Basic research or pure research is conducted without a specific decision in mind, and it usually does not address the needs of a specific organization.
Basic research is not aimed at solving a pragmatic problem, but attempts to expand the limits of marketing knowledge in general.Applied research is conducted to address a specific marketing decision for a specific firm or organization.
Ad hoc research focuses on a specific marketing problem and involves the collection of data at one point in time from one sample of respondents such as a customer satisfaction study or an attitude survey.
Custom-designed studies are based on the specific needs of the client. The research design is based on the research briefly given to the marketing research agency or internal marketing researcher.
Continuous research involves conducting the same research on the same sample repeatedly to monitor the changes that are taking place over time.
One of the most popular forms of continuous research is the consumer panel.
When large numbers of customers are recruited to provide information on their purchases over a period of time, they make up a consumer panel.
Exploratory research is conducted to clarify ambiguous situations or discover ideas that may be potential business opportunities.
Exploratory research is not intended to provide conclusive evidence. More research will be needed to provide more conclusive evidence after exploratory research.
Descriptive research describes characteristics of objects, people, groups, organizations, or environments. It addresses who, what, when, where, and how to buy.
Descriptive research is conducted with a considerable understanding of the situation being studied.
Causal research is conducted to identify cause and effect relationships among variables to show that one event actually makes another happen.
Exploratory and descriptive research normally precedes cause-and-effect relationship studies.
Company research is to design and implement a study with in-house staff.
Most large consumer goods companies have marketing research departments.
Contract research is to use an outside firm specializing in market research.
Many marketing research firms, advertising agencies, and consulting companies do marketing research on a contract basis.
In global marketing, a combination of in-house and outside research efforts is often advisable.
中外案例对比
Case Study Comparison
福临门品牌打造,攻心为上
“福临门”是中粮集团旗下的知名品牌,拥有庞大的厨房食品家族,囊括了食用油、大米、糖、调味料等系列产品。其品牌含义取自“品质安全,幸福临门”,用心去创造家的幸福滋味。福临门的品牌文化是一种“福文化”,认为民以食为天,食是生存、发展的基础,是幸福的源头。在福临门品牌打造的过程中,处处围绕福文化,深入挖掘新时代中国人对幸福的追求,在品牌传播中抓住顾客真情实感,强化品牌形象,得到了很好的营销效果。
福临门为了对福文化进行更贴近生活的解读,长期致力于消费者的调查。2009年下半年,福临门展开了一场涵盖全国22个省、5大自治区、4个直辖市的“中国人幸福指数大调查”。作为中国第一个最全面的幸福感调查,特别考虑到城市中的农民工、企业主或者企业高管、以及在校学生等特殊群体,历时半年,通过科学的方法和数据展现了2009年的国民生活质量。这份调查结果推翻了很多既有的幸福论,比如金钱并不是主宰家庭幸福的因素,收入适中的家庭幸福指数更高等。调查结果中对幸福的陈述,引起了国人对幸福的重新思考。这也让福临门了解到国人心目中的“福”是什么,并重新定位自己的福文化。
从品牌战略上来说,中粮集团肩负国家的整个粮油的安全供应,而福临门是中粮集团的“品牌长子”,背负的使命让这位“长子”必须在厨房食品市场中快速的发展。但市场有市场的规律,消费者用钞票还是用脚来投票,都由品牌的知名度、美誉度、忠诚度来决定。在此,幸福成为福临门这个大品牌的最核心的一个价值定位,对应的产品价值就是健康、美味、安全。
在这个定位的指导下,福临门2014年10月8日在官方微信上发起的大型网络互动活动——“寻找你的幸福时刻”。这个活动旨在发掘身边平凡人的幸福故事,寻找迷失在忙碌中的感动。活动之初,福临门发布一系列“幸福代言人”的照片,呼吁网友搜寻线索,帮助福临门找到照片中的主人公。网友立即响应,积极寻找“幸福代言人”,更多网友还上传自己的幸福照片,讲述照片背后的幸福故事。这些故事里,有与共和国同生的白发夫妻,有一起在异地打拼的三姐妹,有与病魔抗争的一家人……这些故事感动了不少网友,大家对幸福的理解从“幸福是难以捕捉的东西”,逐渐转变为“原来幸福可以这样简单”,传递了网络正能量。
截至2014年11月19日,“寻找你的幸福时刻”活动共收集到幸福照片及幸福视频近3万份,超过9万网友加入到寻找“幸福代言人”的队伍中来,最终共寻找到福临门“幸福代言人”百余位。通过这些接地气的品牌宣传活动,福临门很好地迎合了现代社会人们对幸福感的追求,对于一个传统的食品品牌来说,很有创新性,有效地提高了品牌的影响力。
(资料来源:改编自福临门官网品牌介绍,http://www.fulinmen.com.cn/About/culture.aspx,品牌打造,如何攻心?福临门全媒体营销解密.)
Symrise: Using Netnography to Generate New Products
Symrise is a German company that is a major global supplier of flavors and fragrances for the food industry as well as cosmetic active ingredients and other raw materials. Its customers range from manufacturers in the food and beverage sector as well as the makers of nutritional supplements and also the cosmetic and pharmaceutical industries. As a B2B company, it competes with several large global rivals such as International Flavors and Fragrances, but it has sought to differentiate itself by investing in end-consumer research primarily through the means of netnography.
For example, one of its studies looked at the area of healthy nutrition and particularly the issue that many consumers perceive diet products as not tasting good.
A total of 249 communities and blogs were identified and of these 16 were selected for examination in greater detail, including chefkoch.de (the largest German food community), cookinglight.com (a community for healthy living and eating) and egullet.com (a forum for gourmet food). From the thousands of posts reviewed, some key insights emerging included that more consumers wanted natural food and felt that the inclusion of artificial ingredients had got out of control; that“light”products were a fake—when one ingredient was reduced, another was increased; that the fewer ingredients listed the better; and that many convenience foods were over-flavoured so that people have forgotten what food should taste like. These insights were used to develop a product called SymLife Sweet, an agent that enabled manufacturers to bring out the natural flavour of the food and reduce the need for added sugar. A similar analysis of the citrus drinks sector led to the development of a product called Homemade Lemonade as the netnographic research showed a strong consumer connection to homemade drinks that people had consumed as children.
Not only did the research lead to the development of new products, it also generated ideas regarding how these products should be marketed by food companies. For example, the concept of Alpine Cabin Life was used to support the marketing of SymLife Sweet as the image of natural, healthy mountain living had come through strongly in the research. This enhanced knowledge of the end consumer was a significant advantage to Symrise over its rivals. As well as providing new products for its customers, it was able to utilize its market knowledge to provide additional services such as advice and intelligence on how products should be positioned and marketed for maximum success.
(Source: John Fahy and David Jobber.Foundations of Marketing (5th edition). Berkshire:McGraw-Hill Education, 2015, pp.195-196)
Case Implications:
There are various types of marketing research, and the research results can be used in all marketing strategies. Both the product development of Symrise and the brand promotion design of Fortune can choose proper research methods and design research plan on the basis of research purposes, and then provide supports for designing marketing strategy. No matter which research method is used, the research will be centered around the research purpose to ensure its effectiveness.