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CONDUCTING MARKETING RESEARCH | CHAPTER 4           113



                                                                                         To better understand what people
                                                                                         thought of Cheetos snacks, re-
                                                                                         searchers dressed up as the brand’s
                                                                                         Chester Cheetah character and
                                                                                         interacted with consumers in
                                                                                         the street.

















             TABLE 4.2    The Seven Characteristics of Good Marketing Research

             1. Scientific method  Effective marketing research uses the principles of the scientific method: careful observation, formulation of
                                   hypotheses, prediction, and testing.
             2. Research creativity  In an award-winning research study to reposition Cheetos snacks, researchers dressed up in a brand mascot
                                   Chester Cheetah suit and walked around the streets of San Francisco. The response the character encountered
                                   led to the realization that even adults loved the fun and playfulness of Cheetos. The resulting repositioning led to
                                   a double-digit sales increase despite a tough business environment. 43
             3. Multiple methods   Marketing researchers shy away from overreliance on any one method. They also recognize the value of using
                                   two or three methods to increase confidence in the results.
             4. Interdependence of   Marketing researchers recognize that data are interpreted from underlying models that guide the type of
              models and data      information sought.
             5. Value and cost of   Marketing researchers show concern for estimating the value of information against its cost. Costs are typically
              information          easy to determine, but the value of research is harder to quantify. It depends on the reliability and validity of the
                                   findings and management’s willingness to accept and act on those findings.
             6. Healthy skepticism  Marketing researchers show a healthy skepticism toward glib assumptions made by managers about how a
                                   market works. They are alert to the problems caused by “marketing myths.”
             7. Ethical marketing  Marketing research benefits both the sponsoring company and its customers. The misuse of marketing research
                                   can harm or annoy consumers, increasing resentment at what consumers regard as an invasion of their privacy
                                   or a disguised sales pitch.



           researcher the right problem definition and information from which to work. They may also have
           unrealistic expectations about what researchers can offer. Failure to use marketing research prop-
           erly has led to numerous gaffes, including the following historic one.



                    Star Wars In the 1970s, a successful marketing research executive left General
                    Foods to try a daring gambit: bringing market research to Hollywood, to give film studios access
                    to the same research that had spurred General Foods’s success.A major film studio handed him
                    a science fiction film proposal and asked him to research and predict its success or failure. His
                    views would inform the studio’s decision about whether to back the film.The research executive
           concluded the film would fail. For one, he argued, Watergate had made the United States less trusting of in-
           stitutions and, as a result, its citizens in the 1970s prized realism and authenticity over science fiction. This
           particular film also had the word “war” in its title; he reasoned that viewers, suffering from post-Vietnam
           hangover, would stay away in droves. The film was Star Wars, which eventually grossed over $4.3 billion in
           box office receipts alone. What this researcher delivered was information, not insight. He failed to study the
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