In this advanced marketing research course we will take a 360° approach, emphasizing the integration of cutting-edge qualitative and quantitative research methods as a foundation for sound business decision making. The ability to integrate qualitative and quantitative marketing research methods is increasingly valued by industry.

The primary goal of this course is to teach you how to select and execute the right research to answer marketing questions, make decisions, and maximize ROI. We will cover how consumer markets are defined, segmented, and characterized, and we will examine a wide range of research methods for generating insight regarding the marketing mix.

Among the questions we will address are those you would need to have answered whether you are leading a start-up or serving as a brand manager in a large corporation:

How do I begin to understand the market for my product?  How do I discover if consumers need or want it and which consumers are my best prospects?  How do I capture them for research? How do I develop/modify my product? What are best ways for positioning it in the marketplace and against which competition? How do I generate insights for advertising and packaging (if appropriate) and evaluate consumer reactions to messages? How do I price my product and use sales promotion? Where do I sell it? How many can I sell?  What, if any, ethical considerations emanate from marketing research?

Marketing research methods applied from anthropology, psychology, statistics, and machine learning will be a centerpiece of the course. You will learn the art of the interview and how to conduct ethnographic research along with social science-informed analysis, as well as statistical modeling using R programming language.

Kamel Jedidi

John A. Howard Professor of Business

Kamel Jedidi is the John Howard Professor of Business at Columbia Business School, New York.  He holds a bachelor’s degree in Economics from University of Tunis and Master and Ph.D. degrees in Marketing and Statistics from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.  Dr. Jedidi has extensively published in leading marketing and statistical journals.  His research interests...

View full profile

Robert Morais

Lecturer in Business

Robert J. Morais is a business anthropologist with experience in advertising and market research, and a Lecturer at Columbia Business School. He began his career at Grey Advertising and spent 25 years with advertising agencies, rising to Chief Strategic Officer, and then served for 11 years as a Principal at market research firm Weinman Schnee Morais. He has worked with Procter & Gamble, GlaxoSmithKline...

View full profile