Marketing Research

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Marketing Research
University of Toronto Rotman School of
Management

• MGT 453
• Professor Andrew Ching
• Spring 2008

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Todays Agenda

• Review Syllabus
• Other Administrative Details
• What is Marketing Research and Marketing
  Engineering?

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Course Description

• This course focuses on the initiation, design
  and interpretation of research as an aid to
  marketing research decision making. It
  emphasizes on statistical methods, and in
  particular, mathematical modeling approach to
  address marketing research issues. The course
  will also cover qualitative research methods such
  as focus group analysis and survey research.

Review Syllabus
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Classes and Office Hours

• Class
• Wednesday 4-6pm WO 20
• Office Hours
• Wednesday 9-1030am in Rotman 508
• Phone [phone]
• Email aching_at_rotman.utoronto.ca
• Website http//www.rotman.utoronto.ca/andrew.chin
  g

Review Syllabus
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Teaching Assistant

• Name Hyunwoo Lim
• Office Bissell Building, Room 705
• Phone [phone]
• Email Hyunwoo.Lim06_at_rotman.utoronto.ca
• The best way to reach the TA is by email.

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Class Structure

• Lectures Begin 10 minutes after the hour and end
  on the hour.
• There will be a 10 minutes break midway.
• Determination of Grades
• Assignments 40 (10 for each)
• Term Project Presentations 10 (5 for each)
• Term Project Progress report 10
• Term Project Final Write-up 30
• Class Participation 10
• Text Marketing Engineering, 2nd Revised ed., by
  Gary Lilien and Arvind Rangaswamy

Review Syllabus
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Class Participation

• Attendence Being present in class is a minimum
  requirement. Being absent from the lectures,
  arriving later to the lectures, or leaving early
  will lower the attendance grades, unless the
  students have legitimate reasons and notify the
  instructor in advance.
• Class Discussion
• Contribution to Class Presentation

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Class Discussion

• Contribution to class discussion Some cases
  analysis will be assignments and will discussed
  during the class on the due date. To earn a good
  participation grade, students need to contribute
  to the others learning (not the mere air time).
  
• Contribution to class presentation Each group
  will present twice. There will be QA time. You
  are expected to help other groups out by making
  suggestions during QA time.

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Assignments

• There will be four assignments. Each assignment
  will be given to you a week before its due date.
• They will be problem sets/case analysis.
• Assignments are due at the beginning of the class
  on the due date.
• No late assignments will be accepted.

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Term Project

• Work in groups of 4-5 students.
• No more than 15 pages, double spaced, 12 point
  font, (excluding tables, figures, and
  references).
• Term Project progress report is due on March 5.
• Final write-up due at the beginning of the class
  on April 9.
• Late proposals and final write-ups will not be
  accepted.
• You must submit a hardcopy of your assignments
  before the deadlines. No fax or email copy will
  be accepted.

Review Syllabus
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Peer Evaluation

• 20 percent of your term project progress report,
  final write-up and presentations is based on peer
  evaluation. You need to provide a peer
  evaluation for every member of your group
  (excluding yourself).
• Rank your peers contributions, using a scale of
  1(lowest) to 5(highest).
• Suppose your group has five people. You receive
  4, 5, 5, 4. Your average peer evaluation score
  will be (4554)/4 4.5.
• Your final score for the term project will be
  (4.5/5)20 (term project score/100)80.

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Remarking

• Requesting remarking of assignments
• Make request to me no more than two weeks after
  return date.
• Include a written explanation with request.
• Note that I will photocopy some of the
  assignments, so dont make changes and think I
  wont catch it.
• Any assignment submitted for remarking will be
  remarked in its entirety. Grades may rise, fall,
  or stay the same.

Review Syllabus
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Class Etiquette

• Come to class on time and dont walk out early.
• Turn off your cell phone, pager and palm pilot.
• Dont talk amongst yourselves, read the
  newspaper, or eat during lecture.
• Do ask questions and ask me to slow down if I am
  going too fast or the material is not clear.
• Do help out the class by initiating and
  participating in class discussion.

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Academic Misconduct

• Students should note that copying, plagiarising,
  or other forms of academic misconduct will not be
  tolerated. Any student caught engaging in such
  activities will be subject to academic discipline
  ranging from a mark of zero on the assignment,
  test or examination to dismissal from the
  university as outlined in the academic handbook.
  Any student abating or otherwise assisting in
  such misconduct will also be subject to academic
  penalties.

Review Syllabus
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Quick Review of Topics

• Introduction
• Market Response Models
• Regression and Choice Models
• Segmentation and Targeting, using statistical
  models
• New Product Decisions
• Advertising and Communication Decisions
• Price and Sales Promotion Decisions
• In-depth interviews
• Survey methods

Review Syllabus
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What is Marketing Engineering?

• A modern approach to marketing research.
• Take advantage of the fact that many companies
  have developed sophisticated databases for their
  customers.
• Take advantage of the advanced of computer
  technologies.
• Build computer models to describe consumer
  behavior or market responses.

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Advantages of computer models

• Can conduct experiments to find out how profits
  changes as we change marketing mix.
• This provides an excellent tool to advise firms
  what to do to improve their ability to serve
  customers, and provide more values to them.
• Conducting such an experiment in the real world
  is very costly.

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What is a model?

• Here, we will mostly focus on a mathematical
  model represents by a set of equations.
• Inevitably, a model is a simplification of the
  real world.
• Depending on the questions that we want to ask,
  we decide what kind of abstraction we should
  take. For example, a map.

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• Descriptive Models -- positive models, provide a
  accurate model to describe, say, consumer
  behavior.
• Normative Models -- specify the objective
  function for firms and advise them optimal
  strategies.