Chapter 3 : Marketing Research
Topics covered in this snack-sized chapter:
Marketing Research is about analyzing problems, building models, and collecting information in order to support good decisions about products and services.
The collection of certain types of information is called market research.
The goal of market research is to provide data that managers need to make decisions.
Market research is about identifying the needs of customers and meeting them in the best possible way.
Marketing research can help managers to:
- Decide whether to enter a market.
- Decide whether to launch a product or service.
- Understand how customers feel about a current product or service.
- Tailor the messages and imagery that are directed at the target market.
- Determine if current marketing efforts are working.
- Find out what customers expect and what would make them buy again or buy more.
- Determine gaps in the market that can be filled with a new product or service.
Marketing Research involves several steps:
- Define the problem and research objectives.
- Develop the research plan.
This involves a clear and precise understanding of the problem at hand.
To be effective, a research study must be both well designed and narrowly focused.
This is the decisive step in the marketing research process.
After defining the problem, it is important to determine who will do the research and what solutions will be implemented to address existing problems.
Researchers must identify the sources they will use to gather information.
The process of primary research starts with whether the question calls for:
Marketing research that gathers specific information related to the identified issue, situation, or concern.
This seeks to describe users of a product:
- Determine the proportion of the population that uses a product.
- Predict future demand for a product.
Descriptive research should define questions, what sort of people will be surveyed, and the method of analysis prior to begin the data collection.
Marketing research to gather preliminary information that will help to define problems and suggest hypotheses.
Goals:
- Formulating problems more precisely.
- Eliminating impractical ideas.
Seeks to identify cause and affect relationships between variables.
It accomplishes this goal through laboratory and field experiments.
Different sources of data are categorized as:
- Primary data that researchers collect.
- Secondary data that already exists.
This process mainly involves a lot of field-related work activities such as:
- Feedback sessions which are done by specially assigned data collection agents or field agents.
To obtain clear, unbiased and reliable results, the data should be collected under the direction of experienced researchers.
Before you analyze data, review your research goals.
This helps maintain focus.
Attempt to format and organize the data in a way which answers your research question(s).
Look for trends.
Presentation is the most important aspect of the whole process.
Even if you have amazing findings, if you present it ineffectively no one will listen to you.
Marketing research serves marketing management by providing information which is relevant to decision making.
The data gathered needs to be readily accessible and understandable to the decision makers.
Data Collection in Marketing Research is a detailed process in which a planned search for all relevant data is made by a researcher.
There are two main sources of data:
- Primary Marketing Research.
-
Secondary Marketing Research.
Primary Marketing Research
Primary marketing research data is collected for the first time. It is original and collected for a specific purpose or to solve a specific problem.
It is often costly and difficult to undertake.
Primary market research is done when a company collects data directly
from the marketplace by:
Focus groups
Interview
Advantages:
It is tailored to your specific company and products.
It provides precise answers to your specific questions.
Disadvantages:
It is expensive.
It is time consuming.
Secondary Marketing Research
Secondary marketing research is when a company collects data indirectly
from various sources.
Secondary marketing research is relatively cheap and can be conducted quite quickly.
It tends to have been collected for reasons other than for the problem or objective at hand.
Sources of Data Collection
Government agencies and trade associations:
- Economic and trade statistics,
News Media:
- International news reports.
Advantages:
It is less expensive.
It is less time consuming.
Disadvantages:
Information may be outdated.
Data may be too broad.
Data may be incomplete.
Statistics on services are often unavailable.
