Session 2 Exposition - "What are constructs in MKTR?"

Hi all,

I got feedback from many of you saying the concept of "constructs" in MKTR is unclear.

I hope this blog post explaining the same, with some illustrations and explanations clarifies things.

Definition:

"Constructs are mental objects linked to behavior." (for our purposes in MKTR).

The behavior may be "expressed" or may be "latent" (i.e. yet to manifest or exist only as a propensity).

The confusion, I think, stems from the fact that sometimes we label the behaviors themselves as constructs (e.g. Cash on delivery), and sometimes the mental objects driving the behavior as a construct.

For clarity, we shall now on use "construct" only for the mental object that manifests as behavior.

Nevertheless, we maintain that under the 'right' conditions - the intersection of motive, means and opportunity - constructs tend to manifest as expressed behavior.

Some Examples:

Consider some simple examples: "Brand Preference" and "Purchase intention" are both constructs in that they are mental objects.

They may manifest as behavior and when they do they will have measurable business outcomes.

This begs the Q, how does one even start to measure a 'mental object'?

As stated in class y'day, we try to do so in two ways - by measuring the motivations behind the behavior and by measuring what we can of the components or features of the behavior itself (we'll get some greater clarity on this later part in Session 4: Qualitative research).

In class, I gave a simple example wherein I tried deconstructing "Purchase Intention" into constituent one-dimensional aspects (see below).

Of course, I pulled out the 2 aspects out of thin-air as it was merely for demonstration purposes. In real life, given the context-sensitive nature of constructs, they are broken down only after extensive exploratory/qualitative work has been undertaken.

Similarly, complex concepts such as "consumer attitude" (towards, say tobacco/ cosmetics/ iProducts etc) or "brand image" are also constructs in that they are mental objects and can be linked to expressed behavior under the right conditions.

Relationship with "Consumer Needs":

For convenience, one can think of constructs as an intermediary step between consumer need and consumer behavior.

For instance, "Purchase intention" is not really a 'consumer need' but merely the means to satisfying one. And "Purchase intention" is a mental object that is not yet expressed behavior.

Hence, it is an easy and clear case of being a "construct".

Take "brand image". What needs does this construct serve?

It depends on the product category etc but one can, on average, think of needs such as mitigation of (quality) risk, search costs, routine/intertia, need to belong/conformity, aspirational reach etc that might be in play.

Two Broad Measurement Approaches:

One is the conventional way we went about in class - We take a behavior pattern of interest (either expressed or latent) and postulate the existence of constructs that are linked to the behavior.

We then break-down this constructs into Likert-able aspects and collect data on the same.

After data collection, we can confirm whether the aspects indeed add up to the constructs as we had hypothesized (e.g., via confirmatory factor analysis, correspondence analysis or structural equation modeling, etc.)

Some of these analyses I mentioned we'll see later in the course.

The above is the approach taken in this complex example of real research on brand advocacy I presented in class (see slide below):

The second approach, which we will see in session 3 - involves collecting bits and pieces of known behavior patterns and then exploring whether there exists a "common", correlation-based inter-relationship among the behaviors (or tendencies) of interest. If yes, then perhaps some construct(s) underlie(s) them.

Class example with the quick-check:

I'm yet to go over the responses to the first quick-check (see slide below) but let me first pin my thoughts down about it.

Thought it best to tabulate my thoughts. Pls click on the image below for a larger view.

Again, I'm not claiming my musings are "right" as opposed to "wrong" etc. Its just a single, simple case of applying analytic thinking and frameworks we picked up in session 2 to a real world, real-time Business problem.

And for this course to be relevant, we have to keep darting between real-life problems - both offline and web-based. I continue to hope for newer insights and perspectives from you folks, who are closer to the consumer-tech revolution as it is happening than an ancient like moi.

Well, that's it for now. Pls do share your thoughts and comments (and even more welcomingly, your own examples, links and ideas) in the comments section below.

Sudhir