Marketing Research
Why?
While marketing research isn't essential for technical data science work. However, it teaches complementary skills that can distinguish you in business environments. If you plan to work with marketing departments or in consumer-focused companies, understanding how market research is conducted will help you collaborate effectively with these teams. Even in other sectors, knowing how to systematically gather requirements and frame research questions will make your data science solutions more relevant to business needs.
What?
This course explores the principles and processes of marketing research. You will learn how to think like researchers, frame marketing problems as research questions, design appropriate studies, create effective questionnaires, and conduct descriptive and exploratory research. The course emphasizes both qualitative and quantitative research methodologies that help businesses make informed decisions based on customer data.
Curriculum:
Thinking Like a Researcher
Introduction to the research mindset, scientific approach to business problems, research ethics, and developing critical thinking skills for effective market analysis.
Marketing Problem vs. Research Problem
Techniques for translating business challenges into actionable research questions, defining research objectives, and creating frameworks that guide effective data collection and analysis.
Research Design
Overview of research design approaches, selecting appropriate research methods, understanding causality, sampling techniques, and planning research projects to address specific marketing questions.
Exploratory Research Design
Methods for conducting preliminary research to clarify problems, generate hypotheses, and identify key variables, including qualitative techniques such as focus groups, interviews, and observational studies.
Questionnaire Design
Principles and practices for creating effective surveys, including question formulation, measurement scales, bias reduction, formatting, and testing questionnaires for reliability and validity.
Descriptive Research Design
Techniques for systematic description of market characteristics, including survey methods, observational studies, panels, and approaches for analyzing and presenting descriptive data.
