Role of Marketing Research in

Strategic Planning and Decision Making

Identifying Market Opportunities Identifying Marketing Opportunities

and Constraints and Constraints (Cont’d)
• Who are our potential competitors and how • Identify
strong are their market positions? – Potential customers’ strengths and
• How satisfied are consumers with current weaknesses
offerings on the market ? Are there any unmet – Consumer satisfaction with current market
consumer needs? offerings
• How is our offering likely to be perceived by – Consumer perceptions of the offer relative
consumers relative to competitors’ offerings ? to competitors
• Goal
Marketing research can help answer these and – Maintain competitiveness
other questions of interest to marketers

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Role of Marketing Research in the
Marketing Research Definition
Organization/Business
• A set of techniques and principles for
systematically collecting, recording,
analyzing, and interpreting data that can
aid decision makers who are involved with
marketing goods, services or ideas

Principle # 1: Attend to the Timeliness and

Principles of Marketing Research
Relevance of Research
• Principle #1 • Ford and GM developed extremely
– Attend to the timeliness and relevance of successful SUV’s
research
• Recent concerns over fuel prices have
• Principle #2 changed consumers’ perceptions and
– Define research objectives carefully and purchase intentions of SUV’s
clearly
• Principle #3 • Volvo, Porsche and Volkswagen entered the
SUV market in 2004 after significant
– Do not conduct research to support decisions
already made investment in R&D conducted prior to the
recent shift in consumers opinions

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Principle # 2: Define Research Objectives
Carefully and Clearly
• Microsoft e-Home devices
– Marketing research demonstrated consumers
acceptance of this concept
– Implementation was stalled because
associated Internet-enabled technologies were
not yet available or just entering the market
Principle # 3: Do Not Conduct Research to
Support Decisions Already Made
• Sony Mini-disc Players
– Successful product in Japan
– Launched in the US and failed miserably due
to popularity of competing technologies (i.e.,
Apple iPod)

The Role of Marketing Research in Marketing Research’s Relationship to

Analysis and Interpretation Decision Making Activity
• Marketing Research can be used to identify
“profitable customers” and “not-profitable
customers”
– Profitable Customers: those who are more
likely to spend large amounts of money and
become repeat customers
– Not-Profitable Customers: those who are more
likely to spend less money on each transaction
and might not return

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 Marketing Research Applications
• Gathering data from markets
• Conducting customer surveys
• Determining the needs of your customers
• Evaluating customer response to
advertising
Marketing Research Applications (Cont’d)
• Gathering sales and market share data on
your competitors
• Testing your products in the marketplace
• Estimating potential product sales