Marketing Research Design and Analysis

Marketing Research and Analytics: Linking Data to Business Decisions --- This course introduces students to the full process of marketing research and analytics, emphasizing how the use of data and analytics can inform evidence-based decision-making. Students learn how to ask the right business questions, design qualitative and quantitative research (including surveys, experiments, and focus groups), and analyze both structured and unstructured data using statistical and machine learning techniques. The course also integrates emerging AI capabilities - using LLMs to assist in study design, questionnaire and focus-group protocol development, data analysis, and the creation of synthetic data. Through hands-on exercises, cases, and a group project, students apply these tools to address real business challenges such as segmentation, new product design, demand forecasting, and digital advertising. The course concludes with discussions on responsible and ethical uses of AI in marketing research.

This course is about Data: how to gather it and how to make sense of it.  The course would be somewhere between appropriate and crucial for anyone planning a career in a marketing-related or information-intensive field.

Due at least in part to the Web, the last decade has seen an explosion in the quantity and quality of information available to managers.  Course participants will learn to rigorously define a research goal, create an effective measurement instrument (survey, focus group, web questionnaire) and reliably interpret the resulting information.  Although a number of specialized statistical techniques will be introduced, the emphasis will be squarely on how they can be put to use in a managerial context (no prior statistical background is presumed or necessary).

Problem areas to be covered include research design and implementation, commercial data sources, qualitative research (attitude measurement), survey methods, and the burgeoning uses of internet and web-based data.  Throughout, the focus will be on how the marketing research process is carried out conceptually, translating often vague managerial concepts to concrete information about a firm's customers and competitors.  Lastly, students will get a feel for the role state-of-the-art marketing research techniques play in the modern organization.

Format: Since design is a process, the course will be highly process-oriented, involving extensive discussion of methods, readings and case materials.  Class sessions will be decidedly interactive, and will typically be split between theory (e.g., how to design an unbiased survey) and application (e.g., analyzing actual surveys).  Students will be involved in both individual and group projects and presentations.

Prerequisite: Marketing Core Course M501 or 503