MARKET RESEARCH
What do you think Marketing Research is?
Marketing Research is the application of the
scientific method in searching for the truth
about marketing phenomena. These activities
include defining marketing opportunities and
problems, generating and evaluating
marketing ideas, monitoring performance,
and understanding the marketing process.
Role of Marketing
Research in
Managerial Decision
Making: Market
research is a critical
tool for making
marketing and
management
decisions.
Decide whether to launch a product or service
Decide whether to enter a market
How customers feel about a current product
or service
Customer satisfaction with a product, service or brand
Compare the sales performance of your product to your
competitors
Tailor the messages and imagery you will convey to
your target market
Determine if your current marketing efforts are
working
Find out what customers expect, and what would make
them buy again or buy more
Determine gaps in the market that can be filled with a
new product or service
Running or starting a business
without conducting regular,
relevant market research is a
serious management mistake. It’s
like packing for a holiday without
checking the weather conditions
at your holiday destination.
Applied
Marketing
Research
Basic Marketing
Research


Applied Marketing Research: Research
conducted to address a specific marketing
decision for a specific firm or organization.
Basic Marketing Research: Research
conducted without a specific decision on
mind that usually does not address the needs
of a specific organization. It attempts to
expand the limits of marketing knowledge in
general and is not aimed at solving particular
pragmatic problem.
Do you think all businesses
need the same kind of
marketing?
There are four basic business orientations:
 Product Orientation: Describes a firm that
prioritizes decision making in a way that
emphasizes technical superiority in the
product.

Production Orientation: Describes a firm that
prioritizes efficiency and effectiveness of the
production process in making decisions.


Marketing Orientation: The corporate culture
existing for firms adopting the marketing
concept. It emphasizes customer orientation,
long-term profitability over short-term
profits, and a cross-functional perspective.
Customer Oriented: Describes a firm in which
all decisions are made with a conscious
awareness of their effect on the customer.

Marketing Concept: Management philosophy
according to which a firm’s goals can be best
achieved through identification and
satisfaction of the customers’ stated and
unstated needs and wants.
How do you think Marketing Research can
help implement the marketing concept?


Market Research tracks consumers’ exact
needs and wants without wasting time and
money on unwanted products or services.
It can also prevent commercialization of
products that are not consumer oriented.
Sometimes ideas that look like technological
break-throughs in the laboratory fall flat
when presented to consumers. This improves
efficiency.

By improving efficiency, research also
facilitates profitability. For instance,
during the introduction of a new
product, accurate forecasting of the
product’s potential sales volume is an
essential basis for estimating its
profitability.

Analysis of data may also be a form of
marketing research that can increase
efficiency like the comparison of the
advantages of a company’s product to
the one of its competitors.
It’s worth noting that a marketing
researcher must be
knowledgeable not only about
marketing research but about the
entire spectrum of marketing
activities.


Time Constraints: Need time for research. If
the managers need an immediate decision,
there will not allow time for research.
Availability of Data: Often managers that
possess enough information to make sound
decisions, don’t use research. When they lack
adequate information though, research must
be considered.


Nature of Decision: A routine tactical decision
that does not require a substantial
investment may not seem to warrant a
substantial expenditure for marketing
research. The more strategically or tactically
important the decision, the more likely it is
that research will be conducted.
Benefits vs Costs: Analyzing the cost of
gathering the information with the benefits of
gaining the information.
Is sufficient time
available before a
decision will be
made?
Can the decision be
made with what is
already known?
Is the decision of
considerable
strategic or tactical
importance?
Conduct Marketing
Research
Does the value of the
research information
exceed the cost of
conducting research?