The marketing research process

Step 1: Define the problem, the decision alternatives, and the research objectives

  • Marketing managers must be careful not to define the problem too broadly or too narrowly for the marketing research.
  • Management needs to set specific research objectives.
  • Types of research
    • Explanatory: its goal is to shed light on the real nature of the problem and to suggest possible solutions or new ideas.
    • Descriptive: it seeks to quantify demand.
    • Causal: its purpose is to test a cause-and-effect relationship

Step 2: develop the research plan

  • Develop the most efficient plan for gathering the needed information and what that will cost.

Data sources

  • The researcher can gather data from various sources.
    • Secondary data: collected for another purpose and already exist somewhere.
    • Primary data: freshly gathered for a specific purpose.
  • Research is usually started through secondary data to see whether they can wholly or partly solve the problem without collecting costly data.

Research approaches

  • Primary data is collected in five main ways.
  • Observational research: gather fresh data by observing the relevant actors and settings unobrusively as they shop.
    • Ethnographic research: uses tools from anthropology to provide deep cultural understanding of how people live.
  • Focus group research: a gathering of 6 to 10 people carefully selected and brought together to discuss various topics of interest.
    • Participants are normally paid a small sum for attending.
    • A moderator provides questions and probes the discussion.
  • Survey research: companies undertake surveys to assess people's knowledge, beliefs, preferences and satisfaction.
    • Many are done online.
  • Behavioral research: Customers leave traces of their purchasing behavior in store scanning data.
    • Actual purchases reflect customers' preferences and often are more reliable than statements they offer to market researchers.
  • Experimental research: Designed to capture cause and effect relationships by eliminating competing explanations of the observed findings.
    • It is the most scientifically valid.

Research instruments

  • Questionnaires: a set of questions presented to responders.
    • Close-end questions specify all the possible answers and provide answers that are easier to interpret and tabulate.
    • Open-end questions allow respondents to answer in their own words and often reveal more about how people think
  • Qualitative measures: relatively unstructured measurement approaches that permit a range of possible responses
    • Because of the freedom, it can often be a useful first step in exploring consumers' perceptions.
    • Some other qualitative measures are:
    • Word associations: ask subjects what words come to mind when they hear the brand's name.
    • Projective techniques: give people an incomplete stimulus and ask them to complete it.
    • Visualization: requires people to create a collage to depict their perceptions.
    • Brand personification: ask subjects what kind of person they think of when the brand is mentioned.
    • Laddering: a series of increasingly more specific "why" questions can reveal consumer motivation and more deeper goals.
  • Technological devices:
    • Galvanometers: measure emotions aroused by a specific picture
    • Tachistoscope: flashes an ad to a participant, who is then asked to describe the image
    • Skin sensors, brain wave scanners, full body scanners

Sampling plan

  • Three decisions need to be made:
    • Sampling unit: Whom should we survey?
    • Sample size: How many people should we survey?
    • Sampling procedure: How should we choose the respondents?

Contact methods

  • Mail contacts: mail questionnaire is one way to reach people who would not give personal interviews.
  • Telephone contacts: telephone interviewing is a good method for gathering information quickly and clarify questions.
  • Personal contacts: it's the most versatile method, but also the most expensive. Other qualitative information can be recorded, such as body language.
    • Arranged interviews: marketers contact respondents for an appointment.
    • Intercept interviews: researchers stop people at a shopping mall or busy street.
  • Online contacts: the Internet offers many ways to do research.
    • Advantages
    • Inexpensive
    • Fast
    • People tend to be honest and thoughtful
    • Versatile
    • Disadvantage
    • Samples can be small and skewed
    • Online communities can suffer from excessive turnover
    • Technological problems and inconsistencies

Step 3: collect the information

  • The data collection phase is generally the most expensive and most prone to error.
    • One of the biggest obstacles is the need to achieve consistency.

Step 4: analyze the information

  • Extract findings by tabulating the data and developing summary measures.
  • Compute averages and measures of dispersion and apply statistical techniques and decision models.

Step 5: present the findings

  • The researcher presents findings relevant to the major marketing decisions facing management.
  • Research findings should be presented in an understandable and compelling way.

Step 6: make the decision

  • The findings support the final decision.
  • Marketing decision support system: a coordinated colection of data, systems, tools, and techniques, by which an organization gathers and interprets relevant information from business and environment and turns it into a basis for marketing action.

Overcoming barriers

  • Some companies fail to use marketing research correctly.
    • They may provide the wrong problem.
    • They may have unrealistic expectations.