Sunday, November 9, 2008
5:30 p.m. – 6:30 p.m. Registration
6:30 p.m. - 8:30 p.m. Welcome Reception, Dinner, and School Orientation
Monday, November 10, 2008
8:30 – 10:00 a.m.
Marketing Research & Strategy
Rajiv Grover, Dean, Fogelman College of Business and Economics, University of Memphis
Many times marketing research projects are chosen to be executed based on tradition or “text-book” prescription. The purpose of this session is to show that when marketing research is conducted as dictated by marketing strategy rather than based just on the decision at-hand not only are the right decision questions answered but also significant efficiencies are garnered. Besides the choice of the problem(s) to resolve, the session also highlights the importance of problem definition, research design and triangulation. Two real cases, one from B-to-B and another from B-to-C, are used to illustrate the significance of the relationship between marketing strategy and marketing research. A real life case that will be a hands-on exercise is used to illustrate the link between marketing strategy and research design.
10:00 – 10:30 a.m.
Break
10:30 a.m. – 12:00 noon
Marketing Research & Strategy, Continued
12:00 noon – 1:15 p.m.
Lunch
1:15 – 3:00 p.m.
Customer Loyalty and Profitability
V Kumar, Georgia State University
Richard and Susan Lenny Distinguished Chair Professor of Marketing, and Executive Director, Center for Excellence in Brand & Customer Management,J. Mack Robinson College of Business
In this session we will review the traditional measures of loyalty, discuss the relative benefits of these measures and then link them to profitability. The relationship between loyalty and profitability is evaluated in multiple industries. We will evaluate the next generation measure of loyalty: customer lifetime value. You will learn not only how to define lifetime value but also how to measure it. We will then compare this metric to the traditionally used measures of loyalty and see how much money has been left on the table all these years. We will also demonstrate how to switch from the traditional measures of loyalty to implementing customer lifetime value concepts. Several interesting case studies will be discussed.
3:00 – 3:30 p.m.
Break
3:30 – 5:00 p.m.
Maximizing ROI through Implementing Customer Lifetime Value
V Kumar, Georgia State University
Richard and Susan Lenny Distinguished Chair Professor of Marketing, and Executive Director, Center for Excellence in Brand & Customer Management, J. Mack Robinson College of Business
In this session, we will discuss the concept of customer lifetime value and customer equity, and will offer a framework that allows managers to (1) Identify and target the best customers, (2) Allocate optimal marketing resources for each customer, (3) Pitch the right product to the right customer at the right time, and (4) Link acquisition and retention strategies for maximizing profitability. The above concepts will be illustrated with the customer databases of large B-to-B and B-to-C firms.
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
8:30 – 10:00 a.m.
Measuring Brand Equity
Tom Madden, Professor of Marketing, University of South Carolina
These sessions will focus on the theory and practice of measuring brand equity. We will begin with a discussion of the components of brand equity. Next extant approaches to measuring brand equity are presented and compared. The majority of the presentation will be devoted to demonstrating how brand ratings can be used to infer the equity that may have occurred to a brand. This approach relies on a recently developed brand equity model, which utilizes brand ratings to determine whether general brand impressions or brand-specific associations are driving brand ratings. A number of brand equity diagnostics are developed and illustrated in the context of several applications. Key ideas: How consumers experience a brand matters; brand building activities can influence brand ratings in several different ways; decomposing brand ratings can provide insights into how differentiated positioning can be leveraged.
10:00 – 10:30 a.m.
Break
10:30 a.m. – 12:00 noon
Measuring Brand Equity, Continued
12:00 noon – 1:15 p.m.
Lunch
1:15 – 3:00 p.m.
Structural Equation Modeling
Christina Liao, Group Head, Marketing Science, CMI
The objective of this session is to introduce the technique of Structural Equation Modeling (SEM), a powerful analytical tool that depicts more realistically the cause and effect relationships among a set of performance measures and latent traits underlying these measures. Marketing research in the B2B and B2C environments usually involves the study of dynamic relationships among business processes, consumer perceptions, and product performance. The traditional key driver approach using regression analysis tends to simplify such relationships and loses sight of the dynamics and interaction in business process. SEM, on the other hand, can capture those dynamics. For example, in a customer satisfaction study, SEM can be used to depict the following dynamics: customer actual experience with a product à customer initial impression of the product à customer perception of the company who offers the product à customer satisfaction with the product à customer satisfaction with the company. SEM has the following key benefits over traditional regression analysis: 1) simulate business dynamics and relationship more realistically, 2) offer an effective way to deal with performance indictors that are highly correlated with one another, 3) allow for estimation of both direct and indirect impact on dependent measures, and 4) provide more accurate estimation of measurement errors in surveys. SEM has wide applications in such areas as brand equity, brand awareness, customer satisfaction, customer loyalty, and brand share.
3:00 – 3:30 p.m.
Break
3:30 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Structural Equation Modeling, Continued
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
8:30 – 10:00 a.m.
Segmentation
Damon Ragusa, Founder and CEO, Thinkvine, LCC.
Segmentation decisions often drive corporate strategy and new product strategy. Appropriate segmentation analysis can help to identify and prioritize focus areas and to identify underserved segments and unmet needs which form the basis for new product ideas. Yet, many firms do a poor job of segmenting the market. This session will include a managerial definition of segmentation and a discussion of the role that segmentation can play in effective marketing. The primary focus in the session will be on the use of analytical tools to perform effective and appropriate segmentation. . One such tool is agent based modeling (ABM). The application of ABM helps to address issues such as how segments interact, which segments buy which products, and how segments’ retail experiences differ.
10:00 – 10:30 a.m.
Break
10:30 a.m. – 12:00 noon
Data Mining
Christopher Stephens, Professor, Institute for Nuclear Sciences, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico
Data mining, or as it is more appropriately called knowledge discovery, is not a tool or technique but, rather, an entire field of study and can generally be understood as the “exploration and analysis of data in order to discover patterns, correlations and other regularities”. Data mining can be related to two broad classes of tasks: profiling (pattern description) and predicting (pattern identification) Typical prediction tasks are centered on the key questions of: Who? What? Where? And When? - Such as: Who is most likely to be delinquent in their future payments? Where should a new store be built to optimize ROI? Profiling on the other hand is more concerned with what a particular group looks like, and is very much associated with the Why? behind the above questions. This session will introduce the basic concepts of data mining, paying particular attention to what the data modeling process means and how it can be visualized in an intuitive, readily understandable way. Although data mining can certainly be very sophisticated, anyone who has examined some data with an elementary statistical model such as a linear regression already has some experience of what data mining is. Building on such elementary cases, where few variables are involved, this session will show how intuition about and understanding of the elementary cases can be used to gain a deeper understanding of much more complex examples with many variables. Throughout the session, concrete, real-world examples will be used to illustrate the concepts and tools discussed.
12:00 noon – 1:15 p.m.
Lunch
1:15 – 3:00 p.m.
Data Mining, Continued
3:00 – 3:30 p.m.
Break
3:30 – 5:00 p.m.
Competitive Intelligence (CI)
Timothy J. Kindler, Director, Competitive Intelligence, Eastman Kodak Company
Any competent competitive intelligence professional will tell you that unless you link intelligence to decisions you are not doing your job. Yet these same professionals often find that they are so busy responding to data requests that they have no time to do the hard work necessary to develop marketplace insights. The challenge is how to change from being reactive data searchers to proactive participants in the decision-making process, specifically:
• Using intelligence to serve strategic positioning
• Reporting synthesized intelligence to senior management
• Developing CI - commitment and resources
• Establishing how CI can affect the bottom line
Thursday, November 13, 2008
8:30 – 10:00 a.m.
Experimental Design for Conjoint and Discrete Choice Analysis
John Wurst, Vice President & Director of Marketing Sciences, SDR Consulting, and faculty, Marketing Department, University of Georgia
Marketing researchers have increasingly turned to conjoint and discrete choice experiments to address questions about product and price optimization and strategy. Fundamental to these techniques is the plan for running the study, which is called the experimental design. The purpose of this session is to provide a practitioner oriented introduction to experimental designs for conjoint and discrete choice analysis. Real-world examples will be presented, and interactive class exercises will be included. The session will cover:
- The definition of an experimental design.
- A comparison of conjoint and discrete choice designs.
- Balance, orthogonality, design efficiency
- Methods to assess and compare alternative designs
- How to obtain good designs
10:00 – 10:30 a.m.
Break
10:30 a.m. – 12:00 noon
Experimental Design for Conjoint and Discrete Choice Analysis, Continued
12:00 noon– 1:15 p.m.
Lunch
1:15 – 3:00 p.m.
Conjoint and Discrete Choice Modeling and Applications
John Wurst, Vice President & Director of Marketing Sciences, SDR Consulting, and faculty, Marketing Department, University of Georgia
Using foundations from the morning sessions, this session will extend coverage of conjoint and discrete choice by presenting modeling and estimation techniques. The discussion will include traditional procedures and also current advanced methodologies including latent class and hierarchical Bayesian methods. Real world examples will be presented, and interactive class exercises will be included. Coverage will include:
- Modeling and model estimation
- Market simulators
- Interpreting results
- Recent developments
3:00 – 3:30 p.m.
Break
3:30 – 5:00 p.m.
Online Research Developments
Jeff Miller, Chief Operating Officer, Burke, Inc.
Although online research has become a commonly used tool in the marketing researcher's toolkit, challenges to the effective use of Web surveys still exist. Questions about whether high quality, representative samples can be reached through online methods remain for many projects. Researchers are also becoming increasingly concerned about threats to data quality from fraudulent, professional, and/or fatigued members of online panels. In addition to highlighting current trends in the online research field and discussing the latest online research techniques and technologies, we will look at the current magnitude of the online data quality problem, and methods to combat the problem. The session will also discuss some best practices in the design and deployment of online surveys.
6:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
Dinner
Friday, November 14, 2008
8:30 – 10:00 a.m.
Qualitative Research Methods
Eric Arnould, Distinguished Professor of Sustainable Business Practices, University of Wyoming
Firms are exhorted to get close to customers, to listen to their voices, and to learn from their experiences in the service of better relationship management, new product development, and long term customer value capture. This mission is well served through the judicious application of research methods employing qualitative data. Developments in industry, as well as academe, indicate that qualitative research methods are being used in innovative ways in the study of consumer behavior, branding and brand meaning, customer brand relationships, brand community, retail and service design and experience management, and other applications. The purpose of the session is to discuss strategic and methodological dimensions of qualitative data collection and analysis. The session will focus on workbench issues, enabling participants to understand what data to collect, how to collect it, what to do with it once they've got it, and how to evaluate its quality. Participants with experience of employing depth interview, ethnographic, netnographic, home visit, ZMET and other forms of qualitative data are strongly encouraged to bring raw material for discussion and to report on their own experiences for critique and commentary. Signature of non-disclosure agreements may be required. Based on prior experience at the AMA School of Advanced Marketing Research, it is assumed that participants have basic experience with interviewing and observational procedures of data collection.
10:00 – 10:30 a.m.
Break
10:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
Qualitative Research Methods, Continued
12:00 noon – 12:30 p.m.
Boxed lunch in classroom
12:30 – 2:00 p.m.
What Will I Do With All of This on Monday? Lessons Learned and Applications
Peggy Emmelhainz, Advanced School Faculty Director, University of Georgia
This session will be an interactive activity focused on demonstrating how the seminar material can be applied to actual research situations currently faced by course attendees. Through group activities and a facilitated discussion, students will have a chance to apply seminar concepts to actual problems and to obtain feedback from other attendees, as well as from the session facilitator.
2:00 p.m.
School Adjourns
Note: Please schedule your flight so that you are able to stay for the duration of the school. The Friday sessions are often the most highly rated of the program. The Atlanta airport is only a 20 minute drive from the Executive Education Center and the airport can also be reached by Marta. There will be plenty of time after the program concludes to make an afternoon or early evening flight out of Atlanta.