The Marketing Research
Process
Overview
Learning Objectives
 To learn the steps in the marketing research
process.
 To understand how the steps in the marketing
research process are interrelated and that the
steps may not proceed in order.
 To be able to know when market research may be
needed and when it may not be needed.
 To know which step is the most important in the
marketing research process.
Steps in the Marketing Research
Process
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
Establish the need for the marketing research.
Define the problem.
Establish research objectives.
Determine the research design.
Identify information types and sources.
Determine the methods of accessing data.
Design data collection forms.
Determine sample plan and size.
Collect data.
Analyze data.
Prepare and present the final research report.
Figure 1.1: Eleven Steps in the Marketing Research Process.
Steps in the Marketing Research
Process
 Few comments about the process:
1. It is rare in practice a research project follows all the
exact steps.
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Research is an interactive process where a researcher by
discovering something may move forward or backwards in the
process.
2. May not involve every step shown
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The research problem may be resolved, for example by a
review of secondary data, thereby eliminating the need to
determine a sample plan or size.
3. What’s important is although every research project is
different, there are enough commonalities to follow the
eleven steps of marketing research.
Step 1: Establish the Need for
Marketing Research
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A good monitoring system will alert the marketing
manager to a problem that can be attacked by marketing
research.
Regardless of the monitoring system used a good
monitoring system constantly searches for hints that the
companies marketing mix may be out of “sync” in the
market place.
Marketing research may not be needed
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Information is already available
There is insufficient time for marketing research
Resources are not available
Costs outweigh the value of the research
Step 2: Define the Problem
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Defining the problem is the single most important step in
the marketing research process.
Often studies are commissioned without a clear
understanding of the problem that needs to be
addressed.
Exploratory research is needed to define the problem so
research may be conducted.
Problem definition involves:
1.
2.
3.
Specifying the symptoms
Itemising the possible causes of the symptoms
Listing the reasonable alternative courses of action that the
marketing manager can undertake to solve the problem.
Step 3: Establish the Research
Objectives
 Research objectives identify what specific pieces
of information are necessary to solve the
problem at hand.
 Research objectives step is the specification of
the specific types of information useful to the
managers as they grapple for a solution to the
marketing problem at hand.
Step 4: Determine Research Design

There are three types of research design:
1.
2.
3.
Exploratory Research Design - is defined as collecting
information in an unstructured and informal manner.
Examples: Reading periodicals, visiting competitors
premises, examine company sales and profits vs. industry
sales and profit, clipping service.
Descriptive Research Design - refers to a set of methods
and procedure that describe marketing variables. Portray
these variables by answering who, what, why and how
questions. example: consumer attitude survey to your
companies services.
Casual Research Design – designs allow us to isolate
causes and their effects.
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Casual research is conducted by controlling various factors to
determine which factor is causing the problem.
By changing one factor, say price, we can monitor its effect on a
key consequence, such as sales. In other words, casual design
allows us to determine causality, or which variable is causing
another variable to change.
Step 5: Identify Information Types and
Sources.
Basically two types of data information available
to a marketing researcher:
A. Secondary data – as it name implies, refers to
information that has been collected for some
other purpose.
B. Primary data - refers to information that has
been gathered specifically to serve the research
objectives at hand.
Step 6: Determine Methods of
Accessing Data
Once the researcher has determined which type or types of
information are needed, he or she must determine methods of
accessing data.
Methods of accessing external secondary data have improved
over the last five years:
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Information processing technology.
Easy and Quick retrieval.
Internal data- company reports, salespersons, executives, MIS
and other information sources.
There are several different methods of collecting primary data
including:
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Telephone surveys
Mail surveys
Door-to-door interviews
Mall-intercept studies
New data collection methods are emerging.
Step 7: Design Data Collection Forms
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Questionnaires and observation forms must be designed
with great care.
Questionnaires – which record the information
communicated by respondents or the respondent’s
behavior as observed by the researcher
Structured Questionnaires - list questions that have prespecified answer choices.
Unstructured questionnaires – have open ended
questions and/or questions that are asked based on a
response.
Disguised-true object of the study is not identified.
Undisguised- respondent is made fully aware of the
purpose/or sponsor of the survey.
Step 8: Determine Sample Plan and
Size
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A sample plan identifies who is to be sampled and how to
select them for study.
A sample element refers to a unit of the entity being
studied.
A sample Frame is a list from which the sample elements
are drawn for the sample.
A sample plan specify how to draw the sample elements
from the sample plan.
Methods are available to help the researcher determine
the sample size required for the research study.
Step 9: Collect Data
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Data collection is usually done by trained interviewers
who are employed by field data collection companies to
collect primary data.
Being ware of errors that may occur is important.
Non-sampling Errors are attributable to factors other than
sampling errors.
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Wrong sample elements to interview
Securing participants who refuse to participate
Not a home
Interviewing subjects who give the wrong information.
Hiring interviewers who cheat and fill out fictitious survey
questionnaires.
Step 10: Analyse Data
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Data analysis involves entering data into computer files,
inspecting it for errors and running tabulations and
various statistical tests.
Data cleaning – process by which the raw data are
checked to verify that the data has been correctly
inputted from the data collection form to the computer
software program. Use SPSS
Coding – is the process of assigning all response
categories a numerical value males=1, females=2.
Tabulation – which refers to the actual counting of the
number of observations that fall into each possible
response category.
Step 11: Prepare and Present the Final
Research Report
 Preparing the marketing research report involves
describing the process used, building meaningful
tables, and using presentation graphics for
clarity.
 Preparing the SPSS software allows you to
prepare graphics to enhance your written or oral
presentation.
Summary
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Virtually all market research projects are different.
Some are limited to review of secondary data; others
require complex designs involving large scale collection
of primary data.
Understand the eleven steps of the research process.
Steps can give researchers an overview of the entire
research process.
Gives researchers a procedure to follow and a
framework.
Many steps outlined are interactive and the researcher
may decide which ones to use.
You are welcome to contact Nigel Bairstow at B2B
Whiteboard your source of B2B Asia / Pacific
marketing advice
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