Author Question: Discuss possible sources of conflict between marketing management and marketing ... (Read 118 times)

HCHenry · **on:** Jun 28, 2018

Discuss possible sources of conflict between marketing management and marketing research.

Question 2

What information should be included in the segmentation section of a marketing plan?

sailorcrescent · **Reply #1 on:** Jun 28, 2018

Answer to Question 1

In practice, the relationship between the marketing research department and the users of marketing research frequently is characterized by misunderstanding and conflicts arising from:
(1) Research that implies criticism: managers may not want to find results that are critical of their work.
(2) Money: financial managers often see research as a cost rather than as an investment or a way of lowering risk.
(3) Time: it takes time to complete a research project, and errors are more prominent if the research is rushed.
(4) Intuitive decision making: managers are action-oriented decision makers, and they often rely on gut reaction and intuition, which is often successful. Thus, they often do not believe a research project will help improve their decision making.
(5) Future decisions based on past experience: managers wish to predict the future, but researchers measure only current or past events.

Answer to Question 2

In this section, we want to use data to outline what segments we have identified. This could include demographics, psychographics, and buyer behavior. We can get this information through a cluster analysis. Using this data, we want to identify three main groups: current customers, nonusers, and ideal customers. For example, with J.J.'s travel-related social networking site, he found that his current customers were in their early 20s, many of whom stayed connected through friends and sometimes bought trips through the site; his nonusers were people over 40, and his ideal customers were in their 20s and had a good amount of disposable income.