Marketing

Environment

Why
Information Competition
Customer  Is
Needs Needed

Strategic
Planning
 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.
Can help the marketing manager to: Is important
because of
(1) Identify and define marketing

problems and opportunities

 Rapid changing
marketing
accurately;
environment;
(2) Understand markets and customers
 Need for up-to-
and offer reliable prediction about
date information
them; for strategically
(3) Develop marketing strategies and important areas;

actions to provide a competitive edge;  Importance of

and refine and evaluate them; research as an

integral part of
(4) Facilitate efficient expenditure of
better operation.
funds;
 Consistsof people, equipment,
and procedures to gather, sort,
analyze, evaluate and distribute
needed, timely, and accurate
information to marketing decision
makers.

 Function:Assess, Develop and

Distribute Information.
 Marketing Managers
Marketing Information System

Distributing Assessing Information

Information Needs
Developing Information
Marketing Decisions and

Information Internal
Analysis Data
Communications

Marketing Marketing
Research Intelligence

Marketing Environment
Obtains Needed Information for Marketing Managers
From the Following Sources

Internal Data
Collection of Information from Data Sources Within the Company
From: Accounting, Sales Force, Marketing, Manufacturing, Sales

Marketing Intelligence
Collection and Analysis of Publicly Available Information about
Competitors and the Marketing Environment
From: Employees, Suppliers, Customers,
Competitors, Marketing Research Companies

Marketing Research
Design, Collection, Analysis, and Reporting of Data about a Situation
 •Gathers preliminary information
Exploratory that will help define the problem
Research and suggest hypotheses.

Descriptive •Describes things as consumers’

Research attitudes and demographics
or market potential for a product.

Causal •Test hypotheses about cause-

Research and-effect relationships.
 Determine the Specific Information Needed

Secondary Primary

Information that has Information collected

been previously for the specific purpose
collected. at hand.

Both Must Be:

Relevant
Accurate
Current
Impartial
 Observational Research

Gathering data by observing people,

actions and situations
(Exploratory)

Survey Research
Asking individuals about
attitudes, preferences or
buying behaviors
(Descriptive)

Experimental Research
Using groups of people to
determine cause-and-effect
relationships
(Causal)
 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.
 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
 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.
 “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
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 I N 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

E X P LO 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 .
 5. Marketing research
4. After defining the information may be
problem the collected in many ways:
researcher must › via mail, telephone, fax,
determine what Internet, or personal
kind of interview.
information will › using consumer panels,
best meet the consisting of individuals
research who have agreed to
objectives. provide purchasing and
media viewing behavior.
› Secondary
information
› Primary
information
 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.
 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. ]
 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.
 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