end–of–chapter resources

Reviewing the Key Terms

causal research: Marketing research to test hypotheses about cause-and-effect relationships.
customer relationship management (CRM): managing detailed information about individual customers and carefully managing customer "touch points" in order to maximize customer loyalty.
descriptive research: Marketing research to better describe marketing problems, situations, or markets, such as the market potential for a product or the demographics and attitudes of consumers.
exploratory research: Marketing research to gather preliminary information that will help define problems and suggest hypotheses.
experimental research: The gathering of primary data by selecting matched groups of subjects, giving them different treatments, controlling related factors, and checking for differences in group responses.
focus group interviewing: Personal interviewing that involves inviting 6 to 10 people to gather for a few hours with a trained interviewer to talk about a product, service, or organization. The interviewer "focuses" the group discussion on important issues.
internal databases: Electronic collections of information obtained from data sources within the company.
marketing information system (MIS): People, equipment, and procedures to gather, sort, analyze, evaluate, and distribute needed, timely, and accurate information to marketing decision makers.
marketing intelligence: The systematic collection and analysis of publicly available information about competitors and developments in the marketing environment.
marketing research: The systematic design, collection, analysis, and reporting of data relevant to a specific marketing situation facing an organization.
observational research: The gathering of primary data by observing relevant people, actions, and situations.
online databases: Computerized collections of information available from online commercial sources or via the Internet.
online (Internet) marketing research: Collecting primary data through Internet surveys and online focus groups.
primary data: Information collected for the specific purpose at hand.
sample: A segment of the population selected for marketing research to represent the population as a whole.
secondary data: Information that already exists somewhere, having been collected for another purpose.
single-source data systems: Electronic monitoring systems that link consumers' exposure to television advertising and promotion (measured using television meters) with what they buy in stores (measured using store checkout scanners).
survey research: The gathering of primary data by asking people questions about their knowledge, attitudes, preferences, and buying behavior.