The final lesson in my series undergraduate lectures at Saitama University. This lecture ties the threads together.

1. Marketing Research & Social Communication
Lesson 15
Linking market research to
business needs and objectives
Ray Poynter
1Ray Poynter, Marketing Research & Social Communication, 2015

2. Agenda
1. Updates and last week’s quiz
2. Review
3. Linking market research and business
objectives
4. Big Picture
5. End of lesson, short break, and extra
material 2:45-4:00pm
Ray Poynter, Marketing Research & Social Communication, 2015 2

3. Updates
• Please tell me if I speak too fast 
• http://newmr.org/saitama-2015/
• Previous Quizzes – all previous quizzes, i.e.
Lesson 3 onwards, now on the website
• No dictionaries in the exam
• 70 questions, one hour, 31 July, 1pm
• Extra lesson (optional), 24 July, 2:45-4:00
• Review of last week’s quiz
Ray Poynter, Marketing Research & Social Communication, 2015 3

4. What is Market Research?
Scope: Customers
Objective: Better business decisions
Ray Poynter, Marketing Research & Social Communication, 2015 4
• Evidence-based decision making
• Better informed decisions
• Customer-focused decision making

5. The Main Uses
of Market Research
1. To explain the market
For example: Who uses what, where, when, why,
and how?
2. To predict the future(probabilistically)
For example, “Here are three TV ads, if I were to
use them, what impact would they have?”, or “If the
price increases 10%, what happens to sales?”
3. To help create the future
For example, asking people help design a new
snack food.
Ray Poynter, Marketing Research & Social Communication, 2015 5

6. Brands
In market research (and international
marketing) a brand is anything that is
used to identify a product or service
Brands include:
– Rolls Royce
– Toyota
– FamilyMart
– Kirin
– Coca-Cola
– Georgia (owned by Coca-Cola)
Ray Poynter, Marketing Research & Social Communication, 2015 6

7. Ray Poynter, Marketing Research & Social Communication, 2015 7
ESOMAR Global Market Research 2014
Data = 2013, shift from 2012 in brackets
Figures $millions, USD
Total = $40 billion

8. Ray Poynter, Marketing Research & Social Communication, 2015 8
ESOMAR Global Market Research 2014
Data = 2013, shift from 2012 in brackets
Total $40 billion
Manufacturing:
Consumer non-durables 23%
Pharmaceutical 12%
Automotive 4%
Durables 3%
Other 2%

9. Ray Poynter, Marketing Research & Social Communication, 2015 9
ESOMAR Global Market Research 2014
Data = 2013, shift from 2012 in brackets
Total = $40 billion
Quant
How many people
in this room are
married?
Qual
What do we mean
by the phrase
“Happy marriage”?

10. Ray Poynter, Marketing Research & Social Communication, 2015 10
ESOMAR Global Market Research 2014
Data = 2013, shift from 2012 in brackets
Total = $40 billion

11. Size of Market Research Sectors
Ray Poynter, Marketing Research & Social Communication, 2015 11
Rank Country $ Billions
1 USA 15.0
2 United Kingdom 5.1
3 Germany 3.5
4 France 2.7
5 Japan 1.8
6 China 1.7
10 Australia 0.7
16 South Korea 0.4
17 India 0.3
ESOMAR Global Market Research 2014
Data = 2013. Total = $40 billion (USD)

12. The Main Uses of Market Research
1. To create explanations
2. To predict the future
3. To help create the future
Ray Poynter, Marketing Research & Social Communication, 2015 12

13. Quantitative Research - Quant
Focused on numbers
– How many people have a smartphone?
– How many times a day do people use their
smartphone?
– What brand of smartphone is most popular?
– Which smartphone is the easiest to use?
– Which smartphone has the best technology?
– What would you pay for a new smartphone?
Ray Poynter, Marketing Research & Social Communication, 2015 13
The most common way to conduct
a quantitative study is via surveys

14. National Readership Survey
Ray Poynter, Marketing Research & Social Communication, 2015 14
http://www.nrs.co.uk/nrs-print/methodology/interview/

15. Alternatives to Surveys
Surveys have been the major form for
quantitative research, but that is changing
Alternatives:
– Transactional data
– Social media research
– Passive data
– People meters
– Text analytics
– Biometrics
Ray Poynter, Marketing Research & Social Communication, 2015 15

16. Qualitative Research - Qual
Meaning
Feeling
Understanding
Ray Poynter, Marketing Research & Social Communication, 2015 16
Focus Group
Depth interview
Telephone depth interview
Online focus group
Online discussion
Accompanied shop
Pairs
Triads
Ethnography
https://youtu.be/j_cUnlQl29Q

17. Focus Group
Ray Poynter, Marketing Research & Social Communication, 2015 17

18. The choice between qualitative and
quantitative research
• When companies are trying to link market
research to financial data the first choice is
usually quantitative research
• When companies are trying to improve
their decisions through understanding and
creativity they typically use qualitative
research
• When you can’t measure it, you use
qualitative research
Ray Poynter, Marketing Research & Social Communication, 2015 18

19. Key Players in the Market
Research Process
• Customer
• Internal Client
• Insight Manager
• Research Agency
• Fieldwork Companies
• Interviewers
• Recruiters
• Data Processing
• Reporting and
Infographics
• Focus Group Facilities
• Platform Providers
• Software Providers
• Coding
• Transcription
• Translation
Ray Poynter, Marketing Research & Social Communication, 2015 19

20. B2B – Business-to-Business
• If your customers are businesses, then you
are a B2B company
– Businesses buy – furniture, vehicles, financial
services, food, telecoms, postal services, HR
services, paper, printers, photocopiers etc
• In B2B research the participant is answering
on behalf of their company or organisation
• Major forms of B2B market research include:
– Customer satisfaction, pricing studies, concept
testing, segmentation, and driver analysis
Ray Poynter, Marketing Research & Social Communication, 2015 20

21. Scoping/Designing
Research Projects
1. Business objectives
2. Research objectives
3. Research methods
4. Details and logistics
5. The project
6. Analysis -> Findings -> Insight
Ray Poynter, Marketing Research & Social Communication, 2015 21

22. Insight?
• Lots of definitions
• Some people use it for anything
discovered
• Some use it for anything the client says is
an insight
• My suggestion:
– Something that provides a generalisable
understanding
– Something that supports action
Ray Poynter, Marketing Research & Social Communication, 2015 22

23. Four Things a Clients
Want from Presentations
• Separate the analysis from the
presentation
• Tell a story, don’t deliver a waterfall
• Think like a journalist
• Do it in a compelling way
Ray Poynter, Marketing Research & Social Communication, 2015 23
Narrative Flow

24. The Surveyor and the Journalist
Ray Poynter, Marketing Research & Social Communication, 2015 24

25. More than Surveys
and Focus Groups
• Social Media
• Concept testing and NPD (New
Product Development)
• Customer Satisfaction
• Brand and Ad Tracking
• Other notes
Ray Poynter, Marketing Research & Social Communication, 2015 25

26. Social Media Research
• Looking at what people are saying to each
other and to brands
• Unprompted naturally occurring
conversations
• Key Points
– Japanese language tools less developed than
English – at the moment
– Great for questions you have not even asked
– Not great for many questions that are being
asked.
Ray Poynter, Marketing Research & Social Communication, 2015 26

27. Social Media Approaches
Qualitative – selecting key sources and
reading/analysing them closely
– Including images and videos
Quantitative
– Tracking trends over time
– Measuring sentiment (Positive, Negative, and
Neutral
– Using software to capture and quantify the
information.
Ray Poynter, Marketing Research & Social Communication, 2015 27

28. Concept Testing and NPD
NPD – new product development
Key facts:
– More than 75% of new products fail
– Concept tests and NPD try to improve the chance
of success
– Tests normally conducted before a product is
launched
– Usually ask overall opinion first – to control the
bias
– Market research tests usually measure the
concept and its communication – they can’t be
completely separated
Ray Poynter, Marketing Research & Social Communication, 2015 28

29. Can we believe what people say?
Not always!
– Often people don’t know the answer (e.g. how
many kilos of rice will you buy in September?)
– Sometimes not willing to answer honestly
Separate out
– What people say
– What you think it means – either via qual analysis
or predictive modelling
Concept tests cannot always correctly predict
the future
Ray Poynter, Marketing Research & Social Communication, 2015 29

30. Customer Satisfaction
• Customer satisfaction research is conducted with
Customers
• Customer churn refers to the number who stop
using a brand or service
• Most customer satisfaction is quantitative
– Companies are seeking to measure changes in
satisfaction
• Usually ask overall satisfaction near the start of
the survey to control the bias
• NPS – the Net Promoter Score is one popular
method used for customer satisfaction
– It produces a single number
Ray Poynter, Marketing Research & Social Communication, 2015 30

31. Brand and Ad Tracking
• Allows brands to track their image,
awareness and advertising
• Tracking tends to be quantitative
• Currently, the most common approach is
via surveys
– But other approaches are growing
• Research is normally conducted with
category customers
– If tracking FamilyMart we’d track everybody
who uses a konbini, not just FamilyMart
Ray Poynter, Marketing Research & Social Communication, 2015 31

32. Other Notes
• Segmentation: using statistics to divide
customers into different groups
• Driver analysis: using statistics to find out
what factors are determining behaviour
• Research communities
– Usually private, branded, and comprising
customers
– Suitable for qualitative and quantitative
research
Ray Poynter, Marketing Research & Social Communication, 2015 32

33. Ethics, Codes, & Guidelines
Why?
1. To exercise self-regulation, rather than external
regulation.
2. To help buyers tell the difference between good
and bad research.
3. To offer guarantees to anybody taking part in
market research.
4. To guide market researchers towards best
practice.
Ray Poynter, Marketing Research & Social Communication, 2015 33

34. Working in the
market research industry
• First decision, supplier or client?
– My suggestion: start with a supplier company,
one with a training programme
• Qual or Quant?
– Unless you have a strong preference, try to get
experience of both
– If you end up on the client side you will need both
• After 18 months – 2 years, review situation:
– Stay supplier side
– Move to client side
– Leave market research
Ray Poynter, Marketing Research & Social Communication, 2015 34

35. Finding Out More About
Market Research
• Japan Market Research Association –
http://www.jmra-net.or.jp/
• JMRX – a more modern alternative –
https://www.facebook.com/JMRX2010
• ESOMAR – global trade body for MR –
https://www.esomar.org/
• NewMR – online hub for new thinking in MR
– http://newmr.org/
• GreenBook – online news and views about
MR – http://www.greenbookblog.org/
Ray Poynter, Marketing Research & Social Communication, 2015 35

36. Other Books
Ray Poynter, Marketing Research & Social Communication, 2015 36
Title: Questionnaire Design
Author: Ian Brace
Published: Kogan Page
Date: June 2013
Price: £29,99
Title: Handbook of Online & Social Media Research
Author: Ray Poynter
Published: Wiley
Date: August 2010
Price: £41.99
Title: Handbook of Mobile Market Research
Author: Ray Poynter, Navin Williams, & Sue York
Published: Wiley
Date: August 2014
Price: £24.99

37. The Big Picture
1. Focusing on customers we help organisations
make better decisions
2. We
– Create explanations
– Make predictions
– Help create the future
3. We draw on the social sciences (& other
disciplines) and use quantitative and
qualitative approaches
4. There is more to us than just surveys and
focus groups
5. Data is an input, insight and action are outputs
Ray Poynter, Marketing Research & Social Communication, 2015 37

38. Before the Exam
1. Revise all the quiz questions, check the
correct answers.
2. Check the lecture notes.
3. がんばってください!
Ray Poynter, Marketing Research & Social Communication, 2015 38

39. Questions?
Ray Poynter, Marketing Research & Social Communication, 2015 39