Marketing Research

Please discuss the six major steps in market research. Why is market research so beneficial to the success of any organization and how does your organization use market research to market the products and/or services of your organization.  In your opinion is market research effectively used within your organization and give some specific examples if possible. See pages 167-175 in textbook.

1. Identify and define the problem: The first step in the marketing research project is to define the problem. In defining the problem, the researcher should take into account the purpose of the study, the relevant background information, what information is needed, and how it will be used in decision-making. Problem definition involves exploratory research such as discussion with the decision makers, interviews with industry experts, analysis of secondary data, literature review, and, perhaps, some qualitative research, such as pilot studies and focus groups.

After the problem has been identified and clarified, with or without exploratory research, the research must formally state the research objectives.  This statement defines the type of research that is needed and what intelligence may result that would allow the decision maker to make informed choices.

1. Planning a Research Design: Development of an approach to the problem includes formulating an objective or theoretical framework, analytical models, research questions proposed through surveys, hypotheses, and identifying characteristics or factors that can influence the research design. In this step, you need to establish a budget, understand influencing factors such as the environment or economy, decide on sampling and survey methods, and formulating hypotheses.
   
2. Research design: Sampling involves any procedure that draws conclusions based on measurements of a portion of the population. The first sampling question to ask is “Who is to be sampled?” The answer to this primary question requires the identification of a target population.  The next sampling issue concerns sample size.  How big should the sample be? The final sampling decision is how to select the sampling units.

Designing a survey or questionnaire is considered the most important step in any survey process.  Question design takes a lot of thought and time.  We will need to remember that if the questions are bad, the data will be bad as well.  During the survey research design, keep in mind sampling methods and data analysis factors we intend to use.

1. Collect the data: Don't forget to test your survey before to ensure you're fielding the correct data.  Data collection involves a field force or staff that operates either in the field, as in the case of personal interviewing from an office by telephone or through mail.  This is considered obtrusive.  Unobtrusive methods of data gathering are those in which the subjects do not have to be disturbed for data to be collected. Proper selection, training, supervision, and evaluation of the field force help minimize data-collection errors. Data preparation includes the editing, coding, and analysis of the data. Verification ensures that the data from the original questionnaires have been accurately transcribed, while data analysis, guided by the plan of data analysis, gives meaning to the data that have been collected.

5.  Analyze the Data: The types of analysis you planned to perform on the collected survey data should have been decided in earlier steps, but after collecting the data you have to actually perform the survey analysis.  Analysis can be performed using survey analysis tools like office programs, such as Excel, or more advanced programs such as SPSS - the complexity of the questions will determine this.