P3 – Describe how a selected organisation uses marketing research to contribute to the
development of its marketing plans
What is market research?
Marketing research helps a business to make decisions by understanding the changing of
the markets that it sells products in. For example, Kellogg’s that wanted to promote their
cereal would want to know their target audience, what people want to know about the
cereal, and what makes their cereal stand out from others, they may also want to know the
best way for them to distribute the product.
Primary and secondary research
There are two different ways that Kellogg’s can gather research, either primary or
secondary. Primary research is carried out by the organisation that the research is being
done about, secondary research is gained by collecting data that has been collected
previously. There are two types of primary research (internal and external), internal primary
research refers to data collected by looking at the businesses internal databases, external
primary research refers to date that is collected by finding out opinions that have an outside
view on the business. There are also two types of secondary research (internal and external)
which are almost the same to primary research except the research has been collected
before.
Both primary and secondary research have their uses and limitations. The research can be
used to make sure that Kellogg’s make the right decisions and to see how they are doing
over a certain amount of time. The limitations are a bit more complicated, cost effectiveness
might be a big one for a smaller company this is because the research may not tell them
anymore than they already know. The date that is collected may not be reliable, also the
more reliable the research collected usually means the more expensive it is because to
make sure that data is reliable you have to repeat it numerous times. The research needs to
be valid also, it is more important for it to be valid because if it’s not valid then reliability
doesn’t matter, valid data is data that can be used for its intended purpose.
Qualitative and quantitative research
Research can be qualitative, quantitative or both. Qualitative research involves an opinion
being expressed in a non-numerical method, the research is subjective and allows
companies to delve deeper into these opinions to understand them better. Quantitative
research is usually objective and is involves numbers and can establish relationships and
causation, quantitative research is a lot quicker to understand because all the research is
measurable and sticks to the intended purpose of the research.
Kellogg’s market research
Kellogg’s are market orientated meaning that they develop products based on the needs
and wants of the market. Kellogg’s carry out market research so they can plan ahead,
meaning they can look into what products they should developing to fill future needs. Carry
out market research also means that Kellogg’s can attempt to strengthen their product
range to ensure that they beat competition.
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