3-1

The Marketing
Research Process
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 The purpose of marketing research is to

identify customers- target markets- and
to fulfill their desires.
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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
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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
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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
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The Marketing Research Process

Step Two: Define the Problem

• The most important step in the marketing

research process is defining the problem. (
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The Marketing Research Process

Step Three: Establish Research Objectives

• What information is needed in

order to solve the problem?
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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
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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
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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)
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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)
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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
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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
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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
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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.