Introduction to Research

BRM semester II
What is RESEARCH?

Oxford English Dictionary defines RESEARCH as:

(a) “the systematic investigation into the study of materials, sources etc. in order to
establish facts and reach new conclusions”
(b) an endeavor to discover new or collate old facts etc. by the scientific study of a
subject or by a course of critical investigation

The term has it’s origins in the French word “recherche” which means “to go about seeking”

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Seedhe shabdo mein kahein toh……

Research is a combination of experience and reasoning that can be

regarded as the most successful approach to the discovery of truth

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So why we need research……

Uninformed decisions => Higher probability of going wrong

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Who needs research the most?

 A decision taken without having all information and facts has a much higher probability of
going wrong
 That is why it becomes very important for organizations to be well informed on decisions
related to their line of business

 In 2008, Starbucks launched the “My

Starbucks Idea” platform
 Customers, potential customers,
employees – everyone can logon and
submit any ideas that they think can
make Starbucks better

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Role of research for business
 From 2002 to 2017, sales of dairy free milk alternatives grew by 61% in the US market
 The My Starbucks Idea platform helped Starbucks to get an early idea of this emerging
trend
 As a result, the company was able to introduce alternates to milk preferred by customers
in rapid time
• They started offering soy milk in 2004
• In 2015, Starbucks introduced coconut milk, and a year later, almond milk
 It was timely finding out changing preferences in the market that enabled Starbucks to
modify its product offerings in line with what customers wanted
 In other words, research enabled Starbucks to take informed decisions to the benefit of
the business

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 But is research full proof?

 In the late-90’s, Frito-Lay’s launched Wow! Chips – fried in olestra, a sucrose-derived

oil not absorbed by the body, Wow! Chips had 1/3rd the calories of the traditional
chips
 Frito-Lay’s conducted extensive product researches before going ahead with the
launch. Initial sales sky rocketed but soon the rosy picture turned sour
 Olestra had a vicious side effect – in excessive quantities, it led to diarrhea like
condition in the body
 In all the product testing Frito-Lay’s conducted, the serving size always remained
standardized. Using a new ingredient, they never thought of testing outcomes of
excess consumption – something that has a high chance of happening for binge
products like chips
 Within a year, sales dropped by almost $150 million, Frito-Lay’s was facing law suits
and finally it was forced to add a protective warning on Wow! packs
Uninformed decision making => Higher probability of going wrong

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 Research Problems
 Formulation of the research problem is the first and foremost step of the research process
 It is akin to deciding on destination before commencement of journey. Just like it is impossible
to decide on a route if you don’t know the destination, similarly in absence of a clearly defined
research problem, a research plan cannot be formulated
 A research problem can be very simple to very complex. The nature of the problem will
determine the type of research to be undertaken
 Research problem usually starts with a question which cannot be answered satisfactorily.
Examples could range from why are my sales falling TO why is the competition product more
popular than my product even though I spend more on ads TO how do I know what my
employees think of me
 Typically in the research process, a big question is broken down into small, more practicable
sub-questions
 The research problem acts like an “input” to the research process. The final output i.e. results
of the research are entirely dependent on the quality of the input

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 In the real world….
 Client is a leading player in the oral care segment. In this category, consumer promotions play
an integral part with close to a third of all sales happening on some promotions
 Despite this, there was no readily available data or facts which clearly demonstrated the
importance of promotions in the consumers’ decision making process
 The questions that had no clear answers were as below:

How much to
How to engage
spend on Which consumers What kinds of How to inform
with retailers to
promotions vs to target with promotions to consumers about
make promotions a
other media promotions target them with? promotions?
success?
vehicles

Create a ROI equation Slice & dice consumers Build hierarchy of Test efficacy of different Understanding retailers’
for promotions vs w.r.t attitude towards different promotion communication routes perspective on
other media promotional schemes. types promotions
Identify the
differentiating
characteristics of “promo
seekers”

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Types of Research

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 Exploratory research

 As the name suggests – it is about exploring things

 This is the start of the research journey – wherein parameters are still not well defined
 Exploratory research tells us if there is a problem at all and if so how it can be tackled best
 When Starbucks was trying to find out about changing taste preferences of customers, it was
conducting exploratory research – the company didn’t know that something could come out of
it but they were exploring the unknown so to speak

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 Descriptive research

 As the name suggests, descriptive research attempts to describe characteristics of the subject
being study
 This is the WHAT phase of the research process
 LEGO analyzed its sales data to find out the proportion of boys and girls in it’s user base. The
results came as a great eye opener for LEGO – they found out that only 9% of their users were
girls
 Lego then conducted extensive researches among 3500 young girls and their mothers to
understand what kinds of toys they preferred. The results of these researches helped LEGO to
come up with the FRIENDS range of toys – targeted at girls
 An example of descriptive research at work

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 Causal or Explanatory research

 The causal research follows the descriptive phase

 Here the focus shifts from WHAT to WHY
 Another term for causal research is explanatory research – it tries to explain why a particular
thing or phenomenon occurs
 For e.g. it was observed that sales of Dettol saw a spike in February-March in a market of
India. Research revealed that it was the time of exams and hence concerned parents were
buying more of Dettol to ensure children health was not compromised

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 Correlational studies

 Correlational studies aim at studying / establishing relationships between two different

phenomenon
 This is the HOW phase of research
 For e.g. mid-day meals were introduced in a school. Short time later, it was observed that
attendance of students showed an improvement. A correlational research can reveal if mid-day
meals had any impact on attendance of students or the same is caused by some other factor

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Qualitative vs Quantitative research
Qualitative research
Aim is complete, detailed description
Researcher may only know roughly in advance what he/she is looking for
Recommended during earlier phases of research projects
The design emerges as the study unfolds
Researcher is the data gathering instrument
Data is in the form of words, pictures or objects
Subjective – individuals interpretation of events is important e.g. uses
participant observation, in-depth interviews etc.
Qualitative data is more 'rich', time consuming, and less able to be
generalized
Researcher tends to become subjectively immersed in the subject matter
Quantitative research
Aim is to classify features, count them and construct statistical models in
an attempt to explain what is observed
Researcher knows clearly in advance what he/she is looking for
Recommended during latter phases of research projects
All aspects of the study are carefully designed before data is collected
Researcher uses tools, such as questionnaires or equipment to collect
numerical data
Data is in the form of numbers and statistics
Objective: seeks precise measurement & analysis of target concepts, e.g.,
uses surveys, questionnaires etc.
Quantitative data is more efficient, able to test hypotheses, but may miss
contextual detail
Researcher tends to remain objectively separated from the subject matter