Marketing Research
Chapter 1. Introduction to marketing research
Marketing: Is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering,
and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large.
The marketing concept: Is a business philosophy that holds the key to achieving organizational goals
consists of the company’s being more effective than competitors in creating, delivering, and
communicating customers value to its chosen target markets.
Marketing strategy: Consists of selecting a segment of the market as the company’s target market
and designing the proper mix of the p’s and distribution system to meet the wants and needs of the
consumers within the target market.
Marketing research: Is the process of designing, gathering, analysing, and reporting information that
may be used to solve a specific marketing problem.
Marketing research Market research
A process used by businesses to collect, A process used to define the size, location,
analyse, and interpret information used to and/or makeup of the market for a product of
make sound business decisions and successfully service.
manage the business.
Uses: Links the consumer to the marketer by
• Identify marketing opportunities and providing information that can be used in
problems, making marketing decisions.
• Generate, refine, and evaluate potential
marketing actions, and
• Monitor marketing performance.
Generate, refine, and evaluate potential marketing actions: Selecting target markets → product
research → pricing research → promotion research → distribution research.
Monitor marketing performance: Tracking data collected at point-of-sale terminals as consumer
packages goods are scanned in grocery stores, mass merchandisers, and convenience stores. Tracking
social media.
Basic research: is conducted to expand our knowledge rather than to solve a specific problem.
Applied research: is conducted to solve specific problems.
Marketing Information System (MIS): is a structure consisting of people, equipment, and procedures
to gather, sort, analyse, evaluate, and distribute needed, timely, and accurate information to
marketing decision makers.
Components of an MIS:
• Internal Reports System
• Marketing Intelligence System
• Marketing Decision Support System (DSS)
• Marketing Research System
Marketing Research System
• Gathers information for a specific situation – Not gathered by the other MIS component
subsystems
• Marketing research projects are not continuous – They have a beginning and an end.
,Chapter 3. The Marketing Research Process and Defining the Problem and Research
Objectives
The “Step-by-Step Process”
• Not always presented as an 11-step process
• Not all studies use all 11 steps
• Few studies follow the steps in order
Step 1: Establish the need for marketing research
Is there a real need for marketing research?
• Research takes time and costs money
• Costs of information may outweigh value of information
• Marketing Research is not always needed
• We often already have the information
When is marketing research NOT needed?
• The information is already available
• The timing is wrong to conduct marketing research
• Funds are not available for marketing research
• Costs outweigh the value of marketing research
Step 2: Define the Problem
The need to make a decision requires decision alternatives. If there are no alternatives, no decision is
necessary.
Step 3: Establish Objectives
Research objectives state what the researchers must do. They provide, when achieved, the
information necessary to solve the problem defined in step 2.
Step 4: Determine Research Design
• Exploratory Research: collecting information in an unstructured and informal manner
• Descriptive Research: research that describes the phenomena of interest
• Causal Studies: attempt to uncover what factor or factors cause some event.
, Step 5: Identify Information Types and Sources
• Primary Information: information collected specifically for the problem at hand
• Secondary Information: information already collected
Step 6: Determine Methods of Accessing Data
• Secondary Data: is relatively easy to access. Secondary data is data gathered from studies,
surveys, or experiments that have been run by other people or for other research.
• Primary Data: is more complex. Primary Data is data that is collected by a researcher from
first-hand sources, using methods like surveys, interviews, or experiments. It is collected with
the research project in mind, directly from primary sources.
Step 7: Design Data Collection Forms
• The questionnaire must be worded objectively, clearly, and without bias in order to
communicate with respondents.
• If a focus group is used, a focus group guide must be developed.
• If we observe respondents, the form is called an observation form.
Software programs are available to assist marketing researchers in preparing data collection forms.
Step 8: Determine Sample Plan and Size
• A sample is drawn from an entire group or population. The sample plan describes how each
sample element, or unit, is to be drawn from the total populations. This gives you
representativeness.
• Sample size refers to determining how many elements of the population should be included
in the sample. This gives you accuracy.
Step 9: Collect Data
Non-sampling errors in data collection will occur, so researchers must know the sources of these
errors and implement controls to minimize them. Non-sampling error is caused by factors other than
those related to sample selection. Researchers aim to minimize this possibility by undertaking a
control referred to as validation. Companies that specialize in data collection are referred to as field
service firms.
Step 10: Analyse Data
Data analysis involves entering data into computer files, inspecting data for errors, and running
tabulations and various statistical tests.
Step 11: Prepare and Present the Final Research Report
Reporting, the last step, is one of the most important phases of marketing research. Its importance
cannot be overstated because it is the report, or its presentations, that properly communicates the
results to the client.
Problems: are situations calling for managers to make choices among decision alternatives.
Research objectives: are specific and tell the researcher exactly what information must be collected
to solve the problem by facilitating selection of an alternative.
• Specify from whom information is to be gathered
• Specify what information is needed
• Specify the unit of measurement used to gather information
• Word questions used to gather information using the respondents’ frame of reference.
