Exam 4: Defining the Problem and Determining Research Objectives

Marketing researchers find constructs helpful for two reasons: a. they reduce the time needed to process data and b. once respondents know constructs are being measured, they are more likely to participate in the research.

It is important for researchers to examine ALL possible causes for the symptoms before narrowing possible causes down to the probable causes.

In your text, McDonald's was used as an example of a company that improperly defined the research problem when the problem was defined as:

Management's ability to recognize opportunities is increased if they use a process called opportunity identification.

A marketing researcher investigates the way a client measures sales which are falling. This illustrates

In some cases a manager is uncertain about his or her assumptions and believes he or she does not have adequate information to support or refute the assumptions.

While research objectives should be reasonably specific they do not need to specify from whom the information will be gathered, as this decision is made during the data collection step of the marketing research process.

Once marketers know which construct is to be used in a research objective they can determine the proper way to:

Research objectives should state the "unit of measurement" and define the operational definition which specifies how the construct(s)will be measured empirically.

Which of the following best characterizes what managers should do in order to recognize problems?

A restaurant owner makes the following statement: "I believe I will need to place x amount of food on an entre dinner plate in order to satisfy my customers." This statement may be viewed as:

"If managers are not making a decision, they don't need information," according to Parlin Award recipient Ron Tatham.

One of the functions of the marketing research proposal is to detail the research method proposed by the researcher to accomplish the research objectives.

When managers know the consequence of a decision alternative with certainty, they should conduct marketing research to make certain of their knowledge.

The key lesson regarding symptoms is that they:

In the problem definition process, once a symptom has been identified it is important to specify all possible causes for the change that brought about the symptom.

Ralph Thomas is director of sales for Hopkins Pharmaceutical. He is commissioning research to help him determine which advertising message will be the most effective at getting MDs to start prescribing the company's new bird-flu vaccine. He normally thinks of drugs in terms of form of medicine (tablet vs. liquid), dosage levels, effectiveness vs. competitors' drug, and so on. But, he knows that MDs are more apt to think in terms of severity of side effects, interactions with other medicines, factors that would make patients ineligible to take the vaccine, and so on. By concentrating on how the targeted MDs think about drugs in formulating the research, Thomas is ensuring that the information collected in the research will be in the proper:

Marketing researchers may take the symptoms provided to them by management as valid without investigating the validity of the symptoms themselves.

Researchers must resist the temptation to "go along" with the first problem definition suggested.

Once a researcher knows what decision a manager must make, it is not important to determine the alternatives involved in the decision.