Basic Marketing: A Global Managerial Approach

Perreault−McCarthy: Basic

Marketing: A

Global−Managerial

Approach, 14/e

8. Improving Decisions
   with Marketing
   Information

Text © The McGraw−Hill

Companies, 2002

238 Chapter 8

Test-marketing of new products is another type of marketing experiment. In a

typical approach, a company tries variations on its planned marketing mix in a few

geographic market areas. The results of the tests help to identify problems or refine

the marketing mix—before the decision is made to go to broader distribution. How-

ever, alert competitors may disrupt such tests—perhaps by increasing promotion or

offering retailers extra discounts. To avoid these problems, some small firms conduct

some of their tests in foreign markets.

Researchers don’t use the experimental method as often as surveys and focus

groups. Many managers don’t understand the valuable information they can get from

this method. Further, they don’t like the idea of some researcher “experimenting”

with their business.^17

Some private research firms specialize in collecting data and supplying it to man-

agers in many different client firms. Often the marketing manager subscribes to the

research service and gets regular updates.

Marketing managers from many different firms may have to make the same kinds

of decisions and may need the same type of data. The most economical approach

in a situation like this is for one specialist firm to collect the data and distribute it

to the different users, who share the cost. This is how Information Resources, Inc.,

and ACNielsen operate.

Many other firms collect and distribute specialized types of data. For example,

Market Facts (www.marketfacts.com) sells access to its surveys on home appliances

and electronics, retail banking and insurance, and other product categories. Sim-

mons Market Research Bureau (www.smrb.com) does extensive research on

consumer media habits and then sells its data to many advertising agencies and pro-

ducers of consumer products who want to find out about their particular target

markets. Many different auto producers use J. D. Power’s (www.jdpa.com) surveys of

customer satisfaction—often as the basis for advertising claims. Subscription data

services are available for numerous different industries—ranging from food service

to prescription drugs to micro electronic devices.^18

Syndicated research
shares data collection
costs

SPSS and StatSoft are statistical
packages that make it easy to
summarize and graph marketing
research data.