Managing contactability in telephone surveys

The Australian market research industry relies on telephone interviewing as one of its major data collection methods. Through Its LIST initiative, the industry has committed to best practice In research methods in order to address various concerns, especially the decline in response rates for telephone interviews. Response rates are determined by the co-operation of eligible respondents and their degree of contactabllity. The reported study is concerned with the way the industry attempts to manage contactabiIity. A study of fieldwork managers responSible for over 75% of all phone interviews in Australia revealed a limited use of contact enhancing strategies such as longer fieldwork periods and more callbacks. Commercial imperatives for timely surveys and a lack of end-user concern for response rate issues, along with cost issues, were believed to be responsible.<br /

The research buyer\u27s perspective of market research effectiveness

This study examines the views of research buyers about the efficacy of market research used within their firms. A sample of research buyers from Australia&#039;s top 1000 companies was asked to evaluate the research outcomes of their most recent market research project in terms of their overall business strategy. Specialist market research buyers (insights managers) believed their commissioned research was very effective. This was in contrast to research buyers in generalist roles who did not believe in the effectiveness of the research outcomes to the same extent. The overarchlng strategic direction adopted by the buyer&#039;s firm did not make a difference to the type of research conducted (,action orientated&#039; vs. &#039;knowledge enhancing&#039;). However, entrepreneurial firms were more likely to rate their research as effective and to have dedicated research buyers generating insights into their markets. The results of this study are inconsistent with earlier studies and indicate that the market research function within Australian firms stili plays an ambiguous role

Marketing research performance and strategy

Purpose - To investigate whether strategic orientation affects the evaluation of specific market research projects in for-profit firms.Design/methodology/approach - A small-scale follow-up survey was conducted, building on qualitative and quantitative research among a sample of the top-1,000 marketing managers in Australia. The study used an existing market research evaluation tool, the USER scale and items generated from the qualitative research, to investigate the firm\u27s most recent market research project.Findings - Four market research performance factors were identified - market research as a knowledge enhancing (KE) function, the internal political use of market research, the misuse of market research and the generation of market understanding. The Miles and Snow strategy types were related to these factors, with Prospector types more likely to use market research rationally and less likely to use it for internal political purposes. Tactical projects were more likely to be misused than were those with a strategic orientation. Prospectors were far less likely and analysers far more likely to misuse tactical research projects. Prospectors were more often satisfied with the performance of their most recent market research. The Porter typology was less successful in predicting market research performance.Research limitations/implications - The study was based on a small sample of market research projects in Australian for-profit firms. Future studies need to study these phenomena more intensively using ethnographic methods and more extensively using larger multi-country samples.Practical implications - Market research suppliers should learn the nature of their client\u27s strategic intent to improve their effectiveness. Defender firms should carefully monitor the use of market research, especially that of a tactical nature, which may be wasted or misused.Originality/value - Contributes to an understanding of how strategic orientation relates to the ways market research information is used within the firm. <br /

The impact of Porter\u27s strategy types on the role of market research and customer relationship management

Purpose &ndash; This paper seeks to investigate the influence of Porter&rsquo;s strategy types on the use of customer relationship management (CRM) techniques and traditional market research, against theoretical and empirical evidence that differences in strategy types may result in variation in favoured marketing information sources and procedure.Design/methodology/approach &ndash; Depth interviews generated a series of scale items, which were combined with others derived from the literature in a questionnaire measuring strategy types, the roles of market research, and the characteristics of CRM systems. Responses were obtained from 240 senior marketing managers in Australia, and applied to the testing of five research propositions.Findings &ndash; ANOVA found no differences in CRM usage among the strategy types. Variation was widespread, however, in four roles of traditional market research: enhancing strategic decision making, increasing usability of existing data, presenting plans to senior management, and achieving productivity and political outcomes.Research limitations/implications &ndash; Future researchers using the Porter strategic types should separate &ldquo;marketing differentiators&rdquo; from &ldquo;product differentiators&rdquo; because they function and compete differently.Practical implications &ndash; All organisations can benefit from CRM systems, but &ldquo;marketing differentiators&rdquo; exhibit a relatively higher usage of traditional market research. This is likely to be because they compete by creating softer product differences, while others do so on harder characteristics such as price or product functionality.Originality/value &ndash; This is the first study to use the Porter types to explain differences between the roles and uses of market research and CRM within organisations.<br /