MKTG 55: MARKET RESEARCH  Identify Performance, Pricing, or Promotion
Opportunities.
Market research:
 Is the process of gathering, analyzing
and interpreting information about a market
about a product or service to be offered for sale in that
market, and about the past, present and potential
customers for the product or service.
 Also research into the characteristics, spending habits,
location and needs of your business' target market, the
industry as a whole, and the particular competitors you
face.
 Is an effective tool to assist your business planning. It is
about collecting information that provides an insight into
your customers thinking, buying patterns, and location.
 Can also assist you to monitor market trends and keep an
eye on what your competition is doing
TWO TYPES OF DATA
1. Primary Information
 This type of information gathered and collected
through the effort of the researcher by themselves.
 (Surveys, Face-to-face interviews, Focus Groups,
Customer Feedback, Questionnaires.)
2. Secondary Information
 This type of information is already compiled and
organized for you. Examples of Secondary
Information include Reports and Studies by
Government Agencies, Trade Associations or other
businesses within your industry. Most of the
research you gather will most likely be secondary.
 (Industry and Trade Publications, Marketing and
Consumer Lists, Newspaper and Media, Books)
THE USES OF MARKET RESEARCH
From the information gathered:
 Used to identify and define marketing opportunities and
problems.
 Generate, refine, and evaluate marketing Actions.
 Monitor marketing performance.
 Improve understanding of marketing as a process.
 Used to answer fundamental questions that affect the
future of an organization.
“Small Businesses as well as Large corporations can benefit
from the knowledge that research provide”
RESEARCH IN SMALL BUSINESSES
 Small Businesses need to research what products and
services customers want and need. It is essential that they
conduct research on a continual basis as to what products
and services are being offered by competing businesses.
RESEARCH IN LARGE CORPORATIONS
 Marketing research is especially necessary when
corporations develop new products and reposition
current products. Research is needed to thoroughly
analyze consumer needs, as a failed introduction or
repositioning of a product can be a very costly mistake.
BUSINESSES UNDERTAKE MARKET RESEARCH TO:
 Identify Potential New Customers
 Learn more about Existing Customers
 Inform their Decisions regarding Existing and New
Products or Services Better Understand their
Competitors
 Test New Markets
THE ROLE OF MARKET RESEARCH
 What can we find out?
 Systematic and objective data collection.
 What does it mean?
 Inferences on and interpretation of the data.
 What should we do?
 Recommendation and options on the course of
action.
CUSTOMERS, COMPANY AND COMPETITION
 Market research focuses on understanding the customer,
the company, and the competition. These relationships
are at the core of Market Research. Companies must
understand and respond to what customers want from
their products, in which sometimes are influenced by
competitors.
TWO TYPES OF MARKET RESEARCH
 Fundamental Research
 Seek to extend the boundaries of knowledge in a
given area and doesn’t solve your problem. It
reveals information and relationships that could be
useful at a later date.
 You want to be a “Trendsetter”
 Applied Research
 Gathers information to solve a specific problem or
set of problems. You will use this information to
tune your business plan, focus your advertising
campaign, or improve your product.
 You want to be a “Problem-solver”
FACTORS TO CONSIDER BEFORE YOU BEGIN
CONDUCTING A RESEARCH
 Your Customers and Competition
 Awareness and Image of your Product
 Product Usage
 Undiagnosed Problems with your Product
 Customer desires and needs for New Product
Development
BASIC RESEARCH PROCESS
1. Formulating the Problem
2. Methods of Inquiry
3. Research Method
4. Research Design
5. Analysis and Interpretation
6. Data Collection
7. Sample Design
8. Data Collection Techniques
9. The Research Report
FORMULATING THE PROBLEM
 Research starts with a problem tha management is facing.
This problem needs to be understood, the cause
diagnosed, and solutions developed. However, most
management problems are not always easy to research. A
management problem must first be translated into a
research problem.
MANAGEMENT PROBLEMS
 focus on symptomatic areas on business
 “Sales are not growing”
RESEARCH PROBLEMS
 focus on providing the information you need in order to
solve the management problem
 “poor expectation and experiences”
METHODS OF INQUIRY
The scientific method is the standard pattern
for investigation. It provides an opportunity for you
to use existing knowledge as a starting point and
proceed impartially. The scientific method
includes the following steps:
1. Observation
 The research notices some competitor’s sales are
increasing and that many competitors have shifted to a
new plastic wrapping.
2. Formulation of Hypothesis
 The researcher assumes his client’s products are of
similar quality and that the plastic wrapping is the sole
cause of increased competitor’s sales.
3. Prediction of the Future
 The hypothesis predicts that sales will increase if the
manufacturer shifts to the new wrapping.
4. Testing the Hypothesis
 The client produces some shirts in the new packaging
and market-tests them.
RESEARCH METHOD
 Marketing research methods can be dividedinto two
different types – quantitative (objective- based research)
and qualitative (subjective- based research).
QUANTITATIVE VS. QUALITATIVE
Quantitative Research
 is based on statistics and may be used to predict market
penetration, future earnings, etc.
 “Which of these three packaging designs is most
attractive to consumers?”
Qualitative Research
 measures the values, attitudes and views of a particular
sample. It is useful if you want to understand why people
buy your products.
 “Why did you like the second packaging design?”
RESEARCH DESIGN
 The research design is a plan or framework for
conducting the study and collecting data. It is defined as
the specific methods and procedures you use to acquire
the information you need. Three types of research design.
3 TYPES OF RESEARCH DESIGN
 The major difference between the three is the purpose of
using it and the results and data you want to gather.
EXPLORATORY RESEARCH DESIGN
 explore: let previously unknown perspective, info,
factors, etc.
 its focus is on the discovery of ideas and insights as
opposed to collecting statistically accurate data
 mostly qualitative
 in the form of open-ended questions
DESCRIPTIVE RESEARCH DESIGN
 aims at describing a certain subject matter with higher
degrees of accuracy or precision
 primarily concerned at describing something
 mostly quantitative
 pre-planned and structured so the information collected
can be statistically inferred on a population
CAUSAL RESEARCH DESIGN
 it attempts to decipher whether a relationship is causal
through experimentation
 Two objectives:
 to understand which variables are the cause and
which variables are the effect
 to determine the nature of the relationship between
the causal variables and the effect to be predicted
DATA COLLECTION TECHNIQUES
 In this process, you’ll plan and determine how you
research. There are many ways to collect data. Some
examples are:
• surveys
• interviews
• observations
• experiments
SAMPLE DESIGN
 It’s more practical to use a sample—a smaller but
accurate representation of the greater population. In
order to design your sample, you must find answers to
these questions:
1. From which base population is the sample to
be selected?
2. What is the method (process) for sample
selection?
3. What is the size of the sample?
DATA COLLECTION
 Once you’ve established the first six stages, you can
move on to data collection. Depending on the mode of
data collection, this part of the process can require large
amounts of personnel and a significant portion of your
budget.
ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION
 In order for data to be useful, you must analyse it.
Analysis techniques vary and their effectiveness depends
on the types of information you are collecting, and the
type of measurements you are using. Because they are
dependent on the data collection, analysis techniques
should be decided before this step.
RESEARCH REPORT
 The research process culminates with the research report.
This report will include all of your information,
including an accurate description of your research
process, the results, conclusions, and recommended
courses of action. The report should provide all the
information the decision maker needs to understand the
project.
PROBLEMS MEAN GAPS
 a problem occurs when there is a difference between the
current conditions and a more preferable set of
conditions or there are changes in our customer base that
is out of our control. In other words, a gap exists
between the way things are now and a way that things
could be better.

RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
 A research objective describe concisely what the
research is trying to achieve. A research objective must
be SMART – Specific, Measureable,
Achievable/Attainable, Relevant/Results-Oriented and
Time-bound.
 In CvSU Form and Style in Thesis Writing, research
objective (Objectives of the Study) is a declarative
statement of the research question (Statement of the
Problem).

RESEARCH QUESTIONS
 A research question gives your research direction.
Writing a research question that clearly states the
problem to be researched takes considerable thought.
Since this question is the rationale for the all research
that will be conducted, it is well worth the effort to make
sure that this question is focused on the correct problem.

DEFINING RESEARCH QUESTIONS

 Who? Describe the participants who will take part in the
research by demographic, psychographic and usage
characteristics

 Where? The geographic location of current or potential

consumers or the area of product sales

 When? The time frame of the behavior under study

 What? A specific description of the product/service/
company

 Why? The attitude or motivation of concern to

researchers
 How? The proposed actions that could be undertaken by
the company