Market Research and Consumer Behavior

Assignment 1: Difference Between Sales Oriented and Marketing Oriented Companies:

1. What is marketing? What is the relationship of marketing research to marketing?
- Marketing is the study and management of exchange relationships. It is the business process of
creating relationships with and satisfying customers. Because marketing is used to attract customers, it
is one of the primary components of business management and commerce. Marketing strategy involves
putting the information discovered through marketing research to work. These are the concrete plans
that a business uses to reach new and existing customers. It can also involve the development and
testing of new products or services. Information is the basis of marketing research.
2. Why is it important for decision makers to have philosophies? What is the marketing concept and
what is its relationship to marketing research?
- Philosophers tend to be cautious about theoretical matters. Decided to go left is a different mental
action from deciding to go right. Decision makers should be guided with logical thinking, and moral.
Marketing Research. Marketing research is a broad term that encompasses the process of gathering and
understanding data about your customers, demographics and business climate. It can also involve the
development and testing of new products or services. Information is the basis of marketing research.
3. What is a marketing strategy, and why is marketing research important to strategy makers?
- Marketing Strategy is a plan of action designed to promote and sell a product or service. Marketing
strategy is a long-term, forward-looking approach to planning with the fundamental goal of achieving a
sustainable competitive advantage. Scholars continue to debate the precise meaning of marketing
strategy. Consequently, the literature offers many different definitions. Market research allows you to
create a targeted marketing strategy. This plan can improve your sales and your customer satisfaction.
Market research can be used to study new product ideas, product performance and marketplace
position. It can also be used to measure customer service satisfaction.
4. Define marketing research. What is the difference between marketing research and market research?
- Marketing research is "the process or set of processes that links the producers, customers, and end
users to the marketer through information used to identify and define marketing opportunities and
problems; generate, refine, and evaluate marketing actions; monitor marketing performance; and
improve understanding of marketing as a process. Marketing research specifies the information
required to address these issues, designs the method for collecting information, manages and
implements the data collection process, analyzes the results, and communicates the findings and their
implications.
The primary difference between marketing and market research is: Marketing Research: Getting
information about product and consumer preferences. Market Research: Getting information about
place–customer, competition and the industry in general.
5. What is the function of marketing research?
- Marketing research is "the process or set of processes that links the producers, customers, and end
users to the marketer through information used to identify and define marketing opportunities and
problems; generate, refine, and evaluate marketing actions; monitor marketing performance; and
improve understanding of marketing as a process. Marketing research specifies the information
required to address these issues, designs the method for collecting information, manages and
implements the data collection process, analyzes the results, and communicates the findings and their
implications.
It is the systematic gathering, recording, and analysis of qualitative and quantitative data about issues
relating to marketing products and services. The goal of marketing research is to identify and assess how
changing elements of the marketing mix impacts customer behavior. The term is commonly
interchanged with market research; however, expert practitioners may wish to draw a distinction, in
that market research is concerned specifically with markets, while marketing research is concerned
specifically about marketing processes.
6. What are the steps in the marketing research process?
Marketing Research Process Steps:
- Establish the need for Marketing Research Develop Your Marketing Research Plan.
- Define the Problem Analyze Data and Report Findings.
- Establish Research Objectives
- Determine Research Design
- Identify Information Types and Sources
- Determine Methods of Accessing Data
- Design Data Collection Forms
- Determine the Sample Plan and Size
- Collect Data
- Analyze Data
- Prepare and Present the Final Research Report

7. Are all 11 steps in the marketing research process used at all times? Why or why not?
- Marketing research is a tedious process, where a product or a business launch’s success highly depend
on. With all these considered, all 11 steps in marketing research had to be followed and used hand in
hand systematically to make sure that no stone is left unturned in terms of determining the outcome of
the research.
8. Explain why firms may not have a need for marketing research.
- Market research is often the stepchild of the marketing process. We frequently encounter companies
where it is seldom given much thought. Here are some of the reasons why firms don’t need research on
marketing:
A. Market research done badly: Many times poorly executed research that yielded low payback and
poor outcomes is to blame. When marketing executives at a firm have a bad experience, even at a
previous company, they are often soured on marketing research. As a result they shy away even when
they encounter a problem market research can solve. As market research practitioners, we need to
ensure we execute projects well and keep with the quality standards of our industry. Every poorly
executed project reflects on the industry as a whole. Every poorly recruited focus group participant who
gets in when he should have been screened out is a blight on our collective reputations.
B. The proliferation of big data. The presence and availability of big data is an impediment to doing
primary market research. Here’s why: Many companies mine transactional and telemetry data for
trends and insights. This is particularly true of companies that practice with a lean start-up mentality.
The telemetry and transactional data are invaluable sources of insights. What they fail to do, however, is
explain the “why” behind the observed transactional patterns. Moreover, the failure to understand the
customer and their journey beyond the transaction creates blind spots that impact marketing. I have
written about the concept of a research triangle that is central to our work in research design. There are
three facets to customer-facing data and insights-primary research, social sentiment and big data.
Focusing on just one or two of these components yields to an incomplete comprehension of buyer
behaviors, motivations and drivers.
C. Education and access: The last factor is education and access. I have to admit this oversight by
industry players can play in your favor. Over the years, we have spoken to a lot of companies who have
never been called on by our competitors or even had an idea that the type of services we and our
industry offer were even available. Many market research executives hate to make sales calls.
Sometimes founders from academia feel that cold-calling is beneath them. As professionals, they
deserve to be found and wooed to accept assignments. As research practitioners, I feel we need to be
evangelists and champions for our work. The industry practice is to preach only to the converted. Many
companies who could use market research are therefore left in the dark on what market research can
do for them. These companies often end up with misperceptions, a lack of education and limited access
to the valuable services our industry provides.

9. Why is defining the problem the most important step in the marketing research process?
- Defining the problem is considered to be the primary, and the most important step in marketing
research process. This is where challenges are determined and possible obstacles are identified. Once
those hindrances are defined, formulating the best strategy to overcome, or possibly conquering failures
will be easy and seamless.
10. Discuss why defining the problem is really stating the decision alternatives.
- Deciding on alternatives highly depends on how the problem is determined. Each option is thought of
and tested if it fits to solve the crisis. Without defining the problem, coming up with a solution, let alone,
looking for alternatives would be futile. Basically, the root cause has to be uprooted first, to see what
the nature of the problem is. By then, the best solution can or maybe determined.