The Marketing Research Process Chapter 2 The Marketing Research Process

The Marketing Research Process: 11 Steps Step One: Establishing the Need for Marketing Research Step Two: Defining the Problem Step Three: Establishing Research Objectives Step Four: Determining Research Design Step Five: Identifying Information Types and Sources Step Six: Determining Methods of Accessing Data

The Marketing Research Process: 11 Steps cont… Step Seven: Designing Data Collection Forms Step Eight: Determining Sample Plan and Size Step Nine: Collecting Data Step Ten: Analyzing Data Step Eleven: Preparing and Presenting the Final Research Report

The Marketing Research Process Step One: Establish the Need for Marketing Research Marketing Research is not needed when the: required information is already available decisions need to be made now organization can’t afford the research costs outweigh the value of the research

The Marketing Research Process Step Two: Define the Problem The most important step in the marketing research process is defining the problem. (Ch. 4)

The Marketing Research Process Step Three: Establish Research Objectives What information is needed in order to solve the problem?

The Marketing Research Process Step Four: Determine Research Design Exploratory Research: collecting information in an unstructured and informal manner Descriptive Research: refers to a set of methods and procedures describing marketing variables Causal Research (experiments and other approaches): allows isolation of causes and effects

The Marketing Research Process Step Five: Identify Information Types and Sources Secondary Data: information that has been collected for some purpose other than the research at hand Primary Data: information that has been gathered specifically for the research objectives at hand

The Marketing Research Process Step Six: Determine Methods of Accessing Data Secondary Data: accessing data through sources such as the Internet and library Primary Data: collecting data from participants through methods such as telephone, mail, online, and face-to-face (quantitative), and observation studies and focus groups (qualitative)

The Marketing Research Process Step Seven: Design Data Collection Forms The design of the data collection form that is used to ask or observe and record information in marketing research projects is critical to the success of the project. It is easy to write a set of questions but very difficult to construct a questionnaire. General types of “instruments” (forms) Questionnaires Observation Study forms (protocols)

The Marketing Research Process Step Eight: Determine Sample Plan and Size Sample plan: refers to the process used to select units from the population to be included in the sample Sample size: refers to determining how many elements (units) of the population should be included in the sample

The Marketing Research Process Step Nine: Collect Data Sound data collection is very important because, regardless of the data analysis methods used, data analysis cannot “fix” bad data. 12 Nonsampling errors may occur during data collection. These are related to poor design and/or execution of the data gathering. Sampling errors may occur based purely on chance

The Marketing Research Process Step Ten: Analyze Data Data analysis: involves entering data into computer files, inspecting data for errors (data cleaning), running tabulations (frequencies), and conducting various statistical tests

The Marketing Research Process Step Eleven: Prepare and Present the Final Research Report Findings are presented, often by research objective, in a clear and concise way. The need for a good report cannot be overstated. It is the report, and/or its presentation, that properly communicates the results to the client.