Page 133 - Foundations of Marketing

100 Part 2 | Marketing Research and Target Markets

E ntrepreneurship in Marketing

Baldwin& Ad Agency Does Good with Güd

When David Baldwin started Baldwin& in 2009, he set a important step because of the need to make personal
goal of doubling the ad agency’s size every year for the care products stand out on store shelves.
first five years. Three years later, his North Carolina–based For the launch, Baldwin& created a digital-heavy
agency received Advertising Age ’s “Small Agency of the campaign based on its knowledge of the target market’s
Year” award, bringing nationwide attention to its creativity usage of social media and cell phones. In addition to
and jump-starting its already rapid rate of growth. quick response (QR) codes on packaging for obtain-
Baldwin& uses insights gained from consumer and ing more product information using smartphones, the
retailer research to develop attention-getting campaigns agency arranged for coupons and free samples to be
for clients like Burt’s Bees and the BMW PGA Golf. When distributed to Facebook users who clicked to “like” the
Burt’s Bees prepared to introduce the güd (pronounced brand. To highlight the brand’s personality, the agency
“good”) brand of shampoos and skin lotions for women prepared YouTube videos focusing on the unique
in the 18 - to- 30 age group, it worked with Target, Kroger, fragrances and posted clever tweets about the new
and Walgreens to obtain shoppers’ input about fragrance products. The engaging campaign not only attracted
preferences. These key retailers also reviewed güd’s customers for güd, it attracted inquiries from potential
proposed packaging and provided their reactions, an clients for Baldwin&. b

© iStockphoto.com/CRTd

organizations whose employees are networked and for associations that publish members’
e-mail addresses. However, there are some ethical issues to consider when using e-mail for
marketing research, such as unsolicited e-mail, which could be viewed as “spam,” and pri-
vacy, as some survey respondents fear their personal information will be given or sold to third
parties without their knowledge or permission. Some firms are Internet experts and can help
firms conduct online primary research in ways that receive less backlash. C + R Research is one
of these firms, as you can see in the advertisement. C + R has experience helping companies
gather online qualitative data from a variety of sources, including large consumer panels, in-
depth discussions, diaries, online chats, and video journals. Firms like this can help marketing
researchers better leverage all of the data available online when conducting research.
A serious challenge for firms conducting online surveys is obtaining a sample that is repre-
sentative of the population. While Internet surveys allow respondents to retain their anonymity
and flexibility, it can also enable survey takers to abuse the system. For instance, some survey
takers respond multiple times or pose as other people, particularly when the survey pays or
offers a reward to respondents. To get around this problem, companies are developing screen-
14
ing mechanisms and instituting limits on how many surveys one person can take. Survey
programs, such as Qualtrics, automatically delete surveys that appear suspicious.
Questionnaire Construction A carefully constructed questionnaire is essential to the suc-
cess of any survey. Questions must be clear, easy to understand, and directed toward a specific
objective, meaning they must be designed to elicit information that meets the study’s data
requirements. Defining the objective of a questionnaire before construction will provide a
guide to the substance of the questions and ensure that they yield useful information that con-
tributes to the research project. The most important rule in composing questions is to maintain
impartiality.
The questions are usually of three kinds: open-ended, dichotomous, and multiple-choice.
Open-ended questions should be used carefully, as it is very difficult to code the responses in
such a way as to easily analyze the data later. Problems may develop in the analysis of dichot-
omous or multiple-choice questions when responses for one outcome outnumber others. For
example, a dichotomous question that asks respondents to choose between “buy” or “not buy”

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