kotler04_im_Marketing management笔记.doc

LEARNING OBJECTIVES After reading this chapter, students should: Know what constitutes good marketing research Know what are good metrics for measuring marketing productivity Know how marketers can assess their returns on investment of marketing expenditures Know how companies can more accurately measure and forecast demand CHAPTER SUMMARY Companies can conduct their own marketing research or hire other companies to do it for them. Good marketing research is characterized by the scientific method, creativity, multiple research methods, accurate model building, cost-benefit analysis, healthy skepticism, and an ethical focus. The marketing research process consists of defining the problem and research objective, developing the research plan, collecting the information, analyzing the information, presenting the findings to management, and making the decision. In conducting research, firms must decide whether to collect their own data or use data that already exists. They must also decide which research approach (observational, focus group, survey, behavioral data, or experimental) and which research instruments (questionnaire or mechanical instruments) to use. In addition, they must decide on a sampling plan and contact methods. Analysis should ensure that the company achieves the sales, profits, and other goals established in its annual plan. The main tools are sales analysis, market-share analysis, marketing expense-to-sales analysis, and financial analysis of the marketing plan. Profitability analysis seeks to measure and control the profitability of various products, territories, customer groups, trade channels, and order sizes. An important part of controlling profitability is assigning costs and generating profit-and-loss statements. There are two types of demand: market demand and company demand. To estimate current demand, companies attempt to determine total market potential, area market potential, industry sales, and market share. To estimate future dem