Filled with engaging, current examples drawn from the authors' ongoing involvement in the field, Marketing Research Essentials is a comprehensive text that teaches students how to become effective consumers of market research. The only book on the market co-authored by a full-time marketing researcher, McDaniel and Gates together bring their real-life, insider experiences from the industry to teach students how to make critical business decisions through the study of market research. Recognizing that marketing research is much more than computing sample size, learning SPSS, or conducting a focus group, the text shares with students all they need in research design, data acquisition, and data analysis, with a fresh dose of reality that is unmatched.

Table of Contents

Preface. 1 The Role of Marketing Research in Management Decision Making. 2 Problem Definition, Exploratory Research, and the Research Process. 3 Secondary Data and Databases. 4 Qualitative Research. 5 Traditional Survey Research. 6 Online Marketing Research. 7 Primary Data Collection: Observation. 8 Primary Data Collection: Experimentation and Test Markets. 9 The Concept of Measurement and Attitude Scales. 10 Questionnaire Design. 11 Basic Sampling Issues. 12 Sample Size Determination. 13 Data Processing, Fundamental Data Analysis, and the Statistical Testing of Differences. 14 Bivariate Correlation and Regression. 15 Communicating Research Results and Managing Marketing Research. Endnotes. Index.