Drawing consumer insights from research findings. Course Materials Lecture Notes (posted on course website) required Reading packet required Aaker, Kumar, Leone, and Day (2012), Marketing Research (11 th Edition), John Wiley & Sons optional Course Methodology The course introduces key market research concepts and techniques. The students learn through class lectures, class notes as well as hands on assignments: cases, statistical analysis using Minitab software, as well as a group project. The project involves all aspects of market research: 1) formulating a hypothesis, 2) conducting qualitative research, 3) survey design, 4) data analysis, and 5) drawing insights from the findings. 1

2 Grading 1) Individual Participation: 10 % 2) Homeworks and cases: 50 % 3) Final Project: 40 % Laptop or Other Communication Devices You are required to bring a laptop to some classes (you will be told in advance which ones) in order to perform statistical analysis in class. In all other classes all communication devices (including laptops, cell phones, etc) are not allowed. Lecture Notes (posted on course website) required Reading packet required Aaker, Kumar, Leone, and Day (2012), Marketing Research (11 th Edition), John Wiley & Sons optional Attendance and Participation Attendance is expected. Class lectures are crucial to learning the material. You may miss up to two classes without providing me with an excuse. Only excused medical absences are allowed beyond that. You are encouraged to participate in class, and there will be some cold-calling. Homework Assignments Homework assignments are given to help you gain deeper understanding of the materials covered in class. You will also gain confidence in implementing the analysis techniques on a computer. While it is acceptable to discuss the assignments and solution strategies with other students, each student must do the analysis on their own and submit independent work to be graded. It is not acceptable to do the assignments jointly and then submit the output of the group as individual assignments. Assignments must be turned in on the due dates specified in the syllabus. Except in the event of a documented medical difficulty, late assignments will not be accepted. Homework assignments are all posted online. Case Write Ups Similarly to homework assignments, case write ups should be done individually. (Discussing cases with classmates is acceptable). The case questions are given below. Please answer all questions in your write up. Case: Boston Fights Drugs Q1: What did you think of the team s model to fight drug abuse? Q2: What do you think of the design of the pre screening questionnaire and focus group interview protocols? Q3: Do you agree with the team s conclusions on page 10, given the data? Q4: Are there alternative conclusions to be drawn from the same exhibits? Case: The Springfield Nor easters Q1: What is the MDP and MRP of the case? Q2: What do you consider to be the key findings of the research survey? Comment on what Buckinham learned about a prospective customer profile, pricing, and single ticket versus season ticket packages. What considerations 2

3 should the Nor easters take into account in establishing a price policy? Q3: Design a ticket pricing plan for the Nor easter s first season. Be very specific, and be prepared to explain the assumptions. How should ticket pricing vary by package type? Q4: Using the price plan you have designed and given Buckingham s assumptions about concession sales (i.e., 39% profit margin on page 4), will the team reach breakeven in the first year? If not, what options does Buckingham have to reach his target? Minitab Software Minitab is available to Marshall community through Business Virtual Lab. ( We will use Minitab in class, which means that you will have to bring your laptops to those classes where we will be using the software. Group Project The course involves a group project involving teams of three to four. Each group will work on a modest sized marketing research study for their project. The primary objective of the project is to provide you with experience in applying the concepts and methods of marketing research to a real marketing problem. The project will be completed in four stages: Stage 1 Defining the Decision Problem and Research Problem: This will involve defining the marketing decision problem faced by the manager (e.g., what market to enter, what features to offer in a product) and the research problem (what information will be needed to help answer the manager s question). You should also outline your broad research strategy (e.g., segmentation study, conjoint study) for this project. Stage 2 Exploratory Research: Develop a discussion guide for the focus group or in depth interviews for your exploratory research; Stage 3 Questionnaire Design: This will involve developing a questionnaire (this will be based on your exploratory research findings), pre testing it and refining the questionnaire based on your pretests. Stage 4 Data Collection, Analysis and Recommendations: This will involve collecting the data, analyzing the data and submitting the final report with recommendations. A detailed description of the group project is provided in Appendix A C. Summaries of the three stages are provided below: Stage 1 The group must decide on an organization and product/service that will be focus of its research, and decide on the decision problem and research objectives. Ideally, speak to a decision maker in the organization to get a sense of a strategic problem that might be of importance to him/her. This person could be a valuable resource as you proceed further with your research for consultation. Stage 2 The group will develop a discussion guide for its focus groups or in depth interviews for issues it needs additional information before conducting a survey. 3

4 Stage 3 The group then conducts either a focus group or depth interviews (see Appendix B for details) and prepares a summary of the findings. Based on these findings, the group will identify a set of information needs for the survey, and design a questionnaire. The questionnaire should be pre tested and then modified. Stage 4 Once the questionnaire has been finalized, the group must administer the questionnaire to at least 40 respondents, input the data into a computer system, analyze the data, and write a report (see Appendix C for guidelines on writing the report). Detailed Schedule Class Topic Assignments Project Task 1 Mon 1/14 Introduction Read: "Spend A Day in the Life of Your Customers" (HBR 94103) 1. Exploratory Research 2 Wed 1/16 Focus Group Read: "Developing Questions for Focus Groups", "Out of Focus" Mon 1/21 NO CLASS Tues 1/22 Discuss 2 or 3 topic ideas Pick Project Team Come up w/ topic ideas Come up w/ topic ideas 3 Wed 1/23 Focus Group Case Study Prep: Boston Fights Drugs Focus group discussion Due: Case Write Up guide 4 Mon 1/28 Speaker: Bill Davis, CEO of Davis Research FG discussion guide Tues 1/29 Talk about discussion guide Due: Focus Group Discussion Guide 2. Descriptive Research 5 Wed 1/30 Questionnaire Design I Prep: Questionnaire Case 1 Conduct Focus Group Interviews 6 Mon 2/4 Speaker: Adriann Cocker, Sr. Strategic Planner at Grieco Group Conduct FG Interviews Tues 2/5 Talk about focus group results 7 Wed 2/6 Case: The Springfield Nor'easters Prep: The Springfield Nor'easters; Due: Case Write Up Work on questionnaire 8 Mon 2/11 Questionnaire Design II: Attitude Measurement Prep: Questionnaire Case 2 Tues 2/12 Talk about questionnaire Due: Questionnaire Draft 9 Wed 2/13 Identifying Customer Needs Read: "Understanding User Needs," "The One Number You Need to Work on questionnaire Revise questionnaire 4

5 10 Mon 2/18 Questionnaire Pre Test; Hypothesis Testing Grow" 3. Quantitative Research Read: Chp 17 pp , Chp 18, pp Wed 2/20 Regression I Read: Chp 19 Revise questionnaire Due: Revised Questionnaires 12 Mon 2/25 Regression Applications Due: Homework 1 (Hypothesis Testing) Collect Data 13 Wed 2/27 Discriminant Analysis Read: Chp 20: , Lecture Notes Collect Data 14 Mon 3/4 Logistic Regression Read: Lecture Notes Collect Data Due: Homework 2 (Regression) 15 Wed 3/6 Factor Analysis Read: Ch 21: , Lecture Notes Collect Data 16 Mon 3/11 Factor Analysis: Perceptual Mapping Read: Ch 22: , Lecture Notes Due: Homework 3 (Prediction) Collect Data 17 Wed 3/13 Review Collect Data Mon 3/18 Wed 3/20 18 Mon 3/25 Cluster Analysis 19 Wed 3/27 Cluster: Grouping into Segments Spring Break Read Ch 21: , Lecture Notes Due: Homework 4 (Factor Analysis) Analyze data Analyze data 19 Mon 4/1 Conjoint Analysis 20 Wed 4/3 Fractional Factorial Conjoint Design, Segmenting the Market Read: Ch 22: , Lecture Notes Read: Lecture Notes Due: Homework 5 (Cluster Analysis) Analyze data Analyze data 21 Mon 4/8 Speaker: Hilary Bienstock, Principal at Hilary User Experience Analyze data Tues 4/9 Talk about data analysis Listening to the customer 22 Wed 4/10 online: Theory and Examples Read: NM Incite White Paper, Blue Fin Tech Review (go to bluefinlabs.com) Analyze data 5

6 Due: Homework 6 (Conjoint Analysis) 23 Mon 4/15 Setting up an Online Tracking System Prep: Communispace Write Report 24 Wed 4/17 Speaker: David Schrader, Dir of Mrktg and Strategy at Teradata Write Report 25 Mon 4/22 Online Experimentation Read: bit.ly/tcu0i1 Prepare Presentation Due: Homework 7 (Online Listening) 26 Wed 4/24 Review Prepare Presentation 27 Mon 4/29 Presentations 28 Wed 5/1 Presentations Due: Final Report 6

7 Appendix A Guidelines for the Group Project Overview The project is intended to provide you with first hand research experience and to illustrate the concepts and methods discussed in the classroom. It involves: (a) (b) (c) (d) (e) (f) selecting a product or service that is being offered by an organization (or a new product/service that the organization may wish to offer), identifying some marketing decision that needs to be made regarding this product/service, such as product positioning or target market definition, determining the information needed to make that decision, designing a questionnaire to obtain the necessary information, collecting, coding and analyzing the data, and writing a report and presenting the findings. There are many different types of studies that can be conducted for this course. Some examples are: Behavioral Segmentation studies: developing profiles of heavy users and light users (users/non users) of a product/service based on demographics, lifestyles, shopping behavior, benefits sought, and media habits. Attitude/preference studies: studying consumers preferences and attitudes about competing products/services, identifying the attributes that are important, and determining whether consumer segments differ in their attitudes or in the attributes they consider important. (e.g., conjoint studies) Image studies: comparing the brand image of competing products or services along a number of dimensions, and determining whether different consumer segments have different images of the products/services. (e.g., perceptual mapping) Customer Satisfaction studies: useful in studying the importance of different attributes of product /service quality on customer satisfaction and loyalty. Also useful identification of service gaps. These studies are useful in making a variety of marketing decisions, e.g., in product positioning and repositioning, new product introductions, marketing mix decisions, market targeting, etc. You may choose any kind of product or service as long as it is not too difficult to get primary data about it. Once you select a product/service and an organization, you should examine secondary sources such as magazines and newspapers and trade journals to get background information on the nature of the industry, the range of products being offered, and consumer characteristics. This may give you some ideas regarding the questions that need to be researched, and will also give you some basic information that you may need for designing the questionnaire, such as the major competitors for your product/service, the attributes along which products are evaluated, etc. You should plan on collecting data from at least 40 respondents. Note that this need not be a random sample or even a representative sample of the target population. A convenience sample may be used. 7

8 Regardless of the type of study, the product class and the sample size, you must link the research to some managerial decision that needs to be made. In other words, you must be clear about the purpose of the study: what decision will this research help the organization make? This is important because after the data have been analyzed and interpreted, you must make your recommendations to the organization regarding what actions it should take. 8

9 Appendix B Exploratory Research for Group Project This will primarily consist of a focus group or depth interviews, supplemented by secondary data sources and observation of consumers shopping or consumption behavior. The objective of this research is to give you insight into the research problem and to help you focus on the key issues. This will enable you to design an appropriate questionnaire for the main survey. Questions typically addressed in this type of research are: What, where, when and why do people consume the product/service in questions? What are the important attributes in making a purchase decision? What are consumers information sources? What are the influences on decisionmaking? What needs do products fulfill? What needs do they not fulfill? What moods/emotions/values are associated with the different products? What brands are preferred and why? What brands are not preferred and why? The possible list of questions is endless. The focus group should consist of 6 to 8 members (hint: recruit 9 for the group, to allow for noshows) that are members of the target population for the research study. The discussion should last for minutes. This task involves (1) deciding what information is required from the group (prepare a discussion guide, or a list of questions/issues that need to be focused on) and what the composition of the group should, be, (2) recruiting members for the focus group (this includes obtaining their consent to having the discussion recorded), and giving them instructions on them/place for the meeting, and (3) moderating and directing the discussion, and recording the discussion as unobtrusively as feasible. Depth interviews should be of members of the target market, be they consumers or decisionmakers. Each interview should last minutes, and it is essential that two interviewers be present one to conduct the interview and one to record the answers. The task here involves (1) who should be interviewed, (2) obtaining interviewees consent to participate and setting up an appointment, (3) conducting 4 6 interviews. A Summary of Findings (up to two pages in length, double spaced) of the exploratory research must be prepared. 9

10 Appendix C Project Report and Presentation This should be no more than 12 pages long (typed, double spaced). Note that the page limit does not include the title page, table of contents, and appendices. The report should consist of: 1. Executive Summary (1 page) This is a one page non technical summary of the whole project, including the methodology used and major findings/implications. 2. Introduction (1 page) This should explain the context of the study and include a clear statement of the research objectives. That is, why was the study needed. In addition, you need to mention the scope of the study (i.e., what are the limitations e.g., any issues that, though important to the marketing decision, are not addressed in the study). 3. Research Design (2 pages) a. Sampling Technique Briefly describe the sampling technique you have used (don t just give a general description, describe it as YOU have used it). Justify using it in the context of your application. Identify any inadequacies that may exist in your sampling technique, and briefly describe how you would modify it to make it better (for example, if you had more, resources i.e. time/money). Again, this should be specific to your application. b. Data Collection Method c. Measurement d. Analysis Procedures 4. Results (6 pages) Describe how you collected the data for this study (e.g., face to face, telephone, mail, Internet based), why you selected this method, and changes you would make if you had more time/money. Identify any limitations to your selected method. In this section, specify the kinds of information you needed to address the research objectives of this study. Attach a copy of the questionnaire and cover letter (if applicable) in an appendix. Briefly describe the analytic procedures you used, the statistical package, and any coding procedures which may be important (e.g.: coding open ended questions). Do not present any research findings here. 10

11 This should indicate, for each research objective, the main findings. Combine the presentation of results from those questions that hang together for a specific research objective. That is, try and organize the findings into subsections by grouping questions (or variables) that are related. For example, you may have a number of questions related to shopping habits (How often do you shop? Which stores do you shop in? What do you spend on average per shopping trip? etc.); the responses to these questions can be summarized in a subsection titled shopping behavior. Use your imagination and common sense in deciding how to organize your findings. If appropriate, briefly mention some of the implications of your findings so that the reader is primed for the recommendations made later. The complete results need not be discussed here but rather should be presented in the form of tables in the Appendix. For example, if you are discussing the responses to a question such as how often do you drink coffee?, it is sufficient to summarize the responses with a statement like Over 40% of the respondents drank less than 2 cups a day, while 10% drank more than 5 cups a day. The complete information, of course, should be presented in a table in the Appendix. Make sure to interpret and discuss the findings that you describe in this section, rather than merely reciting the numbers. Indicate, where appropriate, whether your findings are statistically significant. 5. Recommendations (2 pages) 6. Appendices In this section you should summarize your major findings and present your recommendations for management (naturally, the latter should be based on the former). This should contain (i) Your exploratory research discussion guide, (ii) a summary of exploratory research findings (iii) a copy of the questionnaire with the basic results, and (iv) tables to illustrate the discussion in the Results section. There is no page limit for this section. Note: You need to number, title your appendices, and reference them in the text. If a team fails to do so, I will return the report and ask for modification. The report will be graded on (i) quality of data analysis and interpretation of results, (ii) quality of recommendations, and (iii) readability (clarity of writing and organization of material). Some hints on effective report writing: 1. Make the report look nice and readable. 2. Number the pages. 3. Divide the report into sections with appropriate headings. 4. Have a table of contents with page numbers. 5. Do not give too much statistical information in the main body of the report. Have a separate mathematical appendix with tables of numbers. 6. Avoid using technical language unless needed. This is particularly important when writing the executive summary. 11

12 7. Remember that your audience is relatively novice in terms of research they are most interested in the findings and the implications those findings hold for their business. Project Presentation Ground Rules: Aim for a 15 minute presentation. The exact amount of time will depend on class enrollment and will be announced in class. Use PowerPoint, transparencies (overheads), or handouts to summarize what you plan to say. Be prepared for questions from the audience. Suggested outline of presentation: 1. Background (on the industry/company/product as appropriate) 2. Research purpose and information needs 3. Survey methodology: sampling procedure, sample size, response rate, sample representativeness. 4. Results (main findings) 5. Managerial recommendations Plan on spending most of your time on the last two topics. 12