Marketing Research for Non-profit, Community and Creative Organizations

287 Pages·2011·3.439 MB·English

by  Bonita Kolb

Marketing Research for
Non-profit, Community
and Creative Organizations
How to improve your product,
find customers and effectively
promote your message
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Marketing Research for
Non-profit, Community
and Creative
Organizations
How to improve your product,
find customers and effectively
promote your message
First edition
Bonita Kolb
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08 09 10 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
Preface ix
1 Marketing research and the mission-centred organization 1
Introduction 3
The benefits of conducting marketing research 3
Marketing myths 7
Defining marketing and marketing research 8
Relationship between data, information and knowledge 11
Ethical and cultural considerations when conducting research 14
References 19
2 The marketing research process 21
Introduction 23
The marketing research process 23
References 40
3 Marketing research and cultural differences 43
Introduction 45
Defining culture 45
Translation issues when researching across cultural boundaries 50
Hofstede ’ s dimensions of culture 53
Ethical issues that need to be considered 59
References 62
4 The research question 63
Introduction 65
The research question 65
Internal research process 68
The research proposal 71
The research industry 77
References 82
5 Conducting secondary research 83
Introduction 85
Using secondary data at the start of the research process 85
Requirements of secondary data 88
Uses of secondary research 90
Sources of information 95
Secondary marketing research process 98
References 102
vi Contents
6 Finding participants 103
Introduction 105
Qualitative and quantitative sampling 105
Qualitative sampling procedures 110
Statistical sampling 115
References 123
7 Conducting focus groups 125
Introduction 127
Focus group methodology 127
Preparation of focus group methodology 131
Choosing a moderator 139
Handling group conflict 142
References 145
8 Interviews 147
Introduction 149
Uses and rationale of interview research 149
Types of interviews 153
Preparing interview questions 158
Recruiting and screening participants for interviews 160
Interview logistics 164
References 167
9 Projective and observational research 169
Introduction 171
Projective techniques 171
Types of projective techniques 174
Observational research 181
Observation research process 185
References 189
10 Planning survey research 191
Introduction 193
Survey research 193
The survey research process 197
Writing questions and answers 201
Questionnaire layout 206
References 210
11 Conducting surveys 211
Introduction 213
Survey research methods 213
Self-administered survey methods 216
Researcher-administered survey methods 219
Surveying process 221
Motivating participation 225
References 229
Contents vii
12 Analysing qualitative and quantitative data 231
Introduction 233
Unique aspects of analysing data 233
Organizing qualitative data 235
Coding transcribed material 239
The process of quantitative data analysis 241
Hypothesis testing 247
References 250
13 Written report and presentation 251
Introduction 253
After the research 253
Structure of the written report 257
Writing the report 262
Oral presentation 267
References 271
Index 273
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Preface
This book has two main purposes. First, the book has been written to
educate readers on how research can be used to help their organiza-
tion more effectively meet its mission by improving their product, find-
ing new customers and developing effective promotion. Second, it will
educate the reader on how to conduct the different methods of research
including focus groups, interviews, projective techniques, observation
and surveys.
This book will be useful for both students and existing managers of
small non-profit, creative and community organizations. Many of these
students and managers are drawn to working at non-profits because
of their interest in the organization’ s mission. However, they may have
limited marketing experience or education.
There are now books available on non-profit marketing that teach the
reader marketing theory and practice. However, these books often only
have a chapter or less on marketing research. This single chapter serves
as an introduction to the purposes and methods of marketing research.
However, one chapter cannot possibly provide sufficient information so
that the reader is ready to plan and conduct research. The current books
on non-profit marketing can help the reader gain an understanding of con-
cepts such as product development, segmentation approaches and promo-
tion methods. Unfortunately, the reader will not know how to conduct the
research that will provide the information necessary for making marketing
decisions about their product, segmentation or promotion.
What is unique in this book’ s approach is that it will first focus on
educating readers on how research can be used in their organizations. It
will then describe in detail how to conduct different research methods.
To reinforce this connection the research methods will not be discussed
in the abstract but will always focus on the reason the research is being
conducted.
Another unique aspect of this book is its chapter on cultural consid-
erations. Many non-profit and community organizations work with seg-
ments of the population that may not respond well to the traditional
business marketing research process. Or they may be reluctant to par-
ticipate because of differing cultural values. Therefore for research to be
successful, the methods used often must be adapted.
While in the for-profit world it is common to refer to people who patron-
ize a business as customers or consumers, there is no standard terminology
for the non-profit world. The words that can be used include patient, client
or audience depending on the type of organization. This book will use all
these terms, but for simplicity sake also refers to customers and consumers.