MARKETING RESEARCH

Marketing Research



Marketing Research

Marketing research is the systematic gathering, recording, analyzing, and interpretation of data related to marketing problems. Successful planning, implementation, control of marketing strategies, and solving marketing problems requires information about current and potential customers and is a crucial element of successful marketing strategy. However, because of cost and time constraints, most managers often rely on their intuitions in making marketing decisions. Although smaller firms conduct very little marketing research, many large corporations have their marketing research teams or rely on major marketing research firms or syndicated services that continuously supply marketing research data.

Marketing research steps include the following:

1. Problem definition

2. Situation analysis

3. Research design

4. Data gathering

5. Proccessing data

6. Analysis

7. Reporting

Problem definition is one of the most important steps in marketing research, because it provides direction to the kind of research to be conducted and the type and quantity of data to be gathered. One needs to be careful not to define the symptom of a problem, but to identify the possible causes of a problem. Therefore, decision makers often make educated guesses of formal hypotheses that need to be tested.

The second step, situation analysis, involves gathering of secondary data or informally talking to people who can provide information relating to the problem. Secondary data is information that is already available inside or outside the company. For example, company records and reports as well as knowledgeable people within an organization can be good sources. Similarly, the Internet, public and university libraries, government agencies, and marketing research and advertising firms all provide secondary data. The major advantages of using secondary data are that they are readily available and are not as expensive as primary data. However, secondary data may not be appropriate for solving specific problems. One should use secondary data with ...