Unit 3: Introduction to Marketing Research

Vocabulary flashcards covering core marketing research concepts, information systems, quality checks, and process steps based on the lecture notes.

Marketing Research

The systematic design, collection, interpretation, and reporting of information to help marketing managers solve specific marketing problems or take advantage of opportunities. It links the consumer/public to the marketer through information.

Marketing Information System (MIS)

A framework for the day-to-day management and structuring of regular internal and external information flows to support daily decision-making.

Role of Technology in Marketing Research

Modern research capitalizes on tools like databases, electronic bulletin boards, online services, the Internet, and intranets to gather market intelligence.

Step 1: Defining Problems and Objectives

The first step in the 5-step marketing research process, guided by the rule 'A problem well defined is half solved' to uncover the root cause or symptom (such as falling sales or high complaints).

Developing Hypotheses

Formulating an informed guess or assumption about a problem or circumstance to be tested (e.g., 'Students prefer the campus canteen').

Step 2: Designing the Research Plan

The second step in the marketing research process, which outlines how data will be collected, who will be studied, and sets the budget.

Reliability

The extent to which a research technique produces identical results in repeated trials.

Validity

The extent to which the method actually measures what it is supposed to measure.

Exploratory Studies

A research design type used when more information is needed to make a tentative hypothesis specific.

Descriptive Studies

A research design type used to understand characteristics of a phenomenon, using statistics.

Causal Studies

A research design type that assumes a cause-and-effect relationship between an independent variable ($X$) and a dependent variable ($Y$), expressed as $Y = f(X)$.

Step 3: Implementing the Research Plan (Data Collection)

The third step in the marketing research process, which involves executing data collection using internal and external sources.