Research Design
Formulation
Exploring Emergent Drinkers
▪ Domecq worked with Pegram Walters
International on a project to “emergent
drinkers” personal values, their feelings about
their lives, their universe, their hopes and
dreams.
▪ Three stages to the research design.
1. In depth interview
2. Workshop at bar
3. Focus group discussion
Research Design
A research design is a framework or blueprint for
conducting the marketing research project. It details
the procedures necessary for obtaining the
information needed to structure or solve marketing
research problems.
▪ Exploratory
▪ Descriptive
▪ Causal
Components of Research Design
1. Define the information needed
2. Design the exploratory, descriptive, and/or causal
phases of the research
3. Specify the measurement and scaling procedures
4. Construct and pretest a questionnaire (interviewing
form) or an appropriate form for data collection
5. Specify the sampling process and sample size
6. Develop a plan of data analysis
Classification of Research Design
Research Design
Exploratory Conclusive
Research Design Research Design
Descriptive Causal
Research Research
Cross-Sectional Longitudinal
Design Design
Single Cross- Multiple Cross-
Sectional Design Sectional Design
Exploratory Research Design
What is Exploratory research? Purpose of exploratory
▪ To provide inside into an research
phenomena ▪ Eliminate impractical ideas
▪ Discovery of an insight/idea ▪ Refine problem
▪ Results in soft information, ▪ Establish priorities for
never end results future research
▪ Example: “What atmosphere ▪ Clarify variables
meant in restaurant” ▪ Generate hypothesis
Methods of Exploratory research
Literature research, experience survey, observation, FGDs, In depth
interviews
Exploratory v/s Conclusive
Research
Exploratory Conclusive
Objectives • To provide insights and • To test specific
understanding of the hypotheses and examine
nature of marketing relationships
phenomena • To measure
• To understand
Characteristics • Information needed may • Information needed is
be loosely defined clearly defined
• Research process is • Research process is
flexible, unstructured and formal and structured
may evolve • Sample is large and aims
• Samples are small to be representative
• Data analysis can be • Data analysis is
qualitative or quantitative quantitative
Exploratory v/s Conclusive
Research
Exploratory Conclusive
Findings/ • Can be used in their own • Can be used in their own
results right right
• May feed into conclusive • May feed into exploratory
research research
• May illuminate specific • May set a context to
conclusive findings exploratory findings
Methods • Expert surveys • Surveys
• Pilot surveys • Secondary data
• Qualitative interviews • Databases
• Unstructured Observations • Panels
• Experiments
Exploratory Research Design:
Example
▪ Opinium Research and The London
School of Economics undertaken a
multi-year study to get inside the
mind of voters across 12 European
countries.
▪ Broad range of data collection
techniques were built into the
research design.
✓ Multi-wave quantitative surveys
1. High levels of voters
✓ In-depth interviews change their mind week
✓ Experiments before an election
✓ Observational techniques in polling 2. Role of emotions in the
stations. voting process.
Methods of Exploratory Research
➢ Survey of experts
➢ Pilot surveys
➢ Secondary data analyzed in a qualitative way
➢ Qualitative research
▪ One big limitation of exploratory research design
quality and availability of data.
▪ Usually, exploratory research design are linked with
qualitative data, but some techniques like data
mining use quantitative data.
Uses of Exploratory Research
➢ Formulate a problem or define a problem more
precisely
➢ Identify alternative courses of action
➢ Develop hypotheses
➢ Isolate key variables and relationships for further
examination
➢ Gain insights for developing an approach to the
problem
➢ Establish priorities for further research
➢ ‘Data-Mine’ or explore quantitative data to reveal
unknown connections between different measured
variables
Descriptive Research Design
What is descriptive research? Purpose of descriptive
▪ Deals with frequencies and research
relationship b/w variables ▪ Characteristics of relevant
▪ Typically guided by the groups, such as consumers,
hypotheses ▪ Estimate the percentage of
units in a specified
population
▪ Relationship b/w marketing
variables
▪ To make specific predictions
Methods of descriptive research
Survey, secondary data, panels
Descriptive Research Design:
Example
▪ In a study Corning Display Technologies,
the motivations for choosing a new TV
were measured.
▪ An online survey of 2,500 respondents
in China, France, Germany, Japan, the
UK and USA was administered.
▪ This study was used to develop a list of
concerns and interests that could
encompass selection and use of a TV set,
including occasions and activities.
▪ Participants also had to indicate a
likelihood of purchasing an LCD TV in the
next four years.
Uses of Descriptive Research
➢ To describe the characteristics of relevant groups,
such as consumers, salespeople, organizations, or
market areas
➢ To estimate the percentage of units in a specified
population exhibiting a certain behavior
➢ To determine the perceptions of product
characteristics
➢ To determine the degree to which marketing
variables are associated
➢ To make specific predictions
Methods of Descriptive Research
➢ Secondary data analyzed in a quantitative, as
opposed to a qualitative, manner
➢ Surveys
➢ Panels
➢ Observational and other data
Steps of Descriptive Research
Design
▪ Statement of problem
▪ Identification of information
▪ Selection of data gathering instrument
▪ Identification of target population and sample
▪ Design of information collection procedure
▪ Collection of information
▪ Analysis of information
▪ Generalisation and predication
Cross-Sectional Designs
▪ Collection of information from any given sample of population
elements only once
▪ Single cross-sectional designs, Only one sample of respondents
and information is obtained from this sample only once.
▪ In multiple cross-sectional designs, Two or more samples of
respondents, and information from each sample is obtained
only once.
▪ Cohort analysis consists of a series of surveys conducted at
appropriate time intervals, where the cohort serves as the basic
unit of analysis. A cohort is a group of respondents who
experience the same event within the same time interval.
Cohort Design
Longitudinal Designs
▪ A fixed sample (or samples) of population elements is measured
repeatedly on the same variables
▪ A longitudinal design differs from a cross-sectional design in that
the sample or samples remain the same over time
Example: Longitudinal study of digital marketing strategies
targeting Millennials,
Data were collected over a three‐year period (2009 to 2011) by
surveying Millennials at a prominent southwest US university.
Year Awareness Preference Satisfaction Loyalty
2012 3.3 4.2 3.1 3.3
2013 3.1 3.3 3.0 3.1
2014 3.0 3.1 3.5 5.0
2015 2.8 3.2 4.0 4.3
Longitudinal Designs: An
Example
▪ Aims to measure the
actual sales effect of
consumers’ experiences
▪ Philips decided to set
up a single-source
longitudinal survey.
▪ Customers were
recontacted 9 to 18
months.
Panel Designs
▪ Combination of cross sectional and longitudinal
Example: What drives store brand purchases during crisis periods?
Evidence from panel
Data were collected for 4500 households from 2008 and 2009.
Year Person Income Age Expense
2012 1 40000 27 30000
2012 2 30000 29 25000
2013 1 50000 28 30000
2013 2 30000 30 28000
Causal Research Design
What is causal research? What is casualty?
▪ Concerned with cause and Measure the effect of
effect relationship treatment on certain
▪ Mostly conducted with outcomes
experiments
Methods of Causal research
Experiment, Laboratory experiment, Field experiment, Marketing
testing,
Uses of Causal Research
➢ To understand which variables are the cause
(independent variables) and which variables are the
effect (dependent variables) of a phenomenon
➢ To determine the nature of the relationship
between the causal variables and the effect to be
predicted
➢ To test hypotheses
➢ Method: Experiments
