MARKETING RESEARCH

Definition of Marketing Research:

Marketing research is any set of techniques used to gather

information and better understand a company’s target market.

Businesses use this information to design better products,

improve user experience, and craft a marketing strategy that
attracts quality leads and improves products.

Marketing research is basically spotting the needs of customers

and meeting them in the best possible manner.
 Marketing research can be concerned with any of a
variety of aspects of the market:

 The product, sales, buyer behaviour, promotion,

distribution, pricing, packaging, etc.

 Since the researcher cannot investigate everything about a

market, he/she must be selective.
 Luck, Wales and Taylor have defined marketing research
briefly as “the application of the scientific method to the
solution of marketing problems”.
 According to Green and Tull, “marketing research is the
systematic and objective search for and analysis of
information relevant to the identification and solution of
any problem in the field of marketing”
 According to Philip Kotler, Marketing
research is defined as, “the systematic design,
collection, analysis, and reporting of data and
findings relevant to a specific marketing
situation facing the company”.
 Marketing research is also the starting point
of the marketing management and perform as
the base of the marketing efforts throughout.
UNIQUE FEATURES OF MARKETING RESEARCH

1. Function of Marketing Management

The information generated through marketing research can be used to determine

the most appropriate marketing mix.

Marketing research operations helps the marketing executives to keep abreast

with the environmental changes by providing the right information on dynamic
environments to facilitate decision-making.
2. Integrated effort
For carrying out marketing research activities in any organisation, a group
effort is needed.

Research objectives are organized by planning executives and

Data requirements for the accomplishment of these objectives are

determined by the data analyst who should be familiar with the nature and
location of available data to retrieve and process it at the desired time.

Therefore, marketing research is an integrated effort.

 3. Systems Approach:

A number of activities viz., collection, recording,

tabulating, evaluating, analyzing and interpretation
of information are included in marketing research.

Each of these activities is performed by some

experts who are supervised by marketing
management executives.
 4. Inter-Disciplinary Process:

 Marketing research involves the collection of data

and information from various fields such as
psychology, sociology, economics etc.

 Furthermore, various statistical and mathematical

techniques are used to process the information.
Therefore, it is regarded as inter-disciplinary
process.
 5. Imperfect Science:

 The studies in marketing research are never

exactly as it deals with unpredictable and dynamic
human behaviour.

 The results are always uncertain with a certain

amount of risk. Just like any social science.
 6. Indispensable for the New Product Introduction:

 The market research is used to find out: suitable avenues

and place of the new products, before introducing a new
product. It reveals the various opportunities of new
markets and reveals the methods to reach the markets.
 7. Market-Orientation:
 Marketing research aims at enabling the firms to produce
that kind of goods and services that is acceptable to the
customers.

 It sees that the goods and services must reach the market
easily, quickly, cheaply and profitably.

 The right course of action to approach and sustain the

market is possible with suitable marketing research.
Importance of marketing research
1.Help to Spot Business Opportunities
2.Create Relevant Promotional Materials
3.Know Where to Advertise
Importance of marketing research
4. Lower Business Risks by:
 Test new designs and products before launching
 Find out why customers don’t come back.
 Get insights on problem areas.
 Importance of marketing research
5. Outsell Competitors by:
 Target dissatisfied customers.
 Find an underserved customer segment.
 Identify unaddressed customer needs.

6. Set Better Goals for Your Business

7. Decision-Making Becomes Simple
 Type of research design in marketing
 There are 3 types of marketing research designs, and they
are:
1. Exploratory,
2. Descriptive, and
3. Casual.
 1.Exploratory research
 Exploratory research is used in obtaining preliminary information that will help
identify the problem and hypothesis. It is done to understand what is happening and
why something is happening.

 Some of the most common methods of exploratory research are:

Experience survey: To gather data from people with experience.
 Focus groups: Bring a small group of people together and be guided by the moderator
through an unstructured discussion for purpose of gaining information relevant to a
research problem.
 Secondary information: From library, newspapers, magazines, trade publications and
online,
 Case analyses: Review of available information about the former situation that has
some similarities to the present research problem.
 Exploratory research

 It’s systematic and flexible and allows the researcher

to investigate whatever sources he/she desires.
 2. Descriptive research
 is used to identify the marketing problem and/or the potential
for a market. This type of research is used to identify the
characteristics of the target group or the average user of the
product or service. Descriptive research will allow us a
correlation among variables.
Descriptive research
 It provides answers to questions such as who, what,
where that are related to the research problem. E.g.
 Who – May be defined as firms (competitors)
customers
 What – Defined as brands brand sizes that are being
purchased
 Where – Place where customers purchasing
products
Classification of descriptive research studies
1. Cross-sectional studies
These are one time measurements often described as snapshots of the population. Eg: Find out the
readership of the newspapers in terms of demographics.

2. Longitudinal studies: Repeatedly measure the same population over a period of time. And for
this to be successful, same members of the sample should be accessed using panel.
 3.Casual research
 is marketing research done to test a hypothesis; the cause and
effect of a hypothesis.
The form of casual; If X then Y

If I increase an advertisement budget the sales will increase.

It’s a difficult way of predicting because many other factors may

be included.
 Casual research
 For example, causal research may be used in a business setting to
quantify the effect that a change will have on its current operations,
and what it will have on future production levels to assist in the
business planning process.
 Experiments
 An experiment: This is defined as manipulating an independent variable to see how
it affects the dependent variable while also controlling the effects of additional
extraneous variables.

 Types of experiments:
Laboratory experiments: it is a controlled environment that enables the scientist to
measure precisely the effects of independent variables on dependent variables, thus
establishing cause and effect relationships. The purpose is to achieve high internal
validity.

Field experiments: Here the independent variables are manipulated and the
measurements of the dependent variables are made on test units in the natural settings.
Experiments

 Once these ideas are tested and refined in laboratory

settings, psychologists often then return to field testing to
validate their findings. In this way, field studies can prove
extremely helpful in specifying the level of
generalizability of laboratory results to the real world.
Test Marketing:
 Is the phrase commonly used to indicate an experiment, study, or test
that is conducted in the field setting.
 Companies/firms may use one or several test market cities which are
geographical areas selected in which to conduct the tests.

There are two broad classes of uses of test markets:

1. To test the sales potential for a new product or service
2. To test the variations in the marketing mix for a product or service
Types of test markets

1. Standard test market: This is the one in which a firm test a product and/or
marketing mix variables through the company normal distribution channel.

2. Controlled test market: Are conducted by outside research firms who

guarantee distribution of the product through pre-specified types and number
of distributors.

3. Electronic test market: In which a panel of consumers have agreed to carry

on ID cards that they present when buying goods and services.
When to use types of research design:

The choice depends largely on the objectives of the

research

Research does not necessarily follow the order of

exploratory, descriptive and causal design.
 Marketing Research process
 It is important for any marketer to be familiar with the basic procedures and
techniques of marketing research.

STEP 1. Identify the problem

The first step for any marketing research activity is to clearly identify and
define the problem you are trying to solve.

You start by stating the marketing or business problem you need to address
and for which you need additional information to figure out a solution.

It’s important to share the problem definition and research objectives with
other team members to get their input and further refine your understanding of
the problem and what is needed to solve it.
 Step 2: Develop a Research Plan
 Once you have a problem definition, research objectives, and a
preliminary set of research questions, the next step is to develop a research
plan.

 Essential to this plan is identifying precisely what information you need to

answer your questions and achieve your objectives.

 Your data collection plan goes hand in hand with your analysis plan.
Different types of analysis yield different types of results. The analysis
plan should match the type of data you are collecting.
 Step 3: Conduct the Research
 Conducting research begins to generate information that helps answer your
urgent marketing questions.

 After getting everything you can from secondary research, it’s time to shift
attention to primary research, if this is part of your research plan.

 Primary research involves asking questions and then listening to and/or

observing the behaviour of the target audience you are studying.

 In order to generate reliable, accurate results, it is important to use proper

scientific methods for primary research data collection and analysis.
 Step 4: Analyze and Report Findings
 Analyzing the data obtained in a market survey involves transforming the primary and/or secondary data
into useful information and insights that answer the research questions.
 This information is condensed into a format to be used by managers—usually a presentation or detailed
report.

 Next, data are tabulated to show what’s happening: What do customers actually think?
 What’s happening with purchasing or other behaviors?
 How do revenue figures actually add up?

 The final report for a marketing research project may be in written form or slide-presentation format,
depending on organizational culture and management preferences.
 Step 5: Take Action
 Once the report is complete, the presentation is delivered, and the
recommendations are made, the marketing research project is over,
right? Wrong.

 What comes next is arguably the most important step of all: taking
action based on your research results.
Identifying Data Types, Timing and Budget, Data Collection Methods,
Analysis, and Interpretation
Types of data needed
Data collection methods
Analysis plan
Interpretation and reporting
1) Demographics and attitudes of current X supermarket
customers; 2) current customers’ spending patterns; 3. X
supermarket area demographics (to determine types of
people who aren’t coming to the X supermarket.
1) Current customer survey using the free online survey tool,
2) supermarket sales data mapped to customer survey results,
3) free city census data on supermarket area demographics, 4)
8–10 intercept (“man on the street”) interviews with non-
customers
Use Excel or Google Sheets to tabulate data; Anjelah
(statistician cousin) to assist in identifying data patterns that
could become market segments
You and Antony will work together to comb through the data
and see what insights it produces. You’ll use PowerPoint to
create a report that lays out significant results, key findings,
and recommendations
 It is worth mentioning that many marketing research projects are
never translated into management action.
 Sometimes this is because the report is too technical and difficult to
understand.
 In other cases, the research conclusions fail to provide useful
insights or solutions to the problem, or the report writer fails to offer
specific suggestions for translating the research findings into
management strategy.
 These pitfalls can be avoided by paying due attention to the research
objectives throughout the project and allocating sufficient time and
resources to do a good job interpreting research results for those
who will need to act on them.