Marketing Research for Marketers, 2nd edition

For courses in Marketing Research

Marketing Research for Marketers provides marketing students with the basics of marketing research and teaches them how to work with marketing research professionals in their future marketing careers. Instead of teaching advanced research topics, this textbook uses simple language to reinforce a basic-to-intermediate understanding of marketing research processes, types of research, question-writing, sampling techniques, analysis techniques, report structures, and ethical considerations.

Content Highlights

• Marketing Research Explained.This textbook is intended to train learners in a marketing program to conduct marketing research for their companies and to work effectively with marketing research professionals (MRPs). While it defines “marketing research” as a systematic process, it also encourages learners to think of it as an ongoing conversation with a target group.
• Social Media Monitoring. One of the biggest challenges for researchers in the social media space is deriving meaning from unstructured data. This text teaches how to create a social media SWOT analysis for a brand and takes the reader through 10 popular social media metrics. It also cautions against the reliance on “vanity metrics.”
• Questionnaire Design. Learners are shown how to write programming instructions for a questionnaire, which puts the learner’s necessary attention to detail into practice. Topics include how to create skip logic, piping, and screening questions.
• Quantitative Data Analysis and Interpretation. Learners are provided with additional information about introductory forms of analyses in Microsoft Excel, including cross‐tabulations, chi‐square tests, independent sample t‐tests, and paired sample t‐tests. Visual aids and examples of real‐world marketing research applications are shown with each form of analysis, along with step‐by‐step instructions for completing these analyses in Excel.
• The Marketing Research Process. The basics of the marketing research process are explained in seven key steps. The learner will practise how to formulate marketing research objectives and research questions based on a clearly stated management problem. As well, in order to provide a deeper look at both sides of the client–supplier relationship and to prepare learners (future marketers) for working with research suppliers, this textbook takes them through seven stages in the marketer’s journey of working with an MRP.
• Conducting Marketing Research Ethically. Learners are introduced to three pillars of marketing research ethics (earning the trust of the marketing client, respondents, and the public), which are extremely important nowadays, when those who are not professionally trained researchers have such easy access to people’s personal information.
• Secondary Research. Learners are shown how secondary research fits into the marketing and marketing research industries, along with how to distinguish between internal and external secondary sources of information. They are introduced to two popular market and business databases - Business Source and Euromonitor’s Passport GMID - and to other popular databases for marketers, like Vivadata, PRIZM, and Nielsen Retail Measurement.

New to this Edition

• Chapter 3: Conducting Marketing Research Ethically. New to this edition are links to the First Nations Information Governance Centre website and the Assembly of First Nations website in regard to First Nations Principles of Ownership, Control, Access, and Possession (OCAP). Also new is an MR Sidebar on Canada’s Tri‐Agency Council and Research Ethics.
• Chapter 5: Secondary Research. This new edition includes updated examples of searchable lifestyle types from the PRZIM website. Learners are taught how to critically evaluate a source’s credibility, accuracy, context, and usefulness. They are also shown how to properly keep track of and cite sources.
• Chapter 7: Qualitative Marketing Research and Analysis. New to this chapter is an explanation of how qualitative research can be of benefit to small and medium‐sized businesses. It also provides instructions for conducting depth interviews and focus groups, as well as for writing an interview/discussion guide. Examples of probing questions and when to use them are provided. This chapter differs from other textbooks by giving more attention to commonly used projective and enabling tools like photo sort, word association, cartoon tests, brand obituary, and third person, with new references to Canadian companies Aritzia and McCain Foods, which are useful in helping respondents express themselves.
• Chapter 13: Communicating the Results. A detailed “Writing a Marketing Research Report” checklist is available for download in the Revel version of this text. Exciting additions to this chapter are two appendices, each containing a complete, full‐colour sample of an industry qualitative marketing research report and a quantitative marketing research report, designed according to this chapter’s report‐writing guidelines.