International Journal of Market Research – summaries of articles from current issue

2009 volume 51 issue 6

Election forecasts: developments of the Constant Sum Scale to be used in telephone surveys, Mathew Parackal (University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand)

The first paper is a submission in response to our Call for Paper: Researching Voting Intentions. Packard (University of Otago, New Zealand) describes an experiment conducted during the 2004 Mayorial Election in Dunedin to explore whether a Constant Sum Scale methodology could be successfully used in a telephone based survey to predict the outcome of an election. The author describes in detail the history of this methodology, the alternative models available and its value in measuring mutually exclusive behaviours. Packard argues that the potential advantage of CSS in this application is that the means can be interpreted in terms of the proportions of a sample that favour respective options, an advantage that is not available when using other probability scales. The author describes the three hypotheses set for the research: rank ordering of candidates would be consistent with the final results in a single vote transfer election; the mean estimates produced will provide a satisfactory forecast of the share of votes; use of a practice question will assist respondents in understanding how the methodology works. The methodology for the experiment is described in detail, including examples of the screen used by the telephone interviewers, the questions and guidance provided to respondents. The findings from the research are described and discussed, together with the conclusion that the methodology produces acceptable results in this field of application.

The bi cultural value system: undertaking research amongst ethnic audiences, Yasmin Sekhon (University of Bournemouth) & Isabelle Szmigin (Birmingham Business School)

The second paper, by Sekhon (University of Bournemouth) and Szmigin (University of Birmingham), addresses a very important issue in today’s society – understanding the needs and attitudes in a marketing context of the different ethnic groups in an increasingly multi-cultural society. The authors describe in detail the in-depth qualitative research they conducted amongst two such groups in the UK to identify the cultural context and value sets of first and second generation immigrants, and the issues this raises for marketers. Following a detailed discussion of current thinking in this field, including the issue of situational ethnicity (who one is and how one feels in particular situations), the authors describe the four objectives they set for their research: determine the relationship between identity and acculturation on consumption decisions amongst first and second generation immigrants; understand the wider social factors affecting consumption within these communities; identify the key issues to consider when undertaking research in this field; consider the implications for marketing practitioners and academic theory. The authors describe the three stage research programme, comprising two rounds of in-depth interviews with 26 second generation respondents and six case studies based on interviewing parents of those in the first two stages. The detailed findings cover consumption related to identity, acculturation and social factors are also described and discussed in detail. The key factors identified in the research, and the implications, cover lengthy of residency, categorisation (belonging and being part of a community), utilitarian and symbolic values, negative symbolic consumption, socialisation process, and finally, bi-cultural values. The authors believe that this is an under researched field where insufficient account is taken of the ‘east meets west’ issues that underlie consumption patterns. As such, they believe their methodology provides a blueprint for researchers and practitioners alike in gaining the necessary depth of insight required to understand the needs of consumers in a multi-generational, multi-cultural society.

Some retail service quality expectations of Chinese shoppers, John H Summary (Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, USA), Neil C Hersdon (Lingnan University) & Kenneth K Kwong (Hong Kong Polytechnic University)

Retailers often experience difficulties when entering new geographic markets. As Summey (Southern Illinois University, Carbondale USA), Herndon (Lingnan University) and Kwong, Hong Kong Polytechnic University) describe in the introduction in their paper, this can be because retailers fail to be sufficiently sensitive to cross-cultural differences in new markets. This should be an issue of growing interest to this sector as retailers increasing consider the opportunities potentially offered by establishing a presence in the Chinese marketplace – a country where understanding the cultural differences, radically different to those experienced within western markets such as the USA and the UK, are fundamental to success. The dilemma faced by researchers is whether the established tools and models developed in the west to measure service expectations and customer satisfaction can be successfully used in countries such as China, or will new methods need to be developed. The authors discuss the issues faced in undertaking service quality research, drawing on the extensive body of knowledge in this field, and briefly describe the tried and tested SERVQUAL methodology, the SERVPERF variant developed to measure performance and the RSQS multi-item scale developed for measuring the five key dimensions of retail service quality. The research programme developed by the authors was designed to test the validity of these methods in measuring service quality amongst shoppers in Hong Kong, as this market is viewed as likely to increasingly represent developments throughout China. The authors undertook a year long initial study to develop a questionnaire and rating scales, based on the SERVQUAL and RSQS models, modified for researching the views of Hong Kong consumers. The follow-on quantitative study methodology is described in detail together with the extensive analysis undertaken of the findings covering two different store formats used by two leading Hong Kong retailers. The authors’ findings provide a warning to researchers, and their retail clients, about the dangers of applying a generic service quality model when entering culturally different markets, such as in Hong Kong, to research the needs of shoppers, without first checking whether the factors commonly used in western markets need to be modified. Equally dangerous is to make the assumption that the factors which determine service quality in one market are equally valid in new ones, thereby deciding that research will not be necessary.

Effects of perceived similarity and subjective knowledge in brand extension evaluations, Leif E Hem & Nina M Iversen (Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration, Bergen)

The authors of the fourth paper, Hem and Iversen (Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration, Bergen) explore the factors that influence attitudes towards brand extensions. Based on an extensive review of published work in this field, the authors identified the importance of perceived similarity in brand related research – based on usage, associations and competence – together with the impact of consumer subjective knowledge of the parent brand, parent category and extension category on evaluations of brand extensions. Their secondary research also identified that many previous studies were based on laboratory style experiments, rather than using survey research methods. Based on this initial conceptual analysis, the authors developed four hypotheses to test in their primary research programme, covering similarities, complex versus simple product categories and subjectivity of consumer knowledge. This analysis also identified the factors to include as dependent and independent variables. The two stage primary research, described in detail, included a pilot stage to help identify the most appropriate parent brands to use from an initial shortlist, followed by a large scale quantitative study conducted in one Norwegian city, based on the selected three parent brands. Bivariate and multivariate methods were used to analyse the data, and the authors describe the differing results across the three selected brands in terms of their four hypotheses. The authors conclude that: more than one dimension is needed to measure perceived similarities between the parent brand and extensions; the level of complexity applicable to the brand will affect evaluations; the perceived knowledge of the consumer should be measured for the product category, parent brand and extension category. The implications for developing brand extensions, and suggested areas for further research are also discussed in detail by the authors.

A framework for designing new products and services, Rubén Huertas Garcia & Carolina Consolación Segura (EUETIB, Barcelona)

In the first issue of this year (Vol. 51 No. 1), Garcia and Segura (Technical University of Catalonia, College of Industrial Engineering, Barcelona) described the application of Statistical Design Experiments (SDE) as a tool in identifying what matters most to consumers. In this latest paper, the same authors describe a further application of SDE methods for data collection, on this occasion linked with quality function deployment (QFD) methods, to develop a number of conceptual alternatives. The authors argue that a combination of these two techniques provide a complementary methodology to better understand and apply the needs of the consumer in improving products and services. In this paper, the application used to illustrate the methodology is a research study undertaken to help improve an existing Masters programme taught in a number of Spanish universities, traditionally reviewed through a questionnaire administered to students after completing the course. The paper includes a detailed analysis of the current body of knowledge related to the design process and the issues organisations face in making decisions about how best to improve existing products and services. In the earlier paper, the authors described the historical development of SDE methods and they provide a similar summary describing the evolution of QFD methods as a tool in product and service development, first used by Mitsubishi in their Kobe shipyards in the 1970s, and the potential for applying it in a marketing context. The authors describe in detail the technical details of their methodology as applied in a survey of past students of the Masters programme.

Forum

How to improve brand tracking research: a frozen pizza case study, Keith Chrzan & Douglas Malcom (Maritz Research, USA)

Binet & Field in their extensive analysis of entries to the UK Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA) advertising effectiveness awards (Binet L, Field P, Marketing in the Era of Accountability, WARC/IPA, London 2007) criticise marketers for paying too much intention to intermediate measures (e.g. attitudes, awareness etc) when analysing the impact of marketing activity, rather than focussing on measures related to behaviour. This point is also made by Chrzan and Malcom (Maritz Research, USA) in their Forum article arguing the case for applying different methods to track the performance of brands. The authors discuss why brand tracking methods have shown little change from the situation 30 years ago. The factors they cite include the use of proprietary models, the value clients place on consistency when measuring trends over time, increased costs and the need for new technical skills if different models are used, and, the fact that clients have remained wedded to attitudinal rather than behavioural measures despite the known deficiencies of this approach. They also question why brand tracking methods appear to have attracted little attention from academics despite the importance of this field in evaluating the performance of marketing. The authors discuss the reasons why researchers should consider replacing traditional regression and correlation based models by multinomial (‘decompositional’) logit, lexicographic (‘compositional’) and EBA (‘elimination by aspects’) models. They describe why these models would provide improved diagnostic information to aid marketers in making better informed decisions on how to improve the economic performance of their brands. To run these models, the main requirements would be some additions to the data collected in brand tracking research, and investment in the technical skills necessary in applying them. The authors illustrate the added value gained from using the models through a case study on the frozen pizza market.

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