qualitative marketing research
research that addresses marketing objectives through techniques that allow the researcher to provide elaborate interpretations of market phenomena without depending on numerical measurement; its focus on discovering true inner meanings and new insights
researcher dependent
research in which the researcher must extract meaning from unstructured responses such as text from a recorded interview or a collage representing the meaning of some experience
quantitative marketing research
marketing research that addresses research objectives through empirical assessments that involve numerical measurements and analysis
subjective
results are researcher-dependent, meaning different researchers may reach different conclusions based on the same interview.
qualitative data
data that are not characterized by numbers, are instead are textual, visual, or oral; focus is on stories, visual portrayals, meaningful characterizations, interpretations, and other expressive descriptions.
quantitative data
represent phenomena by assigning numbers in an ordered and meaningful way.
concept testing
a frequently performed type of exploratory research representing many similar research procedures all having the same purpose; to screen new, revised, or repositioned ideas.
phenomenology
a philosophical approach to studying human experiences based on the idea that human experience itself is inherently subjective and determined by the context in which people live.
hermeneutics
an approach to understanding phenomenology that relies on analysis of texts through which a person tells a story about him self
hermeneutic unit
refers to a text passage from a respondents story that is linked with a key theme from within this story or provided by the researcher.
ethnography
represents ways of studying cultures through methods that involve becoming highly active within that cultures
participant observation
ethnographic research approach where the researcher becomes immersed within the culture that he or she is studying and draws data from his or her observations
grounded theory
represents an inductive investigation in which the researcher poses questions about information provided by respondents or taken from historical records; the researcher asks the questions to him or herself and repeatedly questions the responses to derive
case studies
the documented history of a particular person, group, organization, or event.
themes
identified by the frequency with which the same term (or a synonym) arises in the narrative description.
focus group interview
an unstructured, free-flowing interview with a small group around six to ten people. focus groups are led by a trained moderater who follows a flexible format encouraging dialogue among respondents
piggyback
a procedure in which one respondent stimulates thought among the others; as this process continues, increasingly creative insights are possible.
moderator
a person who leads a focus group interview and ensures that everyone gets a chance to speak and contribute to the discussion
depth interview
a one-on-one interview between a professional researcher and a research respondent conducted about some relevant business or social topic.
laddering
a particular approach to probing asking respondents to compare differences between brands at different levels that produces distinctions at the attribute level, the benefit level, and the value or motivation level. Laddering is based on the classical repe
probing
an interview technique that tries to draw deeper and more elaborate explanations from the discussion
conversations
an informal qualitative data-gathering approach in which the researcher engages a respondent in a discussion of the relevant subject matter.
free association techniques
record respondents first top of mind cognitive reactions some stimulus
field notes
the researchers descriptions of what actually happens in the field; these notes then become the text from which meaning extracted
thematic apperception test (TAT)
a test that presents subjects with an ambiguous picture(s) in which consumers and products are the center of attention; the investigator asks the subject to tell what is happening in the pictures now and what might happen next.
picture frustration
a version of the TAT using a cartoon drawing in which the respondent suggest a dialogue in which the characters might engage.
projective technique
an indirect means of questioning enabling respondents to project beliefs and feelings onto a third party an inanimate object, or a task situation
discussion guide
a focus group outline that includes written introductory comments informing the group about the focus group purpose and rules and then outlines topics or questions to be addressed in the group session.
streaming media
consist of multimedia content such as audio or video that is made available in real time over the internet or a corporate intranet.
online focus group
a qualitative research effort in which a group of individuals provides unstructured comments by entering their remarks into an electronic internet display board of some type
focus blog
a type of informal, "continuous: focus group established as an internet blog for the purpose of collecting qualitative data from participant comments
replicable
something is intersubjectively certifiable meaning the same conclusion would be reached based on another researcher's interpretation of the research or by independently duplicating the research procedures
secondary data
data that have been previously collected for some purpose other than the one at hand.
data conversion
the process of changing the original form of the data to a format suitable to achieve the research objective; also called transformation
cross-checks
the comparison of data from one source with data from another source to determine the similarity of independent projects
model building
the use of secondary data to help specify relationships between two or more variables; can involve the development of descriptive or predictive equations.
site analysis techniques
techniques that use secondary data to select the best location for retail or wholesale operations.
index of retail saturation
a calculation that describes the relationship between retail demand and supply
data mining
the use of powerful computers to dig through volumes of data to discover patterns about an organization's customers and products; applies to many different forms of analysis
neural network
a form of artificial intelligence in which a computer is programmed to mimic the way that human brains process information
market basket analysis
a form of data mining that analyzes anonymous point of sale transaction databases to identify coinciding purchases or relationships between products purchased and other retail shopping information
customer discovery
involves mining data to look for patterns identifying who is likely to ba a valuable customer.
database marketing
the use of customer databases to promote one to one relationships with customers and create precisely targeted promotions
internal and proprietary data
secondary data that originate inside the organizations
external data
data created, recorded, or generated by an entity other than the researchers organization
single source data
diverse types of data offered by a single company; usually integrate on the basis of a common variable such as geographic are or store.
respondents
people who verbally answer an interviewer's questions or provide answers to written questions
survey
a method of collecting primary data based on communication (questions and answers) with a representative sample of respondents
sample survey
a more formal term for a survey
random sampling error
a statistical fluctuation that occurs because of chance variation in the elements selected for a sample
systematic error
error resulting from some imperfect aspect of the research design that causes respondent error or from a mistake in the execution of the research
sample bias
a persistent tendency for the results of a sample to deviate in one direction from the true value of the population parameter
respondent error
a category of sample bias resulting from some respondent action or inaction such as nonresponse or response bias.
nonresponse error
the statistical differences between a survey that includes only those who responded and a perfect survey that would also include those who failed to respond
nonrespondents
people who are not contracted or who refuse to cooperate in the research
no contacts
people who are not at home or who are other wise inaccesible on the first and second contact
refusals
people who are unwilling to participate in a research project
self selection bias
a bias that occurs because people who feel strongly about a subject are more likely to respond to survey questions than people who feel indifferent about it
response bias
a bias that occurs when respondents either consciously or unconsciously tend to answer questions with a certain slant the misrepresents the truth
acquiescence bias
a tendency for respondents to agree with all or most questions asked of them in a survey
extremity bias
a category of response bias that results because some individuals tend to use extremes when responding to questions.
interviewer bias
a response that occurs because the presence of the interviewer influences respondents answers
social desirability bias
bias in responses caused by respondents desire, either conscious or unconscious to gain prestige or appear in a different social role.
administrative error
an error caused by the improper administration or execution of the research task
data processing error
a category of administrative error that occurs because of incorrect data entry, incorrect computer programming, or other procedural errors during data analysis.
sample selection error
an administrative error caused by improper sample design or sampling procedure execution
interviewer error
mistakes made by interviewers failing to record survey responses correctly
interviewer cheating
the practice of filling in fake answers or falsifying questionnaires while working as an interviewer
interactive survey approaches
communication that allows spontaneous two way interaction between the interviewer and the respondent
non interactive survey approaches
two way communication by which respondents give answers to static questions
personal interview
face to face communication in which an interviewer asks a respondent to answer questions
item nonresponse
failure of a respondent to provide an answer to a survey question
door to door interviews
personal interviews conducted at respondents doorsteps in an effort to increase the participation rate in the survey
callbacks
attempts to recontact individuals selected for a sample who were not available initially
mall intercept interviews
personal interviews conducted in a shopping mall
telephone interviews
personal interviews conducted by telephone the mainstay of commercial survey research
random digit dialing
use of telephone exchanges and a table of random numbers to contact respondents with unlisted phone numbers
central location interviewing
telephone interviews conducted from a central location allowing firms to hire a staff of professional interviewers and to supervise and control the quality of interviewing more effectively.
computer assisted telephone interviewing (CATI)
technology that allows answers to telephone interviews to be entered directly into a computer for processing.
self administered questionnaires
surveys in which the respondent takes the responsibility for reading and answering the questions
mail survey
a self administered questionnaire sent to respondents through the mail.
response rate
the number of questionares returned or completed divided by the number of eligible people who were asked to participate in the survey
cover letter
letter that accompanies a questionnaire to induce the reader to complete and return the questionnaire
drop off method
a survey method that requires the interviewer to travel to the respondent's location to drop off questionnaires that will be picked up later
fax survey
a survey that uses fax machines as a way for respondents to receive and return questionnaires.
e-mail surveys
surveys distributed through electronic mail.
radio boxes (buttons)
a small box character (box or button) that can be inserted into a word processing or javascript document that allows a respondent to indicate a choice with a check mark or X.
internet survey
a self administered questionnaire posted on a web site.
pretesting
screening procedure that involves a trial run with a group of respondents to iron out fundamental problems in the survey design.