MARKETING RESEARCH

MARKETING RESEARCH

Marketing research attempts to adopt a scientific approach to building a clear picture of customers, the market and the competition and latterly it has been extended as an investigation into the wider environment in which the business operates.

Marketing research aims to discover, in a systematic manner using reliable and unbiased questions, ideas and intentions, as well as trends, which may affect a business, its markets and its customers. Marketing research processes data, analyses the data and interprets the facts, and is employed extensively in marketing management to help plan, evaluate and control marketing strategy and tactics.

Marketing research is often confused with market research, which has a considerably narrower definition. For the most part market research simply refers to consumer surveys, normally questionnaires, carried out face-to-face or over the telephone. Marketing research, therefore, can be seen a broader church in terms of information gathering, collation and analysis.

Marketing research must provide information to a business to help it understand its situations more clearly. In other words, it needs to have a real value. The value, of course, is based on a number of different determinants, which include the following:

• The business must be willing and able to act on the information received from marketing research, no matter what its conclusions may be.
• The researchers and the business need to be assured that the information which has been gathered is accurate.
• The business needs to recognize that its actions would probably be indecisive without the benefit of the marketing research information.
• The business also needs to be clear that whilst accepting the validity of the information gathered, there may be a degree of variation or a margin error.
• The business can also recognize that accurate and pertinent marketing research can reduce risk.
• The business needs to be cognizant that competitor's reactions may well react based on decisions made by the business arising out of their marketing research.
• Marketing research needs to be cost effective, in terms of both money and time. Any marketing research must be up-to-date, otherwise its value is limited, therefore any marketing research programme has to have a definitive purpose an deadline.

The majority of marketing research projects are typified by following a clear series of tasks. These are:

1. Define the problem.
2. Determine research desing
3. Identify data types and sources
4. Design data collections forms and questionnaries
5. Determine sample plan and size
6. Collect the data
7. Analyse and interpret the data
8. Prepare the research report