Here now we are going to consider how Tiffany went through the process of
looking at different marketing research information before she actually went to
the stores and made her purchases across the three different categories.
Let's start with the category of laptops.
Remember, laptop, given that it's a durable category, as a consumer, Tiffany
has to go through different stages and a lot of marketing research information.
So we are going to look at three different types of marketing research information
which Tiffany is going to consider when she is going and purchasing a laptop.
The first set of marketing research information, or
the type of marketing data she is going to look at, is called exploratory research.
Under exploratory research, Tiffany is going to look at things
like consumer reports from the company which are available, or
maybe their brochures, opinions from experts or reviews from consumers.
Or maybe she is going to look at focus group reports.
So these are the main different types of exploratory research
which Tiffany is going to consider when she goes ahead and buys a laptop.
The second type of marketing research which Tiffany is going to consider
when making the purchase of a laptop is under descriptive research.
Here the information she's going to acquire are much more detailed.
Some things like survey reports, which has maybe some descriptive statistics or maybe
some graphs or tables which are going to give her more additional information about
the product or about here, of course, the laptop which she is going to purchase.
The third type of research which Tiffany is going to consider
is called causal research.
Here, of course,
the information is even more detailed than what we saw under descriptive research.
Why? Because under causal research,
Tiffany is going to search for information on more professional reports,
or maybe academic publications in journals,
which are going to give her even more detailed in-depth information about
the possible options she has when she is going to purchase a laptop.
Now this is a category of laptops which is durable.
Of course, it requires much in-depth information before Tiffany goes and
purchases a product.
However, let's think about the category which is milk.
In this category, because it's a consumer packaged goods and
probably Tiffany buys it much more frequently than, for
example, a laptop, she is not going to look for any information.
Maybe a little bit of knowledge about where she could get her brand or
maybe the size of milk carton, that's the only information she will need.
So the entire decision process, though it still involves descriptive research,
exploratory research, and
causal research, the information she will actually need is probably much less.
Now let's think about a third category,
which is somewhat intermediate between the extreme durable goods category and
the other end, the consumer packaged goods, something like a dress.
When Tiffany goes ahead and tries to buy a dress,
probably she needs definitely more information than milk.
Because when you are purchasing a dress,
that's much more involved because it's some based on personal
preferences or how you like your dress based on fashion trends and so on.
So in this case, maybe Tiffany goes a little bit in depth looking at different
exploratory research sources or maybe even the descriptive research sources.
So we have so far looked at a category like laptops which involves
a lot of detailed marketing research, because it's something which
Tiffany clearly buys much less frequently, and it's a big ticket item.
So of course, as a consumer, she needs more information from both descriptive
research, exploratory research, and as well maybe from causal research.
However, under dresses, when she is looking to purchase a dress,
she doesn't necessarily need information from causal research.
Because as I mentioned earlier, causal research involves looking through
professional publications or economic publications,
which maybe is not required when you go ahead and purchase a dress.
Because that's somewhere intermediate between a consumer packaged
goods like milk and a more durable good like laptops.
So here, Tiffany's entire marketing research will involve mainly descriptive
research and exploratory research.
[MUSIC]
Shameek SinhaProfessor
