Page 142 - Marketing Management

CONDUCTING MARKETING RESEARCH | CHAPTER 4 119

4. Two complementary approaches to measuring market- activity affects outcomes. Marketing dashboards are a
ing productivity are: (1) marketing metrics to assess structured way to disseminate the insights gleaned from
marketing effects and (2) marketing-mix modeling to es- these two approaches within the organization.
timate causal relationships and measure how marketing

Applications

Marketing Debate Marketing Discussion
What Is the Best Type of Marketing Survey Quality
Research? When was the last time you participated in a survey? How
Many market researchers have their favorite research helpful do you think the information you provided was? How
approaches or techniques, although different researchers could the research have been done differently to make it
often have different preferences. Some researchers main- more effective?
tain that the only way to really learn about consumers or
brands is through in-depth, qualitative research. Others
contend that the only legitimate and defensible form of mar-
keting research uses quantitative measures.
Take a position: The best marketing research is quan-
titative in nature versus The best marketing research is
qualitative in nature.

Marketing Excellence consumers actively want because they offer a superior
experience and solve a problem. In order to achieve these
>>IDEO consumer-friendly solutions, IDEO tries to uncover deep
insights through a variety of human-centered research
IDEO is the largest de- methods. These studies help the firm better understand
sign consultancy firm in how consumers purchase, interact with, use, and even
the United States. The dispose of products. This customer-focused approach
company has created has run counter to the prevailing wisdom of many high-
some of the most tech firms that focus more on their own capabilities when
recognizable design designing products. David Blakely, head of IDEO’s tech-
icons of the tech- nology group, explained, “Tech companies design from
nology age, including the inside out, whereas we design from the outside in so
the first laptop com- that we can put customers first.”
puter, the first mouse IDEO employs a number of other observational meth-
(for Apple), the Palm ods to conduct “deep dives” into consumer behavior. The
V PDA, and the company’s “human factors” team shadows consumers,
TiVo digital video takes pictures or videos of them during product purchase or
recorder. Beyond use occasions, and conducts in-depth interviews with them
its high-tech wiz- to further evaluate their experiences. Another method
ardry, the company is called “behavioral mapping,” which creates a photo-
has designed household graphic log of people within a certain area like an airline
items such as the Swiffer Sweeper and the Crest Neat departure lounge, a hospital waiting room, or a food court
Squeeze toothpaste tube, both for Procter & Gamble. at a shopping mall over a period of days to gauge how the
IDEO’s diverse roster of clients includes AT&T, Bank of experience can be improved. A third method relies on
America, Ford Motor Company, PepsiCo, Nike, Marriott, “camera journals” that participants keep, in which they
Caterpillar, Eli Lilly, Lufthansa, Prada, and the Mayo Clinic. record their visual impressions of a given product or category.
IDEO’s success is predicated on an approach called IDEO also invites consumers to use “storytelling” techniques
“design thinking” based on a “human-centered method- to share personal narratives, videos, skits, or even anima-
ology.” The company strives to design products that tions about their experiences with a product or service.