Baron And Unmask

Introduction A successful company considers the customer in every business decision it makes (Baron & Shane, 2012). This requires the company to get to know the customer in intimate ways. The company must understand all there is to know about the customer. This includes having comprehensive knowledge about the customer’s wants, needs, values, habits, attitudes, cultures, and traditions (Kotler & Keller, 2012). Unfortunately, most of this information is not readily available and can vary from one market to another. Therefore, a company must perform extensive market research to discover and unmask the intimate details. This includes learning about overall market conditions, customer attitudes, and product and/or service sustainability. Market …show more content…
Companies use primary research to discover the answer to very specific marketing questions (Katz & Green, 2014). Primary research relates directly to the company performing the research and seeks to gain a customer’s perspective on the company’s product and/or service offering, pricing, and/or positioning (Baron & Shane, 2008). Most primary research methods are qualitative or subjective rather than objective (Katz & Green, 2014). This means, the results of primary research are not numerical or statistical. Instead, the results of primary research data require personal interpretation. According to Baron and Shane, when a situation requires personal interpretation, there is always the possibility of confirmation bias, which is “a powerful tendency to notice and collect information that confirms our beliefs and preferences” (2008, p. 456). Therefore, personal interpretation may distort or slant the research findings in the company’s desired direction, when in fact the true results indicate …show more content…
The process occurs just as it does in science. Researchers from a hypothesis design an experiment or set of experiments with a control group and a test group, and then record and interpret the outcomes. According to Boone & Kurtz (2014), test marketing is the most common form of a controlled experiment. However, test marketing is very expensive, compromises a company’s intellectual property, and some products are unsuitable for test market capabilities (Boone & Kurtz, 2014). As a result, some companies simulate test marketing through computer simulation, test products in small geographic locales, and/or limit product introduction to just one store (Boone & Kurtz,