Reference no: EM132571514

Question 1: DO you know of Danica from the Philippines, Peter from London, Nargis from India, Marina from Russia, Chieko from Japan, or Miran from the United States? These are some of the babies whose parents claimed they were the 7th billion human born into the world. The world population continues to grow, even though women are having fewer children than ever before.

Markets are made up of people, and to stay competitive, marketers must know where populations are located and where they are going. The fertility rate in the United States is declining and the population is aging, creating opportunities as well as threats for marketers. That is why tracking and predicting demographic trends are so important in marketing. Marketers must plan to capitalize on opportunities and deal with the threats before it too late.

Question 2. Think about a specific demographic trend in the United States. Explain the reasons behind this trend and discuss the implications for marketers. As the companies like Pepsi, P&G, and Lexus are increasingly using qualitative research methods such as observation, ethnography, and in-depth Interviews to gain customer Insights. However, qualitative research brings up ethical issues. Unlike quantitative data collection methods that use surveys or mechanical means, qualitative research puts researchers in close physical proximity to consumers-even in their homes-where the researchers may see or hear private and confidential things. Most research extends confidentiality to research subjects so they will be open in responding to questions, but what if a researcher learns something troublesome?

For example, marketing research is advancing into more sensitive consumer behaviors related to product abuse and deviant behavior, and consumers may reveal harmful or illegal behavior to the researcher. Alternatively, like all experiments, marketing research experiments, such as a researcher pretending to shoplift in a store to observe other customers' reactions, necessarily involve some type of deception. Such experiments can be conducted without customer knowledge, or customers may even be induced to participate in the deception. They may be told later and feel uncomfortable with their actions. These are just a few of the ethical issues related to qualitative marketing research.

Question 3. What should marketing researchers do in situations such as those described? Visit any online websites and discuss whether the International Code of Marketing and Social Research Practice provides guidance in dealing with such issues.