Chapter 09: Marketing Research

The New Jersey Devils are a National Hockey League team based in Newark, New Jersey. As a successful sports franchise, the organization understands the importance of conducting marketing research. Which of the following is not true regarding marketing research?

• It plays a key role in the marketing system.

• It provides decision-makers with data on the effectiveness of the current marketing mix.

• It is the function that links the consumer to a wide range of competitive choices for the provision of goods and/or services.

• It is the process of planning, collecting, and analyzing data relevant to a marketing decision.

The Pew Research Center recently published a report that noted that the majority of American workers are employed in the service sector. Specifically, “Among the major service-industry sectors, the biggest was trade, transportation, and utilities (27.8 million workers), followed by education and health services (24.3 million), professional and business services (21.5 million), and leisure and hospitality (16.7 million).” This is an example of which role of marketing research?

• Descriptive

• Diagnostic

• Exploratory

• Predictive

Aldi, a grocery retailer, is using market testing in select cities around the country to measure consumer response to curbside pickup. As they do with other retailers, consumers order items from Aldi online and schedule a pickup time to retrieve their items. Based on preliminary results, Aldi estimates that the addition of curbside pickup will lead to a 15 percent increase in store sales, especially in suburban and higher-income locations where shoppers are willing to pay extra for convenience. In this example, Aldi is capitalizing on which role of marketing research?

• Exploratory

• Predictive

• Diagnostic

• Descriptive

Karina is the manager of ticket sales for the Houston Texans, a professional football team. Since their debut in 2002, the Texans have entertained fans in NRG Stadium, which seats close to 72,000 people. Karina is responsible for season ticket sales, game-day sales, and group sales to ensure maximum ticket revenue for the team. She recently hired a marketing research consultant to assist her in determining the best approach for marketing season tickets. Karina must allocate her marketing budget across various options, such as outbound telephone calls, direct mail, radio advertising, print media, and social media. She is hopeful that the marketing research will help her identify the most effective allocation of her budget across these various options. In this case, marketing research is doing which of the following?

• Improving Karina’s decision-making

• Enabling Karina to serve both current and future customers accurately and efficiently

• Helping Karina understand very detailed and complicated relationships

• Helping Karina identify problems

Shanta has received a service feedback questionnaire from Elite Link, Shanta’s internet service provider. The customer questionnaire is part of Elite Link’s ongoing marketing research. The form asks Shanta the following question: “To what extent do you favor or disfavor Elite Link’s internet service? (Check one). 1. Extremely dislike; 2. Moderately dislike; 3. Neutral; 4. Moderately like; 5. Extremely like.” This is known as which type of survey question?

• Open-ended

• Synonymous

• Dichotomous

• Scaled-response

Although Netflix is one of the largest streaming services in terms of market share, the company has witnessed an erosion in its market share in recent years due to fierce competition from other streaming services, such as Amazon Prime Video, Max, Disney+, and Hulu. To address the competitive threat, Netflix is interested in determining the best types of content—movies and/or series—to maintain and grow its subscription base. Netflix can use its proprietary data of customer streaming information to gain insights into this issue because Netflix knows what content people are watching and when they watch it. Netflix’s desire to determine the best type of content to offer to maintain and/or grow its subscription base is an example of which of the following?

• Marketing research objective

• Business opportunity statement

• Marketing research problem

• Management decision problem

Detlef works for Bath & Body Works as a category manager. Detlef is interested in identifying the types of products that are typically purchased as gifts, as well as determining how much Loyalty Rewards Members typically spend on gifts. He consults with a database specialist at the company and learns that, unfortunately, this information is not available as part of the information captured related to transactions or purchase history because Bath & Body Works is not currently capturing whether the purchase was for the customer or a gift. Detlef has encountered a common disadvantage related to secondary data. Which of the following best characterizes the disadvantage related to Detlef’s research problem?

• There is a mismatch between the researcher’s unique problem and the purpose for which the secondary data were originally gathered.

• Data are readily available to save time and money.

• Data quality is questionable.

• The data are out-of-date, old, and no longer applicable.

Modern Closet, a retailer of jeans and fashion clothing, is considering expanding further into related product categories, and the company is interested in conducting research to understand the current shopping habits of customers and how much time they spend in the store. Modern Closet is planning to use an outside marketing research consulting company to gather data. The research company will record the habits of store visitors, such as the amount of time spent in the store, whether a purchase is made, which categories of products are browsed or purchased, and the role of the salesperson, as well as the number of people in each shopping group and the composition of those groups (for example, family members or friends). This is a labor-intensive project, but Modern Closet believes it will provide the insight needed to make decisions on product line expansions. Which of the following is the best research method for Modern Closet’s research consultant to employ?

• Observation research

• Secondary research

• Experimental research

• Focus group research

American Express is a multinational financial services corporation that specializes in payment cards. The company has over 121 million customers who carry its credit card. American Express is interested in learning more about its customers’ perceptions of card benefits and associated partner companies, so it is launching a research study. The company plans to use a sampling method in which each person who has an American Express credit card has a known statistical likelihood of being selected to participate in the study. Which sampling method will American Express use?

• Judgemental

• Nonprobability

• Convenience

• Probability

As an e-commerce seller of art supplies, Paint Palette understands the importance of online surveys as a form of marketing research. Which of the following is not an advantage of online surveys?

• Non-personalized questions and data

• Contact with hard-to-reach groups

• Real-time reporting

• Dramatically reduced costs