Chapter 2
The Marketing
Research Process
The Marketing Research Process: 11 Steps
• Step One:
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•
•
•
Step Two:
Step Three:
Step Four:
Step Five:
• Step Six:
Establishing the Need for Marketing
Research
Defining the Problem
Establishing Research Objectives
Determining Research Design
Identifying Information Types and
Sources
Determining Methods of Accessing
Data
The Marketing Research Process: 11 Steps
cont…
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•
•
•
•
Step Seven:
Step Eight:
Step Nine:
Step Ten:
Step Eleven:
Designing Data Collection Forms
Determining Sample Plan and Size
Collecting Data
Analyzing Data
Preparing and Presenting the Final
Research Report
The Marketing Research Process
Step One: Establish the Need for Marketing Research
• Marketing Research is not needed when the:
• required information is already available
• decisions need to be made now
• organization can’t afford the research
• costs outweigh the value of the research
The Marketing Research Process
Step Two: Define the Problem
• The most important step in the marketing
research process is defining the problem. (Ch. 4)
The Marketing Research Process
Step Three: Establish Research Objectives
• What information is needed in order to solve the
problem?
The Marketing Research Process
Step Four: Determine Research Design
• Exploratory Research: collecting information in
an unstructured and informal manner
• Descriptive Research: refers to a set of methods
and procedures describing marketing variables
• Causal Research (experiments and other
approaches): allows isolation of causes and
effects
The Marketing Research Process
Step Five: Identify Information Types and Sources
• Secondary Data: information that has been
collected for some purpose other than the
research at hand
• Primary Data: information that has been gathered
specifically for the research objectives at hand
The Marketing Research Process
Step Six: Determine Methods of Accessing Data
• Secondary Data: accessing data through sources such as
the Internet and library
• Primary Data: collecting data from participants through
methods such as telephone, mail, online, and face-to-face
(quantitative), and observation studies and focus groups
(qualitative)
The Marketing Research Process
Step Seven: Design Data Collection Forms
• The design of the data collection form that is
used to ask or observe and record information in
marketing research projects is critical to the
success of the project.
• It is easy to write a set of questions but very
difficult to construct a questionnaire.
• General types of “instruments” (forms)
• Questionnaires
• Observation Study forms (protocols)
The Marketing Research Process
Step Eight: Determine Sample Plan and Size
• Sample plan: refers to the process used to select
units from the population to be included in the
sample
• Sample size: refers to determining how many
elements (units) of the population should be
included in the sample
The Marketing Research Process
Step Nine: Collect Data
• Sound data collection is very important because,
regardless of the data analysis methods used,
data analysis cannot “fix” bad data. 12
Nonsampling errors may occur during data
collection. These are related to poor design
and/or execution of the data gathering.
• Sampling errors may occur based purely on
chance
The Marketing Research Process
Step Ten: Analyze Data
• Data analysis: involves entering data into
computer files, inspecting data for errors (data
cleaning), running tabulations (frequencies), and
conducting various statistical tests
The Marketing Research Process
Step Eleven: Prepare and Present the Final
Research Report
• Findings are presented, often by research
objective, in a clear and concise way.
• The need for a good report cannot be overstated.
It is the report, and/or its presentation, that
properly communicates the results to the client.