The Research Process - Research Purpose
The Research Process - Research Purpose
Seldom will research problems come neatly packaged—with obvious information requirements, clear-cut boundaries and pure motives on the part of the decision makers. Instead, they are more likely to be poorly defined, only partially understood, and missing possible decision alternatives that should be analyzed. Launching a research study with such shaky inputs is a recipe for unusable findings and unhappy clients. It is in the best interest of both the researcher and the managers paying for the research to be sure the research purpose is fully understood. One of the hallmarks of a competent researcher is an ability to get to the heart of the management problem.
Consider the seemingly straightforward request by the chairperson of an association of community merchants for a research project to help reduce the propensity of residents in the community to do their shopping in two nearby communities. Clearly the purpose of the research was to identify and evaluate various ways to increase the local merchant's share of shopping by residents. Further probing, however, revealed that the statement of the problem was at least partially inaccurate.
Only late in the research process was it learned by the researcher that the chairperson was having real difficulty convincing the other local merchants there was a serious enough outflow of local trade to warrant joint action to reverse the flow. This certainly changed the purpose of the research. Now the researcher would have to measure the level of retail trade outflow, in addition to the reasons for the outflow. This required a major change in the research design—but had the change not been made the results would have been of little value to the client.
The research purpose comprises a shared understanding between the manager and the researcher of the following:
1. Problems or opportunities to be studied
• Which problems or opportunities are anticipated?
• What is the scope of the problems and the possible reasons?
2. Decision alternatives to be evaluated
• What are the alternatives being studied?
• What are the criteria for choosing among the alternatives?
• What is the timing or importance of the decision?
3. Users of the research results
• Who are the decision makers?
• Are there any covert purposes?
Problem or Opportunity Analysis
Research is often motivated by a problem or opportunity. The fact that sales are below expectations in the East might be a problem requiring research. The fact that people are consuming fewer sweets could be a problem or potential opportunity for a candy company. Increased leisure time might be viewed as an opportunity by a recreation-oriented organization. In such cases the research purpose should specify the problem or opportunity to be explored.
Especially in situation analysis contexts, exploratory research is needed to identify problems and opportunities. What sales areas are showing weak performance? What segments represent opportunities because they are dissatisfied with current products or because they are underusing the product? Even in exploratory research, however, it will be helpful to identify the nature of the problem or opportunity that is motivating the research. Further, the goal should be to move from exploratory research to research more focused on a decision.
The manager needs to make certain that the real problem is being addressed. Sometimes the recognized problem is only a symptom or perhaps merely a part of a larger problem. A sobering illustration of this is the plight of Compton Corp.,2 a manufacturer of capital equipment costing between $10,000 and $25,000. The company was dominant in its market, with a share as large as the next two biggest competitors. All the companies sold their equipment through a network of independent distributors, each of which sold the products of at least two competitors. For several years this market leader had been losing share. In an attempt to reverse the trend they changed advertising agencies. When the new agency funded a study of end-users, they found to their surprise that the previous agency had done a superb job in creating awareness and favorable attitudes. However, many of the equipment purchasers who favored Compton were actually buying from the competitor. This problem had little to do with the performance of the advertising agency. A new study, oriented toward the distributors, found that Compton's distributor relations program was very weak relative to competitors. One competitor emphasized sales contests, another offered cash bonuses to salespeople, and a third was particularly effective with technical sales assistance directed to difficult accounts. Not surprisingly, these factors influenced the distributors when they were asked for advice, or when the prospective purchaser didn't have a firm commitment to Compton equipment.
In this case, the real problem was ultimately isolated, but only after much time and energy had been directed toward the wrong problem. It is important, when defining the problem, to think broadly about the possible causes—or influential variables. This may justify a separate exploratory research study.
Decision Alternatives
For research to be effective, it must be associated with a decision. Marketing research is committed to the principle of utility. In general, if research is not going to have an effect on decisions, it is an exercise in futility. The researcher should always be sensitive to the possibility that either there are no decision alternatives—and therefore no decision—or that the research findings will not affect the decision—usually because of resource or organizational constraints. In such circumstances, the research will have no practical value and probably should not be conducted.
When a decision does exist, it is important to identify it explicitly, because the research then can be designed to have maximum effectiveness. For example, researchers frequently are asked to assess the potential of a
market that is unfamiliar to the company. But what are the decisions facing the manager? Is the manager thinking of acquiring a company serving that market? Has the lab produced a new product which might be sold as a component to the industry serving that market? The answers will have a significant influence on the design of the research.
A most useful way to clarify the decision motivating the research is to ask: (1) What alternative actions are being considered? (2) What actions would be taken, given the various feasible outcomes of the research? This line of questioning can be very enlightening for the decision maker, as well as for the researcher, in terms of clarifying exactly what is to be accomplished by the research. The story in the following box illustrates how both can learn from a focus on decisions.
<em>POLITICAL CAMPAIGN RESEARCH
The meeting between Hugh Godfrey and two project directors from Pollsters Anonymous, a well-known survey research company, had taken a surprising turn. Here were two researchers suggesting that no research be undertaken.
Godfrey was campaign manager for John Crombie, a university professor and erstwhile Democratic challenger of the Republican incumbent for the local House of Representatives seat. He and his candidate were anxious to undertake a program of research. They thought it would be a good idea to have surveys in May and September (five months and six weeks prior to the election) of voter awareness of the candidate, attitudes toward him, issue salience, and intentions to vote. The results would be helpful in clarifying the candidate's position and deciding on media expenditures. Positive results would be useful in soliciting campaign contributions, which loomed as a big problem.
During the meeting the researchers had asked what Godfrey expected to find. He was sure that the initial survey would reveal low awareness, and would confirm other information he had that there was a low level of voter registration among Democrats in the area. The next question was whether any foreseeable results would persuade him not to spend all his available resources on a voter registration drive. He had to admit also that the preliminary estimate of $6000 for a May survey was a large chunk of his available funds. In fact, he was thinking, "With the money for the survey I could hire enough canvassers to get at least 1500 to 2000 registrations."</em>
Sometimes the decision involved is highly specific. A copy test is used to select a copy alternative. A concept test is employed to determine if a concept should be developed further. Sometimes the decision can be very general. What markets should be the primary targets of our organization? Should our marketing program be changed? It is desirable to be as specific as possible because the research purpose then will be more effective in guiding the development of the research design. However, even if the decision is necessarily general, it needs to be clearly stated.
Criteria for Choosing Among Alternatives It is essential for the researcher to know how the decision maker will choose among the available alternatives. Suppose a product manager is considering three possible package redesigns for a health-care product with declining sales. This would seem to be a straightforward research undertaking, as the decision alternatives are completely specified. Yet the product manager could use some or all of the following criteria to choose the best of the three alternative packages:
2. Long-run sales
2. Trial purchases by users of competing brands
3. Amount of shelf space assigned to the brand
4. Differentiation from competitive packages
5. Brand-name recognition
The researcher and decision maker need to discuss all possible criteria in advance and choose those which are appropriate. If the criteria for comparison is to be long-run sales results, the research approach will be much more elaborate than if the choice were based simply on brand-name recognition.
Timing and Importance These are always pivotal questions in the research process. How crucial is the decision? If the wrong decision is made, what will the consequences be? Obviously, the decision to go national with a new government program represents a much larger commitment than the decision to pursue a new program idea a bit further. Other questions are concerned with the timing of the decision. What is the time pressure on the decision? Is information needed quickly or is there time to develop an optimal research design?
Research Users
Decision Makers When the research results will be used to guide internal problem solving, the researcher must know the objectives and expectations of the actual decision makers. The bigger the problem, the more difficult this becomes, for not only are a large number of people likely to be involved, but the contact person may simply be acting as a liaison whose interpretation of the problem and the need for research may be secondhand. The major benefit from making an effort to reach all the decision makers is that the research purpose is likely to be specified more adequately. These contacts also will tell the researcher (especially an outside supplier who is called in to undertake the work) a good deal about the resources that are available to deal with the problem. This is very helpful in developing a realistic proposal.
Increasingly, marketing research is entering the public domain, which introduces a new set of users who frequently have very different criteria for evaluating research results. For example:
• A public utility presents a research study to a regulatory body in support of a request for a rate change or introduction of a change in service level.
• An industry trade association conducts research designed to influence proposed legislation or trade regulations. The Direct Mail Marketing Association has sponsored a study of mail-order buyers in response to a proposed Federal Trade Commission order that would require sellers to offer a refund if they could not ship the ordered goods within a month.
• A regional transit agency wants to build public support for the continuation of an experimental program involving "dedicated" bus lanes (part of a road or highway on which no automobile traffic is permitted). The research demonstrating the effectiveness of the program is to be presented to various public bodies and citizen groups.
In most cases, the research in the above examples is used to support a decision alternative. However, the examination of the results is often conducted in an adversary setting, which means more criticism of shortcomings and necessitates a higher quality of research.
Overt and Covert Purposes
It would be naive to presume that research is always conducted to facilitate rational problem-solving activity or that the decision maker will always be willing or able to share reasons for initiating the research.
Most researchers have encountered situations where the main purpose for their efforts was to serve someone's organizational goals. Thus, research can be used to postpone an awkward decision or to lend respectability to a decision that has been made already. A related purpose is to avoid responsibility. When there are competing factions, the manager making a difficult choice looks to research for the decision. This has the further advantage that, if the decision is later proved to be wrong, the manager can find someone else to blame.
In addition, research has a public relations value. A manager, believing he or she has a successful program, hopes that a research study will make efforts more visible. Usually the researcher has to guess at these covert purposes, for the decision maker will be understandably unwilling to reveal them. Worse, all the overt purposes may not be disclosed. In highly sensitive situations the decision maker may want to minimize the number of people with full knowledge. This problem is confronted often by outside research suppliers. Another reason may be a lack of confidence in the abilities of the researcher—in such cases the researcher's scope is limited to the mechanical aspects. Finally, the manager simply may not want the researcher to acquire any additional power that might come from greater familiarity with the decision-making process.
Ethical Issues
Sometimes a covert purpose will open the way for ethical abuses that present hard dilemmas for researchers. The most serious abuses are created when there is subtle (or not so subtle) pressure to design research to support a particular decision or enhance a legal position. As we will see in later chapters, it is not hard to tilt the results by adroit choices of sample, biased question wording, or even selective coding of responses.
Too often researchers find themselves dealing with demands by sales or other personnel for access to results and names and telephone numbers of respondents. The intention, of course, is to use the research study for an entirely different—and usually unethical purpose of generating sales leads. The only time this is acceptable is when the interviewer specifically asks whether the respondent will accept a follow-up sales call, or would like more information, and acts precisely on the respondent's answer.
Sadly, there are a number of situations where the research study is simply a guise for a selling pitch. Many people have received phone calls ostensibly to ask some research questions that only really lead to a canned sales message for life insurance, encyclopedias, or mutual funds. This is not only unethical behavior because it has no merits on its own, but it is also a
serious abuse of respondent rights. Not surprisingly respondents are more suspicious after a few of these encounters and may refuse to participate in any research study.
None of these abuses can be condoned. Often they are specifically prohibited by industry codes of ethics. When they are not, one's moral standards become the compass for deciding what is right.
Seldom will research problems come neatly packaged—with obvious information requirements, clear-cut boundaries and pure motives on the part of the decision makers. Instead, they are more likely to be poorly defined, only partially understood, and missing possible decision alternatives that should be analyzed. Launching a research study with such shaky inputs is a recipe for unusable findings and unhappy clients. It is in the best interest of both the researcher and the managers paying for the research to be sure the research purpose is fully understood. One of the hallmarks of a competent researcher is an ability to get to the heart of the management problem.
Consider the seemingly straightforward request by the chairperson of an association of community merchants for a research project to help reduce the propensity of residents in the community to do their shopping in two nearby communities. Clearly the purpose of the research was to identify and evaluate various ways to increase the local merchant's share of shopping by residents. Further probing, however, revealed that the statement of the problem was at least partially inaccurate.
Only late in the research process was it learned by the researcher that the chairperson was having real difficulty convincing the other local merchants there was a serious enough outflow of local trade to warrant joint action to reverse the flow. This certainly changed the purpose of the research. Now the researcher would have to measure the level of retail trade outflow, in addition to the reasons for the outflow. This required a major change in the research design—but had the change not been made the results would have been of little value to the client.
The research purpose comprises a shared understanding between the manager and the researcher of the following:
1. Problems or opportunities to be studied
• Which problems or opportunities are anticipated?
• What is the scope of the problems and the possible reasons?
2. Decision alternatives to be evaluated
• What are the alternatives being studied?
• What are the criteria for choosing among the alternatives?
• What is the timing or importance of the decision?
3. Users of the research results
• Who are the decision makers?
• Are there any covert purposes?
Problem or Opportunity Analysis
Research is often motivated by a problem or opportunity. The fact that sales are below expectations in the East might be a problem requiring research. The fact that people are consuming fewer sweets could be a problem or potential opportunity for a candy company. Increased leisure time might be viewed as an opportunity by a recreation-oriented organization. In such cases the research purpose should specify the problem or opportunity to be explored.
Especially in situation analysis contexts, exploratory research is needed to identify problems and opportunities. What sales areas are showing weak performance? What segments represent opportunities because they are dissatisfied with current products or because they are underusing the product? Even in exploratory research, however, it will be helpful to identify the nature of the problem or opportunity that is motivating the research. Further, the goal should be to move from exploratory research to research more focused on a decision.
The manager needs to make certain that the real problem is being addressed. Sometimes the recognized problem is only a symptom or perhaps merely a part of a larger problem. A sobering illustration of this is the plight of Compton Corp.,2 a manufacturer of capital equipment costing between $10,000 and $25,000. The company was dominant in its market, with a share as large as the next two biggest competitors. All the companies sold their equipment through a network of independent distributors, each of which sold the products of at least two competitors. For several years this market leader had been losing share. In an attempt to reverse the trend they changed advertising agencies. When the new agency funded a study of end-users, they found to their surprise that the previous agency had done a superb job in creating awareness and favorable attitudes. However, many of the equipment purchasers who favored Compton were actually buying from the competitor. This problem had little to do with the performance of the advertising agency. A new study, oriented toward the distributors, found that Compton's distributor relations program was very weak relative to competitors. One competitor emphasized sales contests, another offered cash bonuses to salespeople, and a third was particularly effective with technical sales assistance directed to difficult accounts. Not surprisingly, these factors influenced the distributors when they were asked for advice, or when the prospective purchaser didn't have a firm commitment to Compton equipment.
In this case, the real problem was ultimately isolated, but only after much time and energy had been directed toward the wrong problem. It is important, when defining the problem, to think broadly about the possible causes—or influential variables. This may justify a separate exploratory research study.
Decision Alternatives
For research to be effective, it must be associated with a decision. Marketing research is committed to the principle of utility. In general, if research is not going to have an effect on decisions, it is an exercise in futility. The researcher should always be sensitive to the possibility that either there are no decision alternatives—and therefore no decision—or that the research findings will not affect the decision—usually because of resource or organizational constraints. In such circumstances, the research will have no practical value and probably should not be conducted.
When a decision does exist, it is important to identify it explicitly, because the research then can be designed to have maximum effectiveness. For example, researchers frequently are asked to assess the potential of a
market that is unfamiliar to the company. But what are the decisions facing the manager? Is the manager thinking of acquiring a company serving that market? Has the lab produced a new product which might be sold as a component to the industry serving that market? The answers will have a significant influence on the design of the research.
A most useful way to clarify the decision motivating the research is to ask: (1) What alternative actions are being considered? (2) What actions would be taken, given the various feasible outcomes of the research? This line of questioning can be very enlightening for the decision maker, as well as for the researcher, in terms of clarifying exactly what is to be accomplished by the research. The story in the following box illustrates how both can learn from a focus on decisions.
<em>POLITICAL CAMPAIGN RESEARCH
The meeting between Hugh Godfrey and two project directors from Pollsters Anonymous, a well-known survey research company, had taken a surprising turn. Here were two researchers suggesting that no research be undertaken.
Godfrey was campaign manager for John Crombie, a university professor and erstwhile Democratic challenger of the Republican incumbent for the local House of Representatives seat. He and his candidate were anxious to undertake a program of research. They thought it would be a good idea to have surveys in May and September (five months and six weeks prior to the election) of voter awareness of the candidate, attitudes toward him, issue salience, and intentions to vote. The results would be helpful in clarifying the candidate's position and deciding on media expenditures. Positive results would be useful in soliciting campaign contributions, which loomed as a big problem.
During the meeting the researchers had asked what Godfrey expected to find. He was sure that the initial survey would reveal low awareness, and would confirm other information he had that there was a low level of voter registration among Democrats in the area. The next question was whether any foreseeable results would persuade him not to spend all his available resources on a voter registration drive. He had to admit also that the preliminary estimate of $6000 for a May survey was a large chunk of his available funds. In fact, he was thinking, "With the money for the survey I could hire enough canvassers to get at least 1500 to 2000 registrations."</em>
Sometimes the decision involved is highly specific. A copy test is used to select a copy alternative. A concept test is employed to determine if a concept should be developed further. Sometimes the decision can be very general. What markets should be the primary targets of our organization? Should our marketing program be changed? It is desirable to be as specific as possible because the research purpose then will be more effective in guiding the development of the research design. However, even if the decision is necessarily general, it needs to be clearly stated.
Criteria for Choosing Among Alternatives It is essential for the researcher to know how the decision maker will choose among the available alternatives. Suppose a product manager is considering three possible package redesigns for a health-care product with declining sales. This would seem to be a straightforward research undertaking, as the decision alternatives are completely specified. Yet the product manager could use some or all of the following criteria to choose the best of the three alternative packages:
2. Long-run sales
2. Trial purchases by users of competing brands
3. Amount of shelf space assigned to the brand
4. Differentiation from competitive packages
5. Brand-name recognition
The researcher and decision maker need to discuss all possible criteria in advance and choose those which are appropriate. If the criteria for comparison is to be long-run sales results, the research approach will be much more elaborate than if the choice were based simply on brand-name recognition.
Timing and Importance These are always pivotal questions in the research process. How crucial is the decision? If the wrong decision is made, what will the consequences be? Obviously, the decision to go national with a new government program represents a much larger commitment than the decision to pursue a new program idea a bit further. Other questions are concerned with the timing of the decision. What is the time pressure on the decision? Is information needed quickly or is there time to develop an optimal research design?
Research Users
Decision Makers When the research results will be used to guide internal problem solving, the researcher must know the objectives and expectations of the actual decision makers. The bigger the problem, the more difficult this becomes, for not only are a large number of people likely to be involved, but the contact person may simply be acting as a liaison whose interpretation of the problem and the need for research may be secondhand. The major benefit from making an effort to reach all the decision makers is that the research purpose is likely to be specified more adequately. These contacts also will tell the researcher (especially an outside supplier who is called in to undertake the work) a good deal about the resources that are available to deal with the problem. This is very helpful in developing a realistic proposal.
Increasingly, marketing research is entering the public domain, which introduces a new set of users who frequently have very different criteria for evaluating research results. For example:
• A public utility presents a research study to a regulatory body in support of a request for a rate change or introduction of a change in service level.
• An industry trade association conducts research designed to influence proposed legislation or trade regulations. The Direct Mail Marketing Association has sponsored a study of mail-order buyers in response to a proposed Federal Trade Commission order that would require sellers to offer a refund if they could not ship the ordered goods within a month.
• A regional transit agency wants to build public support for the continuation of an experimental program involving "dedicated" bus lanes (part of a road or highway on which no automobile traffic is permitted). The research demonstrating the effectiveness of the program is to be presented to various public bodies and citizen groups.
In most cases, the research in the above examples is used to support a decision alternative. However, the examination of the results is often conducted in an adversary setting, which means more criticism of shortcomings and necessitates a higher quality of research.
Overt and Covert Purposes
It would be naive to presume that research is always conducted to facilitate rational problem-solving activity or that the decision maker will always be willing or able to share reasons for initiating the research.
Most researchers have encountered situations where the main purpose for their efforts was to serve someone's organizational goals. Thus, research can be used to postpone an awkward decision or to lend respectability to a decision that has been made already. A related purpose is to avoid responsibility. When there are competing factions, the manager making a difficult choice looks to research for the decision. This has the further advantage that, if the decision is later proved to be wrong, the manager can find someone else to blame.
In addition, research has a public relations value. A manager, believing he or she has a successful program, hopes that a research study will make efforts more visible. Usually the researcher has to guess at these covert purposes, for the decision maker will be understandably unwilling to reveal them. Worse, all the overt purposes may not be disclosed. In highly sensitive situations the decision maker may want to minimize the number of people with full knowledge. This problem is confronted often by outside research suppliers. Another reason may be a lack of confidence in the abilities of the researcher—in such cases the researcher's scope is limited to the mechanical aspects. Finally, the manager simply may not want the researcher to acquire any additional power that might come from greater familiarity with the decision-making process.
Ethical Issues
Sometimes a covert purpose will open the way for ethical abuses that present hard dilemmas for researchers. The most serious abuses are created when there is subtle (or not so subtle) pressure to design research to support a particular decision or enhance a legal position. As we will see in later chapters, it is not hard to tilt the results by adroit choices of sample, biased question wording, or even selective coding of responses.
Too often researchers find themselves dealing with demands by sales or other personnel for access to results and names and telephone numbers of respondents. The intention, of course, is to use the research study for an entirely different—and usually unethical purpose of generating sales leads. The only time this is acceptable is when the interviewer specifically asks whether the respondent will accept a follow-up sales call, or would like more information, and acts precisely on the respondent's answer.
Sadly, there are a number of situations where the research study is simply a guise for a selling pitch. Many people have received phone calls ostensibly to ask some research questions that only really lead to a canned sales message for life insurance, encyclopedias, or mutual funds. This is not only unethical behavior because it has no merits on its own, but it is also a
serious abuse of respondent rights. Not surprisingly respondents are more suspicious after a few of these encounters and may refuse to participate in any research study.
None of these abuses can be condoned. Often they are specifically prohibited by industry codes of ethics. When they are not, one's moral standards become the compass for deciding what is right.
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