MARKETING RESEARCH

The Research Process

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Marketing Research: Definition and Purpose

• Many definitions of Marketing Research:

– “Marketing research is the systematic design, collection, analysis
and reporting of data and findings relevant to a specific marketing
situation facing the company.” [Philip Kotler
– “the systematic gathering, recording and analyzing of all data
about problems relating to the marketing of goods and services.”
[The American Marketing Association]
• Basic Purpose of Marketing Research
– Marketing research reduces uncertainty or error in decision-
making. The information collected by conducting marketing
research is used for problem solving and decision making in
various areas of marketing.
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 Marketing Research ...

Can help the marketing manager to: Is important because of

(1) Identify and define marketing problems

• Rapid changing
and opportunities accurately; marketing
environment;
(2) Understand markets and customers and
• Need for up-to-date
offer reliable prediction about them;
information for
(3) Develop marketing strategies and actions to strategically
provide a competitive edge; and refine and important areas;
evaluate them;
• Importance of
(4) Facilitate efficient expenditure of funds; research as an
(5) Monitor marketing performance; and integral part of
(6)Improve the understanding of marketing as better operation.
a process.
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 THE MARKETING INFORMATION SYSTEM AND
MARKETING RESEARCH
• Marketing research is not the only source of
information that marketing managers need in
making decisions.
• Information may also be generated by various
components of the Marketing Information System
(MIS) consisting of a series of interactive
components (Figure 1.1).
• There are four subsystems of the MIS: internal
reports, marketing intelligence, marketing
research, and marketing decision support.
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THE MARKETING INFORMATION SYSTEM

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

Internal Marketing
Reporting Intelligence
System System
INFORMATION
Marketing Marketing
Managers 1. Assessment of Environ-
Needs ments
2. Distribution An Marketing
Analytical Research
Marketing
System System

Marketing Decisions and Communications

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When Marketing Research may not be necessary

• Marketing research is almost always problem-oriented.

Whether to conduct marketing research depends on the
manager’s experience and wisdom; nature of decision
situation [repetitive or atypical]; degree of uncertainty;
and the value and importance of the research.
• Marketing research may not be necessary if:
– Information is available/outcomes known.
– Insufficient time for marketing research.
– Non-availability of resources.
– Cost Vs Value of the Research.
– Outcomes known.

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 MAIN DIVISIONS OF
MARKETING RESEARCH

1. Market and Sales Research

2. Product Research
3. Price Research
4. Distribution (Place) Research
5. Promotion Research.

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 T y p e s o f M a r k e tin g R e s e a r c h

M a r k e t in g R e s e a r c h

R e s e a rc h B a s e d o n R e s e a rc h B a s e d o n R e s e a rc h B a s e d o n
P u rp o s e S o u rc e o f D a ta D a t a C o lle c t io n M e t h o d

B a s ic R e s e a r c h P r im a r y R e s e a r c h Q u a lit a t iv e R e s e a r c h

A p p lie d R e s e a r c h S e c o n d a ry R e s e a rc h Q u a n t it a t iv e R e s e a r c h

P r e lim in a r y C o n c lu s iv e P e r fo r m a n c e

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 Types of Research II

• Combinations of types such as applied qualitative

research, basic primary research are common
• A sample of questions commonly answered by
conducting primary applied research include:
– What price should we charge for our product?
– What distribution channels should be used?
– How well does the product match up with the competitor’s
product?
– How effective is the company’s advertising?
– How will the consumers receive this new product?
– What percentage of market penetration does Product X have?
– What is Product X’s image in the consumer’s mind?

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 Qualitative Vs Quantitative Research
• Qualitative research involves collecting, analyzing, and
interpreting data by observing what people say or do.
– Uses a smaller number of individuals and ‘observes’ them for
a time span of between 1 and 2 hours. -----“soft approach”
• Quantitative research is the traditional mainstream of
marketing research.
– It is also called “survey research”. Involves the use of
questions and large number of respondents within a brief
span of time, say 15 to 45 minutes.
– Its purpose is very specific-- e.g. a nationwide survey on the
Road Pricing System for cars. The ‘hard approach’ to
marketing research.

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 THE MARKETING RESEARCH PROCESS

• Every research project is different and unique.

• However, research procedures and activities are
common and constitute the marketing research process .
• This process:
– is an well-organized sequence of ten steps involved in the
systematic collection and analysis of marketing data.
– provides a description of how a marketing investigation is
designed and implemented, and helps to guide the execution
of a research project.
– is interactive, a researcher may not follow the ten steps
exactly in the order presented here.

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Ten Steps in the Marketing Research Process

1. Define the Problem

2. Establish Research Objective
3. Determine Research Design
4. Identify Information Needs and Sources
5. Determine Methods of Data Collection
6. Design Instrument for Data Collection
7. Determine Sample Plan and Sample Size
8. Collect Data
9. Analyze Data
10. Prepare and Present Final Report
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 Step 1: Define the research problem I
• The very first, and the most important step in research:
– “A problem well-defined is half solved”
– Nature of the problem determines the type of study to conduct.
– Symptoms, for example, declining sales, profit, market share, or
customer loyalty are not problems.
• A research problem must be accurately and precisely defined,
otherwise the task of designing a good research difficult.
• Marketing problems may be difficulty-related or
opportunity-related. For both, the prerequisite of
defining the problem is to identify and diagnose it.
– Conduct situation analysis. It provides the basic motivation and momentum for
further research.

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Step 1: Define the research problem II
• Get the right answer to the question:
– “What exactly does the firm want (or need) to know?”
• The basic question to address is:
– “How to know that there is a problem?”
• Problems may become apparent from:
– deviation from the business plan, company records and
reports, customer complaints and grievances, conversations
with company employees, and observation of inappropriate
behavior or conditions in the firm;
– the success of the firm’s competitors, and published
materials reporting issues such as, changes in market or
environmental trends, new government regulations,
anticipated changes in the economy, etc.)
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Step 1: Define the research problem III
• Once the symptoms of a problem are detected..
– Conduct some initial fact finding to determine the nature of
the true problem.
– Talk to others about the problem and conducting a
preliminary literature search on the topic.
• In the initial stage, a problem may be recognized in a very
broad and general form only. This may restrict the
research program from being comprehensively designed.
• Both the researcher and the marketing manager (or the
research client ) need to work together to formulate the
problem into a precise and definite statement.
• This fact-finding exercise helps the researcher to refine
his educated guess to a more accurate problem statement.
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 Step 2: Establish Research Objectives

• “If you do not know what you are looking for, you won’t find it”
• Research objectives are related to and determined by the
problem definition. In establishing research objectives, the
researcher must answer the following questions:
i) What specific information should the project provide?
ii) If more than one type of information will be developed from
the study, which is the most important? and finally,
iii) What are the priorities?
• When specifying research objectives, development of hypotheses,
might be very helpful.
• When achieved, objectives provide the necessary information to
solve the problem. 16
 Step 3: Research Design

3. Research Design step involves the development of a

research plan for carrying out the study.
– There are a number of alternative research designs. The
choice will largely depend on the research purpose.

M A R K E T IN G R E S E A R C H

Q U A L IT A T IV E R E S E A R C H Q U A N T IT A T IV E R E S E A R C H

EX PLO R A TO R Y D E S C R IP T IV E C A U S A L
F o c u s G ro u p ; S u rv e y re s e a rc h L a b o r a t o r y E x p e r im e n t
O b s e r v a t io n ; F ie ld E x p e r im e n t
O th e rs .
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 Step 4: Specify the information required.
Step 5: Design the method of collecting the needed information.

4. After defining the 5. Marketing research

problem the researcher information may be
collected in many ways:
must determine what
– via mail, telephone, fax,
kind of information
Internet, or personal
will best meet the interview.
research objectives. – using consumer
– Secondary panels, consisting of
information individuals who have
agreed to provide
– Primary information purchasing and media
viewing behavior.

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 Step 6: Design the questionnaire.

• A primary responsibilities of a marketing researcher is to

design the data collection instrument or questionnaire in
a manner so that it is easily understood by the
respondent and administered to them.

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 Step 7: Decide on the sampling design.

Step 8: Manage and implement the data collection.

• The researcher must determine the criteria that would

enable a respondent to take part in a study.
– The sampling design must result in the proper sample of
respondents being selected. Different sampling designs are
available to researchers.
• The researcher must properly manage and oversee the
data collection process.
– If interview method is used, the researcher must train interviewers
and develop procedures for controlling the quality of the
interviewing.
– [This is not necessary if survey methodology is used, where the
research instruments are completed by the respondents. ]
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 Step 9:Analyze and interpret the results.
Step 10: Communicate the findings and implications.

• The ‘raw’ research data needs to be edited, tabulated

and analyzed to find the results and to interpret them.
– the method used may be manual or computer based.
– The analysis plan follows from the research objective of the study.
– Association and relationships of variables are identified and
discussed in the light of the specific marketing problem.
• The researcher has to submit a written report and often
make an oral presentation to management or the client.
– In conducting all the marketing research activities; the marketing
researchers must adhere to ethical standards.

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Marketing Problems Versus Research Problems

• Not all marketing problems are researchable. To clearly

define a researchable problem,
– the researcher must define the scope of the problem during the
initial investigation, and try to determine probable cause-and-
effect relationships between the variables by answering the
following questions:
• What is (are) the symptom(s) that indicate(s) that there is (are)
a problem (s)?
• What is (are) the likely cause(s) of the problem?
• What information will be needed to find a solution to the
problem?
• What possible course(s) of action may be taken if information is
available?
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Phrasing a Researchable Problem I
• A marketing problem that can be researched, must be
‘translated’ or written into a form that includes:
– A relationship between two (or among several) variables.
– Each variable is operationally defined,
– A population for the research is implied or identified.
• Consider the observation, “We need to find why our store’s image
seem to be have gone down?”
– This “problem” is not researchable because it does not clarify
• (I) the relationships that are described;
• (ii) how the conclusion seems to be have gone down? is reached, and
• (iii) ‘gone down’ compared to what?

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Phrasing a Researchable Problem II

• This research problem suffers because the terms are

not specifically defined.
– When “image” is referred to, what does it mean? The
number of customer that frequent the store? The number
of complaints lodged by customers? The store’s market
share? Or what?
– Similarly, what does “gone down” actually mean? Is it
referring to reduction in the number of people frequenting
the store? Or what?
– Finally, what population is being implied? Does it refer to
all sales to all customers or particular types of customers?
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 Operational Definitions of a Variable

• It is a definition that is determined by the operations

needed to measure the variable in question.
• A term may not have only one, universal meaning.
– In the statement, “I want to buy a car”, the variable
‘car’ is not operationally defined.
• A car may mean, among others, a sedan, a sports car, a
pick-up or a mini van; it may also refer to an American,
or a Japanese built car. Hence just saying car could be
misleading.
• One must be specific as to what it exactly means.
Operational definitions reduce ambiguity.
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 Variables and Constructs
• A “variable” is a factor that:
– (i) causes some other factor(s) to vary, and
– (ii) may assume different numerical values.
• Price is a variable since it can cause sales levels to vary and
may assume different numerical values.
• A “Construct” is a variables with special interpretation. Constructs
are concepts that are deliberately invented or adopted for a special
scientific purpose.
• In statistical analysis, a variable is generally identified by a symbol,
such as X or Y. If a researcher is using SPSS, or other computer
packages, he or she may use the name of the variable itself or its
abbreviated form e.g., ‘age’ ‘marstat’ (for marital status), ‘occupn’
(for occupation), etc.
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 Classification of Variables

• 1.Categorical or Classificatory Variables:

– have a limited number of values, e.g., gender (male or Female) , marital
status (married, single, widowed/ widower) etc.
• 2.Continuous variables:
– have an infinite number of values, e.g., temperature, sales in $ or number,
profit in $.
• 3. Dependent Variables:
– Variables expected to be predicted or explained.
• 4. Independent Variables:
– Variables that are expected to influence, predict or explain another. For
example, in the following relationship:
Income (I) = F (Age, Level of education),
Income is a dependent variable; Age and Level of education are
independent variables. An independent variable is something that the
researcher can control.
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 Constructs Widely Used by
Marketing Researchers
• Marketing Constructs Operational definitions

Attitudes towards brands Number of people with positive, negative or neutral feeling
Brand Awareness Percent of respondents that have heard of the brand
Brand familiarity Consumers that have tried or seen the brand
Brand loyalty How many times the respondent bought (used) the product
Comprehension of
product benefits Respondents opinion as to what the product does to them
Demographics Respondents’ age, sex, marital status etc.
Past purchase or use Percent of respondents that bought(used) the product/service
Psychographics How consumers think and behave
Purchase intention Number (%) of respondents planning to buy a product
Reach The number (%) of households exposed to an advertisement
schedule during a given period of time.
Satisfaction How the respondents evaluate the performance of the
product or the service

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 RESEARCH PROPOSAL I

• A research proposal
– a plan showing step by step description of how a proposed research
project will be undertaken.
– reflects the researcher’s understanding of the problem and ability to
conduct the research.
• If the research is to be conducted through a research agency,
the research proposal acts as an important selection criterion.
– Upon its acceptance, the research proposal becomes the basis for the
contract or agreement between the research agency and the client,
and serves as a record of what was agreed on.

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 RESEARCH PROPOSAL II

• There is no fixed or standard format for a research

proposal as it is dependent on the nature of the specific
research project. However, most research proposals
contain the following items.
– 1. Introduction
– 2. Statement of the Marketing Problem
– 3. Specification of the Research Objectives
– 4. Details of the Proposed Research Plan
– 5. Time schedule
– 7. Research team

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