4.00 UNDERSTAND PROMOTION AND
INTERMEDIATE USES OF MARKETINGINFORMATION.
4.04 Understand marketingresearch activities to show
command of their nature
and scope.
5-141 5-143 MARKET RESEARCH VOCABULARY
Define the following terms: marketing research, secondary
research, primary research, personal interview, mail
interview, telephone interview, questionnaire, and focus
group.
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Marketing research – Methodology for discovering the
customer’s wants and needs
 the systematic gathering, recording, and analyzing of data
about a specific issue, situation, or concern—is a valuable
source of insight. It is an important component of a
business’s marketing-information management system and
helps businesses to make better decisions.
Secondary research – collected from other sources
(libraries, online, Federal/State/Local governments
VOCABULARY
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Primary research – Directly collected from the
company’s customers by the company
Personal interview – Face-to-face personal discussion
with the customer
Mail interview – Questionnaire sent by mail to
customers
Telephone interview – Phone call made to a customer
Questionnaire – set of information in question form
Focus group – Group of customers brought together to
discuss a company’s product(s)

They offer their opinions and suggestions that are then
recorded and analyzed by the company
MARKET RESEARCH

Identify characteristics of effective marketing
research.
 Systematic
- a step-by-step process similar to the
scientific method
 Accurate - as exact and precise as possible so that
wise business decisions are made
 Objective - Researchers must keep their own
opinions out of the way while they are gathering
data
MARKET RESEARCH
 Thorough
– To help a business with its decisionmaking, marketing researchers must gather
sufficient data
 Timely – There are usually due dates associated
with marketing research
 Reliable – if the same research was repeated or
conducted by other researchers, the results would
be the same
 Valid - it actually measures what the researcher
intends to measure
MARKET RESEARCH
Describe the importance of marketing research.
 One of the most important ways that
businesses use marketing research is to help
them implement the marketing concept: a
philosophy of conducting business that is
based on satisfying customer wants and needs
while achieving company goals. Marketing
research helps businesses to identify those
needs and wants.
MARKET RESEARCH
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Explain how marketing research is carried out.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
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Indentify the problem
Design a research plan
Allocate resources ($’s, people, time, etc.)
Do it
Analyze the results
Explain the uses of marketing research.
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To develop a profile of the typical customer
To analyze the business’s sales and market share
To describe the target market
To determine how to reach the target market
To forecast sales and trends
To be more competitive
To prevent unnecessary financial losses
To keep up-to-date
To maintain or determine image
MARKET RESEARCH

Describe shortcomings of marketing research.
Based often on “statistical samples” rather than the
whole market
 Respondents don’t always understand the questions
and sometimes they don’t give the full truth
 Bias – not objective

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Describe types of marketing research objectives.
To explore the current situation
 To define the current situation
 To test the situation
 To predict future situations

MARKET RESEARCH

Describe the contents of a research plan or
design.
 What
types of data are needed?
 How much data will be collected?
 Where will researchers find the data?
 What primary data-collection methods will be used?
 How will the data be analyzed?
MARKET RESEARCH

Classify types of marketing research data.
 Primary
 Secondary
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Distinguish between internal and external
sources of data.
 Internal
has already been collected by the company
 Customer
 External
records
has to be garnered (libraries, online,
government)
MARKET RESEARCH

Describe types of data collection methods.
 Primary
can include different types of surveys
(direct mail, telephone, face-to-face, etc.)
 Secondary includes information that can be
collected by:
 Purchasing
reports (industry, news sources, etc.)
 Government sources (census, local, State, and Federal)
 Publicly available (libraries, online)
MARKET RESEARCH
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Explain how data can be analyzed.
Specialized software
 Trends, mathematical, graphing, etc.
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Describe steps in the marketing research process
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Identify the Reason for the Research
Set Research Objectives
Develop a Hypothesis
Determine the Research Design
Collect the Needed Data
Analyze the Data
Make Recommendations Based on Findings
5-144 5-145 HOW TO RESEARCH
Define the terms marketing research problem, decision
problem, variables, unit of analysis, research objectives.
 Marketing research problem - asks what research needs
to be done to solve the decision problem
 Decision problem - the basic issue the business’s
managers are facing
 Variables – things that can change when conducting
research
 Unit of analysis – individual, groups of people
(customers), etc.
 Research objectives – what the company plans or needs
to accomplish
HOW TO RESEARCH

Explain the importance of determining the
actual marketing research problem/issue.
 Getting
to the root of the problem will help a
business’s managers to solve problems correctly
without wasting time or money on ineffective
strategies.
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Discuss the need to determine the “real”
issue/problem rather than its symptoms.
 Fixing
away
a symptom will not make the problem go
HOW TO RESEARCH
Describe the steps involved in determining the
marketing research problem/issue (e.g., clarifying
and identifying the information needs, redefining
the decision problem as a research problem, and
setting research objectives.
 Discuss activities involved in identifying the
information needs (e.g., determining the purpose
of the research, understanding the complete
problem, identifying measurable symptoms,
determining the unit of analysis, and determining
relevant variables).
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HOW TO RESEARCH
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Explain why researchers need to adjust the decision problem into a
research problem.
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Describe the purposes of setting marketing research objectives.
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A decision problem is a simple question asked from the managers’
perspective. Sometimes, decision problems are discovery-oriented, or
aimed at answering the questions “what?” or “why?”
decision problems are strategy-oriented, or aimed at answering the
questions “how?” or “which?”
A research problem asks what research needs to be done to solve the
decision problem. It’s a question asked from the researchers’
perspective.
Narrows the scope and controls the cost of the research
Explain the relationship between the research problem/issue and the
marketing research objectives.

Must be tied together or the research will not be relevant
HOW TO RESEARCH
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Discuss how determining the marketing research
problem/issue aids in determining whether to conduct
the study.
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Managers should avoid any marketing research projects that
don’t make financial sense. ($$$!!)
Describe situations in which conducting a marketing
research study would be inappropriate.
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The benefits of doing so don’t outweigh the costs
The company doesn’t have the funds to conduct the
research (shortcuts can make the findings untrustworthy)
When launching an inventive new product—it may be difficult
for “test” customers to properly evaluate its use