Market Intelligence: The Art and the Science

Marketing Intelligence: The Art and the Science is a comprehensive marketing research course predicated on the idea that to understand customer attitudes, sentiments, and behavior fully, both qualitative and quantitative research are necessary and should be applied complementarily. A distinguishing feature of this course is a recognition that effective marketing research entails the discipline of science to produce reliable findings and the art of creativity to convert findings into actionable business insights. The course covers both B2C and B2B research applications. In this course, students learn how to define marketing problems and to design, conduct, and analyze research that produces marketing insights. A wide range of qualitative research tactics are discussed in detail, including focus groups, in-depth interviews, and ethnography. On the quantitative front, the course covers factor analysis, cluster analysis, regression, logistic regression, and text mining. Generative AI is incorporated to assist students through every phase of the marketing research process. Marketing Intelligence: The Art and the Science addresses questions that marketers must answer whether they are entrepreneurs leading start-ups or managers in large corporations: How do I begin to understand the market for my product? How can I segment and target my customers? How do I know if customers need or want my product? How do I develop my product and how can marketing research inform its design and improve the user’s experience (UX)? What are the best ways to position my product in the marketplace? How do I generate insights for advertising and evaluate reactions to my messages? How do I price my product? How many can I sell? What ethical considerations emanate from qualitative and quantitative market research? We take an experiential approach in this course. Students learn through cases, lectures, class discussions, and a course project with real companies where they conduct qualitative and quantitative marketing research first-hand.