MARKETING RESEARCH

Marketing research

Marketing Research

Importance of Marketing Research

Marketing Research is considered one of the most important elements when introducing a product or service into the market. Marketing research is the collection, processing and analyzing the data to reduce the uncertainty that accompanies the adoption of marketing decision-making. Market research involves the elucidation of its state of development trends, which may help to identify shortcomings of the current state of the market and give opportunities and ways to improve it, but this is only part of the problem, define the content of marketing research in general. All marketing research is carried out from two perspectives: evaluation of various marketing options for a given time; and prediction of their values ??in the future (William and Barry 2009, Pp. 56-63).

Process of Market Research

The process of market research is a set of five successive steps describe the tasks to be performed to carry out a market research study. The set of five steps or Market Research include:

Define the problem and research objectives,

Design of the research plan,

Data collection,

Preparation and analysis, and

Interpretation, preparation and presentation of the report with the results.

Definition of the Problem and Market Research Objectives

According to Philip Kotler and Gary Armstrong, these are the steps of market research. It is often the most difficult task but it guides the research process.

In defining the problem, one should take into account the purpose of the study, relevant background information, information that is needed and how we will use it in making decisions. In addition, this part includes discussion with decision makers, interviews with industry experts, analysis of secondary data and focus groups (Sam 2010, pp.23-990).

Once you have defined the problem carefully, we must establish the objectives of market research, which according to Kotler and Armstrong, can be of three types:

Exploratory Research: Looking to get preliminary information to help define problems and suggest hypotheses.

Descriptive Research: Looking to better describe marketing problems, situations, or markets, such as the market potential of a product or to demographics and attitudes of consumers who buy the product.

Causal Research: Looking to test hypotheses about cause and effect relationships.

Design Market Research Plan

After you have defined the problem accurately and set research objectives, determine what information is needed and how, when and where to get it. To this end, designing a research plan in writing that gives the specific research approaches, contact methods, sampling plans and instruments that researchers will use to obtain and process the data. Also, set time limits in which you must start and finish the research.

The market research plan usually includes one of the following elements:

A clear statement of the nature of the problem of market research.

The main factors inherent discomfort with the issue (beliefs, attitudes, motivations, lifestyles, competitive activities, among others).

A precise definition of the product or service to be investigated.

The establishment of key measurement areas, for example, consumer beliefs about products, expectations, decision-making process, frequency of shopping, media exposure, etc.

The methodology to follow, as the data type, method of sampling, research instruments, ...