Marketing Critical Essay

Tania Ghawi Puerto Vallarta Autos Marketing Research (30pts) Research the 5 main types of marketing research and determine the best method for the below scenario. 5 Types of Market Research *Your answer should be concise and professionally written. *Minimum of 1 page typed and double spaced. *Type your answer as an extension to THIS file. * THIS IS NOT GROUP WORK! Due: Wednesday November 10 1. Surveys 2. Focus Groups 3. Personal Interviews 4. Observations 5. Field Trials Puerto Vallarta Autos has been in business since 1967.
It has always been a successful, professional organization. Since the locality has an economy based mainly upon agriculture, their traditional customer has been the aspiring Mexican consumer, usually business or professional people. Recently they have noticed that their local market has changed considerably. Puerto Vallarta has become a center for tourism and recreation for Mexicans from Guadalajara and Mexico City, as well as North Americans and Europeans. There are many beach clubs, hotels, apartments, and holiday condos.
Doreteo Dominguez, the sales manager at Puerto Vallarta Autos, feels that the company may have a problem. They do not know who their customer is and hence cannot target advertise. You are the Account Representative for Punta Mita Marketing Research Associates. Advise Doreteo Dominguez on an appropriate method of marketing research, and describe any advantages and disadvantages of such a method. Survey: with concise and straightforward questionnaires, you can analyze a sample group that represents your target market.

The larger the sample, the more reliable your results will be. * In-person surveys are one-on-one interviews typically conducted in high-traffic locations such as shopping malls. They allow you to present people with samples of products, packaging, or advertising and gather immediate feedback. In-person surveys can generate response rates of more than 90 percent, but they are costly. With the time and labor involved, the tab for an in-person survey can run as high as $100 per interview Focus groups.
In focus groups, a moderator uses a scripted series of questions or topics to lead a discussion among a group of people. These sessions take place at neutral locations, usually at facilities with videotaping equipment and an observation room with one-way mirrors. A focus group usually lasts one to two hours, and it takes at least three groups to get balanced results. Personal interviews. Like focus groups, personal interviews include unstructured, open-ended questions. They usually last for about an hour and are typically recorded.
Focus groups and personal interviews provide more subjective data than surveys. The results are not statistically reliable, which means that they usually don’t represent a large enough segment of the population. Nevertheless, focus groups and interviews yield valuable insights into customer attitudes and are excellent ways to uncover issues related to new products or service development. observation. Individual responses to surveys and focus groups are sometimes at odds with people’s actual behavior.
When you observe consumers in action by videotaping them in stores, at work, or at home, you can observe how they buy or use a product. This gives you a more accurate picture of customers’ usage habits and shopping patterns. Field trials. Placing a new product in selected stores to test customer response under real-life selling conditions can help you make product modifications, adjust prices, or improve packaging. Small business owners should try to establish rapport with local store owners and Web sites that can help them test their products.