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• Research Objectives | Definition & Examples

Research Objectives | Definition & Examples

Published on July 12, 2022 by Eoghan Ryan . Revised on November 20, 2023.

Research objectives describe what your research is trying to achieve and explain why you are pursuing it. They summarize the approach and purpose of your project and help to focus your research.

Your objectives should appear in the introduction of your research paper , at the end of your problem statement . They should:

• Establish the scope and depth of your project
• Contribute to your research design
• Indicate how your project will contribute to existing knowledge

Table of contents

What is a research objective, why are research objectives important, how to write research aims and objectives, smart research objectives, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions about research objectives.

Research objectives describe what your research project intends to accomplish. They should guide every step of the research process , including how you collect data , build your argument , and develop your conclusions .

Your research objectives may evolve slightly as your research progresses, but they should always line up with the research carried out and the actual content of your paper.

Research aims

A distinction is often made between research objectives and research aims.

A research aim typically refers to a broad statement indicating the general purpose of your research project. It should appear at the end of your problem statement, before your research objectives.

Your research objectives are more specific than your research aim and indicate the particular focus and approach of your project. Though you will only have one research aim, you will likely have several research objectives.

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Research objectives are important because they:

• Establish the scope and depth of your project: This helps you avoid unnecessary research. It also means that your research methods and conclusions can easily be evaluated .
• Contribute to your research design: When you know what your objectives are, you have a clearer idea of what methods are most appropriate for your research.
• Indicate how your project will contribute to extant research: They allow you to display your knowledge of up-to-date research, employ or build on current research methods, and attempt to contribute to recent debates.

Once you’ve established a research problem you want to address, you need to decide how you will address it. This is where your research aim and objectives come in.

Step 1: Decide on a general aim

Your research aim should reflect your research problem and should be relatively broad.

Step 2: Decide on specific objectives

Break down your aim into a limited number of steps that will help you resolve your research problem. What specific aspects of the problem do you want to examine or understand?

Step 3: Formulate your aims and objectives

Once you’ve established your research aim and objectives, you need to explain them clearly and concisely to the reader.

You’ll lay out your aims and objectives at the end of your problem statement, which appears in your introduction. Frame them as clear declarative statements, and use appropriate verbs to accurately characterize the work that you will carry out.

The acronym “SMART” is commonly used in relation to research objectives. It states that your objectives should be:

• Specific: Make sure your objectives aren’t overly vague. Your research needs to be clearly defined in order to get useful results.
• Measurable: Know how you’ll measure whether your objectives have been achieved.
• Achievable: Your objectives may be challenging, but they should be feasible. Make sure that relevant groundwork has been done on your topic or that relevant primary or secondary sources exist. Also ensure that you have access to relevant research facilities (labs, library resources , research databases , etc.).
• Relevant: Make sure that they directly address the research problem you want to work on and that they contribute to the current state of research in your field.
• Time-based: Set clear deadlines for objectives to ensure that the project stays on track.

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If you want to know more about the research process , methodology , research bias , or statistics , make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples.

Methodology

• Sampling methods
• Simple random sampling
• Stratified sampling
• Cluster sampling
• Likert scales
• Reproducibility

 Statistics

• Null hypothesis
• Statistical power
• Probability distribution
• Effect size
• Poisson distribution

Research bias

• Optimism bias
• Cognitive bias
• Implicit bias
• Hawthorne effect
• Anchoring bias
• Explicit bias

Research objectives describe what you intend your research project to accomplish.

They summarize the approach and purpose of the project and help to focus your research.

Your objectives should appear in the introduction of your research paper , at the end of your problem statement .

Your research objectives indicate how you’ll try to address your research problem and should be specific:

Once you’ve decided on your research objectives , you need to explain them in your paper, at the end of your problem statement .

Keep your research objectives clear and concise, and use appropriate verbs to accurately convey the work that you will carry out for each one.

I will compare …

A research aim is a broad statement indicating the general purpose of your research project. It should appear in your introduction at the end of your problem statement , before your research objectives.

Research objectives are more specific than your research aim. They indicate the specific ways you’ll address the overarching aim.

Scope of research is determined at the beginning of your research process , prior to the data collection stage. Sometimes called “scope of study,” your scope delineates what will and will not be covered in your project. It helps you focus your work and your time, ensuring that you’ll be able to achieve your goals and outcomes.

Defining a scope can be very useful in any research project, from a research proposal to a thesis or dissertation . A scope is needed for all types of research: quantitative , qualitative , and mixed methods .

To define your scope of research, consider the following:

• Budget constraints or any specifics of grant funding
• Your proposed timeline and duration
• Specifics about your population of study, your proposed sample size , and the research methodology you’ll pursue
• Any inclusion and exclusion criteria
• Any anticipated control , extraneous , or confounding variables that could bias your research if not accounted for properly.

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How to Write a Marketing Research Objective

We all know the old adage: is marketing is an art or a science?

At Seer, we think it’s both. But not necessarily both at the same time. We believe the better question is: which comes first in marketing, art or science?

And if you ask us that question, we’d tell you it’s a science first.

"The science of marketing is all about using data and insights to drive your strategy. The art of marketing is how you express that strategy."

Now that we know we are starting with science, what does that mean exactly?

Well, remember when you were in school and you had to come up with your own science research experiment? Remember what came first? The objective. Why? Because without an objective, you don’t have a testable proposition. And without a testable proposition, you don’t have direction. And we all know that when research doesn’t have a direction, it typically doesn’t garner any groundbreaking takeaways.

So, what does your high school science experiment have to do with marketing research?

Similar to the traditional objective, a great marketing research plan starts with a strong objective. One that is focused, measurable, and effective. Without a clear objective, your marketing research will not be as successful. 

What is a Marketing Research Objective?

[TIP] By definition, a "Research Objective" is a statement of purpose that outlines a specific result to achieve within a dedicated time frame and available resources.

Applying this logic to marketing, a marketing research objective is a statement that outlines what you want to know about your customer. Clearly defining your objective at the beginning stages will help you avoid conflicting expectations or wasted collecting irrelevant data. 

How Do You Create a Marketing Research Objective?

Start at the end. I know it sounds counterintuitive, but if you start with the desired outcome, you will be able to create a more focused objective. What’s the one thing you want to be able to take away from this research? What do you plan to do with the information? What does success look like? Use this objective as your compass while you navigate your research and analysis. 

Typically, it’s easiest to do this in the form of a question. Here are a few examples.

• Example 1: Which features in Product X are most important to our Enterprise customers? 

This question will give you a list of features, in order of importance, for your Enterprise customer. 

• Example 2: What are the different search triggers amongst our four customer segments? 

This question will result in a list of common factors that result in users searching for Service Y. 

When you start seeing all the data points, behaviors, and survey responses - curiosity can set in.

An abundance of data can pull you in multiple directions because each finding is interesting in its own right. That’s when your objective comes in. Know the end result you are working toward and stay on that path.

Creating a Research Objective

Once you’ve got your desired outcome, you’ll want to create your objective. A few things to consider as you create your statement: 

• Where does this fit into your marketing strategy? Where does this objective fit into your larger marketing strategy? Not only is this helpful when dispersing information internally or getting buy-in, it keeps the research team focused on the higher business objectives attached to this research. Is this part of your company’s focus on brand awareness? A new product launch? An analysis of competitors? These are all very different things. 
• Include your target audience. Typically, it’s difficult to understand everything with every user segment so pick which segment you plan to analyze. Is it your Enterprise customers? Customers living in a specific region? A certain demographic segment? Including this in your objective will be a helpful gut check when choosing participants. 
• What will you measure? You don’t need to list out all of the data points you plan to measure, but there should be some measurable element in your objective. Is it sentiment? Are you looking for frequencies? What about behavioral trends? Including this in your objective will ensure you pick the most appropriate research methodology to acquire that measurable element. 
• A behavior. What is the behavior or action that we are going to be researching? Is navigating your website? Is it purchasing a product? Is it clicking on an ad? 

Let’s look at some examples: 

Common Marketing Research Objective Pitfalls

While creating an objective may seem relatively straightforward, it can be easy to get wrong. Let’s go over some of the common pitfalls.

Objective is Too Broad

Now, if you follow the outline above, this shouldn’t be an issue because it forces you to get granular with your objective. 

• Specific: As part of our rebranding, we are conducting a sentiment analysis with our recurring customers 
• Broad: As part of our rebranding, we will ask customers how they feel about it

We want to avoid broad objectives because they can allow curiosity to get the best of us and a once seemingly clear research project can get muddied. 

More Than One Objective

Every research project should have one objective and one objective only. Again, while this may seem easy enough to manage, you’d be surprised just how easy it is to sneak those secondary and tertiary objectives into your statement. 

• One objective: We aim to understand what questions our customers have when considering purchasing a car 
• Two objectives: We aim to understand what questions our customers have when searching for and considering a car 

You see, the questions customers may have when searching for a car could be completely different than the questions they have when considering purchasing a car. 

Making Assumptions

Avoid making your objective into a hypothesis with absolute statements and assumptions. Your objective should be more of a question than a prediction. That comes later. 

• Objective: Uncover the purchase journey of our target demographic
• Assumption: Uncover what part search plays in the purchase journey of our target demographic

This looks unsuspecting, but in reality, we're already assuming that search plays a role in our audience's journey. That could sway the focus of the research.  

Once you’ve created your objective, let it (and only it) drive the beginning stages of your marketing research.

Write it on a post-it and stick it on your desk, write it on the whiteboard at every meeting you have, keep it top of mind as you continue your research. It will serve as a compass and help you avoid being led astray by interesting data, curious colleagues, and conflicting agendas. 

More Tips for Understanding Your Audience

Check back on the Seer blog for the next installment from our Audience team. Sign up for our newsletter to read the latest blogs on audience, SEO, PPC, and more. 

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Home Market Research

Market Research: What it Is, Methods, Types & Examples

Would you like to know why, how, and when to apply market research? Do you want to discover why your consumers are not buying your products? Are you interested in launching a new product, service, or even a new marketing campaign, but you’re not sure what your consumers want?

LEARN ABOUT: Market research vs marketing research

To answer the questions above, you’ll need help from your consumers. But how will you collect that data? In this case and in many other situations in your business, market research is the way to get all the answers you need.

In this ultimate guide about market research, you’ll find the definition, advantages, types of market research, and some examples that will help you understand this type of research. Don’t forget to download the free ebook available at the end of this guide!

LEARN ABOUT: Perceived Value

Content Index

Three key objectives of market research

Why is market research important.

• Types of Market Research: Methods and Examples

Steps for conducting Market Research

Benefits of an efficient market research, 5 market research tips for businesses, why does every business need market research, free market research ebook, what is market research.

Market research is a technique that is used to collect data on any aspect that you want to know to be later able to interpret it and, in the end, make use of it for correct decision-making.

Another more specific definition could be the following:

Market research is the process by which companies seek to collect data systematically to make better decisions. Still, its true value lies in the way in which all the data obtained is used to achieve a better knowledge of the market consumer.

The process of market research can be done through deploying surveys , interacting with a group of people, also known as a sample , conducting interviews, and other similar processes.  

The primary purpose of conducting market research is to understand or examine the market associated with a particular product or service to decide how the audience will react to a product or service. The information obtained from conducting market research can be used to tailor marketing/ advertising activities or determine consumers’ feature priorities/service requirement (if any).

LEARN ABOUT: Consumer Surveys

Conducting research is one of the best ways of achieving customer satisfaction , reducing customer churn and elevating business. Here are the reasons why market research is important and should be considered in any business:

• Valuable information: It provides information and opportunities about the value of existing and new products, thus, helping businesses plan and strategize accordingly.
• Customer-centric: It helps to determine what the customers need and want. Marketing is customer-centric and understanding the customers and their needs will help businesses design products or services that best suit them. Remember that tracing your customer journey is a great way to gain valuable insights into your customers’ sentiments toward your brand.
• Forecasts: By understanding the needs of customers, businesses can also forecast their production and sales. Market research also helps in determining optimum inventory stock.
• Competitive advantage: To stay ahead of competitors market research is a vital tool to carry out comparative studies. Businesses can devise business strategies that can help them stay ahead of their competitors.

LEARN ABOUT: Data Analytics Projects

Types of Market Research: Market Research Methods and Examples

Whether an organization or business wishes to know the purchase behavior of consumers or the likelihood of consumers paying a certain cost for a product segmentation , market research helps in drawing meaningful conclusions.

LEARN ABOUT: Behavioral Targeting

Depending on the methods and tools required, the following are the types:

1. Primary Market Research (A combination of both Qualitative and Quantitative Research):

Primary market research is a process where organizations or businesses get in touch with the end consumers or employ a third party to carry out relevant studies to collect data. The data collected can be qualitative data (non-numerical data) or quantitative data (numerical or statistical data).

While conducting primary market research, one can gather two types of information: Exploratory and Specific. Exploratory research is open-ended, where a problem is explored by asking open ended questions in a detailed interview format usually with a small group of people, also known as a sample. Here the sample size is restricted to 6-10 members. Specific research, on the other hand, is more pinpointed and is used to solve the problems that are identified by exploratory research.

LEARN ABOUT: Marketing Insight

As mentioned earlier, primary market research is a combination of qualitative market research and quantitative market research. Qualitative market research study involves semi-structured or unstructured data collected through some of the commonly used qualitative research methods like:

Focus groups :

Focus group is one of the commonly used qualitative research methods. Focus group is a small group of people (6-10) who typically respond to online surveys sent to them. The best part about a focus group is the information can be collected remotely, can be done without personally interacting with the group members. However, this is a more expensive method as it is used to collect complex information.

One-to-one interview:

As the name suggests, this method involves personal interaction in the form of an interview, where the researcher asks a series of questions to collect information or data from the respondents. The questions are mostly open-ended questions and are asked to facilitate responses. This method heavily depends on the interviewer’s ability and experience to ask questions that evoke responses.

Ethnographic research :

This type of in-depth research is conducted in the natural settings of the respondents. This method requires the interviewer to adapt himself/herself to the natural environment of the respondents which could be a city or a remote village. Geographical constraints can be a hindering market research factor in conducting this kind of research. Ethnographic research can last from a few days to a few years.

Organizations use qualitative research methods to conduct structured market research by using online surveys , questionnaires , and polls to gain statistical insights to make informed decisions.

LEARN ABOUT: Qualitative Interview

This method was once conducted using pen and paper. This has now evolved to sending structured online surveys to the respondents to gain actionable insights. Researchers use modern and technology-oriented survey platforms to structure and design their survey to evoke maximum responses from respondents.

Through a well-structured mechanism, data is easily collected and reported, and necessary action can be taken with all the information made available firsthand.

Learn more: How to conduct quantitative research

2. Secondary Market Research:

Secondary research uses information that is organized by outside sources like government agencies, media, chambers of commerce etc. This information is published in newspapers, magazines, books, company websites, free government and nongovernment agencies and so on. The secondary source makes use of the following:

• Public sources: Public sources like library are an awesome way of gathering free information. Government libraries usually offer services free of cost and a researcher can document available information.
• Commercial sources: Commercial source although reliable are expensive. Local newspapers, magazines, journal, television media are great commercial sources to collect information.
• Educational Institutions: Although not a very popular source of collecting information, most universities and educational institutions are a rich source of information as many research projects are carried out there than any business sector.

Learn more: Market Research Example with Types and Methods

A market research project may usually have 3 different types of objectives.

• Administrative : Help a company or business development, through proper planning, organization, and both human and material resources control, and thus satisfy all specific needs within the market, at the right time.
• Social : Satisfy customers’ specific needs through a required product or service. The product or service should comply with a customer’s requirements and preferences when consumed.
• Economical : Determine the economical degree of success or failure a company can have while being new to the market, or otherwise introducing new products or services, thus providing certainty to all actions to be implemented.

LEARN ABOUT:  Test Market Demand

Knowing what to do in various situations that arise during the investigation will save the researcher time and reduce research problems . Today’s successful enterprises use powerful market research survey software that helps them conduct comprehensive research under a unified platform, providing actionable insights much faster with fewer problems.

LEARN ABOUT:  Market research industry

Following are the steps to conduct effective market research.

Step #1: Define the Problem

Having a well-defined subject of research will help researchers when they ask questions. These questions should be directed to solve problems and must be adapted to the project. Make sure the questions are written clearly and that the respondents understand them. Researchers can conduct a marketing test with a small group to know if the questions are going to know whether the asked questions are understandable and if they will be enough to gain insightful results.

Research objectives should be written in a precise way and should include a brief description of the information that is needed and the way in which it will obtain it. They should have an answer to this question “why are we doing the research?”

Learn more: Interview Questions

Step #2: Define the Sample

To carry out market research, researchers need a representative sample that can be collected using one of the many sampling techniques . A representative sample is a small number of people that reflect, as accurately as possible, a larger group.

• An organization cannot waste their resources in collecting information from the wrong population. It is important that the population represents characteristics that matter to the researchers and that they need to investigate, are in the chosen sample.
• Take into account that marketers will always be prone to fall into a bias in the sample because there will always be people who do not answer the survey because they are busy, or answer it incompletely, so researchers may not obtain the required data.
• Regarding the size of the sample, the larger it is, the more likely it is to be representative of the population. A larger representative sample gives the researcher greater certainty that the people included are the ones they need, and they can possibly reduce bias. Therefore, if they want to avoid inaccuracy in our surveys, they should have representative and balanced samples.
• Practically all the surveys that are considered in a serious way, are based on a scientific sampling, based on statistical and probability theories.

There are two ways to obtain a representative sample:

• Probability sampling : In probability sampling , the choice of the sample will be made at random, which guarantees that each member of the population will have the same probability of selection bias and inclusion in the sample group. Researchers should ensure that they have updated information on the population from which they will draw the sample and survey the majority to establish representativeness.
• Non-probability sampling : In a non-probability sampling , different types of people are seeking to obtain a more balanced representative sample. Knowing the demographic characteristics of our group will undoubtedly help to limit the profile of the desired sample and define the variables that interest the researchers, such as gender, age, place of residence, etc. By knowing these criteria, before obtaining the information, researchers can have the control to create a representative sample that is efficient for us.

When a sample is not representative, there can be a margin of error . If researchers want to have a representative sample of 100 employees, they should choose a similar number of men and women.

The sample size is very important, but it does not guarantee accuracy. More than size, representativeness is related to the sampling frame , that is, to the list from which people are selected, for example, part of a survey.

LEARN ABOUT: Behavioral Research If researchers want to continue expanding their knowledge on how to determine the size of the sample consult our guide on sampling here.

Step #3: Carry out data collection

First, a data collection instrument should be developed. The fact that they do not answer a survey, or answer it incompletely will cause errors in research. The correct collection of data will prevent this.

Step #4: Analyze the results

Each of the points of the market research process is linked to one another. If all the above is executed well, but there is no accurate analysis of the results, then the decisions made consequently will not be appropriate. In-depth analysis conducted without leaving loose ends will be effective in gaining solutions. Data analysis will be captured in a report, which should also be written clearly so that effective decisions can be made on that basis.

Analyzing and interpreting the results is to look for a wider meaning to the obtained data. All the previous phases have been developed to arrive at this moment. How can researchers measure the obtained results? The only quantitative data that will be obtained is age, sex, profession, and number of interviewees because the rest are emotions and experiences that have been transmitted to us by the interlocutors. For this, there is a tool called empathy map that forces us to put ourselves in the place of our clientele with the aim of being able to identify, really, the characteristics that will allow us to make a better adjustment between our products or services and their needs or interests. When the research has been carefully planned, the hypotheses have been adequately defined and the indicated collection method has been used, the interpretation is usually carried out easily and successfully. What follows after conducting market research?

Learn more: Types of Interviews

Step #5: Make the Research Report

When presenting the results, researchers should focus on: what do they want to achieve using this research report and while answering this question they should not assume that the structure of the survey is the best way to do the analysis. One of the big mistakes that many researchers make is that they present the reports in the same order of their questions and do not see the potential of storytelling.

To make good reports, the best analysts give the following advice: follow the inverted pyramid style to present the results, answering at the beginning the essential questions of the business that caused the investigation. Start with the conclusions and give them fundamentals, instead of accumulating evidence. After this researchers can provide details to the readers who have the time and interest.

Step #6: Make Decisions

An organization or a researcher should never ask “why do market research”, they should just do it! Market research helps researchers to know a wide range of information, for example,  consumer purchase intentions, or gives feedback about the growth of the target market. They can also discover valuable information that will help in estimating the prices of their product or service and find a point of balance that will benefit them and the consumers.

Take decisions! Act and implement.

Learn more: Quantitative Research

• Make well-informed decisions: The growth of an organization is dependent on the way decisions are made by the management. Using market research techniques, the management can make business decisions based on obtained results that back their knowledge and experience. Market research helps to know market trends, hence to carry it out frequently to get to know the customers thoroughly.

LEARN ABOUT: Research Process Steps

• Gain accurate information: Market research provides real and accurate information that will prepare the organization for any mishaps that may happen in the future. By properly investigating the market, a business will undoubtedly be taking a step forward, and therefore it will be taking advantage of its existing competitors.
• Determine the market size: A researcher can evaluate the size of the market that must be covered in case of selling a product or service in order to make profits.
• Choose an appropriate sales system: Select a precise sales system according to what the market is asking for, and according to this, the product/service can be positioned in the market.
• Learn about customer preferences: It helps to know how the preferences (and tastes) of the clients change so that the company can satisfy preferences, purchasing habits, and income levels. Researchers can determine the type of product that must be manufactured or sold based on the specific needs of consumers.
• Gather details about customer perception of the brand: In addition to generating information, market research helps a researcher in understanding how the customers perceive the organization or brand.
• Analyze customer communication methods: Market research serves as a guide for communication with current and potential clients.
• Productive business investment: It is a great investment for any business because thanks to it they get invaluable information, it shows researchers the way to follow to take the right path and achieve the sales that are required.

LEARN ABOUT: Total Quality Management

The following tips will help businesses with creating a better market research strategy.

Tip #1: Define the objective of your research.

Before starting your research quest, think about what you’re trying to achieve next with your business. Are you looking to increase traffic to your location? Or increase sales? Or convert customers from one-time purchasers to regulars? Figuring out your objective will help you tailor the rest of your research and your future marketing materials. Having an objective for your research will flesh out what kind of data you need to collect.

Tip #2: Learn About Your Target Customers.

The most important thing to remember is that your business serves a specific kind of customer. Defining your specific customer has many advantages like allowing you to understand what kind of language to use when crafting your marketing materials, and how to approach building relationships with your customer. When you take time to define your target customer you can also find the best products and services to sell to them.

You want to know as much as you can about your target customer. You can gather this information through observation and by researching the kind of customers who frequent your type of business. For starters, helpful things to know are their age and income. What do they do for a living? What’s their marital status and education level?

Learn more: Customer Satisfaction

Tip #3: Recognize that knowing who you serve helps you define who you do not.

Let’s take a classic example from copywriting genius Dan Kennedy. He says that if you’re opening up a fine dining steakhouse focused on decadent food, you know right off the bat that you’re not looking to attract vegetarians or dieters. Armed with this information, you can create better marketing messages that speak to your target customers.

It’s okay to decide who is not a part of your target customer base. In fact, for small businesses knowing who you don’t cater to can be essential in helping you grow. Why? Simple, if you’re small your advantage is that you can connect deeply with a specific segment of the market. You want to focus your efforts on the right customer who already is compelled to spend money on your offer.

If you’re spreading yourself thin by trying to be all things to everyone, you will only dilute your core message. Instead, keep your focus on your target customer. Define them, go deep, and you’ll be able to figure out how you can best serve them with your products and services.

Tip #4: Learn from your competition.

This works for brick-and-mortar businesses as well as internet businesses because it allows you to step into the shoes of your customer and open up to a new perspective of your business. Take a look around the internet and around your town. If you can, visit your competitor’s shops. For example, if you own a restaurant specializing in Italian cuisine, dine at the other Italian place in your neighborhood or in the next township.

As you experience the business from the customer’s perspective, look for what’s being done right and wrong.

Can you see areas that need attention or improvement? How are you running things in comparison? What’s the quality of their product and customer service ? Are the customers here pleased? Also, take a close look at their market segment. Who else is patronizing their business? Are they the same kinds of people who spend money with you? By asking these questions and doing in-person research, you can dig up a lot of information to help you define your unique selling position and create even better offers for your customers.

Tip #5: Get your target customers to open up and tell you everything.

A good customer survey is one of the most valuable market research tools because it gives you the opportunity to get inside your customer’s head. However, remember that some feedback may be harsh, so take criticism as a learning tool to point you in the right direction.

Creating a survey is simple. Ask questions about what your customer thinks you’re doing right and what can be improved. You can also prompt them to tell you what kinds of products and services they’d like to see you add, giving you fantastic insight into how to monetize your business more. Many customers will be delighted to offer feedback. You can even give customers who fill out surveys a gift like a special coupon for their next purchase.

Bonus Tip: Use an insight & research repository

An insight & research repository is a consolidated research management platform to derive insights about past and ongoing market research. With the use of such a tool, you can leverage past research to get to insights faster, build on previously done market research and draw trendlines, utilize research techniques that have worked in the past, and more.

Market research is one of the most effective ways to gain insight into your customer base , competitors , and the overall market. The goal of conducting market research is to equip your company with the information you need to make informed decisions.

It is especially important when small businesses are trying to determine whether a new business idea is viable, looking to move into a new market, or are launching a new product or service.  Read below for a more in-depth look at how market research can help small businesses.

• COMPETITION According to a study conducted by Business Insider, 72% of small businesses focus on increasing revenue. Conducting research helps businesses gain insight into competitor behavior. By learning about your competitor’s strengths and weaknesses, you can learn how to position your product or offering. In order to be successful, small businesses need to have an understanding of what products and services competitors are offering, and their price point.

Learn more: Trend Analysis

• CUSTOMERS Many small businesses feel they need to understand their customers, only to conduct market research and learn they had the wrong assumptions. By researching, you can create a profile of your average customer and gain insight into their buying habits, how much they’re willing to spend, and which features resonate with them. Additionally, and perhaps more importantly, you can learn what will make someone use your product or service over a competitor.

Learn more: Customer Satisfaction Survey

• OPPORTUNITIES Potential opportunities, whether they are products or services, can be identified by conducting market research. By learning more about your customers, you can gather insights into complementary products and services. Consumer needs change over time, influenced by new technology and different conditions, and you may find new needs that are not being met, which can create new opportunities for your business.

Learn more: SWOT Analysis 

• FORECAST A small business is affected by the performance of the local and national economy, as are its’ customers. If consumers are worried, then they will be more restrained when spending money, which affects the business. By conducting research with consumers, businesses can get an idea of whether they are optimistic or apprehensive about the direction of the economy, and make adjustments as necessary. For example, a small business owner may decide to postpone a new product launch if it appears the economic environment is turning negative.

Learn more: 300+ Market Research Survey Questionnaires

Market research and market intelligence may be as complex as the needs that each business or project has. The steps are usually the same. We hope this ultimate guide helps you have a better understanding of how to make your own market research project to gather insightful data and make better decisions.

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You can now download our free ebook that will guide you through a market research project, from the planning stage to the presentation of the outcomes and their analysis.

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How to Do Market Research: The Complete Guide

Learn how to do market research with this step-by-step guide, complete with templates, tools and real-world examples.

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What are your customers’ needs? How does your product compare to the competition? What are the emerging trends and opportunities in your industry? If these questions keep you up at night, it’s time to conduct market research.

Market research plays a pivotal role in your ability to stay competitive and relevant, helping you anticipate shifts in consumer behavior and industry dynamics. It involves gathering these insights using a wide range of techniques, from surveys and interviews to data analysis and observational studies.

In this guide, we’ll explore why market research is crucial, the various types of market research, the methods used in data collection, and how to effectively conduct market research to drive informed decision-making and success.

What is market research?

Market research is the systematic process of gathering, analyzing and interpreting information about a specific market or industry. The purpose of market research is to offer valuable insight into the preferences and behaviors of your target audience, and anticipate shifts in market trends and the competitive landscape. This information helps you make data-driven decisions, develop effective strategies for your business, and maximize your chances of long-term growth.

Why is market research important? 

By understanding the significance of market research, you can make sure you’re asking the right questions and using the process to your advantage. Some of the benefits of market research include:

• Informed decision-making: Market research provides you with the data and insights you need to make smart decisions for your business. It helps you identify opportunities, assess risks and tailor your strategies to meet the demands of the market. Without market research, decisions are often based on assumptions or guesswork, leading to costly mistakes.
• Customer-centric approach: A cornerstone of market research involves developing a deep understanding of customer needs and preferences. This gives you valuable insights into your target audience, helping you develop products, services and marketing campaigns that resonate with your customers.
• Competitive advantage: By conducting market research, you’ll gain a competitive edge. You’ll be able to identify gaps in the market, analyze competitor strengths and weaknesses, and position your business strategically. This enables you to create unique value propositions, differentiate yourself from competitors, and seize opportunities that others may overlook.
• Risk mitigation: Market research helps you anticipate market shifts and potential challenges. By identifying threats early, you can proactively adjust their strategies to mitigate risks and respond effectively to changing circumstances. This proactive approach is particularly valuable in volatile industries.
• Resource optimization: Conducting market research allows organizations to allocate their time, money and resources more efficiently. It ensures that investments are made in areas with the highest potential return on investment, reducing wasted resources and improving overall business performance.
• Adaptation to market trends: Markets evolve rapidly, driven by technological advancements, cultural shifts and changing consumer attitudes. Market research ensures that you stay ahead of these trends and adapt your offerings accordingly so you can avoid becoming obsolete. 

As you can see, market research empowers businesses to make data-driven decisions, cater to customer needs, outperform competitors, mitigate risks, optimize resources and stay agile in a dynamic marketplace. These benefits make it a huge industry; the global market research services market is expected to grow from $76.37 billion in 2021 to $108.57 billion in 2026 . Now, let’s dig into the different types of market research that can help you achieve these benefits.

Types of market research 

• Qualitative research
• Quantitative research
• Exploratory research
• Descriptive research
• Causal research
• Cross-sectional research
• Longitudinal research

Despite its advantages, 23% of organizations don’t have a clear market research strategy. Part of developing a strategy involves choosing the right type of market research for your business goals. The most commonly used approaches include:

1. Qualitative research

Qualitative research focuses on understanding the underlying motivations, attitudes and perceptions of individuals or groups. It is typically conducted through techniques like in-depth interviews, focus groups and content analysis — methods we’ll discuss further in the sections below. Qualitative research provides rich, nuanced insights that can inform product development, marketing strategies and brand positioning.

2. Quantitative research

Quantitative research, in contrast to qualitative research, involves the collection and analysis of numerical data, often through surveys, experiments and structured questionnaires. This approach allows for statistical analysis and the measurement of trends, making it suitable for large-scale market studies and hypothesis testing. While it’s worthwhile using a mix of qualitative and quantitative research, most businesses prioritize the latter because it is scientific, measurable and easily replicated across different experiments.

3. Exploratory research

Whether you’re conducting qualitative or quantitative research or a mix of both, exploratory research is often the first step. Its primary goal is to help you understand a market or problem so you can gain insights and identify potential issues or opportunities. This type of market research is less structured and is typically conducted through open-ended interviews, focus groups or secondary data analysis. Exploratory research is valuable when entering new markets or exploring new product ideas.

4. Descriptive research

As its name implies, descriptive research seeks to describe a market, population or phenomenon in detail. It involves collecting and summarizing data to answer questions about audience demographics and behaviors, market size, and current trends. Surveys, observational studies and content analysis are common methods used in descriptive research. 

5. Causal research

Causal research aims to establish cause-and-effect relationships between variables. It investigates whether changes in one variable result in changes in another. Experimental designs, A/B testing and regression analysis are common causal research methods. This sheds light on how specific marketing strategies or product changes impact consumer behavior.

6. Cross-sectional research

Cross-sectional market research involves collecting data from a sample of the population at a single point in time. It is used to analyze differences, relationships or trends among various groups within a population. Cross-sectional studies are helpful for market segmentation, identifying target audiences and assessing market trends at a specific moment.

7. Longitudinal research

Longitudinal research, in contrast to cross-sectional research, collects data from the same subjects over an extended period. This allows for the analysis of trends, changes and developments over time. Longitudinal studies are useful for tracking long-term developments in consumer preferences, brand loyalty and market dynamics.

Each type of market research has its strengths and weaknesses, and the method you choose depends on your specific research goals and the depth of understanding you’re aiming to achieve. In the following sections, we’ll delve into primary and secondary research approaches and specific research methods.

Primary vs. secondary market research

Market research of all types can be broadly categorized into two main approaches: primary research and secondary research. By understanding the differences between these approaches, you can better determine the most appropriate research method for your specific goals.

Primary market research 

Primary research involves the collection of original data straight from the source. Typically, this involves communicating directly with your target audience — through surveys, interviews, focus groups and more — to gather information. Here are some key attributes of primary market research:

• Customized data: Primary research provides data that is tailored to your research needs. You design a custom research study and gather information specific to your goals.
• Up-to-date insights: Because primary research involves communicating with customers, the data you collect reflects the most current market conditions and consumer behaviors.
• Time-consuming and resource-intensive: Despite its advantages, primary research can be labor-intensive and costly, especially when dealing with large sample sizes or complex study designs. Whether you hire a market research consultant, agency or use an in-house team, primary research studies consume a large amount of resources and time.

Secondary market research 

Secondary research, on the other hand, involves analyzing data that has already been compiled by third-party sources, such as online research tools, databases, news sites, industry reports and academic studies.

Here are the main characteristics of secondary market research:

• Cost-effective: Secondary research is generally more cost-effective than primary research since it doesn’t require building a research plan from scratch. You and your team can look at databases, websites and publications on an ongoing basis, without needing to design a custom experiment or hire a consultant. 
• Leverages multiple sources: Data tools and software extract data from multiple places across the web, and then consolidate that information within a single platform. This means you’ll get a greater amount of data and a wider scope from secondary research.
• Quick to access: You can access a wide range of information rapidly — often in seconds — if you’re using online research tools and databases. Because of this, you can act on insights sooner, rather than taking the time to develop an experiment. 

So, when should you use primary vs. secondary research? In practice, many market research projects incorporate both primary and secondary research to take advantage of the strengths of each approach.

One rule of thumb is to focus on secondary research to obtain background information, market trends or industry benchmarks. It is especially valuable for conducting preliminary research, competitor analysis, or when time and budget constraints are tight. Then, if you still have knowledge gaps or need to answer specific questions unique to your business model, use primary research to create a custom experiment. 

Market research methods

• Surveys and questionnaires
• Focus groups
• Observational research
• Online research tools
• Experiments
• Content analysis
• Ethnographic research

How do primary and secondary research approaches translate into specific research methods? Let’s take a look at the different ways you can gather data: 

1. Surveys and questionnaires

Surveys and questionnaires are popular methods for collecting structured data from a large number of respondents. They involve a set of predetermined questions that participants answer. Surveys can be conducted through various channels, including online tools, telephone interviews and in-person or online questionnaires. They are useful for gathering quantitative data and assessing customer demographics, opinions, preferences and needs. On average, customer surveys have a 33% response rate , so keep that in mind as you consider your sample size.

2. Interviews

Interviews are in-depth conversations with individuals or groups to gather qualitative insights. They can be structured (with predefined questions) or unstructured (with open-ended discussions). Interviews are valuable for exploring complex topics, uncovering motivations and obtaining detailed feedback. 

3. Focus groups

The most common primary research methods are in-depth webcam interviews and focus groups. Focus groups are a small gathering of participants who discuss a specific topic or product under the guidance of a moderator. These discussions are valuable for primary market research because they reveal insights into consumer attitudes, perceptions and emotions. Focus groups are especially useful for idea generation, concept testing and understanding group dynamics within your target audience.

4. Observational research

Observational research involves observing and recording participant behavior in a natural setting. This method is particularly valuable when studying consumer behavior in physical spaces, such as retail stores or public places. In some types of observational research, participants are aware you’re watching them; in other cases, you discreetly watch consumers without their knowledge, as they use your product. Either way, observational research provides firsthand insights into how people interact with products or environments.

5. Online research tools

You and your team can do your own secondary market research using online tools. These tools include data prospecting platforms and databases, as well as online surveys, social media listening, web analytics and sentiment analysis platforms. They help you gather data from online sources, monitor industry trends, track competitors, understand consumer preferences and keep tabs on online behavior. We’ll talk more about choosing the right market research tools in the sections that follow.

6. Experiments

Market research experiments are controlled tests of variables to determine causal relationships. While experiments are often associated with scientific research, they are also used in market research to assess the impact of specific marketing strategies, product features, or pricing and packaging changes.

7. Content analysis

Content analysis involves the systematic examination of textual, visual or audio content to identify patterns, themes and trends. It’s commonly applied to customer reviews, social media posts and other forms of online content to analyze consumer opinions and sentiments.

8. Ethnographic research

Ethnographic research immerses researchers into the daily lives of consumers to understand their behavior and culture. This method is particularly valuable when studying niche markets or exploring the cultural context of consumer choices.

How to do market research

• Set clear objectives
• Identify your target audience
• Choose your research methods
• Use the right market research tools
• Collect data
• Analyze data 
• Interpret your findings
• Identify opportunities and challenges
• Make informed business decisions
• Monitor and adapt

Now that you have gained insights into the various market research methods at your disposal, let’s delve into the practical aspects of how to conduct market research effectively. Here’s a quick step-by-step overview, from defining objectives to monitoring market shifts.

1. Set clear objectives

When you set clear and specific goals, you’re essentially creating a compass to guide your research questions and methodology. Start by precisely defining what you want to achieve. Are you launching a new product and want to understand its viability in the market? Are you evaluating customer satisfaction with a product redesign? 

Start by creating SMART goals — objectives that are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound. Not only will this clarify your research focus from the outset, but it will also help you track progress and benchmark your success throughout the process. 

You should also consult with key stakeholders and team members to ensure alignment on your research objectives before diving into data collecting. This will help you gain diverse perspectives and insights that will shape your research approach.

2. Identify your target audience

Next, you’ll need to pinpoint your target audience to determine who should be included in your research. Begin by creating detailed buyer personas or stakeholder profiles. Consider demographic factors like age, gender, income and location, but also delve into psychographics, such as interests, values and pain points.

The more specific your target audience, the more accurate and actionable your research will be. Additionally, segment your audience if your research objectives involve studying different groups, such as current customers and potential leads.

If you already have existing customers, you can also hold conversations with them to better understand your target market. From there, you can refine your buyer personas and tailor your research methods accordingly.

3. Choose your research methods

Selecting the right research methods is crucial for gathering high-quality data. Start by considering the nature of your research objectives. If you’re exploring consumer preferences, surveys and interviews can provide valuable insights. For in-depth understanding, focus groups or observational research might be suitable. Consider using a mix of quantitative and qualitative methods to gain a well-rounded perspective. 

You’ll also need to consider your budget. Think about what you can realistically achieve using the time and resources available to you. If you have a fairly generous budget, you may want to try a mix of primary and secondary research approaches. If you’re doing market research for a startup , on the other hand, chances are your budget is somewhat limited. If that’s the case, try addressing your goals with secondary research tools before investing time and effort in a primary research study. 

4. Use the right market research tools

Whether you’re conducting primary or secondary research, you’ll need to choose the right tools. These can help you do anything from sending surveys to customers to monitoring trends and analyzing data. Here are some examples of popular market research tools:

• Market research software: Crunchbase is a platform that provides best-in-class company data, making it valuable for market research on growing companies and industries. You can use Crunchbase to access trusted, first-party funding data, revenue data, news and firmographics, enabling you to monitor industry trends and understand customer needs.

• Survey and questionnaire tools: SurveyMonkey is a widely used online survey platform that allows you to create, distribute and analyze surveys. Google Forms is a free tool that lets you create surveys and collect responses through Google Drive.
• Data analysis software: Microsoft Excel and Google Sheets are useful for conducting statistical analyses. SPSS is a powerful statistical analysis software used for data processing, analysis and reporting.
• Social listening tools: Brandwatch is a social listening and analytics platform that helps you monitor social media conversations, track sentiment and analyze trends. Mention is a media monitoring tool that allows you to track mentions of your brand, competitors and keywords across various online sources.
• Data visualization platforms: Tableau is a data visualization tool that helps you create interactive and shareable dashboards and reports. Power BI by Microsoft is a business analytics tool for creating interactive visualizations and reports.

5. Collect data

There’s an infinite amount of data you could be collecting using these tools, so you’ll need to be intentional about going after the data that aligns with your research goals. Implement your chosen research methods, whether it’s distributing surveys, conducting interviews or pulling from secondary research platforms. Pay close attention to data quality and accuracy, and stick to a standardized process to streamline data capture and reduce errors. 

6. Analyze data

Once data is collected, you’ll need to analyze it systematically. Use statistical software or analysis tools to identify patterns, trends and correlations. For qualitative data, employ thematic analysis to extract common themes and insights. Visualize your findings with charts, graphs and tables to make complex data more understandable.

If you’re not proficient in data analysis, consider outsourcing or collaborating with a data analyst who can assist in processing and interpreting your data accurately.

7. Interpret your findings

Interpreting your market research findings involves understanding what the data means in the context of your objectives. Are there significant trends that uncover the answers to your initial research questions? Consider the implications of your findings on your business strategy. It’s essential to move beyond raw data and extract actionable insights that inform decision-making.

Hold a cross-functional meeting or workshop with relevant team members to collectively interpret the findings. Different perspectives can lead to more comprehensive insights and innovative solutions.

8. Identify opportunities and challenges

Use your research findings to identify potential growth opportunities and challenges within your market. What segments of your audience are underserved or overlooked? Are there emerging trends you can capitalize on? Conversely, what obstacles or competitors could hinder your progress?

Lay out this information in a clear and organized way by conducting a SWOT analysis, which stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Jot down notes for each of these areas to provide a structured overview of gaps and hurdles in the market.

9. Make informed business decisions

Market research is only valuable if it leads to informed decisions for your company. Based on your insights, devise actionable strategies and initiatives that align with your research objectives. Whether it’s refining your product, targeting new customer segments or adjusting pricing, ensure your decisions are rooted in the data.

At this point, it’s also crucial to keep your team aligned and accountable. Create an action plan that outlines specific steps, responsibilities and timelines for implementing the recommendations derived from your research. 

10. Monitor and adapt

Market research isn’t a one-time activity; it’s an ongoing process. Continuously monitor market conditions, customer behaviors and industry trends. Set up mechanisms to collect real-time data and feedback. As you gather new information, be prepared to adapt your strategies and tactics accordingly. Regularly revisiting your research ensures your business remains agile and reflects changing market dynamics and consumer preferences.

Online market research sources

As you go through the steps above, you’ll want to turn to trusted, reputable sources to gather your data. Here’s a list to get you started:

• Crunchbase: As mentioned above, Crunchbase is an online platform with an extensive dataset, allowing you to access in-depth insights on market trends, consumer behavior and competitive analysis. You can also customize your search options to tailor your research to specific industries, geographic regions or customer personas.

• Academic databases: Academic databases, such as ProQuest and JSTOR , are treasure troves of scholarly research papers, studies and academic journals. They offer in-depth analyses of various subjects, including market trends, consumer preferences and industry-specific insights. Researchers can access a wealth of peer-reviewed publications to gain a deeper understanding of their research topics.
• Government and NGO databases: Government agencies, nongovernmental organizations and other institutions frequently maintain databases containing valuable economic, demographic and industry-related data. These sources offer credible statistics and reports on a wide range of topics, making them essential for market researchers. Examples include the U.S. Census Bureau , the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Pew Research Center .
• Industry reports: Industry reports and market studies are comprehensive documents prepared by research firms, industry associations and consulting companies. They provide in-depth insights into specific markets, including market size, trends, competitive analysis and consumer behavior. You can find this information by looking at relevant industry association databases; examples include the American Marketing Association and the National Retail Federation .
• Social media and online communities: Social media platforms like LinkedIn or Twitter (X) , forums such as Reddit and Quora , and review platforms such as G2 can provide real-time insights into consumer sentiment, opinions and trends. 

Market research examples

At this point, you have market research tools and data sources — but how do you act on the data you gather? Let’s go over some real-world examples that illustrate the practical application of market research across various industries. These examples showcase how market research can lead to smart decision-making and successful business decisions.

Example 1: Apple’s iPhone launch

Apple ’s iconic iPhone launch in 2007 serves as a prime example of market research driving product innovation in tech. Before the iPhone’s release, Apple conducted extensive market research to understand consumer preferences, pain points and unmet needs in the mobile phone industry. This research led to the development of a touchscreen smartphone with a user-friendly interface, addressing consumer demands for a more intuitive and versatile device. The result was a revolutionary product that disrupted the market and redefined the smartphone industry.

Example 2: McDonald’s global expansion

McDonald’s successful global expansion strategy demonstrates the importance of market research when expanding into new territories. Before entering a new market, McDonald’s conducts thorough research to understand local tastes, preferences and cultural nuances. This research informs menu customization, marketing strategies and store design. For instance, in India, McDonald’s offers a menu tailored to local preferences, including vegetarian options. This market-specific approach has enabled McDonald’s to adapt and thrive in diverse global markets.

Example 3: Organic and sustainable farming

The shift toward organic and sustainable farming practices in the food industry is driven by market research that indicates increased consumer demand for healthier and environmentally friendly food options. As a result, food producers and retailers invest in sustainable sourcing and organic product lines — such as with these sustainable seafood startups — to align with this shift in consumer values. 

The bottom line? Market research has multiple use cases and is a critical practice for any industry. Whether it’s launching groundbreaking products, entering new markets or responding to changing consumer preferences, you can use market research to shape successful strategies and outcomes.

Market research templates

You finally have a strong understanding of how to do market research and apply it in the real world. Before we wrap up, here are some market research templates that you can use as a starting point for your projects:

• Smartsheet competitive analysis templates : These spreadsheets can serve as a framework for gathering information about the competitive landscape and obtaining valuable lessons to apply to your business strategy.
• SurveyMonkey product survey template : Customize the questions on this survey based on what you want to learn from your target customers.
• HubSpot templates : HubSpot offers a wide range of free templates you can use for market research, business planning and more.
• SCORE templates : SCORE is a nonprofit organization that provides templates for business plans, market analysis and financial projections.
• SBA.gov : The U.S. Small Business Administration offers templates for every aspect of your business, including market research, and is particularly valuable for new startups. 

Strengthen your business with market research

When conducted effectively, market research is like a guiding star. Equipped with the right tools and techniques, you can uncover valuable insights, stay competitive, foster innovation and navigate the complexities of your industry.

Throughout this guide, we’ve discussed the definition of market research, different research methods, and how to conduct it effectively. We’ve also explored various types of market research and shared practical insights and templates for getting started. 

Now, it’s time to start the research process. Trust in data, listen to the market and make informed decisions that guide your company toward lasting success.

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Market research is a cornerstone of all successful, strategic businesses. It can also be daunting for entrepreneurs looking to launch a startup or start a side hustle . What is market research, anyway? And how do you…do it?

We’ll walk you through absolutely everything you need to know about the market research process so that by the end of this guide, you’ll be an expert in market research too. And what’s more important: you’ll have actionable steps you can take to start collecting your own market research.

What Is Market Research?

Market research is the organized process of gathering information about your target customers and market. Market research can help you better understand customer behavior and competitor strengths and weaknesses, as well as provide insight for the best strategies in launching new businesses and products. There are different ways to approach market research, including primary and secondary research and qualitative and quantitative research. The strongest approaches will include a combination of all four.

“Virtually every business can benefit from conducting some market research,” says Niles Koenigsberg of Real FiG Advertising + Marketing . “Market research can help you piece together your [business’s] strengths and weaknesses, along with your prospective opportunities, so that you can understand where your unique differentiators may lie.” Well-honed market research will help your brand stand out from the competition and help you see what you need to do to lead the market. It can also do so much more.

The Purposes of Market Research

Why do market research? It can help you…

• Pinpoint your target market, create buyer personas, and develop a more holistic understanding of your customer base and market.
• Understand current market conditions to evaluate risks and anticipate how your product or service will perform.
• Validate a concept prior to launch.
• Identify gaps in the market that your competitors have created or overlooked.
• Solve problems that have been left unresolved by the existing product/brand offerings.
• Identify opportunities and solutions for new products or services.
• Develop killer marketing strategies .

What Are the Benefits of Market Research?

Strong market research can help your business in many ways. It can…

• Strengthen your market position.
• Help you identify your strengths and weaknesses.
• Help you identify your competitors’ strengths and weaknesses.
• Minimize risk.
• Center your customers’ experience from the get-go.
• Help you create a dynamic strategy based on market conditions and customer needs/demands.

What Are the Basic Methods of Market Research?

The basic methods of market research include surveys, personal interviews, customer observation, and the review of secondary research. In addition to these basic methods, a forward-thinking market research approach incorporates data from the digital landscape like social media analysis, SEO research, gathering feedback via forums, and more. Throughout this guide, we will cover each of the methods commonly used in market research to give you a comprehensive overview.

Primary vs. Secondary Market Research

Primary and secondary are the two main types of market research you can do. The latter relies on research conducted by others. Primary research, on the other hand, refers to the fact-finding efforts you conduct on your own.

This approach is limited, however. It’s likely that the research objectives of these secondary data points differ from your own, and it can be difficult to confirm the veracity of their findings.

Primary Market Research

Primary research is more labor intensive, but it generally yields data that is exponentially more actionable. It can be conducted through interviews, surveys, online research, and your own data collection. Every new business should engage in primary market research prior to launch. It will help you validate that your idea has traction, and it will give you the information you need to help minimize financial risk.

You can hire an agency to conduct this research on your behalf. This brings the benefit of expertise, as you’ll likely work with a market research analyst. The downside is that hiring an agency can be expensive—too expensive for many burgeoning entrepreneurs. That brings us to the second approach. You can also do the market research yourself, which substantially reduces the financial burden of starting a new business .

Secondary Market Research

Secondary research includes resources like government databases and industry-specific data and publications. It can be beneficial to start your market research with secondary sources because it’s widely available and often free-to-access. This information will help you gain a broad overview of the market conditions for your new business.

Identify Your Goals and Your Audience

Before you begin conducting interviews or sending out surveys, you need to set your market research goals. At the end of your market research process, you want to have a clear idea of who your target market is—including demographic information like age, gender, and where they live—but you also want to start with a rough idea of who your audience might be and what you’re trying to achieve with market research.

You can pinpoint your objectives by asking yourself a series of guiding questions:

• What are you hoping to discover through your research?
• Who are you hoping to serve better because of your findings?
• What do you think your market is?
• Who are your competitors?
• Are you testing the reception of a new product category or do you want to see if your product or service solves the problem left by a current gap in the market?
• Are you just…testing the waters to get a sense of how people would react to a new brand?

Once you’ve narrowed down the “what” of your market research goals, you’re ready to move onto how you can best achieve them. Think of it like algebra. Many math problems start with “solve for x.” Once you know what you’re looking for, you can get to work trying to find it. It’s a heck of a lot easier to solve a problem when you know you’re looking for “x” than if you were to say “I’m gonna throw some numbers out there and see if I find a variable.”

How to Do Market Research

This guide outlines every component of a comprehensive market research effort. Take into consideration the goals you have established for your market research, as they will influence which of these elements you’ll want to include in your market research strategy.

Secondary Data

Secondary data allows you to utilize pre-existing data to garner a sense of market conditions and opportunities. You can rely on published market studies, white papers, and public competitive information to start your market research journey.

Secondary data, while useful, is limited and cannot substitute your own primary data. It’s best used for quantitative data that can provide background to your more specific inquiries.

Find Your Customers Online

Once you’ve identified your target market, you can use online gathering spaces and forums to gain insights and give yourself a competitive advantage. Rebecca McCusker of The Creative Content Shop recommends internet recon as a vital tool for gaining a sense of customer needs and sentiment. “Read their posts and comments on forums, YouTube video comments, Facebook group [comments], and even Amazon/Goodreads book comments to get in their heads and see what people are saying.”

If you’re interested in engaging with your target demographic online, there are some general rules you should follow. First, secure the consent of any group moderators to ensure that you are acting within the group guidelines. Failure to do so could result in your eviction from the group.

Not all comments have the same research value. “Focus on the comments and posts with the most comments and highest engagement,” says McCusker. These high-engagement posts can give you a sense of what is already connecting and gaining traction within the group.

Social media can also be a great avenue for finding interview subjects. “LinkedIn is very useful if your [target customer] has a very specific job or works in a very specific industry or sector. It’s amazing the amount of people that will be willing to help,” explains Miguel González, a marketing executive at Dealers League . “My advice here is BE BRAVE, go to LinkedIn, or even to people you know and ask them, do quick interviews and ask real people that belong to that market and segment and get your buyer persona information first hand.”

Market research interviews can provide direct feedback on your brand, product, or service and give you a better understanding of consumer pain points and interests.

When organizing your market research interviews, you want to pay special attention to the sample group you’re selecting, as it will directly impact the information you receive. According to Tanya Zhang, the co-founder of Nimble Made , you want to first determine whether you want to choose a representative sample—for example, interviewing people who match each of the buyer persona/customer profiles you’ve developed—or a random sample.

“A sampling of your usual persona styles, for example, can validate details that you’ve already established about your product, while a random sampling may [help you] discover a new way people may use your product,” Zhang says.

Market Surveys

Market surveys solicit customer inclinations regarding your potential product or service through a series of open-ended questions. This direct outreach to your target audience can provide information on your customers’ preferences, attitudes, buying potential, and more.

Every expert we asked voiced unanimous support for market surveys as a powerful tool for market research. With the advent of various survey tools with accessible pricing—or free use—it’s never been easier to assemble, disseminate, and gather market surveys. While it should also be noted that surveys shouldn’t replace customer interviews , they can be used to supplement customer interviews to give you feedback from a broader audience.

Who to Include in Market Surveys

• Current customers
• Past customers
• Your existing audience (such as social media/newsletter audiences)

Example Questions to Include in Market Surveys

While the exact questions will vary for each business, here are some common, helpful questions that you may want to consider for your market survey. Demographic Questions: the questions that help you understand, demographically, who your target customers are:

• “What is your age?”
• “Where do you live?”
• “What is your gender identity?”
• “What is your household income?”
• “What is your household size?”
• “What do you do for a living?”
• “What is your highest level of education?”

Product-Based Questions: Whether you’re seeking feedback for an existing brand or an entirely new one, these questions will help you get a sense of how people feel about your business, product, or service:

• “How well does/would our product/service meet your needs?”
• “How does our product/service compare to similar products/services that you use?”
• “How long have you been a customer?” or “What is the likelihood that you would be a customer of our brand?

Personal/Informative Questions: the deeper questions that help you understand how your audience thinks and what they care about.

• “What are your biggest challenges?”
• “What’s most important to you?”
• “What do you do for fun (hobbies, interests, activities)?”
• “Where do you seek new information when researching a new product?”
• “How do you like to make purchases?”
• “What is your preferred method for interacting with a brand?”

Survey Tools

Online survey tools make it easy to distribute surveys and collect responses. The best part is that there are many free tools available. If you’re making your own online survey, you may want to consider SurveyMonkey, Typeform, Google Forms, or Zoho Survey.

Competitive Analysis

A competitive analysis is a breakdown of how your business stacks up against the competition. There are many different ways to conduct this analysis. One of the most popular methods is a SWOT analysis, which stands for “strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.” This type of analysis is helpful because it gives you a more robust understanding of why a customer might choose a competitor over your business. Seeing how you stack up against the competition can give you the direction you need to carve out your place as a market leader.

Social Media Analysis

Social media has fundamentally changed the market research landscape, making it easier than ever to engage with a wide swath of consumers. Follow your current or potential competitors on social media to see what they’re posting and how their audience is engaging with it. Social media can also give you a lower cost opportunity for testing different messaging and brand positioning.

SEO Analysis and Opportunities

SEO analysis can help you identify the digital competition for getting the word out about your brand, product, or service. You won’t want to overlook this valuable information. Search listening tools offer a novel approach to understanding the market and generating the content strategy that will drive business. Tools like Google Trends and Awario can streamline this process.

Ready to Kick Your Business Into High Gear?

Now that you’ve completed the guide to market research you know you’re ready to put on your researcher hat to give your business the best start. Still not sure how actually… launch the thing? Our free mini-course can run you through the essentials for starting your side hustle .

About Mary Kate Miller

Mary Kate Miller writes about small business, real estate, and finance. In addition to writing for Foundr, her work has been published by The Washington Post, Teen Vogue, Bustle, and more. She lives in Chicago.

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• Defining Research Objectives: How To  Write Them

Almost all industries use research for growth and development. Research objectives are how researchers ensure that their study has direction and makes a significant contribution to growing an industry or niche.

Research objectives provide a clear and concise statement of what the researcher wants to find out. As a researcher, you need to clearly outline and define research objectives to guide the research process and ensure that the study is relevant and generates the impact you want.

In this article, we will explore research objectives and how to leverage them to achieve successful research studies.

What Are Research Objectives?

Research objectives are what you want to achieve through your research study. They guide your research process and help you focus on the most important aspects of your topic.

You can also define the scope of your study and set realistic and attainable study goals with research objectives. For example, with clear research objectives, your study focuses on the specific goals you want to achieve and prevents you from spending time and resources collecting unnecessary data.

However, sticking to research objectives isn’t always easy, especially in broad or unconventional research. This is why most researchers follow the SMART criteria when defining their research objectives.

Understanding SMART Criteria in Research

Think of research objectives as a roadmap to achieving your research goals, with the SMART criteria as your navigator on the map.

SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. These criteria help you ensure that your research objectives are clear, specific, realistic, meaningful, and time-bound.

Here’s a breakdown of the SMART Criteria:

Specific : Your research objectives should be clear: what do you want to achieve, why do you want to achieve it, and how do you plan to achieve it? Avoid vague or broad statements that don’t provide enough direction for your research.

Measurable : Your research objectives should have metrics that help you track your progress and measure your results. Also, ensure the metrics are measurable with data to verify them.

Achievable : Your research objectives should be within your research scope, timeframe, and budget. Also, set goals that are challenging but not impossible.

Relevant: Your research objectives should be in line with the goal and significance of your study. Also, ensure that the objectives address a specific issue or knowledge gap that is interesting and relevant to your industry or niche.

Time-bound : Your research objectives should have a specific deadline or timeframe for completion. This will help you carefully set a schedule for your research activities and milestones and monitor your study progress.

Characteristics of Effective Research Objectives

Clarity : Your objectives should be clear and unambiguous so that anyone who reads them can understand what you intend to do. Avoid vague or general terms that could be taken out of context.

Specificity : Your objectives should be specific and address the research questions that you have formulated. Do not use broad or narrow objectives as they may restrict your field of research or make your research irrelevant.

Measurability : Define your metrics with indicators or metrics that help you determine if you’ve accomplished your goals or not. This will ensure you are tracking the research progress and making interventions when needed.

Also, do use objectives that are subjective or based on personal opinions, as they may be difficult to accurately verify and measure.

Achievability : Your objectives should be realistic and attainable, given the resources and time available for your research project. You should set objectives that match your skills and capabilities, they can be difficult but not so hard that they are realistically unachievable.

For example, setting very difficult make you lose confidence, and abandon your research. Also, setting very simple objectives could demotivate you and prevent you from closing the knowledge gap or making significant contributions to your field with your research.

Relevance : Your objectives should be relevant to your research topic and contribute to the existing knowledge in your field. Avoid objectives that are unrelated or insignificant, as they may waste your time or resources.

Time-bound : Your objectives should be time-bound and specify when you will complete them. Have a realistic and flexible timeframe for achieving your objectives, and track your progress with it. 

Steps to Writing Research Objectives

Identify the research questions.

The first step in writing effective research objectives is to identify the research questions that you are trying to answer. Research questions help you narrow down your topic and identify the gaps or problems that you want to address with your research.

For example, if you are interested in the impact of technology on children’s development, your research questions could be:

• What is the relationship between technology use and academic performance among children?
• Are children who use technology more likely to do better in school than those who do not?
• What is the social and psychological impact of technology use on children?

Brainstorm Objectives

Once you have your research questions, you can brainstorm possible objectives that relate to them. Objectives are more specific than research questions, and they tell you what you want to achieve or learn in your research.

You can use verbs such as analyze, compare, evaluate, explore, investigate, etc. to express your objectives. Also, try to generate as many objectives as possible, without worrying about their quality or feasibility at this stage.

Prioritize Objectives

Once you’ve brainstormed your objectives, you’ll need to prioritize them based on their relevance and feasibility. Relevance is how relevant the objective is to your research topic and how well it fits into your overall research objective.

Feasibility is how realistic and feasible the objective is compared to the time, money, and expertise you have. You can create a matrix or ranking system to organize your objectives and pick the ones that matter the most.

Refine Objectives

The next step is to refine and revise your objectives to ensure clarity and specificity. Start by ensuring that your objectives are consistent and coherent with each other and with your research questions. 

Make Objectives SMART

A useful way to refine your objectives is to make them SMART, which stands for specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. 

• Specific : Objectives should clearly state what you hope to achieve.
• Measurable : They should be able to be quantified or evaluated.
• Achievable : realistic and within the scope of the research study.
• Relevant : They should be directly related to the research questions.
• Time-bound : specific timeframe for research completion.

Review and Finalize Objectives

The final step is to review your objectives for coherence and alignment with your research questions and aim. Ensure your objectives are logically connected and consistent with each other and with the purpose of your study.

You also need to check that your objectives are not too broad or too narrow, too easy or too hard, too many or too few. You can use a checklist or a rubric to evaluate your objectives and make modifications.

Examples of Well-Written Research Objectives

Example 1- Psychology

Research question: What are the effects of social media use on teenagers’ mental health?

Objective : To determine the relationship between the amount of time teenagers in the US spend on social media and their levels of anxiety and depression before and after using social media.

What Makes the Research Objective SMART?

The research objective is specific because it clearly states what the researcher hopes to achieve. It is measurable because it can be quantified by measuring the levels of anxiety and depression in teenagers. 

Also, the objective is achievable because the researcher can collect enough data to answer the research question. It is relevant because it is directly related to the research question. It is time-bound because it has a specific deadline for completion.

Example 2- Marketing

Research question : How can a company increase its brand awareness by 10%?

Objective : To develop a marketing strategy that will increase the company’s sales by 10% within the next quarter.

How Is this Research Objective SMART?

The research states what the researcher hopes to achieve ( Specific ). You can also measure the company’s reach before and after the marketing plan is implemented ( Measurable ).

The research objective is also achievable because you can develop a marketing plan that will increase awareness by 10% within the timeframe. The objective is directly related to the research question ( Relevant ). It is also time-bound because it has a specific deadline for completion.

Research objectives are a well-designed roadmap to completing and achieving your overall research goal. 

However, research goals are only effective if they are well-defined and backed up with the best practices such as the SMART criteria. Properly defining research objectives will help you plan and conduct your research project effectively and efficiently.

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A Basic Guide to Defining Your Market Research Goals

by Caitlin Stewart , on May 29, 2014

1. Define the problem or opportunity and state your objectives

When creating a new goal, it is important to recognize any current problems in a company. You should also work to see whether a problem can be molded into an opportunity. Basic marketing research courses explain that a management problem is any type of issue that needs managerial action in order to resolve the issue. However, a  marketing research problem is defined as a statement specifying the type of information needed by the decision maker to help solve the management problem and how that information can be obtained efficiently and effectively. To solve the market research problem, a research team can develop a marketing research objective, which is a goal defining the specific information needed to solve the marketing research problem.

Before you begin a project , make sure you clearly define your objectives and the outcomes you expect from the research that will be conducted. Having a clear and definitive goal is helpful because setting too many goals can dilute a project and increase the chance of having the research fail. By having reasonable goals, you can refer back to them during the project to distinguish whether the research is still keeping the original goals in mind.

2. Develop the research design to meet your objectives

The purpose of a well-developed research design is to confirm theories, measure brand loyalty, describe the population, build a customer profile, or to gain specific information. Based on what you are interested in, deciding whether a descriptive or causal study is needed to meet research objectives is key when starting your project.

Consider all potential issues that could arise during research so you and your research team can be prepared and aware if they occur. For example, if information being gathered is irrelevant to the company’s newly developed objectives, both time and money will be wasted on continuing with that specific research. If this ever occurs, reorganize and consider working with research specialists to help in making sure that the data you are observing is targeted at your specific needs.

3. Collect information relevant to your objectives

Once information and data is needed, sometimes the easiest step is to start looking at secondary data first. Utilizing data sets and examining organized marketing research reports have the potential to clarify your issues or even provide a solution to your research objectives. Secondary data can even alert researchers to other problems and is usually less expensive and faster to gather than primary data.

Once you review or purchase all your secondary data, your researchers can determine whether any further research through surveys or focus groups is necessary. Conducting that research and developing solutions from the information gathered will be required in drawing new conclusions.

4. Create a final report

Create a final report by analyzing all data and organizing it into a useful format for your company’s marketing team. Sorting through conclusions to relate potential solutions to your goals and objectives is central in ensuring your company can make use of the new information both effectively and beneficially.

5. Follow up

Once all findings are organized, you need to choose whether the information gathered is going to be put into use. You should use this stage to identify the areas where marketing techniques can be improved for future research projects. But once all is finished, evaluating whether the information gathered was able to help create solutions and meet your goals is vital. Upper management will need to determine whether the information gathered was a.) worth the cost, and b.) beneficial in meeting the outlined goals.

By knowing what your overall goals and objectives are before you begin a new project, you will help your company and yourself in making sure the research stays on task.

Interested in learning more about using business intelligence to achieve your research goals? Download our free white paper on How to Use Market Research to Launch Your Business.

Thanks for reading!

Caitlin Stewart Marketing Intern, MarketResearch.com

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Marketing Research and Market Analysis: Definition, Goal and Objectives

What is marketing research? How is it different from market analysis? This article describes marketing research, its goals and objectives, the kind of data gathered, and how those data are analyzed.  

As my students in research come from various disciplines, I need to balance the topics and generalize as much as possible on research principles. However, I strive to give customized examples relevant to my student’s backgrounds. This approach will help them appreciate better the role of research in their respective fields.

Some of my students are business graduates, and many of them cannot imagine how research works in their field. The truth is, research is very much relevant in business, particularly the marketing research aspects.

Thus, I need to define marketing research, state its goals and objectives, identify data to gather, and analyze sample data. I provide a detailed and practical example to showcase how market research works. That’s where market analysis comes in.

Definition of Marketing Research

Zikmund (1999) defines marketing research as a systematic and objective process of generating information to aid marketing decisions. This process includes specifying what information is required, designing the method for collecting data, managing and implementing data, analyzing the results, and communicating the findings and their implications.

Marketing research is a systematic and objective process of generating information to aid in marketing decisions.

Simply put, market research is the process of using research to increase sales or income within the shortest time possible to gain the maximum profit.

The most crucial thing in this definition is that marketing research helps business owners or marketing managers make decisions as in any research venture. Marketing research sheds light on customers’ preferences, the long-range profitability of business operations, and other product-oriented concerns.

Successful companies like Google, Microsoft, and IBM must be employing excellent marketing research activities to keep their edge in the competitive world of business. Data support decisions related to their products and services. Managers decide with calculated risks.

Marketing research requires conceptualization, data planning, data gathering, and the application of appropriate statistical tests.  Data analysis  will show correlations, differences, or trends useful in decision making.

Goal and Objectives of Marketing Research

The main goal of any business is to achieve more sales, greater productivity, greater or faster return on investment (ROI). Marketing research could provide the information required to realize this goal.

The objectives of marketing research most commonly revolve around the following interests:

• find out which products are preferred by consumers,
• determine which group of people buy which type of product,
• where the buying customers live,
• what age group search for and buy which product,
• how long people stick with the product they purchase,
• at what time or periods do people buy which product,
• what do people like and dislike,
• how much are people willing to pay for a good or service, and
• a lot more purposes that business management requires.

Simplifying matters, marketing research essentially wants to find out the characteristics of consumers and see how they should design products, improve services, develop strategies or techniques to capture these customers. A business thrives if it answers the needs and wants of its customers and makes them competitive.

If a company does not understand its customers, then most likely it will suffer a great loss in sales thus reduced income, spend more than they earn, and ultimately get bankrupt. Their services or products become irrelevant to the customers’ needs and wants.

Why produce a product that does not sell anyway? Why offer a service that is not in demand? And why keep on operating if the business is losing?

How the Results of Marketing Research are Analyzed

The data gathered about customers is useless unless analyzed using advanced statistical applications. Various statistical approaches analyze data obtained from marketing research. Usually, multivariate statistics such as  multiple regression , factor analysis, canonical correlation, and multiple discriminant analysis are applied.

What is multivariate statistics and why multivariate?

Multivariate statistics refers to analysis using not just a few variables; not two, or three but several or many  variables  simultaneously. Aside from saving time, the results of such analysis can pinpoint customer characteristics that matter when it comes to product purchases or sales.

To further clarify this idea, a market researcher might ask: “Which of the following customer characteristics: age, gender, occupation, income, residence, or nationality click more often the ads on an electronic product?”

The answer to this question may be obtained from data gathered when someone signs up for a service such as an email or a social networking site. When you sign up for whatever free services are available on the internet, bear this in mind. There is no such thing as free lunch. In the business world, you cannot afford to be a  free rider . You need to pay for a good or service that you enjoy.

Those who click on the ads on electronics are potential customers, and knowing their characteristics will help sellers focus their marketing strategies. A  multiple regression analysis  will show this information. But of course, marketing researchers would have to find out if there is a correlation between clicks and sales. A simple correlation analysis will enable them to answer this question.

If the data analysis reveals that gender has something to do with interest in an electronic product, then the product sellers should design marketing strategies that consider gender roles in product selection. What products do men and women want? On the other hand, age may also be a factor. So, the researcher must consider this, too. 

A  model  can then be constructed to estimate demand for the product using a combination of factors that predict its sales. The following section presents such a model to show how different variables define the consumption of a particular product.

Example Conceptual Framework on Marketing Research

One of the readers of my article on  developing a conceptual framework  asked if I could provide an example conceptual framework on marketing research. Hence, I include this concern in this section to illustrate how having a conceptual framework before undertaking marketing research will guide the study.

One of the popular marketing research activities focuses on product quality and services. I illustrate product and service research with a personal experience below.

Customer Feedback on Products and Services

A few years back, I answered a simple questionnaire soliciting my feedback on a pizza shop’s products and services. The questionnaire sought my rating of pizza taste, service speed, and the courtesy of the server.

As part of their franchise, I would presume that the pizza business owner or manager solicits feedback from the customers. They do this to see how customers perceive the consumed product and the service associated with it. The main variables in this study, based on the questionnaire, are pizza taste, service speed, and waiter service quality to the customers.

We can plot the paradigm of the study as follows:

Figure 1 above shows the conceptual framework of the study. It is an abstract representation of what the pizza manager or consultant has in mind. It shows the variables, namely pizza taste, service speed, and waiter courtesy.

Perhaps, the researchers had conducted a literature review and discovered that the predictor variables consist of these three characteristics. These variables are the crucial factors to consider as correlates of customer satisfaction. 

Why were the three independent variables, namely pizza taste, service speed, and waiter courtesy selected?

A  literature review  on customer satisfaction may have revealed that these variables are determinants of customer satisfaction. But in the particular location where the pizza restaurant operates, any of these variables may be more important than the other. 

Customer Preferences Vary Geographically

Mittal et al. (2004) found out that customer preferences vary geographically. This finding implies that clients in one place may prioritize courtesy over taste. In one location, customers may put a premium on service speed. In another spot, customers may not mind much either the speed or courtesy but the taste.

So how will the marketing manager use the findings of the study in the given example? If, for example, customers in the location I’m in prioritize service speed, then the appropriate action should be to improve pizza delivery speed without compromising taste and courtesy.

This example illustrates the importance of marketing research in making decisions that can help businesses grow. Research findings guide marketing managers on what steps to take to improve their business operations.

How to Do Market Research

In the age of information, it pays to be creative and resourceful. The Internet provides a tremendous amount of information to help you carry out marketing research without leaving your home.

There are just so many ways you can do today using available tools like Google Analytics and government websites. You don’t even have to go out of your home to do market research. What is essential is for you to ask the right questions that research can answer.

Listen to the following video on how you can do market research for free.

To sum it all up, marketing research is a tool that managers and business owners can use to understand their customers better and deliver their goods or services just the way their customers would love it. Informed decisions are better than just a hit-and-miss approach that does not guarantee the desired results.

It’s simply asking the customers what they want, and you provide it if you intend to grow your business and increase profits.

After defining marketing research and giving an example conceptual framework for a pizza study, I present the details of market analysis using a standard multivariate statistical analysis tool.

Before everything else, the concept “market analysis” should be defined first. What is market analysis, and how is it used?

Market Analysis Defined

Marketing strategies work best when founded on a systematic evaluation of consumer preferences. What do consumers want? How do they respond to a product or service? Marketing research provides answers to these questions.

Hence, market analysis can be defined as the process of evaluating consumer preferences using a systematic approach such as marketing research, among others. Market analysis is a detailed examination of the elements or structure of the market.

Why is a market analysis done? An analysis is done to draw out important findings for interpretation, discussion, and finally, a decision on what steps to make.

Marketing Research Example: The Pizza Study

In this example, I will use the conceptual framework given in the pizza study in the preceding section. The variables in this example include pizza taste, service speed, and waiter courtesy as determinants of customer satisfaction.

To find out what customers want, let us have sample feedback data from 200 pizza shop customers.

Coding the Variables for Market Analysis

Data analysis requires the conversion of subjective customer feedback into numbers. We need to code the data so that statistical software applications can analyze them.

Here’s how to code the variables used in this study namely, pizza taste, service speed, and waiter courtesy:

Pizza Taste

1 – Very bad

 3 – Moderate

 5 – Very good

Service Speed

 1 – Satisfied

 0 – Not satisfied

Waiter Courtesy

 1 – Courteous

 0 – Not courteous

Level of Satisfaction

 Let us assume that the following Likert scale applies to the customer’s level of satisfaction:

1- Not at all satisfied

 2 – Slightly satisfied

 3 – Moderately satisfied

 4 – Very satisfied

 5 – Extremely satisfied

If for example, the customer is satisfied with pizza taste, service speed, and waiter courtesy; he rates everything “5.” If he is not satisfied with courtesy, then he might rate it a “0.”

Analyzing Data Using Multiple Regression Analysis

After collecting data from 200 pizza customers as input to the multiple regression analysis, the following is the result of data analysis.

Result of the Regression Analysis

The following sample table presents the results of the multiple regression analysis using a simple spreadsheet software application with regression capability. It consists of two parts:

• general relationship between the dependent and independent variables, and
• details on the relationship between satisfaction score and pizza taste, service speed, and server courtesy.

Notice that the overall relationship has R values. Among these R values, the most important for interpretation is the Adjusted R 2 value. This value represents the relationship between variables of the study. The value obtained here is 0.43. This value means that 43% of the variation in satisfaction score is accounted for by the three variables.

Closer scrutiny of the details in Part 2 reveals that service speed significantly relates to satisfaction score. The red font indicates this significant relationship (for better understanding, please read the post on how to determine the  significance of statistical relationships ).

Interpretation of the Results

We can say with confidence that among the variables studied, service speed relates significantly to customer satisfaction. If you look closely at the entries in the data set, for every 5 or 4 satisfaction score, a 1 corresponds to efficient service speed, i.e., the customer is satisfied with service speed. Take note, however, that this interpretation holds only to the particular location where the study transpired.

Given this result, the marketing manager, therefore, should focus on the improvement of service speed to satisfy customers. This simple information can help the  pizza business  grow and gain a competitive edge. Market analysis guides decision-making and avoids incurring the unnecessary cost associated with the hit-and-miss approach.

Well, this is just an introduction to market research with a simplified example. The point is that market research is a crucial component of business strategy especially among large businesses. A little change in the practices of a large company or even a small business can mean a lot in sales. The information provided by market research is an important part of business  decision making .

Hillman, C. H., Erickson, K. I., & Kramer, A. F. (2008). Be smart, exercise your heart: exercise effects on brain and cognition. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 9(1), 58-65.

Mittal, V., Kamakura, W. A., & Govind, R. (2004). Geographic patterns in customer service and satisfaction: An empirical investigation. Journal of Marketing, 68(3), 48-62.

Zikmund, W. (1999). Essentials of marketing research. Dryden Press. 422 pp.

© 2016 May 20 P. A. Regoniel Updated: November 2, 2020; November 14, 2021

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Dr. Regoniel, a faculty member of the graduate school, served as consultant to various environmental research and development projects covering issues and concerns on climate change, coral reef resources and management, economic valuation of environmental and natural resources, mining, and waste management and pollution. He has extensive experience on applied statistics, systems modelling and analysis, an avid practitioner of LaTeX, and a multidisciplinary web developer. He leverages pioneering AI-powered content creation tools to produce unique and comprehensive articles in this website.

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What Is Market Research?

• How It Works
• Primary vs. Secondary
• How to Conduct Research

The Bottom Line

• Marketing Essentials

How to Do Market Research, Types, and Example

Joules Garcia / Investopedia

Market research examines consumer behavior and trends in the economy to help a business develop and fine-tune its business idea and strategy. It helps a business understand its target market by gathering and analyzing data.

Market research is the process of evaluating the viability of a new service or product through research conducted directly with potential customers. It allows a company to define its target market and get opinions and other feedback from consumers about their interest in a product or service.

Research may be conducted in-house or by a third party that specializes in market research. It can be done through surveys and focus groups, among other ways. Test subjects are usually compensated with product samples or a small stipend for their time.

Key Takeaways

• Companies conduct market research before introducing new products to determine their appeal to potential customers.
• Tools include focus groups, telephone interviews, and questionnaires.
• The results of market research inform the final design of the product and determine how it will be positioned in the marketplace.
• Market research usually combines primary information, gathered directly from consumers, and secondary information, which is data available from external sources.

Market Research

How market research works.

Market research is used to determine the viability of a new product or service. The results may be used to revise the product design and fine-tune the strategy for introducing it to the public. This can include information gathered for the purpose of determining market segmentation . It also informs product differentiation , which is used to tailor advertising.

A business engages in various tasks to complete the market research process. It gathers information based on the market sector being targeted by the product. This information is then analyzed and relevant data points are interpreted to draw conclusions about how the product may be optimally designed and marketed to the market segment for which it is intended.

It is a critical component in the research and development (R&D) phase of a new product or service introduction. Market research can be conducted in many different ways, including surveys, product testing, interviews, and focus groups.

Market research is a critical tool that companies use to understand what consumers want, develop products that those consumers will use, and maintain a competitive advantage over other companies in their industry.

Primary Market Research vs. Secondary Market Research

Market research usually consists of a combination of:

• Primary research, gathered by the company or by an outside company that it hires
• Secondary research, which draws on external sources of data

Primary Market Research

Primary research generally falls into two categories: exploratory and specific research.

• Exploratory research is less structured and functions via open-ended questions. The questions may be posed in a focus group setting, telephone interviews, or questionnaires. It results in questions or issues that the company needs to address about a product that it has under development.
• Specific research delves more deeply into the problems or issues identified in exploratory research.

Secondary Market Research

All market research is informed by the findings of other researchers about the needs and wants of consumers. Today, much of this research can be found online.

Secondary research can include population information from government census data , trade association research reports , polling results, and research from other businesses operating in the same market sector.

History of Market Research

Formal market research began in Germany during the 1920s. In the United States, it soon took off with the advent of the Golden Age of Radio.

Companies that created advertisements for this new entertainment medium began to look at the demographics of the audiences who listened to each of the radio plays, music programs, and comedy skits that were presented.

They had once tried to reach the widest possible audience by placing their messages on billboards or in the most popular magazines. With radio programming, they had the chance to target rural or urban consumers, teenagers or families, and judge the results by the sales numbers that followed.

Types of Market Research

Face-to-face interviews.

From their earliest days, market research companies would interview people on the street about the newspapers and magazines that they read regularly and ask whether they recalled any of the ads or brands that were published in them. Data collected from these interviews were compared to the circulation of the publication to determine the effectiveness of those ads.

Market research and surveys were adapted from these early techniques.

To get a strong understanding of your market, it’s essential to understand demand, market size, economic indicators, location, market saturation, and pricing.

Focus Groups

A focus group is a small number of representative consumers chosen to try a product or watch an advertisement.

Afterward, the group is asked for feedback on their perceptions of the product, the company’s brand, or competing products. The company then takes that information and makes decisions about what to do with the product or service, whether that's releasing it, making changes, or abandoning it altogether.

Phone Research

The man-on-the-street interview technique soon gave way to the telephone interview. A telephone interviewer could collect information in a more efficient and cost-effective fashion.

Telephone research was a preferred tactic of market researchers for many years. It has become much more difficult in recent years as landline phone service dwindles and is replaced by less accessible mobile phones.

Survey Research

As an alternative to focus groups, surveys represent a cost-effective way to determine consumer attitudes without having to interview anyone in person. Consumers are sent surveys in the mail, usually with a coupon or voucher to incentivize participation. These surveys help determine how consumers feel about the product, brand, and price point.

Online Market Research

With people spending more time online, market research activities have shifted online as well. Data collection still uses a survey-style form. But instead of companies actively seeking participants by finding them on the street or cold calling them on the phone, people can choose to sign up, take surveys, and offer opinions when they have time.

This makes the process far less intrusive and less rushed, since people can participate on their own time and of their own volition.

How to Conduct Market Research

The first step to effective market research is to determine the goals of the study. Each study should seek to answer a clear, well-defined problem. For example, a company might seek to identify consumer preferences, brand recognition, or the comparative effectiveness of different types of ad campaigns.

After that, the next step is to determine who will be included in the research. Market research is an expensive process, and a company cannot waste resources collecting unnecessary data. The firm should decide in advance which types of consumers will be included in the research, and how the data will be collected. They should also account for the probability of statistical errors or sampling bias .

The next step is to collect the data and analyze the results. If the two previous steps have been completed accurately, this should be straightforward. The researchers will collect the results of their study, keeping track of the ages, gender, and other relevant data of each respondent. This is then analyzed in a marketing report that explains the results of their research.

The last step is for company executives to use their market research to make business decisions. Depending on the results of their research, they may choose to target a different group of consumers, or they may change their price point or some product features.

The results of these changes may eventually be measured in further market research, and the process will begin all over again.

Benefits of Market Research

Market research is essential for developing brand loyalty and customer satisfaction. Since it is unlikely for a product to appeal equally to every consumer, a strong market research program can help identify the key demographics and market segments that are most likely to use a given product.

Market research is also important for developing a company’s advertising efforts. For example, if a company’s market research determines that its consumers are more likely to use Facebook than X (formerly Twitter), it can then target its advertisements to one platform instead of another. Or, if they determine that their target market is value-sensitive rather than price-sensitive, they can work on improving the product rather than reducing their prices.

Market research only works when subjects are honest and open to participating.

Example of Market Research

Many companies use market research to test new products or get information from consumers about what kinds of products or services they need and don’t currently have.

For example, a company that’s considering starting a business might conduct market research to test the viability of its product or service. If the market research confirms consumer interest, the business can proceed confidently with its business plan . If not, the company can use the results of the market research to make adjustments to the product to bring it in line with customer desires.

What Are the Main Types of Market Research?

The main types of market research are primary research and secondary research. Primary research includes focus groups, polls, and surveys. Secondary research includes academic articles, infographics, and white papers.

Qualitative research gives insights into how customers feel and think. Quantitative research uses data and statistics such as website views, social media engagement, and subscriber numbers.

What Is Online Market Research?

Online market research uses the same strategies and techniques as traditional primary and secondary market research, but it is conducted on the Internet. Potential customers may be asked to participate in a survey or give feedback on a product. The responses may help the researchers create a profile of the likely customer for a new product.

What Are Paid Market Research Surveys?

Paid market research involves rewarding individuals who agree to participate in a study. They may be offered a small payment for their time or a discount coupon in return for filling out a questionnaire or participating in a focus group.

What Is a Market Study?

A market study is an analysis of consumer demand for a product or service. It looks at all of the factors that influence demand for a product or service. These include the product’s price, location, competition, and substitutes as well as general economic factors that could influence the new product’s adoption, for better or worse.

Market research is a key component of a company’s research and development (R&D) stage. It helps companies understand in advance the viability of a new product that they have in development and to see how it might perform in the real world.

Britannica Money. “ Market Research .”

U.S. Small Business Administration. “ Market Research and Competitive Analysis .”

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3.2: The nature and importance of marketing research

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Informal and, by today's standards, crude attempts to analyze the market date back to the earliest days of the marketing revolution. Only in recent years, however, has the role of research as it relates to management been clearly recognized.

Reflecting this change in orientation, the following definition of marketing research is offered: marketing research is the scientific and controlled gathering of nonroutine marketing information undertaken to help management solve marketing problems. There is often hearty disagreement over the answer to the question of whether marketing research is a science. One's answer depends on the employed definition of "science". To be specific, a research activity should use the scientific method. In this method, hypotheses (tentative statements of relationships or of solutions to problems) are drawn from informal observations. These hypotheses are then tested. Ultimately, the hypothesis is accepted, rejected, or modified according to the results of the test. In a true science, verified hypotheses are turned into "laws". In marketing research, verified hypotheses become the generalizations upon which management develops its marketing programs. (To simplify our discussion, we will use "questions" as a synonym of "hypothesis".)

The mechanics of marketing research must be controlled so that the right facts are obtained in the answer to the correct problem. The control of fact-finding is the responsibility of the research director, who must correctly design the research and carefully supervise its execution to ensure that it goes according to plan. Maintaining control in marketing research is often difficult because of the distance that separates the researcher and the market and because the services of outsiders are often required to complete a research project. 1

BUS101: Introduction to Business

Marketing research process.

To accurately arrive at a target market, businesses must research who their typical customer is. Read each section to learn about conducting marketing research. Try to summarize these lessons and write a brief reflection of how you would research if you were the owner of an upscale retail clothing store in a major metropolitan city with several competitors.

Learning Objectives

• Outline objectives and problems as part of the marketing research process
• Describe the formulation of research design within the context of the marketing research process
• Recognize the basis for developing a specific approach to the objective or problem to be solved through the marketing research process
• Construct the rationale of fieldwork or data collection from a marketing research process perspective
• Summarize the characteristics of data preparation and methodology of data analysis
• Identify the characteristics of preparing, presenting, and documenting the results of marketing research
• The marketing research process involves six steps: 1: problem definition, 2: develop an approach to the problem, 3: research design formulation, 4: data collection, 5: data preparation and analysis, and 6: report preparation and presentation.
• The first step in any marketing research study is to define the problem while taking into account the purpose of the study, the relevant background information, what information is needed, and how it will be used in decision making. This stage involves discussion with the decision-makers, interviews with industry experts, analysis of secondary data, and, perhaps, some qualitative research, such as focus groups.
• Marketers can employ three types of objectives their research: exploratory research, descriptive research, and causal research.
• The marketing process details the procedures to obtain this information. It aims to design a study that will test the hypotheses of interest, determine possible answers to the research questions, and provide the information needed for decision making.
• Researchers need to choose the type of data they want to obtain from the respondents, such as via a survey or experiment and design a questionnaire and sampling plan to choose the most appropriate respondents for their study.
• Research design involves secondary data analysis; qualitative research; quantitative data methods (survey, observation, and experimentation); information needed; measurement and scaling procedures; questionnaire design; sampling process and sample size; and a plan of data analysis.
• Data collection involves a field force or staff that operates in the field, as in the case of personal interviewing, from an office by telephone, or through the mail (traditional mail and mail panel surveys with pre-recruited households).
• Proper selection, training, supervision, and evaluation of the field force helps minimize data-collection errors. Data is carefully edited, coded, transcribed, and verified so it can be properly analyzed during this phase of the research process. Verification ensures that the data from the original questionnaires have been accurately transcribed, while data analysis gives meaning to the data that have been collected.
• Bias must be avoided when interpreting data because only the results (not personal opinion) should be communicated.
• The entire project should be documented in a written report that addresses the specific research questions identified; describes the approach, research design, data collection, and data analysis procedures adopted; and presents the results and the major findings.
• The findings should be presented in a comprehensible format so they can be readily used in the decision-making process. An oral presentation to management, using tables, charts, and graphs, will enhance clarity and impact.
• Business Intelligence – Information that pertains to the history, current status, or future projections of a business organization.
• Data – Values of qualitative or quantitative variables belonging to a set of items; Data are typically the results of measurements and can be visualized using graphs or images
• Data Mining – A technique for searching large-scale databases for patterns; used mainly to find previously unknown correlations between variables that may be commercially useful.
• Ethnographic research – Information regarding cultural phenomena.
• Executive Summary – A short section or document that summarizes a longer report or proposal so readers can quickly learn about a larger work without having to read it in its entirety.
• Mall Intercept – A survey where respondents are intercepted in shopping malls to administer a survey on the spot or invite them to a research facility to conduct the interview.
• Market Research – The systematic collection and evaluation of data regarding customers' preferences for actual and potential products and services.
• Marketing Research – A research process that links the consumers, customers, and public to the marketer through information. This information is used to identify and define marketing opportunities and problems; generate, refine, and evaluate marketing actions; monitor marketing performance; and improve understanding of marketing as a process.
• Objective – Not influenced by irrational emotions or prejudices.
• Qualitative Research – A method of inquiry employed in many different academic disciplines, traditionally in the social sciences but also in market research and further contexts.
• Scientific Method – A body of techniques for acquiring new knowledge or correcting and integrating previous knowledge. To be termed scientific, a method of inquiry must be based on empirical and measurable evidence subject to specific principles of reasoning.
• Secondary Data – Information collected by someone other than the user of the data.
• Secondary Research – A research process that Involves the summary, collation, and synthesis of existing research rather than primary research, where data is collected from subjects or experiments.
• Survey Research – A research process that obtains information from a predetermined set of questions given to a sample, used to assess thoughts, opinions, and feelings.
• Systematic – Carried out using a planned, ordered procedure.

Marketing Research Is Systematic and Objective:

• Systematic planning is required at all stages of the marketing research process. The procedures followed at each stage are methodologically sound, well documented, and, as much as possible, planned in advance. Marketing research uses the scientific method in that data are collected and analyzed to test prior notions or hypotheses.
• Marketing research aims to provide accurate information that reflects a true state of affairs and, thus, should be conducted impartially. While research is always influenced by the researcher's research philosophy, it should be free from the personal or political biases of the researcher or the management.

Overview of the Marketing Research Process:

Step 1: problem definition, step 2: development of an approach to the problem, step 3: research design formulation.

• Step 4: Field Work or Data Collection

Step 5: Data Preparation and Analysis

Step 6: report preparation and presentation.

Define the problem and research objectives. The first step in any marketing research study is to define the problem while taking into account the purpose of the study, the relevant background information, what information is needed, and how it will be used in decision making. This stage involves discussion with the decision-makers, interviews with industry experts, analysis of secondary data, and, perhaps, some qualitative research, such as focus groups. There are three types of objectives that can be deployed in marketing research:

The first stage of the marketing research process involves defining the problem.

1. Exploratory research

• Used to better define a problem or scout opportunities.
• In-depth interviews and discussion groups are commonly used.

2. Descriptive research

• Used to assess a situation in the marketplace (that is, the potential for a specific product or consumer attitudes).
• Methods include personal interviews and surveys.

3. Causal research

• Used for testing cause and effect relationships.
• Typically through estimation.

Step two includes formulating an objective or theoretical framework, analytical models, research questions, hypotheses, and identifying characteristics or factors that can influence the research design. This process is guided by discussions with management and industry experts, case studies and simulations, analysis of secondary data, qualitative research, and pragmatic considerations.

Planning involves the creation and maintenance of a plan.

A research design is a framework or blueprint for conducting the marketing research project. It details the procedures necessary for obtaining the required information, and its purpose is to design a study that will test the hypotheses of interest, determine possible answers to the research questions, and provide the information needed for decision making. Decisions are also made regarding what data should be obtained from the respondents (such as by conducting a survey or an experiment). A questionnaire and sampling plan also are designed in order to select the most appropriate respondents for the study. The following steps are involved in formulating a research design:

• Secondary data analysis (based on secondary research)
• Qualitative research
• Methods of collecting quantitative data (survey, observation, and experimentation)
• Definition of the information needed
• Measurement and scaling procedures
• Questionnaire design
• Sampling process and sample size
• Plan of data analysis

Secondary data analysis is one of the steps involved in formulating a Research Design

Developing the research plan for collecting information:

The research plan outlines sources of existing data and spells out the specific research approaches, contact methods, sampling plans, and instruments that researchers will use to gather data. This plan includes a written proposal that outlines the management problem, research objectives, information required, how the results will help management decisions, and the budget allocated for the research.

Step 4: Fieldwork or Data Collection

Fieldwork, or data collection, involves a field force or staff that operates either in the field, as in the case of personal interviewing (focus group, in-home, mall intercept, or computer-assisted personal interviewing), from an office by telephone (telephone or computer-assisted telephone interviewing/CATI), or through the mail (traditional mail and mail panel surveys with pre-recruited households). Proper selection, training, supervision, and evaluation of the field force helps minimize data-collection errors. In marketing research, an example of data collection is when a consumer goods company hires a market research company to conduct in-home ethnographies and in-store shop-alongs in an effort to collect primary research data.

Soldiers and family members participated in USAG-RC-sponsored focus group s

Marketing Research is Systematic and Objective

• Systematic planning is required at all stages of the marketing research process, especially in the data collection step. The procedures followed at each stage are methodologically sound, well documented, and, as much as possible, planned in advance. Marketing research uses the scientific method in that data are collected and analyzed to test prior notions or hypotheses.
• Marketing research aims to provide accurate information that reflects a true state of affairs and thus, should be conducted impartially. While research is always influenced by the researcher's philosophy, it should be free from the personal or political biases of the researcher or the management. This is especially important in the data collection phase. The data collected will be analyzed and used to make marketing decisions. Hence, it is vital that the data collection process be free of as much bias as possible.

Primary Versus Secondary Research

There are many sources of information a marketer can use when collecting data. The Nielson Ratings is an audience measurement system that provides data on audience size and the composition of television markets in the United States. The Gallup Polls conduct public opinion polls with its results published daily in the form of data-driven news. The U.S Census Bureau, directed by the U.S. Government is the principal agency that is responsible for producing data about American people and the economy. Population, housing, and demographic characteristics are gathered to help plan and define transportation systems, police and fire precinct, election districts, and schools.

Analysis of data is a process of inspecting, cleaning, transforming, and modeling data with the goal of highlighting useful information, suggesting conclusions, and supporting decision making. Data analysis has multiple facets and approaches, encompassing diverse techniques under a variety of names in different business, science, and social science domains. Data mining is a particular data analysis technique that focuses on modeling and knowledge discovery for predictive rather than purely descriptive purposes. Marketers use databases to extract applicable information that identifies customer patterns, characteristics, and behaviors.

Notes on data analysis process and testing parameters .

Business intelligence covers data analysis that relies heavily on aggregation and focusing on business information. In statistical applications, some people divide data analysis into descriptive statistics, exploratory data analysis (EDA), and confirmatory data analysis (CDA). EDA focuses on discovering new features in the data and CDA focuses on confirming or falsifying existing hypotheses. Predictive analytics focuses on the application of statistical or structural models for predictive forecasting or classification. Text analytics applies statistical, linguistic, and structural techniques to extract and classify information from textual sources, a species of unstructured data. All are varieties of data analysis.

During this phase of the research process, data is carefully edited, coded, transcribed, and verified in order for it to be properly analyzed. Statistical market research tools are used. The validity of the results is also assessed to confirm how well the data measures what it is supposed to measure. Oftentimes, the research team will arrange a debriefing session with the client to review highlights from the data and brainstorm potential ideas on how the findings can be implemented. This typically happens when a client hires a market research company and they want to remain thoroughly involved in the research process.

Researchers can set up a debriefing meeting to review the analysis

Types of data analysis outputs: heat map, bar plots, scatter plots .

Helpful tips to keep in mind during data analysis:

• Communicate the results.
• Try to avoid bias when interpreting data.
• Just because results fail to confirm original hypotheses, does not mean the research results are useless.

During the Report Preparation and Presentation step, the entire project should be documented in a written report that addresses the specific research questions identified; describes the approach, the research design, data collection, and data analysis procedures adopted; and presents the results and the major findings. This permanent document is also helpful because it can be easily referenced by others who may not have been part of the research.

The findings should be presented in a comprehensible format so that they can be readily used in the decision-making process. In addition, an oral presentation should be made to management using tables, figures, and graphs to enhance clarity and impact.

Someone giving a presentation using visual elements

A successful presentation will include but is not limited to the following elements:

• Final conclusions (based on the insights gathered from data collected) that effectively meet the initial objectives of the research
• Recommendations about how to apply the research
• Charts, graphs, and visual elements that help showcase important facts and make the presentation easily digestible and memorable

A formal research report presentation typically includes the following:

• Table of Contents
• Executive Summary
• Research Objectives
• Research Methodology
• Highlights of Fieldwork Data Collected
• Appendix (including Respondent Screening Instrument and Questionnaire)
• Findings/Insights
• Recommendations/Implications and Action Plan

Market Research: Meaning, Definition, Process, Elements, Importance, Objectives

Marketing research is defined as the objective and formal process of systematically obtaining, analyzing and interpreting data for actionable decision making in marketing.

This definition lays stress on two aspects, namely, objectivity and systematic process in the collection and analysis of data. In fact, marketing research should not be allowed to be influenced by personal views and considerations.

Before undertaking any research study it is essential to delimit the primary objectives of the project and define the methodology of undertaking the project in as much details as possible.

Marketing research as an integral part of a MIS, should prove a flow of information inputs, mainly from external sources, useful in marketing decisions making. Marketing research is carried on in the effort to learn something reliable about a specific marketing problem encountered by the management.

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Learn about:-

1. Introduction to Market Research 2. Meaning of Market Research 3. Definition 4. Objectives 5. Importance 6. Process 7. Areas 8. Approaches 9. Basics 10. Acceptance 11. Primary Marketing Research 12. Integration 13. Evaluating the Benefits 14. Issues.

Market Research: Definition, Objectives, Importance, Process, Areas, Approaches, Acceptance, Integration and Issues

• Introduction to Market Research
• Meaning of Market Research
• Definition of Market Research
• Objectives of Market Research
• Importance of Market Research
• Market Research Process
• Areas of Market Research
• Approaches to Market Research
• Basics of Market Research
• Acceptance of Market Research
• Primary Market Research
• Integration of Market Research
• Evaluating the Benefits of Market Research
• Issues in Market Research

Market Research – Introduction

Marketing programme starts from the product idea and does not end until customer wants are adequately satisfied. Customer is the pivot around whom the entire marketing operations revolve. Alpha and omega of marketing is consumer satisfaction. Beginning and end of marketing management is marketing research. Learning more about consumers and dealers and about marketing mix gene­rally is the heart of marketing research.

As a business grows larger and as management becomes more remote from the market place, marketing management has to rely more heavily on marketing research as a managerial tool in solving any problem in the field of marketing. It is an invaluable tool in decision-making based on scientific investigation and analysis of a marketing problem.

Advertising has its own problems and pitfalls. We have to be sure about our targeting and segmenting. We will have to understand what makes the consumers buy. We will have to find out whether the right audience watches our sponsored programmes. What is the effect of ads on sales? There are some questions, which the advertisers face everyday. While deciding about such questions, advertisers need inputs of some research.

Mostly they rely on marketing research (MR) which is systematic collection, processing and interpretation of data regarding any problem of markets ranging from product, distribution, price, and promotion to consumers, markets and forecasting. Marketing research is broader than the outdated term market research, which is information about only a particular market.

Marketing research includes advertising research and media research. Though marketing research is an invaluable input to advertising decision making, it only supplements our intuition, experience and judgement.

Marketing Research is not a new activity. However, it has been revitalized, enlarged, and formalized since World War II. With the development and recognition of the so-called “marketing con­cept” in recent years, having the objective of furnishing consumer satisfaction, marketing research has been recognized as one of the major marketing activities, co-equal in status with sales, advertis­ing, new product development, pricing, distribution, and market­ing services.

Market Research – Meaning

Research is the process of gathering, recording and analyzing of critical and relevant facts about any problem in any branch of human activity. It indicates critical and searching study and investigation of a problem, a proposed course of action, a hypothesis or a theory.

Marketing Research:

Marketing research is a systematic, objective and intensive search for and analysis of the data (facts and figures) relevant to the identification and solution of any problem in the field of marketing.

Market research includes:

1. Size of market,

2. Location of customers,

3. Description of customers (age, sex, income, education, standard of living, etc.)

4. Analysis of market demand,

5. Customer needs, habits, buying motives, etc.,

6. Dealer wants and preferences,

7. Degree of competition.

Market Research – Definition

Most formal definitions are similar to that adopted by the American Marketing Association- “Marketing research is the sys­tematic gathering, recording, and analyzing of data about prob­lems relating to the marketing of goods and services.” Operationally this means finding out facts about the market for goods, the numbers and types of consumers, the product itself, channels of distribution, and consumer motivation and behavi­our, plus developing advertising and sales promotion ideas, and eventually testing them.

Some of the commonly used names of marketing research are – market research, product or consumer research, distribution research, motivation research, copy research (in advertising), and sales planning and control research.

The American Marketing Association defines marketing research as – “The systematic gathering, recording and analysis of data about problems relating to marketing of goods and services”.

According to Kotler, “Marketing research is the systematic design, collection analysis and reporting of data and findings relevant of a specific marketing situation facing the company.”

The key word in the above definition is ‘systematic’. This is the difference between research and haphazard gathering of findings. For a study/research to be systematic there must be two qualities in the least. First, it should be orderly so that the measurement has accuracy and there is a fair cross-section. Second, it should be impartial in analysis and interpretation.

Now for a research to be systematic it should be planned in advance. Moreover to complete it, it should be interpreted. We thus arrive at a definition of Marketing Research; “Marketing research is the planning of and systematic gathering, recording, analysis and interpreting data about problems (or opportunities) relating to the, marketing of goods and services”.

Market Research – Objectives

(1) Marketing Research is used in the formulation of all marketing plans, policies, programmes and procedures.

(2) It is employed for evaluation of these plans, policies, etc. when they are brought into practice.

(3) It is used in reducing and minimising all marketing costs, particularly, selling, advertising, promotion and distribution costs.

(4) Marketing problems demanding best solution through mar­keting research can be classified under three major heads – (a) Prob­lems relating to the product itself; products includes branding, packaging and labeling, (b) Problems relating to consumer markets, (c) Problems relating to each phase of the entire marketing process.

(5) Programmes of marketing research incidentally provide insurance cover for the survival and growth of the business in a dynamic economy.

(6) Marketing Management through marketing research can bring about the sale of right product (brand and package) through right channels to right customers at right places and at right prices by evolving right plans, policies and programmes with the help of right personnel.

(7) The main objective of marketing research is to enable manufacturers to make goods acceptable and saleable and to see that they reach the market more easily, quickly, cheaply and profi­tably without sacrificing consumer interest.

What can Marketing Research do for Business? There are six faithful service-men at the disposal of market researchers.

Marketing research finds out for the manufacturer, where are his customers, what they want, when they want it, and where, and how much they are willing to pay for it. Marketing research ascer­tains for the marketing middlemen (wholesalers and retailers) what goods to purchase, when and at what prices, how to advertise and display goods, how much to charge, what delivery and other services to provide.

Marketing research demonstrates to ‘the advertiser how to do a better job of telling the people about particulars of goods or services so that they become presold goods after advertising.

With adequate knowledge obtained by marketing research – (1) Producers need not make unwanted goods, need not offer those through wrong outlets to persons who are not interested. (2) Mer­chants need not stock unwanted goods, offer them at the wrong season in the wrong quantities or at wrong prices. (3) Advertisers need not make mistakes in what they say, to whom they appeal, and how they appeal to the audience.

To short, marketing research enables producers, merchants, distributors and advertisers to avoid mistakes either in manufacturing or in marketing. To that extent it can minimise business failures and maximise profitability. Please note that there are specialised consultancy service organisations offering expert advice and services relating to marketing research, advertising research, etc., and enable top management to solve marketing problems.

Market Research – Importance

Mass production by power-driven machinery in anticipation of demand for ever-widening market created special problems of distribution.

(a) Widening of Communication Gap:

Ever-expanding markets required numerous middlemen between producer and consumer. Each middleman erected a sort of wall which blocked the backward flow of communication regarding consumer needs and dealer needs to the manufacturer. Size and specialisation within the business unit and intervention of numerous middlemen between producer and consumer created a chronic gap of communication — lack of returned flow or feeding back of information from consumer to producer.

The widening of communication gap is the chief single factor for increasing importance of marketing research to fill up the communication gap between consumer and the producer. Marketing research alone can provide first-hand knowledge of consu­mers and changes in the pattern of demand.

(b) Emergence of Buyers’ Market:

Emergence of buyers’ market and increasing competition demanded continuous need of marketing research to ensure maximum consumer satisfaction and repeat purchases and to lay down appropriate marketing strategies to meet competition, to survive and grow in a competitive market. Marketing research can establish best positive correlation between the product/brand and consumer needs and preferences.

(c) New Marketing Concept:

The marketing concept was first articulated in 1952 by Ralph Cardines, the top marketing execu­tive of General Electric Corporation of the U.S.A. Marketing research has become the corner-stone of the marketing concept. No business firm can be market-oriented or customer-centered without the effective use of marketing research.

The moment customer be­comes the center of the marketing universe, marketing research assumes unique importance and it becomes an invaluable management tool to formulate accurate and realistic plans and programmes of marketing, advertising and sales promotion based on realistic informa­tion of consumer demand — changing tastes, preferences, whims, fancies, etc. Marketing research can ensure quick way to profit viz. to serve the customers in the ways in which he/she wants to be served.

(d) Marketing Change:

There is nothing permanent except change. Change alone is constant. Change is the essence of life. Change means progress. Change is the common denominator in planning, organising, motivating and controlling marketing activity. Marketing research enables management to anticipate, meet and adapt creatively to accelerating conditions of change, particularly in consumer demand.

The real challenge to marketing management is to firmly believe that changing a business—finding its new role, new customers, new products, new markets – is even more important than efficient operations of the business. Marketing research can easily help the management in managing profitably marketing change.

(e) Changes in Technology:

Marketing research can solve the problem of catching up with new developments brought about by unprecedented growth of science and technology. It can help management to bring about prompt adjustments and innovations in product design, packaging, advertising, sabs promotion and distri­bution policies so that the business can keep itself up-to-date in the dynamic market place.

Market Research – Process

Research follow a step-by-step sequence as given below:

1. Problem Definition and Research Goals :

In practice, we have clear-cut advertising problems in most of the cases. However, sometimes the problem is hidden and must be ferreted out. What decisions are we going to take in the light of research input? This helps us in identifying the problem correctly. Once the problem is identified, we must put research goals clearly.

Some typical research goals are:

(i) To measure awareness about our product in the target audience after 2 months’ campaign.

(ii) To assess attitudes of consumers to rival products so as to know their brand’s vulnerable points.

(iii) To assess which ad concept is more effective out of the two developed.

2. Sources of Information :

We can collect our data from our internal records, library, directories, literature, etc. The list of getting such secondary data is long. When our research project needs more data, we will have to collect primary data. Primary data can be collected by our research department or by an outside research agency.

3. Analysis of Secondary Data :

This step consists in analyzing the secondary data to throw light on the problem on hand.

4. Identification of Sample :

When primary data is needed, we will have to decide from which group of people or organisations to collect it. It is our universe or population. If all members of the population are questioned for getting the data, it becomes census. This is rarely done.

It is too expensive and time-consuming. We can obtain reliable results by questioning only a portion of population called sample. The members who form this sample are our respondents or subjects.

The sample must be a representative of the overall population. A blood test is a good analogy. A sample to body’s blood drawn from finger in enough to tell about the blood in the entire body. The reason is that this finger blood is just like other blood in the body, i.e., it is a representative. Had it not been so, this sample would not work.

There are two categories of samples. Probability sample provides a chance of being included to all members of the population. Simple random sample is an example. Here, each member of population has an equal chance of being included in the sample.

Another probability sample is a stratified sample in which a population is put into several strata, e.g., doctors are put into GPs, specialists and surgeon’s categories. Then random samples are selected from each stratum. Cluster sample isolates cluster of people which resemble the overall population.

Non-probability sample does not give a chance of being included to all members of the population. A quota sample considers certain numbers of various subgroups in the population. Judgement samples select the members on the basis of researcher’s judgement of being appropriate. Convenience sample is chosen for the sheer convenience of interviewing.

In advertising, non-probability samples are generally used. It is not always possible to identify all the subjects of the entire population and then do random selection. Besides, for many problems, sample data need not be projected to the entire data population.

The quality of the research depends upon the selection of the sample. Sample selection needs grounding in statistical techniques.

5. Data Collection :

After identifying the sample, we begin to collect the data. Data can be collected either by a quantitative or a qualitative technique.

Quantitative data put responses in number and statistics. They answer questions like how many, how much and how often. Most common method of collecting quantitative data is by means of a survey of the sample conducted either personally or by mail or on telephone. In any survey, a questionnaire is administered. It is a list of questions that the respondents must answer.

The question can be dichotomous or yes-no type binary questions, or multiple choice questions or rating questions or open-ended questions. Instead of a survey, sometimes it is observed what people do to record data. It is called observation method. An experiment is the third method in which a hypothesis is tested by controlling variables.

Qualitative research looks for in-depth answers beyond the realm of quantitative research. It examines attitudes, motivations and behaviour. Mostly this research is exploratory. Depth interviews are used to allow people to open up and reveal their attitudes and opinions. Focus groups are a group of respondents who are subjected to probing questions. Direct questions are put to the members.

Projective techniques provide an opportunity to provide answers to vague questions by rationalizing. They project their feeling to objects and people. Some projective techniques are sentence completion and word association test, put words into cartoon balloons, picture drawing and Thematic Apperception Test (TAT). In TAT, the respon­dents are asked to react to a picture.

Though qualitative research has come to be used increasingly, it requires expertise and careful handling. Mostly quan­titative methods which are simple, are used.

6. Data Analysis and Result Presentation :

Whatever data we collect from the sample is not in a usable form. These data must be processed. They must be then analysed and interpreted. Several techniques are available for analysis of data. Tabulation is a useful technique at this stage.

Computers have helped a great deal in the analysis of data. Relationship between the data must be established to make them meaningful. Afterwards, we must present the research results. Generally, researchers and advertisers do not share a common vocabulary.

Advertisers do not have the technical background of the researchers. It is for this reason that the research results must be in plain English, devoid of jargon and complex statistical computations. The findings must be logical and concise.

Market Research – 5 Major Areas: Market, Product, Price, Promotion and Distribution

Marketing research is interested in five vital areas of market­ing:

2. Product,

4. Promotion, and

5. Distribution.

Market covers consumer/dealer research, competition and sales forecasting.

Promotion covers personal selling, advertising, sales promotion and public relations.

Distribution covers transport, ware-housing, order processing, Inventory control, and channel choice.

Marketing research offers active help in the evolution of optimum marketing mix. The following diagram depicts the role of marketing research, in all decision areas of marketing mix.

Marketing research is useful at four stages in the problem- solving process in any branch of marketing:

1. To identify and define the problem including causes,

2. To recommend reasonable and profitable solutions or an alternative course of action,

3. To determine most profitable and the best courses of action in order to solve our problem,

4. To test the feasibility of particular solution or course of action decided upon by marketing manager.

In an ever-changing market and national economy, marketing research acts as a powerful investigative arm of marketing manager.

1. Market research,

2. Sales research,

3. Product research,

4. Advertising and sales promotion research,

5. Research on sales methods and sales policies,

6. Dealers’ research,

7. Distribution research, and

8. Pricing research.

Marketing research can be useful at four stages in the problem solving process in any branch of marketing:

1. To identify and define the problem including causes.

2. To suggest reasonable and profitable alternative courses of action.

3. To determine most desirable alternative courses of action and to ensure optimum use of resources.

4. To test the feasibility of particular alternative course of action decided upon by manage­ment.

5. Distri­bution.

Market survey indicates information on consumer demand. Marketing mix consisting of 4 Ps indicates marketing offering and effort to serve the demand.

Market Research – Approaches  

The approaches to marketing research can be characterized by four procedures. The historical method involves the gathering of past data so that comparisons and contrasts can be drawn and predictions made. The observational method gathers data by direct measurement of consumer and market phenomena as it is going on.

The experimental method sets up experiments with proper con­trol procedures so that the effects of specific marketing actions can be determined. The survey method, which is perhaps the most widely used, gathers data by asking questions of knowledgeable informants usually selected by some sampling technique.

The procedure in any one investigation usually includes at least the following steps – A situation analysis is made to orient the research and develop hypotheses. The researcher makes a prelimi­nary investigation of the company, its products, the underlying channels of distribution, etc.

The informal investigation extends the preliminary search by informal conversations with people who have special knowledge of the company or industry. Definition of the problem with great precision is then necessary so that effort can be focused only on the important problem areas.

The formal inves­tigation is then planned very carefully so that time and money will not be wasted, and the proper data actually gathered. Data must be collected and analyzed, and this is really the heart of the proj­ect. Interpretations and recommendations must be made in a form and manner most useful for those who requested the study.

The most interesting and widely known part of marketing research is the consumer survey with its attendant questionnaires and sampling procedures. The premise underlying marketing sur­veys is that people generally can and will give information of value to marketers, provided no “leading questions” are asked, and that in other ways the approach will not give biased results.

For example, people will tell interviewers which products they use, when, where, and how much. If asked, they will also try to express preferences and reasons for them. If a new flavour is developed for a food product, potential consumers (a consumer panel) will try the new flavour, compare it to the old one, and express a preference.

Actually, data from panels of people continue to grow in importance. Just as the company can now ask on-line questions of its internal data, just so a panel can be queried continuously on its changing perceptions and behaviour. The data are especially valu­able as an early warning signal.

A growing problem with individual interviews is the growing reluctance of people to be interviewed. Even the Census finds it necessary to mount an extensive public relations campaign to elicit compliance. Marketing research interviewers have an even more difficult job imposing on people’s time and patience year after year.

The continuing problem is that many door-to-door sales presentations are couched initially in the guise of a survey. It is difficult for a genuine interviewer to establish credibility and elicit cooperation from people who have been thus betrayed.

Market Research – Basics

Doing your own market research isn’t difficult, although it does tend to be time consuming. If you own a small business, you’re probably researching your markets continually informally. Every time you talk to a customer about what he or she wants, or chat with a supplier or sales rep, you’re conducting market research.

The Market Research Grid shows the two types of data sources and the three areas of research that are important to any business. You need to gather information from and about your customers to focus your marketing efforts, maintain and improve your customer service, and to guide your efforts in developing new products and/or services.

Looking at the Market Research Grid, information gathered about the competition can help you determine what works and what hasn’t worked, give you ideas for improving your products and/or services, and provide insight into how to increase or shift your share of the market.

The environment section of the Market Research Grid refers to those economic, social, and political forces that shape business. Gathering information about the environment allows you to stay abreast of and respond to particular trends or events that impact your small business. Whether it’s a predicted drop in interest rates, or the closure of a local mill, you need to be aware of it and judge the ripple effect on your business, for good or ill.

Think of secondary data sources as market research data that’s already been collected by someone else. Telephone books, government publications, and sources such as Statistics Canada, trade journals, and surveys conducted by other companies are all examples of information that’s already been gathered that you can use to get a fix on what your customers want, what the competition has done, and what the environment is like.

Primary sources provide firsthand information. When you survey your customers or question the competition, you’re gathering information directly from the source. While this kind of market research data can be the most costly and time-consuming to gather, it can also be the most valuable, because it’s the most current and the most specific.

Market Research Grid :

i. Customer

ii. Competition

iii. Environment

iv. Secondary

Market Research – Primary Marketing Research

Primary marketing data are collected from consumers or customers usually on a sample basis. The stereotypical market research interviewer, standing on the street corner accosting passersby or walking the streets, clipboard in hand, knocking on closed doors, probably collects only a very small part of the data available to any organization. However, these are particularly important data, because they often provide the only true listening part of the dialogue with the consumer.

Suppliers of Primary Marketing Research :

Many organizations offer market research services, for only very large and sophisticated organizations will have the resources to handle all aspects of their own research.

These suppliers can offer two types of research to clients:

1. Syndicated research and

2. Custom research

1. Syndicated Research:

These suppliers usually offer the easiest and quick­est service and, typically, have ongoing or ad hoc research programs, the results of which they sell to a number of clients. Some of this can be standard research, such as the ACNielsen store audits that provide information on retail purchases by consumers. Shared cost is one advantage of such an approach, but the quality of the research is even more important.

Some research can be ad hoc in that a sup­plier (often one specializing in the industrial field) sees a topic that it believes will be of interest to a number of companies; it then conducts the research and sells the results off the shelf. Some researchers with ongoing programs (especially those conducting opinion polls) will sell space or, more accurately, interviewer time on the back of their omnibus surveys (discussed below), so that one or two simple questions will be asked of a large sample at a relatively low cost.

Apart from the ease and speed of obtaining the research information, the great advantage of all these approaches is usually cost. Because the overall cost is shared among a number of customers, the cost to any one client is that much lower. This allows research that few individual organizations could afford to carry out themselves. In most cases it is also quick and easy to organize and there­fore serves as a pilot for more complex studies.

The main types of syndicated research are retail audits, panel research, and omnibus surveys. Retail audits are one of the most sophisticated market research operations in terms of logistics. The concept, however, is simple. An auditor reg­ularly visits each retail outlet on the panel, which has been recruited randomly. The auditor carries out a physical stock check on the products being surveyed.

The change in stock from the previous visit (combined with the other stock move­ments, receipt of stock, and so on, which are obtained from the store’s records) gives the consumer sales.

Such retail audits are generally believed to offer the most accurate results of the volume of consumer sales and, in particular, of the value of such sales. These data are the main basis for brand-share calculations, for the all-important figures of price and distribution levels, and for the level of retailers’ stocks, which is often very important where supply management in response to promotions is a feature.

Panel research is another way to measure consumer behavior. At its best, this may approach the accuracy of retail audits, with the added advantage that it offers consumer profiles. These panels adopt a variety of techniques and cover a range of subjects. The two main approaches are the home audit and the diary method. In the home audit the panel member is required to save packaging in a special receptacle.

Once a week, an auditor checks the contents of the receptacle and the stocks of products in the house and asks the householder a short list of questions. This technique is particularly successful if respondents have a low attrition rate and provide long-term feedback. With the diary method the householder records the required information in a diary, which is collected by the interviewer (or, less successfully but more cheaply, returned by mail).

Both methods have, over long periods, been shown to provide accurate share data. Most importantly, these panels can show trend data, repeat purchasing, and brand-switching information, which are almost impossible to obtain when using other methods.

Omnibus surveys are very similar to ad hoc surveys, except that space on the questionnaire is “sublet” to different researchers, providing, in effect, their own mini survey. Omnibus surveys are often run on the back of ongoing research, such as political or opinion polls. The cost benefits can be significant, because field- work forms the major element of most market research costs.

Such surveys may also provide a faster turnaround of results, particularly if the survey is conducted by telephone. However, the questionnaire needs to be short, its questions cannot be complex, and the context may be unpredictable because the questions asked by the other researchers cannot be controlled. Such surveys can also be used to locate individuals belonging to target groups so that they can be followed up by con­ventional ad hoc surveys.

As computer ownership rises within the general population, it will also be more likely for respondents to participate in electronic research. Large cyber pan­els will make it easier to receive input from highly targeted populations, thus pro­viding better information at relatively lower cost. Given the rapid developments in technology, it may well be that electronic surveys and cyber panels become dominant forms of data collection.

2. Custom Research:

Custom research is the staple diet of the market research industry. The research organization is commissioned by a client to undertake a specific research task, and it accepts responsibility for all aspects of the research. There is usually quite a distinct split between organizations that specialize in the consumer fields—the province of the large random surveys—and those in the industrial field, where research often revolves around extended interviews with individual organizations.

There are also clear divisions between those involved in retail audits, those conducting questionnaire surveys on individual consumers, and those conducting group discussions or in-depth psychological interviews. In addition, many research firms concentrate mainly on the measurement of mar­keting performance—by investigating, for example, the effectiveness of adver­tisements. This latter form of research is growing quite rapidly, particularly because of the expansion of interactive media.

For example, Nielsen Media Research founded a joint venture with Internet Profiles in order to provide firms with information about individuals using the Internet to visit a World Wide Web home page. With the help of a profile card filled out by browsers, firms can then structure follow-up activities.

Within the market research community, firms often specialize in performing research subtasks. For example, an agency that has been commissioned by a client will typically plan and design the research itself but may appoint a subcontractor to provide the sample based on a specialist database, another organization to pretest the research, a further company to conduct the main series of interviews in the field, and yet another to analyze the results.

Market Research – Integration

The problems of integrating marketing research into a business organisation are of two kinds. The first group of problems are those associated with the difficulties or obstacles in the way of introducing marketing research into the company structure for the first time. The second group of problems are concerned with the difficulties of integrating the use and the results of marketing research into management thinking and planning.

Setting up a Marketing Research Department:

The first group problem is concerned with fitting marketing research into the organisation, developing awareness of what marketing research is and what it is able to do (and, equally important, what it cannot do) and communicating effectively with operating management. Generally speaking, fitting marketing research into the organisation will be easier in those companies which already have central marketing departments or are apply­ing the marketing concept in their day-to-day operations.

Under these circumstances, the role of marketing research will almost certainly have been discussed. Top management will have been exposed to such discussions and the need of research for planning purposes recognised. Therefore, the ground is likely to prove more fertile and the nature of the resistances to the setting up of a research department, at any rate, understood, if not overcome. Thereafter, the use to which marketing research is put will depend upon practical and measurable benefits of first and subsequent applications.

Selling the idea of marketing research to management will be more difficult in firms which have no marketing departments or to whom the application of the ‘marketing concept’ is something of a mystery. It is in such circumstances that the barriers to research go up as management and other executives see ‘all this marketing and research business’ as a potential threat to their security, status and authority.

People’s fear of the unfamiliar is perhaps the major obstacle—fear that they will be made redundant or moved to other and perhaps less congenial jobs within the firm, that their position and authority will be undermined by the slide-rule experts, that the change will be taken as a criticism of their past ways of operating and managing, that their functions will have to change and new modes of thought and techniques will have to be learnt, that their freedom of action and judgment will be curtailed and so on. These are all genuine fears and misgivings and will not disappear by being overlooked.

Executive acceptance and use of marketing research (and this applies to any management innovation) will be in direct propor­tion to how well they understand it, how it is likely to affect them, and the degree to which they are kept in the picture as to what is going on.

It is imperative that anyone connected with or likely to be affected by its operation and use should be so informed and have explained to them how it will benefit them and the company as it has benefited others. It is as well to recognise at the very outset that there will be a problem of communication regardless of whether there is a marketing-minded management or not.

Where top management is sold on the idea of marketing research but anticipates great difficulty in its introduction and application it is sometimes helpful to call on the services of consul­tants to determine whether and how a research department should be set up, what information it should provide, how it should be staffed and how it should be ‘presented’ to manage­ment and executive personnel. Some consultants are able to advise on the selection of research managers and executives and to prepare job descriptions and executive specifications.

Further­more, independent consultants are frequently able, by virtue of their wide experience of company research problems in divers fields and of the varying degrees of management sophistication in research, to recommend a marketing research set-up tailored to the particular needs of the company, bearing in mind such factors as the existing organisation structure, the type of products and markets with which the company deals, its methods of distribu­tion and selling, breadth of marketing perspective, and internal political factors.

They can arbitrate between what is the desirable ‘ideal’ and what is practically attainable. The advice one gets from those who do not exercise executive responsibility within a firm is necessarily but honorably different from that given by those who share or are affected by executive responsibility for decision and action.

The integration of a newly formed marketing research depart­ment is likely to be easier if it is under some form of central control, preferably a top or marketing management executive, who is sympathetic to its development within the company.

Not only will such an arrangement afford status and importance to the work undertaken by the department, but, being under the wing of senior management, it is more likely to be used on longer-range problems and applications of importance to senior management and, thereby, better able to prove itself during the early and, in many ways, most critical stages of its development.

The Closer Integration of Established Marketing Research Departments :

The second group of problems are concerned with the integra­tion of an already established marketing research operation into management thinking and planning so as to ensure smoother and more effective working cooperation between the marketing research department and other departments and operating divi­sions of the business.

The main problem areas are the same as those that must be faced when setting up a marketing research department for the first time, namely organisation obstacles, determining what management’s problems are and how market­ing research can best contribute to their solution and communicat­ing effectively with management.

Even in the most mature marketing organisations where major organisational defects appear to be absent and where marketing researchers work closely and continuously with management executives and, therefore, presumably know and understand their problems, the problem of communication remains. The problem is a two-way one.

On the one hand, there is the difficulty arising from the professional jargon used by many specialist research executives which other executives in the business do not under­stand and in terms of which they are not accustomed to thinking and talking. On the other hand, the research man, equally unfa­miliar with business management and accounting terminology, may be hard put to it to express himself clearly and convincingly in management language.

With the growing number of specialists engaged in business—economists, psychologists, sociologists, mathematicians, statisti­cians, operations research workers and so on—the problem of communication assumes new dimensions. The problems of put­ting these specialists to work effectively in the business world, of understanding how and when to employ their techniques and of coping with the flood of information they can make available, are now urgent.

How then can the communications gap be bridged and a com­mon language be developed that will enable these diverse activi­ties to be related and directed towards a common end? Meetings, training programmes, management and executive development schemes designed to familiarise people with the ever-increasing flow of new ideas and techniques for researching, planning and controlling business operations will help, of course, but it is not the whole answer to the problem.

Clearly, there is a growing need for Marketing Research Direc­tors and Managers to be generalists (to distinguish them from research specialists) with specific responsibility for:

1. Studying and learning about the resources of other intellec­tual disciplines which would be of assistance to general and marketing management.

2. Developing satisfactory working relationships and commu­nications between general and marketing management.

3. Developing a thorough appreciation of management prob­lems and to initiate and plan a programme of research that will help towards their solution.

4. Ensuring that the right internal and external technical spe­cialists are called into action, individually or as members of a team, at the most appropriate time and on the basis of a precise and agreed brief.

5. Liaising between general and marketing management and research technicians during the carrying out of the research programme.

6. Helping general and marketing management to understand research and its uses, its strengths and its limitations.

7. Preparing budgets for and controlling the costs of the total company marketing research effort including the purchase of external services.

The discipline of money applies with no less force to marketing research as to any other business activity. Hence, the research budget is the main instrument of control. The Marketing Director or Manager must estimate what scale of research effort is required to meet the company’s needs and must seek approval of his esti­mates. In this, he must usually allow for the costs of unplanned or unexpected projects.

It is advisable for management to allocate a definite budget for a programme of research providing for future needs, first, to ensure that research costs do not exceed a certain authorised amount, and second, to avoid having to justify costs on a day-to-day basis. Most research cannot be justified on such a basis—it may be some while before the return on a research pro­gramme is realised and it may not even be measurable in financial terms.

Buying outside research services is no different from buying any other product or service externally The onus is on the buyer either to prepare a job or product specification which the contract­ing supplier undertakes to meet at a specified cost or to accept the supplier’s quotation based on his own specification of the job to be done.

Once the contract has been signed, the specification should only be changed by written agreement by both parties. Complete mutual confidence is necessary if the work is to be brought to a successful conclusion.

As a leading industrial marketing researcher has commented – ‘Unless the marketing research agency is aware of the purpose behind the research—particularly in the complex field of indus­trial marketing research—it cannot contribute to the identification of the buyer’s real, as opposed to apparent, problems’.

In the pursuit of research, much more material is acquired than is subse­quently used. If the marketing researcher is not a confidant of management, he can unwittingly throw out the baby with the bath-water by not being aware of the relevance of some of the information he has obtained.

Market Research – Acceptance  

Marketing research has been accepted by the majority of large corporations, advertising agencies, and media. This is indicated by the rapid growth in formal departments, numbers and quality of people involved and relative increase in status.

The marketing research operation is organized in many ways in such companies. Almost all large consumer goods companies have large, formally organized departments. These developed earlier and tend to be larger, more frequently found, and more sophisticated than in industrial goods companies.

In smaller companies of both types, the activity is often restricted to one or two persons, often attached to the sales man­ager, and in very small companies it may be a part-time activity of an inadequately trained person.

Some of the larger and more diversified research departments are in advertising agencies. There may be 100 or more persons including a director, manager, research account executives (research liaison and planning), plus functional departments for economic analysis, survey planning and administration, print media TV and radio research, copy research, motivation research and operations research, plus communications, public relations, and sales consultants.

Most media—magazines, newspapers, TV and radio net­works—have extensive marketing and media research depart­ments.

While it is not yet predominant, the most logical organizational and reporting structure for marketing research is as a staff func­tion reporting to the marketing manager. Under this concept the Marketing Research Department is co-equal to Advertising. Sales Promotion, Sales Management. New Product Development, Pric­ing, Distribution, and any other marketing functions. Reporting to the marketing manager, marketing research is the eyes and ears of all other marketing functions and can work effectively in helping them all.

If, as is still common, it is organized as part of one other market­ing function—Sales, for example—its role is often restricted to that function’s work, and it is not used at all by other marketing functions. A good general reporting principle is that marketing research should be independent from but available to any other marketing function.

On a less formally documented plane, however, acceptance is not so real, and very serious problems exist. Crash programs are probably still the norm as against systematic, long-range planning of research. Often, research results are not accepted if they conflict with marketing experience and judgment. There is serious contro­versy over the extent to which research inhibits reactivity. In too many cases research is used as a status symbol, rather than as a marketing tool.

The future, however, looks relatively bright. It is probable that as marketing becomes more of a science than an art, depending more on long-range planning than intuition, marketing research will achieve high status and full integration.

Market Research – Evaluating the Benefits

Marketing research requires both time and money—two typically scarce com­modities. To make a justifiable case for allocating resources to research, manage­ment must understand what the value of the research will be. It should clearly aid management in improving the decision making process and thus should aim at managerial rather than statistical significance. At the same time, market research should be recognized as a tool and not a substitute for judgment.

Enough of the “right” information is never obtained within the time constraints to dictate the action or course to follow. However, research will help avoid gross errors and compensate for inadequate experience or unreliable intuition.

The value of research can be assessed from two perspectives. One approach analyzes the benefits the firm receives from research; the other identifies the downside risk that the firm incurs if it does not carry out research.

The context of the decision under consideration must be evaluated when determining the extent and expense of research. The value of a decision with the benefit of research should be greater than the value of the same decision without research by an amount exceeding the cost of the research. In addition, the firm needs to have adequate resources to act on the insights gained by the research. Otherwise, the findings will not contribute to the decision-making process, and the research would be a waste of resources.

Often, however, researchers neglect to assess this cost-benefit relationship, particularly when the individual risks and benefits are difficult to quantify (which frequently happens). If insufficient attention is paid to the outcome of research and its cost, the firm risks conducting either too much or insufficient research.

Using a cost-benefit justification for research, however, may place the researcher at risk, because once the research is carried out, the actual benefits are measurable and can be compared with the anticipated ones. If the benefits do not materialize, the researcher may be charged with having inappropriately inflated the benefit expectations.

The Risks of Inadequate Research :

As an alternative to the benefit strategy, the researcher can construct “what if’ scenarios that outline the risks the company may incur by operating without suf­ficient information. Such risks might include a loss of market penetration effec­tiveness or creation of ill will that precludes any further expansion. In the long run, this justification is easier for the researcher to use than the benefit formula, because he or she can point out that some of the worst-case scenarios have not materialized.

Market Research – Issues

Among the more important controversies in the field today are the following:

Should marketing researchers simply report the facts or should they go further and make marketing recommendations? The gen­eral tendency is toward the latter role, and with the further devel­opment of the research “generalist,” who understands both research and marketing, more extensive involvement in market­ing planning will probably develop.

Who should pay for marketing research—advertisers or adver­tising agencies? This problem becomes more acute as agencies offer more collateral services and become more marketing ori­ented. At present there is no general solution, but more and more advertising agencies are performing comprehensive research on a fee basis.

Should advertising agencies do research at all? This problem is perhaps most acute when it involves advertising effectiveness studies. The problem is complex and involves, as negatives, possi­ble bias, sloppy work, and extra costs, as against the positives of deep product knowledge, research sophistication, and enlight­ened self-interest.

Qualitative vs. quantitative research? This problem became acute with the development of motivation research, which makes extensive use of the social sciences, such as sociology, psychology, and anthropology, in finding out how and why people react to products and advertising, and which in the beginning made little use of more accepted sampling techniques. The problem is less acute now as the qualitative and quantitative approaches resolve their differences and in many respects enrich each other.

One extreme form of quantification is the application of man­agement science techniques to marketing management. Indepen­dent operations research firms may set up and manage computer­ized customized marketing models. Or a small number of opera­tions research people, in a rather uneasy, even hostile, relationship to the regular marketing research department, may be employed by the firm as a separate unit.

Whatever the manner of interaction, the estrangement and lack of communication between the two groups can be painful for all concerned. Usually, the estrangement develops when it becomes known that an operations research group has been called in to work on a project, notwithstanding excellent planning, field work, analysis, interpretation, and practi­cal recommendations for marketing action on the part of the mar­keting research personnel.

At the same time, it soon becomes obvious that the operations research group is setting up total business or marketing models, based on continuing discussions with top management, and is monitoring the allocation of resources and measuring results on a continuing basis. In effect it is managing by giving specific, continuing advice on what to do, when, and the probable consequences.

Top management has become used to such systems working miracles in production, refinery, distribution, and logistics prob­lems, and expects to see similar results in the more esoteric realms of marketing. Reasonable progress has indeed been made in some of the more mechanical areas of marketing, e.g., media allocation and sales effort allocation.

Less progress has been made in such areas as the measurement of specific results of certain kinds of creativity in advertising communications. Whether such opera­tions research activity is marketing research or is not depends upon definition. Nevertheless, it is always a critical decision for a firm as to how to conceptualize and integrate orthodox, well executed marketing research with its more exotic cousin.

Whenever the company is not as large or sophisticated as to have such applications of operations research and models, it will probably resort to more obviously articulated, almost common-sense, “what if” or “what is the relationship of,” kinds of questions to be answered from internally generated data. What if we col­lapsed this sales district with that – what if we reduced our promo­tional effort on that line; or combined this product with that, or added a new flavour?

Continuous monitoring of sales, especially at the retail level, is another example of greatly expanded speed and capacity. Virtu­ally instantaneous retrieval of data from computer systems allows almost continuous access to sales by category and brand and almost immediate remedy of problems. Most of these studies are simple enough in principle and practice so that most executives can understand and participate fully rather than be made uneasy and alienated.

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Marketing Research: Definition, Process, Scope, Objectives, Types, Classification

In this article we will discuss about marketing research of products & services! Learn about:- 1. Definition of Marketing Research 2. Scope of Marketing Research 3. Features 4. Objectives 5. Functions 6. Importance 7. Types 8. Process 9. Areas 10. Activities 11. Suppliers 12. Instruments 13. Organising Research Function 14. Classification Research Tasks (Problems) 15. Benefits 16. Limitation 17. Ethical Issues.

Everything you need to know about Marketing Research

1. definition of marketing research:.

Marketing research is the systematic collection and analysis of data relating to sale and distribution of financial products and services. Market research is an early step in the marketing process, and includes an analysis of market demand for a new product, or for existing products, as well as appropriate methods of distributing those products.

Techniques in market research include telephone polling and focus group interviews to determine customer attitudes, pricing sensitivity, and willingness to use delivery alternatives. Most large banks have their own market research departments that evaluate not only products, but their Brick and Mortar branch banking networks through which most banking products are sold.

Marketing research refers to gathering and analysis of information about the moving of goods or services from producer to consumer. Marketing research covers three wide areas: market analysis, which yields information about the marketplace; product research, which yields information about the characteristics and desires for the product; and consumer research, which yields information about the needs and motivations of the consumer.

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Marketing research is nothing but gathering and analysis of information about the moving of goods or services from producer to consumer. Marketing research covers three wide areas: market analysis, which yields information about the marketplace; product research, which yields information about the characteristics and desires for the product; and consumer research, which yields information about the needs and motivations of the consumer.

The results of marketing research will supply facts needed to make marketing decisions and will determine the extent and location of the market for a product or service.

Accelerating product cycles, easy access to information on products and services, highly discerning consumers, and fierce competition among companies are all a reality in the world of business. Too many companies are chasing too few consumers. In his book Kotler on Marketing- “How to Create, Win, and Dominate Markets,” Philip Kotler, marketing guru and a professor at Northwestern University’s Kellogg Graduate School of Management, discusses what a business has to do to be successful. He wrote, “The premium will go to those companies that invent new ways to create, communicate and deliver value to their target markets”.

Knowing, understanding, and responding to your target market is more important than ever. And this requires information good information. Good information can lead to successful products and services. Good information is the result of market research.

According to the Marketing Research Association (2000), Marketing’ Research is defined as follows- “Marketing Research is the function which links the consumer, customer, and public to the marketer through information- information used to identify and define marketing opportunities and problems; generate, refine, and evaluate marketing actions; monitor marketing performance; and improve understanding of marketing as a process.”

“Marketing Research specifies the information required to address these issues; designs the method of collecting information; manages and implements the data collection process; analyzes the results; and communicates the findings, recommendations and their implications.”

Marketing research is a $1.3-billion-dollar-a-year industry. The industry is growing at over 10 percent a year, with profits running at a similar level. Marketing Research provides, analyzes, and interprets information for manufacturers on how consumers view their products and services and on how they can better meet consumer needs. The ultimate goal is to please the consumer in order to get, or keep, the consumer’s business.

Marketing Research evolved as the U.S. economy shifted from a production-driven one to a market-driven one. As the American production of goods and services, plus imports, was beginning to satiate American demand, marketers needed to learn how to tailor their products to the needs and likes of an increasingly discerning public.

This tailoring resulted in increased market demand and, for successful companies, increased market share.

Marketing research is the systematic gathering, recording, and analysis of data about issues relating to marketing products and services. The term is commonly interchanged with market research; however, expert practitioners may wish to draw a distinction, in that market research is concerned specifically with markets, while marketing research is concerned specifically about marketing processes.

Market research is different from marketing research. Market research is a systematic study if facts about market only – who, what, where, when, why and how of actual and potential buyers.

On the other hand the scope of marketing research is so wide that it includes all functional areas of marketing including market.

2. Scope of Marketing Research:

The scope of marketing research stretches from the identification of consumer wants and needs to the evaluation of consumer satisfaction. It comprises of research relating to consumers, products, sales, distribution, advertising, pricing and sales forecasting. A clear view of the scope marketing research may be obtained by the following classification of marketing research activity.

The whole approach of marketing pivots around the tenet of meeting the consumer wants. It is essential to understand what the consumer wants, how he/she perceives the product (service), what exactly (ideally) does he/she wants to derive out of the product (service), how does he/she make the brand choice decision, what are the sources of information and influence processes, etc.

In order to take decisions any marketer would constantly monitor such information and obtain a continuous feedback of the trends in the market. As such, marketing research is an effective tool for measuring the consumers’ aspirations, trade channel behaviour, competitive actions etc.

It provides a linkage between the corporate environment and the marketing organization. Marketing research, thus, may be viewed as an important tool used as an aid for tackling problems in marketing.

3. Features of Marketing Research :

(1) Intensive Study- It involves systematic and intensive study of a marketing problem.

(a) Planned Process- We have planned procedure of investigation and analysis.

(b) Orderly Investigation- The procedure of marketing research has clearly-defined steps in proper sequence or order.

(c) Intensive Investigation- All the relevant factors involved in a marketing problem are observed closely.

(2) Scientific Approach- Marketing research adopts scientific method and objectivity in the solution of a marketing problem.

(a) Rational Outlook- Researcher or analyst has an objective attitude — rational outlook based on reason and logic.

(b) Defined Purpose- The purpose of inquiry and the problem under investigation are clearly defined.

(c) Accuracy- Accuracy (exactness) in calculation, in observation and in reporting is strictly ensured.

(d) Standardised Process- Marketing research process is standardised and can be repeated exactly in solving all problems.

(e) Scientific Attitude- The researcher has an open mind, critical attitude, creativity, absolute honesty and integrity — the hallmarks of scientific attitude and approach.

(3) Decision Tool- Marketing research is a tool for decision-making and control in the marketing of goods.

Marketing managers face numerous pressing problems from time to time during the conduct of marketing activities. They need information upon which they may take proper decisions. Manager is by profession a decision-maker. Decision-making involves a perpetual choice-making activity.

From the given alternatives one alternative is selected as the most promising course of action or behaviour. In a sense, decision-making is the essence of management. Manager needs information in planning as well as evaluating the plans in action.

Marketing manager calls upon a skilled analyst to examine the problem or question, break it up into its elements, get the needed data, analyse it and work out desirable conclusions based on facts and figures.

With the emergence of the marketing concept, marketing research has recorded fast growth and development. We should remember that marketing concept emphasises customer orientation. We have integrated plans built up around customer need and desires and designed to produce customer satisfaction.

4. Objectives of Marketing Research :

Marketing research helps the marketing executive in the formulation of all marketing plans, policies, programmes and procedures, to attain the marketing goals. When the above said plans, policies and programmes are translated into action, marketing research is used for evaluation purposes.

Since the main thrust of marketing research is on selling, promotion, advertising and distribution, it is used in minimizing all wasteful and unnecessary marketing cost. Further, the function of marketing research acts as an insurance cover for the survival and growth of the firm. Marketing research finds out for the produces.

(i) Where are his consumers?

(ii) What they want?

(iii) When they want it and?

(iv) Where and how much they are willing to pay for it?

Hence, through marketing research, marketing management can sell the right product through right channels of distribution to right consumers at right places and at right price by formulating right plans, policies and programmes with the help of right personnel.

In short, marketing research helps producers, distributors and advertisers to avoid mistakes either in manufacturing or marketing or to that extent, it can minimize business failures.

5. Functions of Marketing Research:

The basic task of marketing management is that of preparing plans, executing them and controlling operations to achieve the most profitable allocation of company resources to current and future market opportunities. Market research aids the management in these efforts.

The need for such assistance in decision making stems mainly from the constant changes characteristic of markets. If they were static or changed very slowly the marketing of product lines and marketing methods to market opportunities would not pose difficult problems.

Executives could learn from past experiences and avoid repeating past errors. But markets are constantly thus have impact on the market. As a result, the marketing executive are frequently faced with marketing problems, unknown in their previous experience, that pose major uncertainties, marketers are well aware of these risks, and many of them have organized marketing research departments together and analyse information that enables them to reduce the reliance they must place on institution- based decision.

i. The emergence of buyer’s market requires continuous need of marketing research to identify consumers’ need and ensure their satisfaction.

ii. The ever expanding markets require large number of middlemen and intensive distribution. Marketing research could help identify and solve the problems of middlemen and distribution.

iii. There is always a change in the market conditions and the requirements of consumers. Marketing research enables to anticipate and meet any such changes.

iv. Marketing research can help bring about prompt adjustments in product design and packaging.

v. It can help find out effectiveness of pricing.

vi. It can help find out the effectiveness of sales promotion and advertisement.

vii. It can help identify the strength and weakness of sales force.

viii. The impact of economic and taxation policies on marketing could also know through marketing research.

In short, marketing research enables the management to identify and solve any problem in the area of marketing and help better marketing decisions.

6. Importance of Marketing Research:

Marketing research has become so important in nowadays competitive context that today almost all the companies are either having their independent research and development departments or they are outsourcing this function to professionals in the said field.

The increasing importance of marketing research is based on the below mentioned three trends:

1. Expansion of Business from National to Global Market:

Nowadays in order to sustain in the market place, it is impossible for companies to continue their operations in the same manner as they were earlier doing, they have to improve their products and services as per the expectations of global market. For expansion either in new market place or in case of launch of new products, the required information can be gathered by marketing research.

2. Transition from Consumer Needs to Consumer Wants:

Now customers are expecting value with the purchase of products. Products and services should be modified according to the change in economic environment. For customer retentions and development of high brand loyalty, it is essential to obtain information related to changing behaviour of customers with the help of marketing research.

3. Shift from Price Competition to Non-Price Competition:

Purchasing power of customers is increasing with the increase in the income level therefore they want high quality products at right price. Sales promotion tools are very much helpful to attract customers for particular brand but it need information about product attributes and buying behaviour of customers. The marketer can collect the required information relating to these tools with the help of marketing research.

7. Types of Market Research:

1. Audience Research:

Research on who is listening, watching, and reading is important to marketers of television and radio programs and print publications—as well as to advertisers who wish to reach a certain target audience with their message.

Television and radio ratings demonstrate the popularity of shows and determine how much stations can charge for advertising spots during broadcasts. Publication subscription lists, which are audited by tabulating companies to ensure their veracity, are important in determining the per page rate for advertising.

2. Product Research :

This looks at what products can be produced with available technology, and what new product innovations near-future technology can develop.

Product research includes simple, in-person research such as taste tests conducted in malls and in the aisles of grocery stores, as well as elaborate, long-term “beta testing” of high-tech products by selected, experienced users. The objective of product research can be simple; For example- a company may tweak the taste of an existing product, then measure consumers’ reactions to see if there is room in the market for a variation. It can also be more extensive, as when a company develops prototypes of proposed new products that may be intended for market introduction months down the road.

In product research, as in all market research, there is a danger to paying too much attention to the wrong things. For instance, the introduction of New Coke was based on the outcome of taste tests that showed the public wanted a sweeter product.

But later an angry public, outraged that Coca-Cola was planning to change the familiar formula, forced the company to ignore its taste tests and leave the original Coke on the market. The company had put too much stock in the results of the taste test studies, and had failed to factor in research that showed consumers were happy with the product as it was.

The purpose of this research is to find out all aspects of product which include:

i. Reviewing product line, product quality, product features, product design etc.

ii. Study on new uses of an existing product

iii. Testing of new products

iv. Study of related products

v. Study of packaging design

vi. Study of brand name/brand mark/its impact.

3. Brand Research :

Brands, the named products that advertising pushes and for which manufacturers can charge consumers the most money, are always being studied. Advertisers want to know if consumers have strong brand loyalty (“I’d never buy another brand, even if they gave me a coupon”); if the brand has any emotional appeal (“My dear mother used only that brand”); and what the consumer thinks could be improved about the brand (“If only it came in a refillable container”).

Brand research, too, has its perils. Campbell’s Soup once convened a focus group comprised of its best soup customers. One of the findings was that those customers saw no need for a low-salt alternative soup Campbell’s wanted to market.

Concerned that the general public seemed to want low-sodium products, Campbell’s retested groups other than their best customers. This research found a market interested in a low-sodium soup. The loyal Campbell’s customers loved the saltier product, while a larger group of potential customers preferred the low-salt alternative.

4. Psychological Research :

Perhaps the most controversial type of market research is psychological research. This type of research tries to determine why people buy certain products based on a profile of the way the consumers live their lives. One company has divided all Americans into more than 60 psychological profiles.

This company contends the lifestyles these people have established, based upon their past buying habits and their cultural upbringing, influences their buying decisions so strongly that individual differences can sometimes be negated.

Psychological research is controversial because it measures attitudes about buying rather than the buying itself. Critics point to conflicting information uncovered through other market research studies.

In one series of research projects, researchers asked people what they were planning to buy before they entered a store. After the people surveyed left the store, the same researcher examined what was actually in their shopping carts. Only 30 percent of the people bought what they had said they planned to buy just a half hour earlier.

Insurance market research of reviewing an agent’s sales trends, and individual sales analysis of performance is a remarkable time and data evaluation to accomplish. Only an insurance list compiler with prior marketing and sales management can perform this market research. The resulting correct list of brokers is gold to an insurance marketing sales company.

5. Scanner Research :

In contrast, there is no fooling the checkout scanner at the supermarket or the department store: it records what was actually purchased. This is valuable information an advertiser can use to help plan an ongoing marketing strategy.

Scanner technology has changed the way advertisers track the sale of consumer products. Before scanners, advertisers received sales information only when retailers reordered stock, generally every two weeks.

This meant that the advertisers had no way to quickly measure the effect of national advertising, in-store sales promotions, or the couponing of similar products by their competitors. Now, computer technology can send scanner information to advertisers within days or even hours.

Data Sources :

The researcher can gather secondary data, primary data, or both. Secondary data are data that were collected for another purpose and already exist somewhere. Primary data are data gathered for a specific purpose or for a specific research project.

Researchers usually start their investigation by examining secondary data to see whether their problem can be partly or wholly solved without collecting costly primary data. Secondary data provide a starting point for research and offer the advantages of low cost and ready availability.

The Internet, or more particularly, the World Wide Web, is now the greatest repository of information the world has seen. In an incredibly short span of time, the Web has become a key tool for sales and marketing professionals to access competitive information or conduct demographic, industry, or customer research.

When the needed data do not exist or are dated, inaccurate, incomplete, or unreliable, the researcher will have to collect primary data. Most marketing research projects involve some primary data collection.

The normal procedure is to interview some people individually or in groups to get a sense of how people feel about the topic in question and then develop a formal instrument, debug it, and carry it into the field.

When stored and used properly, the data collected in the field can form the back bone of later marketing campaigns. Direct marketers such as record clubs, credit-card companies, and catalog houses have long understood the power of database marketing.

A customer or prospect database is an organized collection of comprehensive data about individual customers, prospects, or suspects that is current, accessible, and actionable for marketing purposes such as lead generation, lead qualification, sale of a product or service, or maintenance of customer relationships.

Some techniques that are becoming increasingly popular are data warehousing and data mining – but they are not without risks.

Approaches :

Primary data can be collected in five ways: observation, focus groups, surveys, behavioural data, and experiments.

i. Observational Research:

Fresh data can be gathered by observing the relevant actors settings. The American Airlines researchers might meander around airports, airline offices and travel agencies to hear how travelers talk about the different carriers.

The researchers can fly on American and competitors planes to observe the quality of in-flight service. This exploratory research might yield some useful hypothesis about how travelers choose air carriers.

ii. Focus Research:

A focus group is a gathering of six to ten people who are invited to spend a few hours with a skilled moderator to discuss a product, service, organization, or other marketing entity.

The moderator needs to be objective, knowledgeable on the issue, and skilled in group dynamics. Participants are normally paid a small sum for attending. The meeting is typically held in pleasant surroundings and refreshments are served.

In the American Airlines research, the moderator might start with a broad question, such as “How do you feel about air travel?” Questions then move to how people regard the different airlines, different services, and in-flight telephone service.

The moderator encourages free and easy discussion, hoping that the group dynamics will reveal deep feelings and thoughts. At the same time, the moderator “focuses” the discussion”. The discussion recorded through note taking or on audiotape or videotape, is subsequently studied to understand consumer beliefs, attitudes and behaviour.

Focus Group research is a useful exploratory step. Consumer-goods companies have been using focus groups for many years, and an increasing number of newspapers, law firms, hospitals and public-service organization are discovering their value.

However, researchers must a avoid generalization the reported feelings of the focus- group participants to the whole market, because the sample size is too small and the sample is not drawn randomly.

With the development of the World Wide Web. Many companies are not conducting on-line focus groups.

iii. Survey Research:

Surveys are best suited for descriptive research. Companies undertake surveys to learn about people’s knowledge, beliefs, preferences, and satisfaction, and to measure these magnitudes in the general population. American Airlines researches might want to survey how many people know American, have flown it, and would like telephone availability.

iv. Behavioural Data:

Customers leave traces of their purchasing behaviour in store scanning data, catalog purchase records and customer databases. Much can be learned analyzing this data. Customer’s actual purchase reflect revealed preferences and often are more reliable than statements they offer to market researchers.

People often report preferences for people popular brands and yet the data show that high-income people do not necessarily buy the more expensive brands, contrary to what they might state in interview; and many low-income people buy some expensive brands. Clearly American Airlines can learn many useful things about its passengers by analyzing ticket purchase records.

v. Experimental Research:

The most scientifically valid research is experimental research. The purpose of experimental research is to capture cause and effect relationships by eliminating competing explanations of the observed findings.

To the extent that the design ad execution of the experiment eliminate alternative hypotheses that might explain the results, the research and marketing managers can have confidence in the conclusions.

It calls for selecting matched groups of subjects, subjecting them to different treatments, controlling extraneous variables, and checking whether observed response differences are statistically significant. To the extent that extraneous factors are eliminated or controlled, the observed effects can be related to the variations in the treatments.

American Airlines might introduce in-flight phone service on one of its regular flights from New York to Los Angeles at a price of $25 a phone call. On the same flight the following day, it announces the availability of this service at $15 a phone call.

If the plane carried the same number and type of passengers on each flight, and the day of the week made no difference, any significant difference in the number of calls made could be related to the price charged.

The experimental design could be elaborated further by trying other prices, replicating the same prices on a number of flights and including other air routes in the experiment.

6 . Database Research :

Virtually every type of consumer- credit card holders, smokers, drinkers, car buyers, video buyers- shows up on thousands of lists and databases that are regularly cross- referenced to mine nuggets of marketing research.

Database research is growing in popularity among marketers because the raw data has already been contributed by the purchaser. All the marketer has to do is develop a computer program to look for common buying patterns.

Database research can be thought of as the ultimate tool in market segmentation research. For example- from zip code lists, marketers may determine where the wealthy people live in a city. That list can be merged with a list of licensed drivers.

The resulting list can be merged with another list of owners of cars of a certain make older than a certain year. The resulting list can be merged with another list of subscribers to car enthusiast magazines.

The final list will deliver a potential market for a new luxury car soon to be introduced and profiled in the car magazines. The people on the potential buyers’ list could then be mailed an invitation to come see the new car.

Database research also allows companies to build personal relationships with people who have proven from past purchases that they are potential customers. For example- a motorcycle manufacturer such as Harley Davidson may discover from database research that a family with a motorcycle has a teenage son.

That son is a potential new customer for everything from clothes to a new motorcycle of his own. Maintaining a personal relationship with customers also provides businesses with a basis for more detailed and economical market research than might be possible through random sampling.

Survey research a research method involving the use of questionnaires and/or statistical surveys to gather data about people and their thoughts and behaviours. This method was pioneered in the 1930s and 1940s by sociologist Paul Lazarsfeld.

The initial use of the method was to examine the effects of the radio on political opinion formation of the United States. One of its early successes was the development of the theory of two- step flow of communication. The method was foundational for the inception of the Quantitative research tradition in sociology.

7 . Post-Sales or Customer Satisfaction Research :

Most companies no longer believe that a sale ends their relationship with a customer. Nearly one-third of the research revenues generated by the leading American market research firms concern customer satisfaction.

Many companies now wait a few days or weeks, then contact customers with survey questionnaires or telephone calls. Companies want reassurance that the customer enjoyed the buying experience and that the product or service has met the buyer’s expectations.

The reason behind post-sales research is to ensure that current customers are happy, will consider themselves future customers, and will spread positive word-of-mouth messages about the product and company.

One study found that 70 percent of customers believed it was important for companies to stay in contact with them, but less than one- third of those same customers reported that they had heard from companies whose products they purchased.

Nearly 90 percent of those surveyed said they would be more likely to choose a company’s products if it stayed in touch with them and sought their satisfaction.

The aim of this research is to develop an understanding about present and potential consumers and the level of satisfaction expected and derived by them from company’s products.

The broad areas of consumer research are:

i. Study of consumer profile.

ii. Study of consumer brand preferences, tastes and reactions

iii. Study of consumer satisfaction/dissatisfaction, reasons, etc.

iv. Study of shifts in consumption patterns.

8 . Advertising Research :

Is a specialized form of marketing research conducted to improve the efficacy of advertising. Copy testing, also known as “pre-testing,” is a form of customized research that predicts in-market performance of an ad before it airs, by analyzing audience levels of attention, brand linkage, motivation, entertainment, and communication, as well as breaking down the ad’s flow of attention and flow of emotion. Pre-testing is also used on ads still in rough (ripomatic or animatic) form.

9 . Business to Business (B2B) Market Research :

Business to Business (B2B) research is inevitably more complicated than consumer research. The researchers need to know what type of multi-faceted approach will answer the objectives, since seldom is it possible to find the answers using just one method.

Finding the right respondents is crucial in B2B research since they are often busy, and may not want to participate. Encouraging them to “open up” is yet another skill required of the B2B researcher.

Last, but not least, most business research leads to strategic decisions and this means that the business researcher must have expertise in developing strategies that are strongly rooted in the research findings and acceptable to the client.

There are four key factors that make B2B market research special and different to consumer markets:

i. The decision making unit is far more complex in B2B markets than in consumer markets.

ii. B2B products and their applications are more complex than consumer products.

iii. B2B marketers address a much smaller number of customers who are very much larger in their consumption of products than is the case in consumer markets.

iv. Personal relationships are of critical importance in B2B markets.

10. Distribution Research :

The purpose of this research is to identify the appropriate distribution channels for intermediaries, storage, transport problems etc.

The broad areas include:

i. Measuring relative effectiveness of different types of distribution intermediaries

ii. Measuring dealer reaction to company and its products

iii. Measuring warehouse efficiency

iv. Distribution cost analysis

v. Determining optimum inventory levels

vi. Determining the location of distribution centers.

11. Pricing Research :

The purpose of this research is to find out the price expectations of consumers and their reactions to them.

i. Assessing the general pattern of pricing followed by the industry

ii. Measuring price elasticity of demand

iii. Evaluating the price strategy of the firm.

12. Advertising and Promotion Research :

The purpose of this research is to develop most appropriate advertisement and promotion schemes and evaluate their effectiveness.

i. Advertising copy research

ii. Media research

iii. Assessing the effectiveness of advertising

iv. Assessing the efficacy of sales promotional measures.

13. Sales Research :

i. Testing new sales techniques

ii. Analyzing of salesmen’s training

iii. Measuring salesman’s effectiveness

iv. Study of sales compensation

v. Analyzing methods of setting sales quota and sales territories.

14. Research on Competition:

The purpose of this research is to find out the intensity and effect of competition to the firm.

i. Study on competitive structure of the industry and individual competitors.

ii. Study of competitors marketing strategies.

The scope of marketing research describes above is only indicative and not exhaustive. Further, the above research areas are not watertight compartments. They are closely interrelated. The actual scope depends on the needs of a company and the marketing situations.

8. Marketing Research Process:

Marketing research helps in arriving at the decision or solutions for various marketing problems.

The research process involves different stages which are:

1. Problem Formulation:

Formulation of the problem is the first step in the marketing research process. Unless and until the problem is well defined, there is no use of the research work. Well defined and formulated problems can be solved very easily and appropriately. The problem should be defined neither too broadly nor too narrowly. Problems may be of different type i.e. operating (recurring) problem or non-operating (non­recurring) problem.

Recurring problems includes problems relating to sales expenses, sales forecasting, sales volume, product quality, product line, price policy etc. Non-recurring or non-operating problems relate to problems such as change in consumption pattern, price changes, product innovation, changes in competitive forces etc.

2. Research Design:

A research design is the framework or blue print for conducting the market research project. Once the specific research objective has been defined, it is essential to arrive at the correct hypothesis, data collection method, sampling plan and research design instrument.

Formulating a research design involves following steps:

i. Define the information which is required.

ii. Analysis of the secondary data.

iii. Qualitative research.

iv. Method of collecting data.

v. Measurement and scaling procedure.

vi. Questionnaire design.

vii. Sampling process and sample size.

viii. Plan of data analysis.

3. Data Collection:

Data can be collected from both primary and secondary sources. Primary data is the data which is collected for the first time with research purpose in mind. It is the first hand information. Secondary data is the data already collected by some other person for some other research problem. Primary data can be collected through different method – observation method or communication method. Interviews may be conducted either personal or through telephone or any other method to collect the required information.

4. Data Analysis:

Analysis of the raw data is very essential to arrive at the conclusion.

This analysis involves three phases, they are:

i. Classifying the data

ii. Data summarization

iii. Advanced data analysis tools and techniques to highlight inter­relationship and quantitative significance.

i. Classifying the Data:

Classification of data includes editing, coding, transcription and verification of data. The most commonly used techniques here are quantitative, qualitative, geographical and chronological.

Quantitative classification are for quantitative data like number of units, number of respondents. Qualitative classification is for qualitative data like occupation, types of family etc. Geographical classification is the one where geographical location is used to classify the data. Chronological classification is on the basis of the time period when event took place.

ii. Data Summarization:

For summarization of data various techniques are there like mean, median, mode, range, variance, standard deviation, mean deviation.

iii. Advanced Data Analysis Tools and Techniques:

This includes advanced method for analysing the data like factor analysis, discriminate analysis, correlation, regression, multiple regression.

5. Report Presentation and Recommendations:

A normal report includes the following:

(1) Title of the report

(2) Summary of conclusion

(3) Sample and characteristics

(4) Findings and observations

(5) Questionnaire

(6) Appendices

(7) Recommendation made may be accepted or rejected.

9. Main Areas of Marketing Research:

The main areas of marketing research can be summarized as given below:

1. Research in Product Planning and Development.

2. Market Research to get information on-

(a) Market segmentations

(b) Market demand

(c) Market competition

(d) Market share.

3. Consumer Research on:

(a) Consumer needs, wants and preferences

(b) Buying motives and buying behaviour

(c) Change in demand

(d) Customer response to sales promotion and advertising

(e) Linking need and brand name.

4. Pricing Research – Policies Regarding:

(b) Discounts

(c) Allowances.

5. Research in Brand and Package Design – Brand image surveys.

6. Research in channel choice.

7. Research in physical distribution and distribution cost-transport stages and insurance.

8. Planning and evaluation of various promotion devices.

9. Planning and evaluation of advertising-copy and media research.

10 . Sales Analysis and Research sales forecast, sales quotas and sales territories.

11. Policy Research – Planning and Evaluation of:

(a) Sales policy;

(b) Advertising policy;

(c) Sales promotional policy;

(d) Inventory policy;

(e) Distribution policy;

(f) Credit policy;

(g) Sales force policy; and

(h) After sales, service policy etc.

12. Dealer’s Research to gather information on the wants, attitudes and preferences of dealers.

In U.S.A., Marketing research departments have been steadily expanding their activities and techniques. The following list gives out the various types of marketing research undertaken by firms in U.S.A., as quoted in Philip Kotler’s book on “Marketing Management”.

10. Marketing Research Activities:

1. Advertising Research:

(a) Motivation research;

(b) Copy research;

(c) Media research; and

(d) Studies on Advertising effectiveness.

2. Business Economic and Corporate Research:

(a) Short-range forecasting (up to one year);

(b) Long-range forecasting (over one year);

(c) Studies of business trends;

(d) Pricing studies;

(e) Plant and warehouse location studies;

(f) Product mix studies;

(g) Acquisition studies;

(h) Export and international studies; and

(i) Internal company employees studies.

3. Corporate Responsibility Research:

(a) Consumers “right to know” studies;

(b) Ecological impact studies;

(c) Studies on legal constraints on advertising and promotion; and

(d) Social values and policies studies.

4. Product Research:

(a) New product acceptance and potential;

(b) Competitive product studies;

(c) Testing of existing products; and

(d) Packaging research-design or physical characteristics.

5. Sales and Market Research:

(a) Measurement of market potentials;

(b) Market-share analysis;

(c) Determination of market characteristics;

(d) Sales analysis;

(e) Establishment of sales quotas, territories;

(f) Distribution channel studies;

(g) Test markets, store audits;

(h) Consumer-Panel operations;

(i) Sales compensation studies; and

(j) Promotional studies of premiums, coupons sampling etc.

Some of the Special Problems Faced by Corporate Organisations in India:

As long as marketers in India did not face much difficulty in selling their products (services) they did not find much value in marketing research. Formal use of marketing research in the India Corporate sector began sometime in mid-1970’s.

In recent times there is further momentum in the practice as the business environment in the country is now characterized by many diversities like:

i. High degree of competition – The memories of long waiting time to get delivery of a product, limited choice and sometimes shabby products and unusually high prices have dimmed a great deal. The heat of competition is not restricted to the upper echelons of urban markets. Even the rural markets have begun to benefit from the impact of these changes.

ii. Large number of consumers with wide variations of requirements, tastes and preferences for different products and services.

iii. Change in the socio-economic conditions of the market. Specially the consumer goods manufactures today encounter a sizeable middle income population, and moreover, rise in the number of working women and educational level have significantly affected consumer behaviour.

iv. Growth in the communication facilities has led to greater awareness and more choice option to advertise through.

v. Consumers, by and large, are found to have more discretionary income. But they have at the same time much concern about their value for money.

vi. Since 1985 liberal licensing and import policy of the Indian Government has brought about many changes in the corporate environment. Changes have taken place both, in the scale and in the nature of problems which the management must tackle.

Recent development in the Indian market bear a similarity to traditional free market, where primary determinant of success is keeping the customers happy. Managing product (service) in tune with such market forces assumes a critical role.

Historically, in the shortage prone economy, marketing was found to be a luxury that did not seem relevant to the needs of the Indian consumer. This view is now rapidly changing.

Expenditure on unsuccessful product launches, wrong product positioning, improper distribution system etc., can whittle away the vitals of an organization in the absence of a sound, professional marketing management and high quality marketing research.

Thus corporate world in India has now realized the utility of data based marketing decision making rather than only intuition and hunch. So to derive an edge over the competition in today’s dynamic business environment, any marketer finds it essential to evolve marketing programmes based on proper marketing research.

11. Suppliers of Marketing Research :

A company can obtain marketing research in a number of ways.

Most large companies:

i. Procter & Gamble P & G assigns marketing researchers to each product operating division to conduct research for existing brands. There are two separate in-house research groups, one in charge of overall company advertising research and other in charge of marketing testing.

Each group’s staff consists of marketing research managers, supporting specialists (survey designers, statisticians, behavioral scientists) and in-house field representatives to conduct and supervise interviewing. Each year, Proctor & Gamble calls or visits over 1 million people in connection with about 1,000 research projects.

ii. Hewlett-Packard at HP, marketing research is handled by the Market Research and Information Center (MRIC), located at HP headquarters. The MRIC is a shared resource for all HP divisions worldwide and is divided into three groups.

The market Information Center provides background information on industries, markets and competitors using syndicated and other information services. Decision support teams provide research consulting services. Regional satellites in specific locales worldwide support regional HP initiatives.

Small companies can hire the services of a marketing research firm or conduct research in creative and affordable ways, such as:

i. Engaging Students or Professors to Design and Carry Out Projects:

One Boston University MBA project helped American Express develop a successful advertising campaign geared toward young professionals.

ii. Using the Internet:

A company can collect considerable information at very little cost by examining competitors’ Web sites, monitoring chat rooms, and accessing published data.

iii. Checking Out Rivals:

Many small companies routinely visit their competitors. Tom Coolhill, a chef who owns Atlanta restaurants, gives managers a food allowance to dine out and bring back ideas. Atlanta jeweler Frank Maier Jr. Who often visits out-of-town rivals, spotted and copied a dramatic way of lighting displays.

iv. Syndicated-Service Firms:

These firms gather consumer and trade information, which they sell for a fee. Examples- Nielsen Media Research, SAMI/ Burke.

v. Custom Marketing Research Firms:

These firms are hired to carry out specific projects. They design the study and report the findings.

vi. Specialty-Time Marketing Research Firms:

These firms provide specialized research services. The best example is the field-service firm, which sells field interviewing services to other firms.

12. Marketing Research Instruments :

Marketing researchers have a choice of two main research instruments in collecting primary data- questionnaires and mechanical devices.

1. Questionnaires:

A questionnaire consists of asset of questions presented to respondents for their answers. Because of its flexibility, the questionnaire is by far the most common instrument used to collect primary data. Questionnaires need to be carefully developed, tested and debugged before they are administrated on a large scale.

In preparing a questionnaire, the professional marketing researcher carefully chooses the questions and their form, wording, and sequence. The form of the question asked can influence the response.

Marketing researchers distinguish between closed-end and open-end questions. Closed-end questions specify all the possible answers. Open-end questions allow respondents to answer in their own words. Closed-end questions provide answers that are easier to interpret and tabulate.

Open-end questions often reveal more because they do not constrain respondents answers Open-end questions are especially useful in exploratory research, where the researcher is looking for insight into how people think rather than in measuring how many people think a certain way

Finally the questionnaire designer should exercise care in the wording and sequencing of questions. The questionnaire should use simple, direct, unbiased wording and should be pretested with a sample of respondents before it is used.

The lead question should attempt to create interest. Difficult or personal questions should be asked toward the end so that respondents do not become defensive early. Finally, the questions should flow in a logical order.

2. Mechanical Instruments:

Mechanical devices are occasionally used in marketing research. Galvanometers measure the interest or emotions aroused by exposure to a specific ad or picture.

The tachistoscope flashes an ad to a subject with an exposure interval that may range from less than one hundredth of a second to several seconds. After each exposure, the respondents eye movements to see whether their eyes land first, how long they linger on a given item, and so on. A sudiometer is attached to television sets in participating homes to record when the set is on and to which channel it is tuned.

3 . Sampling Plan :

After deciding on the research approach and instruments the marketing researcher must design a sampling plan.

This plan calls for these decisions:

I. Sampling Unit:

Unit who is to be surveyed? The marketing researcher must define the target population that will be sampled. In the American Airlines survey, should the sampling unit be business travelers, vacation travelers, or both? Should travelers under age 21 be interviewed? Should both husbands and wives be interviewed?

Once the sampling unit is determined, a sampling frame must be developed so that everyone in the target population has an equal or known chance of being sampled.

II. Sample Size:

How many people should surveyed? Large samples give more reliable results than small samples. However it is not necessary to sample the entire target population or even a substantial portion to achieve reliable results. Samples of less than 1 percent of a population can often provide good reliability, given a credible sampling procedure.

III. Sampling Procedure:

How should the respondents be chosen? To obtain a representative sample, a probability sample of the population should be drawn. Probability sampling allows the calculation of confidence limits for sampling error. Thus one could conclude after the sample id taken that “the interval 5 to 7 trips per year has 95 chances in 100 of containing the true number of trips taken annually by air trailers in the South west”.

The types of probability sampling are described. When the cost of time involved in probability sampling is too high. Marketing researchers will take non-probability samples. Some marketing researchers feel that non-probability samples are very useful in many circumstances, even though they do not allow sampling error to be measured.

4 . Contact Methods :

Once the sampling plan has been determined, the marketing researcher must decide how the subject should be contacted- mail, telephone, personal, or on-line interviews.

The mail questionnaire is the best way to reach people who would not give personal interviews or whose responses might be biased or distorted by the interviewers. Mail questionnaires require simple and clearly worded questions.

Unfortunately the response rate is usually low or slow. Telephone interviewing is the best method for gathering information quickly, the interviewer is also able to clarify questions if respondents do not understand them.

The response rate is typically higher than in the case of mailed questionnaires. The main drawback is that the interviews have to be short and not too personal. Telephone interviewing is getting more difficult because of answering machines and people becoming suspicious of telemarketing.

5 . Personal Interviewing :

It is the most versatile method. The interviewer can ask more questions and record additional observations about the respondent, such as dress and body language. Personal interviewing is the most expensive method and requires more administrative planning and supervision than the other three.

It is also subject to interviewer bias or distortion. Personal interviewing takes two forms. In arranged interviews, respondents are contacted for an appointment. Often a small payment or views, respondents are contacted for an appointment. Often a small payment or incentive is offered.

Intercept interviews involves stopping people at a shopping mall or busy street corner and requesting an interview. Intercept interviews have the drawback of being non-probability samples, and the interviews must not require too much time.

There is increased use of online interviewing. A company must not require too much time.

There is increased use of on-line interviewing. A company can include a questionnaire at its web page and offer an incentive to answer the questions.

13. Organising Marketing Research Function :

Several options are open to company for organizing its marketing research activity. For example- in some companies like Hindustan Lever, ITC there is a separate marketing research department who undertakes research on its own.

Alternatively, there are many organization who assign the responsibility of conducting marketing research to an outside specialist, individual, or an organization. Medium and small sized companies usually prefer second option, whereas the large firms set up a marketing research department consisting of full specialists.

Also many a time, companies in India subscribe to a syndicate research work, done by some marketing research on consultancy firm. The latter arrangement would involve paying some subscription fee for obtaining the findings of some research studies at a regular interval.

Such services are particularly available in the spheres or readership survey, the movement of consumer or pharmaceutical goods through retail outlet, TV viewing etc. As syndicated research services are normally designed to meet the requirements of many companies, they do not provide any tailor made information. Its major advantage lies in cost effectiveness.

Marketing Manager and Researcher Interaction :

In India, research based decision making has just made a beginning. There are still a lot of gaps in understanding between the two sets of people involved in these activities. It should be reiterated that marketing research is an aid to decision making, not a substitute for it. Unfortunately, sometimes marketing managers view marketing research reports as the final answer to their problems.

Marketing managers usually complain that:

1. Research is not problem oriented, it provides a number of facts, but not actionable results.

2. Researchers are too pre-occupied with techniques and they are often reluctant to get involved in solving the management’s problems.

3. Research is not executed with the proper sense of urgency. It is sometimes vague, and of questionable validity.

4. Researchers are generally poor communicators. They do not talk the language of the management. They lack the sense of accountability.

Likewise, researchers have complaints about marketing managers that:

1. Marketing managers do not include research in the overall problem or total decision context. They tend to ask for only specific information about partial issues.

2. Marketing managers pay lip service to research and do not really appreciate its value/problems.

3. Marketing managers do not allow adequate time and budget for research. They tend to draw conclusion based on early or incomplete results. Good research requires sufficient lead time for thorough reporting documentation.

4. Marketing managers rely more on intuition and judgment rather than on formal research. Research is used to confirm or excuse past actions or as a fire fighting device, not as an aid in decision making.

The key factor underlying the mutual distrust between marketing managers and researchers, seems to be the understanding of the mutual role and responsibility of both parties.

To be effective, researchers must understand the decision contexts and views of the marketing managers, likewise marketing managers must recognise that decisions should be evolved in the light of their own experience, and knowledge and other factors that are not explicitly considered in the research project.

Thus, it is most essential that both marketing managers and researchers must be equally involved and interact with each other as much as possible.

14. Classification of Marketing Research Tasks (Problems) Based on the Subject of Research:

Research on Product:

i. Reviewing product line, product quality, product features, product design and rationalisation of product lines.

ii. Study on the actual uses of a given product.

iii. Study on new uses of an existing product.

iv. Testing of new products.

v. Study of the competitive position of a product/brand.

vi. Study on related products and the nature of the relationship.

vii. Study of packaging/packing design, packing material, package size, etc.

viii. Study on servicing requirements.

Marketing Research in Small Businesses and Non-Profit Organizations :

Marketing research does not only occur in huge corporations with many employees and a large budget. Marketing information can be derived by observing the environment of their location and the competitions location. Small scale surveys and focus groups are low cost ways to gather information from potential and existing customers.

Most secondary data (statistics, demographics, etc.) is available to the public in libraries or on the internet and can be easily accessed by a small business owner.

Below some steps that could do by SME (Small Medium Enterprise) to analyze the market:

1. Provide secondary and or primary data (if necessary);

2. Analyze Macro and Micro Economic data (e.g., Supply and Demand, GDP, Price change, Economic growth, Sales by sector/industries, interest rate, number of investment/ divestment, I/O, CPI, Social analysis, etc.);

3. Implement the marketing mix concept, which is consist of: Place, Price, Product, Promotion, People, Process, Physical Evidence and also Political and social situation to analyze global market situation;

4. Analyze market trends, growth, market size, market share, market competition (e.g., SWOT analysis, B/C Analysis, channel mapping identities of key channels, drivers of customers loyalty and satisfaction, brand perception, satisfaction levels, current competitor-channel relationship analysis, etc.)

5. Determine market segment, market target, market forecast and market position;

6. Formulating market strategy and also investigating the possibility of partnership/ collaboration (e.g., Profiling and SWOT analysis of potential partners, evaluating business partnership);

7. Combine those analysis with the SME’s business plan/ business model analysis, e.g., Business description, Business process, Business strategy, Revenue model, Business expansion, Return of Investment, Financial analysis, Company History, Financial assumption, Cost/Benefit Analysis, Projected Profit and Loss, Cash-flow, Balance sheet and business Ratio, etc.

Note as important:

Overall analysis is should be based on 6W+1H (What, When, Where, Which, Who, Why and How) questions.

Based on Observations:

1. Ethnographic Studies:

By nature qualitative, the researcher observes social phenomena in their natural setting observations can occur cross-sectionally (observations made at one time) or longitudinally (observations occur over several time-periods) – examples include product-use analysis and computer cookie traces.

2. Experimental Techniques:

By nature quantitative, the researcher creates a quasi- artificial environment to try to control spurious factors, then manipulates at least one of the variables – examples include purchase laboratories and test markets.

Marketing research involves conducting research to support marketing activities, and the statistical interpretation of data into information. This information is then used by managers to plan marketing activities, gauge the nature of a firm’s marketing environment and attain information from suppliers.

Marketing researchers use statistical methods such as quantitative research, qualitative research, hypothesis tests, Chi-squared tests, linear regression, correlations, frequency distributions, poisson distributions, binomial distributions, etc. to interpret their findings and convert data into information.

The marketing research process spans a number of stages including the definition of a problem, development of a research plan, collecting and interpretation of data and disseminating information formally in form of a report. The task of marketing research is to provide management with relevant, accurate, reliable, valid, and current information.

A distinction should be made between marketing research and market research. Market research pertains to research in a given market. As an example, a firm may conduct research in a target market, after selecting a suitable market segment. In contrast, marketing research relates to all research conducted within marketing. Thus, market research is a subset of marketing research.

Research on Competition :

ii. Study of competitor’s products, prices, promotion programmes, channel policies and sales methods.

Marketing research serves two main functions viz. – (i) it provides information for decisions making and (ii) it develops new knowledge. It is concerned with all those factors which have a direct bearing upon the marketing of products.

It focuses on the study of:

(a) Market characteristics;

(b) Measurement of market potentials;

(c) Market share analysis;

(e) Competitive-product studies;

(f) New-product acceptance;

(g) Short-range forecasting;

(h) Low-range forecasting; and

(i) Business trends.

Marketing research is aimed in offering sound alternative solution to all marketing problems relating, to exchange of goods. In fact, marketing research is the beginning of marketing management.

But the term ‘marketing research’ is always used as a synonym to marketing research. In fact, market research is only one branch of the marketing research. Market research is primarily concerned with the investigation, analysis and measurement of market demand.

Market research answers the following question- “Who, what, where, when, why and how of actual and potential buyers?” But marketing research has wider meaning and scope.

15. Benefits of Marketing Research :

It is apparent that the scope of marketing research activity is very wide. It covers almost all aspects of marketing. The major contribution of marketing research is that it augments the effectiveness of marketing decisions.

Marketing research uncovers facts from both outside and within the company relevant to marketing decisions and provides a sustainable and logical base for making decisions.

The specific contributions of marketing research to the effectiveness of the marketing programme of a firm are as follows:

1. With the guidance of research, products should be better suited to the demand and priced reasonably.

2. Specific markets having the greatest sales potentialities could be identified.

3. Research can help to identify the best sales appeal of the products, the best way of reaching the potential buyers and the most suitable timing promotion etc.

4. Research can also help minimize marketing costs by making marketing efforts more efficient and effective.

5. Research can also help find out the effectiveness of sales force management such as right selection procedure, effective training programmes, scientific compensation schemes and effectives control mechanisms.

The contribution of marketing research are considerable. It facilitates both the decision-making and the operational tasks of marketing management effective and efficient and thereby contributes to consumer’s satisfaction and organization’s efficiency.

16. Limitations of Marketing Research :

Despite the proven value of MR, it must be borne in mind that it cannot provide a complete answer to any marketing problem. MR consists of systematic collection of data for predicting the future. It is a tool which helps the marketing executive in avoiding guess work, but they cannot predict with certainty.

Moreover to yield satisfactory results following shortcomings should be recognised and accepted:

1. MR projects may require a considerable time lag between their inception, completion and implementation. Collection of data, their checking, presentation, formulation of policy and execution involves considerable time. In that interval period customer’s tastes and preferences are subject to frequent change. Marketing is a very dynamic affair so its problems must be treated with quick solutions. Otherwise, if MR involves time delays then suggested solutions by MR may be irrelevant to the changed conditions. So it is essential that MR projects should be completed in time and executed promptly in terms of time element.

2. Some MRs deal with a wide variety of condition which are highly dynamic and since it involves numerous variables, it is extremely difficult to assemble accurate data or to interpret them with absolute exactness. The findings of MR has no universal acceptance. In fact the subject of study for marketing researcher is consumer behaviour, so MR cannot be accepted as exact science.

Study of human behaviour precludes absolute mathematical accuracy. Due to errors in sampling procedure, field study, analysis etc., MR cannot always be accurate and purely authentic. It cannot measure as chemical experiments. MR is far from perfect.

3. MR does not solve any problem. It is simply a tool in hands of management for efficient decision making. It provides necessary inputs such as data, and vital information which may be helpful for intelligent decision. MR may point out several possible solutions for any problem, but it can never be used by management as a substitute for good decisions.

Decision making is ultimately done by marketing executive, using his mind with the support of MR findings. Research is only a vital ‘arm’ in the hands of management. It can only suggest various alternatives and appropriate solutions.

4. One serious point has been raised by Stanton. According to him possibly the fundamental reason for the modest status of MR has been the failure of researchers to communicate adequately with management. Admittedly, there are poor researchers and poor research.

Moreover, sometimes the mentality of the quick acting, programmatic, decision making executive may be at odds with the conditions, complex hedging all bets mentality of a marketing researcher. However researchers, like manufacturers, are often product oriented when they should be market oriented.

They concentrate on research methods and techniques rather than on showing management how these methods can aid in making better marketing decisions. Executives are willing to invest heavily in technical research because they are convinced there is a payoff in this activity.

5. It is difficult to appraise the actual rupee value of MR results. In most instances it is impossible to translate the rupee value received from MR. Many business houses hesitate to make expenditure, when the results are so intangible. The management does not meet MR as a continuous process. It is treated as a medicine of some diseases.

Management realises the need of MR when it has a marketing problem. So management must put attention on current flow of information through Mr. Newman observed, “Reflecting Executives” lack of understanding of research and its potential contribution to decision making is the fact that research departments have tended to be technical job shops to which operating people could bring results if they chose to do so.

The weakness of this system is that it depends on the initiative of executives who are unfamiliar with research and who typically are unable to identify their problems well enough to ask for the help they need. Thus MR cannot be effective unless it is viewed as a continuous process and not as a onetime activity.

6. Another constraint that is lack of trained, well equipped and well directed research personnel who may improve the quality and utility of MR. The successful performance of MR requires that it must be carried out by qualified individuals. Many research projects have pre-occupied techniques which fail to grasp the complete picture. Many research project are carried out by operating executives. These men frequently have little time to devote in MR.

7. MR may be too expansive in some cases. MR is treated as luxury to small units. Its expense can be afford only by large business organisations. In seller’s market the manage­ment has apathetic approach towards MR. However with the growth of buyers’ market and increasing competition the value of MR are being increasing competition the value of MR are being increasingly recognised by marketing management.

Marketing research is an integral part of scientific marketing management, but the marketing research findings can only provide indications and not conclusions to any problem. These research projects are based on certain assumptions, so findings are made with reference to a certain marketing environment and the validity of MR is affected to that extent.

17. Ethical Issues in Marketing Research :

Ethics in Latin language is called Ethicus and in Greek it is called Ethicos. The word has origin from the Greek Ethos meaning character or manners. Another term that is considered synonym of ethics is morality. However, they are different. The word morality means behaviour and therefore Ethico-moral actions pertains to actions initiated by the character and expressed through behaviours.

Ethics focuses on Standards, rules and codes of conduct that govern the behaviour of individuals or groups. It is the science of morals, which is concerned with human character and conduct. It also refers to the code of conduct that guides an individual while dealing with a situation.

The way marketing research is conducted and the reasons for conducting research could raise many ethical issues.

Data collection could become an invasion of privacy. People are observed using hidden cameras, purchase behaviour studied using scanner data and credit card use data, and Internet activity is tracked using ‘cookies’. There is always strong temptation for some managers to misuse access to private information. Similarly, customer databases provide lots of personal information about customers. This information will be very valuable to other businesses and could be sold for a profit.

Collection of information could be annoying and inconvenient for the respondents. Often, interviews, both personal and over telephone, become intrusive.

Occasionally, researchers use deception to collect data. Acting as a potential customer falsely, some persons collect data from businesses. Other researchers pretend to be shoppers and ask fellow shoppers their opinions of products or brands.

False Representation:

Practices called “sugging”, i.e., selling under the guise of research and “frugging”, i.e., fund-raising under the guise of research are very common, which tarnish the image of legitimate researchers.

We can look at ethical issues in marketing research from the point of view of- (a) Respondents (b) Clients, and (c) Researchers.

(1) Ethics in the Treatment of Respondents:

Respondents include individuals, organizations or group of persons whom the agency approaches to collect information for research studies. The respondents should have the right to privacy, i.e., no telephone calls, e-mail or personal visit without the consent of the respondent. The consumer has a right to choose. That is whether he wants to participate or not in the studies.

The consumer has to be protected against physical and psychological harm. He may be uncomfortable to answer questions regarding income, health, business, relationship with members of the family, etc. The consumer has the right to be informed, i.e., the consumers must be informed regarding the objective of the research and the benefits if any to the consumers arising out the research findings.

(2) Ethics in the Treatment of Clients:

Client refers to any individual organization, private or public institution or department of such organization which has agreed to subscribe to a marketing research project.

The obligations of researchers are:

(a) The method of research and the results should be accurately presented in the report.

(b) The information obtained must be held in confidence and should not be shared with other clients and competitors.

(c) The researcher should not undertake unethical research.

(d) The limitations of the study should be informed to the client.

(e) Should not collect data in a biased manner to support the client’s views.

(f) The researcher is obliged to inform the client the unbiased results of the research irrespective of whether it is liked by the management or not.

(3) Ethics in the Treatment of Researchers:

Researchers include any individual, organization, private or public institution that is acting as consultant on marketing research project.

The obligations of clients towards researchers are:

(a) If the research project requires some information on company sales, profitability, etc., the client has to be provide same to the researchers. Otherwise the report will not be complete.

(b) After finalizing the terms and conditions for undertaking the project, the company should not ask for additional information at original project cost. The client has to pay for collecting extra information over and above the original proposal.

(c) If the firm has already decided to assign the project to a particular researcher, it should not invite proposals from other parties also. It goes against the interest of competing researchers.

(d) After finalizing a large project, the firm should not change the scope of the project to reduce the cost.

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Marketing Research: Definition, Objective, Scope, Steps

• Post last modified: 20 May 2023
• Post author: Manoj
• Reading time: 44 mins read
• Post category: Marketing Management

What is Marketing Research?

Marketing Research is the systematic gathering, recording and analyzing of data about problems relating to the marketing of goods and services. Market Research studies a target market. It collects data about that market place and the consumers within it.

Table of Content

• 1 What is Marketing Research?
• 2 Definition of Marketing Research
• 3 Objective of Market Research
• 4.1 Syndicate Service
• 4.2 Marketing Information System (MKIS)
• 4.3 Decision Support System
• 4.4 Market Research Projects
• 5.1 Defining the problem
• 5.2 Statement of Objective
• 5.3.1 Exploratory
• 5.3.2 Descriptive
• 5.3.3 Causal Research
• 5.3.4 Sources of Data
• 5.3.5 Primary Data
• 5.3.6 Secondary Data
• 5.3.7 Internal Secondary Data
• 5.3.8 External Secondary Data
• 5.3.9 Data Collection
• 5.3.10 Procedure of Data Collection
• 5.3.11 Observational Research
• 5.3.12 Detail information Example
• 5.3.13 Ethnographic Research
• 5.3.14 Focus Group Research
• 5.3.15 Survey Research
• 5.3.16 Behavioral Research
• 5.3.17 Questionnaire
• 5.3.18 Close–Ended Questions
• 5.3.19 Word Association
• 5.3.20 Projective Techniques
• 5.3.21 isualization
• 5.3.22 Brand Personification
• 5.3.23 Laddering
• 5.3.24 Sampling
• 5.3.25 Population
• 5.3.26 Sample
• 5.4 Sampling Methods
• 5.5 Probability/Random sampling
• 5.6 Non–Probability/Non Random Sampling
• 5.7 Let’s study different methods of probability sampling
• 5.8 Simple Random Sampling
• 5.9 Systematic sampling
• 5.10 Stratified sampling
• 5.11 Cluster sampling
• 5.12 Non–Probability/Non Random Sampling
• 5.13 Convenience Sampling
• 5.14 EcoQuota Sampling
• 5.15 Judgement Sampling
• 5.16 Panel Sampling
• 5.17 Contact Methods
• 5.18 Collecting the information
• 5.19 Analysing the information
• 5.20 Presenting the findings
• 6 Application of the Marketing Research
• 7 Limitation of Marketing Research
• 8.1 Privacy
• 8.2 Intrusion
• 8.3 Deception
• 8.4 False Representation
• 9.1 What is Marketing Research
• 9.2 Ethics in Marketing Research

Definition of Marketing Research

Above definitions bring out three key ideas regarding marketing research

• MR is concerned with studying numerous problems in marketing.
• Purpose of MR is to help decision–making in the marketing field.
• Systematic gathering and analysis of information is its route in achieving its purpose.

With increasing complexity of business operations, marketing research too has been growing in complexity and has emerged as highly specialised functions. Today, carrying out marketing research, whether relating to the customer, product, or market, necessitates specialized skills and involves sophisticated.

Objective of Market Research

• Marketing Research is used in the information of all marketing plans, programmes, procedures, policies and strategies.
• It helps in obtaining customer opinion about existing products and develops new products. It gives information in relation to product, brand, and packaging, also in relation to consumers and their needs and wants.
• It helps the marketing department to focus on consumers’ needs and wants and their perceptions and evaluation of existing product and level of customer satisfaction.
• It helps in understanding consumers buying motives, motivation and attitude towards products and services, corporate image and services, corporate image and brands.

Scope of Market Research

Marketing Research includes all the activities that enable organisation to obtain market information. Market researcher needs to make decision about it environment, marketing mix and present or potential customer.

Marketing research plays an important role in planning, implementation and evaluation of marketing management process.

Marketing Manager makes use of four main sources of decision making.

Syndicate Service

Marketing research firm produce and sell these scheduled reports. The report contains valuable information. E.g. Survey of Indian Industry, Chambers of Commerce and Industry.

Marketing Information System (MKIS)

This is an internal activity where standardized reports are generated on regular basis or it is generated on demand also. E.g. Sales Reports, inventory amounts, production schedules and also purchased information. We can track the sales performance and the changing taste of consumer also through MKIS.

Decision Support System

DSS is the interactive system in the company. It permits the decision maker to interact directly with data through a PC to answer specific questions. The difference between MKIS and DSS is that while former only provides information on the basis of which decision is taken, the latter provides answers or decisions appropriate to a situation.

Market Research Projects

It is done to find out specific problems to in the market. It is done by the employee of the company or outsourced to external agencies.

Steps involves in Marketing Research

In order to do marketing research, the researcher goes through several steps, depending upon the problem, time, costs and benefits some of the steps are compressed. There are five steps in the market research process,

Defining the problem

The first and the key step to marketing research process is to define a problem for which research is to be conducted. Problems which need to solve will require collecting of relevant initial information and from where this information will be available and how this information will affect decision making process.

Once the problem is defined precisely and the need of research is discussed, the further process could be conducted in an efficient manner.

Statement of Objective

One the problem is defined, the next logical step what the researcher wants to achieve. This statement is objective. The objective should be specific, attainable and measurable. The purpose of these objectives is to act as a guide to the researcher and help him in maintaining a focus all through the research.

Developing the Research Plan

Research Design : It is the blue print of the research project. It indicate the method of research is deciding the research design.There are three types of research design.

Exploratory

Descriptive.

Exploratory research is mainly used to explore the insights of the general research problem. It is conducted when the researcher does not know how and why a certain phenomenon occurs. The goal of this research is to know the unknown, this research is unstructured.

Exploratory research methods are Secondary data analysis, Expert Survey, Focus group interviews, Depth interview, Case analysis, Projective techniques.

How does the customer evaluate the quality of a bank, hotel or an airline, where there are no tangible.Several researchers have conducted focus group discussion to identify these quality parameter. (Zeithamal, Parsuraman and Berry identified variables which they clubbed under five groups).

This research is conducted to describe the business or market characteristic. Descriptive research mainly answers who,what, when, where and how kind of questions. Descriptive research methods are cross sectional research and longitudinal study.

A consumer durable company had conducted a descriptive research to understand the consumption pattern for its product. Descriptive research has revealed that 50% of the customers are government employees, 40% are businessmen, and the remaining 10% are scattered in different segments of society. The research has also revealed that 60% of the customers are men and 40% are women.

Causal Research

Causative Research is done to establish a cause and effect relationship, for example, the influence of income and lifestyle on purchase decision. Here the researcher may like to see the effect of rising income and changing life style on consumption of select products. He/She may test the hypothesis that as income increases or life–style changes, more elite and state–of–the art products are likely to be bought.

Sources of Data

Once the research design has been decided, the next stage is that of selecting the sources of data. There are two sources of data or information – Secondary and Primary.

Primary Data

Primary data are the firsthand information, which is collected by the researcher. It requires technical expertise. Survey, Experiment and interview are the examples of it.

Secondary Data

Secondary data are collected by some other researcher. Secondary data can be of two types. Internal and external.

Internal Secondary Data

We know that organization always possess a great deal of internal secondary data with them. E.g. Sales statistics constitute the most important component of secondary data in marketing and the researcher uses it extensively. All the output of MIS researcher gets constitute internal secondary data.

External Secondary Data

Newspapers, magazines, technical journal, trade publications, directories, government publications, committee reports, reference books, balance sheets of companies and syndicated and published research report by various MR agencies are sources of the external secondary data.

Data Collection

The researcher is now reader to take a plunge. But still he or she needs to be clear about the :

• Procedure of data collection
• Tools for data collection

Procedure of Data Collection

Data can be collected from any or combination of the following techniques.

Observational Research

Observational research is the type of approach in which researcher collect the data by observing consumer. Sometime CCTV, or Photography is also done to observe and collect.

Detail information Example

What customer is buying and doing in the store,behave in shopping area,dresses up etc.

Ethnographic Research

In this type of research, researcher observes and interacts with the respondent (participants) in the reallife environment. Researcher often lives among the group or society in order to learn about them.

Focus Group Research

In Focus group research sample of 6 to 10 people are selected for demographic, psychographic, or other consideration and are asked to discuss various topic. A professional moderator asks questions and probes based on the Marketing Manager’s agenda. Focus Group Discussion sessions are recorded and Marketing Manager will observe from the behind two–way mirror.

Survey Research

Survey research is defined as “The collection of information from a sample of individuals through their responses to questions” (Check & Schutt, 2012, p. 160). Questions are asked either in person, by phone or online.

Behavioral Research

Behavioral Research Analysis how people make choices. When consumer actually purchase product or services, their preference is reflected which is often more than the statement they offer to the market research.

Tools for Data Collection :

The tools which can be used for data collection are as follows :

Questionnaire

A questionnaire is a research instrument that consists of a set of questions that are presented to the respondent for collecting information. There are two basically types of questionnaire structured and unstructured questionnaire. A mixture of these both is the quasi–structured questionnaire that is used mostly in social science research.

Structured questionnaires include pre–coded questions with well– defined skipping patterns to follow the sequence of questions. Most of the quantitative data collection operations use structured questionnaires. Fewer discrepancies, easy to administer consistency in answers and easy for the data management are advantages of such structured questionnaires.S tructured questionnaire collects quantitative data.

Close–Ended Questions

A close ended question is one where the respondent has to select a response from one among the multiple choices offered to him or her.

Types of questions in close ended are Dichotomous, Multiple Choice, Likert Scale, Semantic differential, Importance Scale, Rating Scale, Intention to buy scale.

Unst r uctured questionnaires include open–ended (are ones that require more than one word answers) and vague opinion–type. questions. May be questions are not in the format of interrogative sentences and the moderator or the enumerator has to elaborate the sense of the question.

Un–structured questionnaire collect qualitative data. The answers could come in the form of a list, a few sentences or something longer such as a speech, paragraph or essay. Researcher is not aware of the phenomenon or behavior well and need to probe for this, and then open ended questions are used. Type of Questions in open ended are completely unstructured, word association, sentence completion, story completion, picture, Thematic Apperception test.

Qualitative Measures

Various Popular methods used in the qualitative techniques are

Word Association

To identify the range of possible brand associations, ask the subject what comes in mind when they hear the brand’s name.

Projective Techniques

Give subject an incomplete or ambiguous stimulus and ask them to complete or explain it.

isualization

Visualization requires people to create a collage from magazine photos or drawings to depict their perceptions.

Brand Personification

Here the subjects are asked what do they think if the brand were to come alive as a person; what it would be like; what it would do; where it would live; what would it talk about ?

Ask “why” you want to purchase a particular brand only. Why questions can reveal consumer goals.

Certain Steps are to be followed while designing Questionnaire

Step 1 Preliminary issue like research objectives, target respondents,\etc.

Step 2 Decision on issues to be probed/asked. Step 3 Decision on response format, i.e. whether close–ended or open–ended response.

Step 4 Wording/Style of the questions and what to avoid

Step 5 Sequencing the questions.

Step 6 Conditions of questions.

Step 7 Pre–test, revise (if need be), and finalize.

Sampling is nothing but selection of the accurate representation of a unit, group or sample from a population of interest. The process of selection or the drawing of the accurate representation of a unit, group or sample from a population of interest is called as sampling.

Sampling can be done through various sampling techniques in accordance with the nature of the sample as well as the subject matter of the study. It is the Sampling procedure, which will decide the accurate representation of the sample selected for the study as well as the relevance of generalization made from the research.

Population is also referred as universe. Broadly, Population can be explain as a comprehensive group of individuals, institutions, objects and so forth which have a common characteristics that are the interest of a researcher. The common characteristics of the groups distinguish them from other individual, institutions, objects and so forth.

Researcher proposed to conduct a study on awareness and use of ICT among the secondary school teachers in Ahmedabad, the entire secondary school teaching community in Ahmedabad constitutes as the population of the study. Population can be finite and infinite. Population which can be easily counted is known as finite and the unknown and limited number of population is known as infinite.

Medical Student of Ahmedabad District is finite population and the adolescents, youths in Ahmedabad can be treated as examples for infinite population, though they can be counted but in complex procedure.

It is a part of the population or universe. In marketing research projects, practically it is not possible for a researcher to approach all the individuals\elements in a population for the purpose of data collection. Instead they select and approach a representative group of individuals/elements who falls under the particular population to collect needed information regarding the group.

Based on the results, the researcher generalizes the characteristics of the representative group as the characteristics of population. This small group or representative group from a population is called as sample. So sample can be defined as the small portion of a population selected for a particular study.

The sample should clearly represent the characteristics of intended group. According to Young “A statistical sample is a miniature picture of cross selection of the entire group or aggregate from which the sample is taken”. The process of conducting a survey to collect data from a sample is called sample survey. The value which is identified or measured from the characteristics of the sample can be termed as statistic.

Developing sample design has the following components

• Choosing the Sampling Unit : Whom should we survey ? (who all among the elements of the population are to be surveyed).
• Choosing Sample Size : How many people should we survey ?
• C hoosing Sampling Procedure : How to ensure that those who\ are to be questioned get included in the sample).
• Choosing Sample Size : How many people should we survey ?Choosing the Sampling Media : how to reach the respondents in the sample–through mail interview,personal interview, or telephone interview.

Sampling Methods

Broadly two methods, fall under two broad categories Probability/Random sampling and Non–Probability/Non Random Sampling :

Probability/Random sampling

In Probability/Random sampling, samples are selected at random. Random means selecting the units “free of bias” Random sampling follows a precisely specified system, where there is no scope for any biased selection of the sample unit. Randomness ensures that the selection of the units takes place by sheer chance.

It means that every member of the population has equal chance or probability of being selected. Example : in a population of 1000 members, every member will have a 1/1000 chance of being selected to be a part of a sample. Probability sampling eliminates bias in the population and gives all members a fair chance to be included in the sample.

Non–Probability/Non Random Sampling

Non random sampling techniques are the techniques in which the researchers select the samples from the population without randomization. Here the samples might have selected at the discretion of the researcher. In this sampling there is no means of judging the probability of the element or group of elements, of population being included in the sample.Let’s study different methods of probability sampling :

Let’s study different methods of probability sampling

• Simple random sampling
• Systematic random sampling

Stratified sampling

Cluster sampling, simple random sampling.

All items of the population have equal chances of being selected in the sample. Lottery is one of the methods of selecting a simpler random sample. Example, in an organization of 500 employees, if the HR team decides on conducting team building activities, it is highly likely that they would prefer picking chits out of a bowl. In this case, each of the 500 employees has an equal opportunity of being selected.

Systematic sampling

Systematic sampling involves selecting every nth unit form the population after the beginning unit is selected at random. The interval n is fixed by dividing the population by sample size. Example, if the population of 500 members and a sample of 50 members is required, interval will be fixed as 500/50 = 10.

Thus, every tenth unit from the previously ordered population will be taken to get the systematic sample of 50 elements. Normally, the start is fixed by selecting a random number – in the above case, between l and 10, if happens to be 5, every tenth number from it, i.e 15, 25, 35 and so on would be selected to get the systematic random sample required.

Systematic sampling can increase the sample’s representativeness when the population elements can be ordered in some pattern, with regard to the characteristic being investigated.

In stratified random sampling,elements are in the population are divided into homogeneous group called strata. Then, researchers use the simple random sampling method to select a sample from each of the strata. Each group is called stratum.

In stratified random sampling, stratum should be relatively homogenous and the strata should contrast with each other. This process of dividing heterogeneous populations into relatively homogeneous groups is called stratification.

Cluster sampling is a method where the researchers divide the entire population into sections or clusters that represent a population. Clusters are identified and included in a sample based on demographic parameters like age, sex, location, etc. This makes it very simple for a survey creator to derive effective inference from the feedback.

Example , if the United States government wishes to evaluate the number of immigrants living in the Mainland US, they can divide it into clusters based on states such as California, Texas, Florida, Massachusetts, Colorado, Hawaii, etc. This way of conducting a survey will be more effective as the results will be organized into states and provide insightful immigration data.

Non–probability methods of sampling are of the following types :

• Convenience sampling
• Quota sampling
• Judgement sampling
• Panel sampling

Convenience Sampling

Here sample is selected on the convenience of the researcher. Quite often accessibility decides the selection of the sample For example an investigator who is doing research on the topic of awareness of ICT of students of class X and he may take students of same class as sample for his study, because he has been the teacher of the same class and happens to be friendly with the class.

This is what is called as convenience sampling. Such samples are easily available and economical but it makes systematic errors and may leads to false generalizations. Convenience sampling is also called as haphazard as well as accidental sampling.

EcoQuota Sampling

It is also an example of non probability sampling. Under quota sampling the interviewers are simply given quotas to be filled from the different strata, with some restrictions on how they are to be filled. In other words, the actual selection of the items for the samples is left to the interviewer’s discretion.

This type of sampling is very convenient and is relatively inexpensive. For example, consider the situation where an interviewer has to survey people about a cosmetic brand. His population is people in a certain city between 35 and 45 years old. The interviewer might decide they want two survey subgroups – one male, and the other female – each with 100 people.

(These subgroups are mutually exclusive since people cannot be male and female at the same time.) After choosing these subgroups, the interviewer has the liberty to rely on his convenience or judgment factors to find people for each subset. For example, the interviewer could stand on the street and interview people who look helpful until he has interviewed 100 men and 100 women.

Or he can interview people at his workplace who fit the subgroup criteria.nomical but it makes systematic errors and may leads to false generalizations. Convenience sampling is also called as haphazard as well as accidental sampling.

Judgement Sampling

Judgmental sampling, also called purposive sampling or authoritative sampling. In this sampling researcher relies on his or her own judgment when choosing members of population to participate in the study. Researchers often believe that they can obtain a representative sample by using a sound judgment, which will result in saving time and money”.

TV reporters stopping certain individuals on the street in order to ask their opinions about certain political changes constitutes the most popular example of this sampling method. However, it is important to specify that the TV reporter has to apply certain judgment when deciding who to stop on the street to ask questions; otherwise it would be the case of random sampling technique.

Panel Sampling

In this method,members are selected to a panel and they become an almost permanent sample for drawing specific information on selected subjects. There can be many kinds of panels such as consumer panels, expert panels, etc. Panel members are approached either personally or through mail for eliciting information.

Contact Methods

Panel members are recruited consciously; they are not selected at random. In this sense,they cannot accurately represent a whole market.Where the purpose does not call for randomness of respondents,the use of panels will be in order. Panels are widely used to measure shifts in buying patterns, brand loyalties etc.Market Researcher must decide how to contact the subjects via mail, telephone, in person or online.

Collecting the information

Collecting information is very expensive and an error prone. As subject may be living far, away from home, or inaccessible, they must be contacted again or changed. Sometime respondent do not cooperate or give dishonest answers.

Analysing the information

In this step, findings are extracted by tabulating data and developing summary measure. Some statistical techniques and decision models are also applied.

Presenting the findings

Here data and information are translated into insights and recommendation for Marketing and Chief Executives of the Company. Without doing research organisation will not succeed. In order to know the customer formal research is conducted by the marketer.

Application of the Marketing Research

Marketing research finds application in a variety of business situations. Some examples are given below:

Limitation of Marketing Research

Marketing research has some limitations, which must be kept in mind by marketing people and researchers. The limitations are given below :

• Marketing research provides only the indicators. It does not by itself provide the final solution to the problems. It also qualifies its final findings with assumptions.
• There are chances of errors creeping in the findings of marketing research. Errors can creep in at various stages of the research in the sampling procedure, in the choice of research methodology and in the research design itself. Errors can also occur at the computation and analysis stage.
• Very often it is found that the marketing research process is very expensive unaffordable to many small companies.
• Marketing research has a limitation in terms of the time factor.as well. The nature of marketing in a competitive world calls for quick decision and solution. If Marketing research involves undue delays and time lags, then the solutions obtained become irrelevant in the changed scenario.
• Research findings are made with reference to a given marketing effort, known performance of competitors, known policies of government, etc. lf any one or more these factors change, the result of the research may become invalid.
• Marketing research often has the tendency to overrate the usefulness of its own findings.As in statistics all numerical data have their limitations. Also, there are many qualitative and subjective factors which cannot be quantified.
• Sometimes the person interviewed may not furnish the correct information or may refuse to cooperate.

Ethics in Marketing Research

The way marketing research is conducted and the reasons for conducting research could raise many ethical issues.

Data collection could become an invasion of privacy. People are observed using hidden cameras, purchase behaviour studied using scanner data and credit’ card use data, and Internet activity is tracked using ‘cookies’. There is always strong temptation for managers to misuse access to private information. Similarly, customer databases provide businesses and could be sold for a profit.

Collection of information could be annoying and inconvenient for respondents. Often, interviews, both personal and over telephone, become intrusive.

Occasionally, researchers use deception to collect data. Acting as potential customer falsely, some persons collect data from businesses. Other researcher pretends to be shoppers and ask fellow shoppers their opinions of products or brands.

False Representation

Practices called “sugging”, i.e., selling under the guise of research and “frugging”,i.e., fund–raising under the guise of research are very common, which tarnish the image of legitimate researchers. In order to avoid such unethical practices and safeguard the public, marketing research ethics (code of conduct} have been drawn up by the American Marketing Association which covers the following areas;

• Privacy of data to be ensured.
• Prohibiting selling or fund–raising under the guise of conducting research.
• Maintaining research integrity by avoiding misrepresentation and omission by pertinent data.
• Treating outside clients and suppliers fairly.

The area of ethics in marketing research is very important and concerns the rights of number of parties. Marketing researchers should be conscious of and respect the right of research subjects as well as the general public

What is Marketing Research

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Marketing Research – Meaning, Scope, Objectives & Process

Meaning of marketing research.

Marketing research is a process of analyzing and conducting research about the market to understand market trends. It involves proper collection, analysis and interpretation of information regarding market conditions. Marketing research is mainly conducted to identify changes in preferences and behaviour of customers arising from the change in market mix elements viz. promotion, place, price and product. It may be defined as the mechanism which helps in linking the customers, producers and several other end users to the marketer and help in finding and communicating of all required information.

Scope of Marketing Research

Determines Customer Behaviour

Market research helps the organisation in understanding the behaviour of customers. It performs research and acquires data like age, gender, income, likes, dislikes etc. related to customers. All this data provided to an organisation helps them in developing the right product as to satisfy their wants. Marketing research helps organisations in understanding the needs and wants of customers and thereby accordingly formulates their production policies.

Provide Valuable Data

Effective decision making of any organisation depends entirely on the quality of information available with it. Marketing research supplies all important information about the market to the management team. It keeps organisation aware of market factors like demand, supply, competition, technological changes, consumer behaviour etc. All this information is vital for strategic decision making. Managers frame all their organisation policies in accordance with data supplied by marketing research.

Helps in Sales Forecasting

Marketing research support business activities by forecasting sales using different techniques. Producing and maintaining an optimum level of inventory in the organisation is a challenging task in front of every product manager. Producing goods in accordance with demand helps in reducing risk and raising profit. Over producing and under-producing of goods adversely affects the business. Marketing research forecasts sales using sale force estimate method, sale force method, jury method etc. and supplies data to the organisation. This helps in framing production policies accordingly.

Lower Business Risk

Marketing research plays an important role in reducing business risk and raising the revenue of the business organisation. It helps businesses in carrying on their operations in accordance with market requirements. The business acquires all current data and generalized information about market trends. All decisions are taken in order to focus on the customer’s current demands and thereby producing the right product. This results in avoiding resources of organisation and lowering risk.

Evaluate Market Performance

Market performance has an effective role in developing a good image of the business in the market. Marketing research helps the business in evaluating its performance in the market and taking action accordingly to improve it. It checks the effects of product, price, brand name, packaging etc. on sales volume. Marketing research studies the customer response towards company products in the market and provides all data. It evaluates and helps in choosing best pricing policies, distribution channel and advertising techniques which help in improving the market performance.

Facilitates Introduction of New Products

Marketing research enables the business to examine and introduce their new products in the market. It enables to conduct testing of new products in small or local markets initially and studies consumer reaction towards it. This helps the business in understanding the deficiencies and problem in their product. They can accordingly overcome these issues and develops an efficient marketing mix for their product. All these helps in minimising the risk involved in the launching of a new product. 

Choose Best Promotion Techniques

Selection of proper promotional techniques is a must for increasing the sales of a business. Marketing research helps business in deciding suitable promotional and marketing programmes for their products. It helps the business in understanding the customers’ needs and behaviour.

Accordingly, promotional techniques are designed and implemented which displays the keys wants of customers as the product features. It has an influencing and long-lasting effect on customers and helps in attracting more of them. Marketing research increases the sales of a business by choosing the best promotional measures.

Objectives of Marketing Research

Identify Customer Needs And Expectations

Marketing research helps business in understanding the needs and wants of customers. Proper knowledge of what customer want is necessary to deliver the products as per their expectations. Marketing research involves reaching out to customers and interacting with them to understand their demands. It helps in developing the right product as per customer requirements.

Minimise Marketing Costs

Marketing research process monitors and controls all marketing programmes. It performs a proper analysis and research of the market before formulating various marketing policies. It helps in choosing the efficient means of advertising and distributing the goods to reduce the marketing expenses. Marketing strategies used by competitors are also analysed through this process to design better plans for marketing.

Setting Up Proper Price Policy

Deciding a proper price is a crucial decision for every business organisation. Pricing policy should be such that it should neither adversely affects the customers nor the organisation itself. Market research conduct research about price policies adopted by several other competitors in the market. It collects a considerable amount of information regarding what competitors are charging and also what customers are willing to pay. This all helps in deciding optimum prices for different products.

Finds Target Market And New Opportunities

Identifying potential customers and new opportunities are important for grabbing the market. Marketing research explores the wide and large market and find out the opportunities for new products by recognising the unfulfilled needs of customers.

It finds and gathers collection about new areas where its products can be sold. Different information about people of that area like their taste and preferences, purchasing power, culture and tradition is collected and analysed to target that area.

Recognise Deficiencies In Product

Marketing research helps the companies in identifying the deficiencies in their products. Timely identification and removal of faults from company products is essential to retain its image in the market. Marketing research process involves interacting with customers and takes their valuable feedback and suggestion.

These suggestions and feedback from customer help the customers in improving their product quality. Marketing research also informs of any technological changes in market to business so that accordingly changes can be made timely.

Product Positioning In Market

Positioning of product among targeted customers is an important task. It is the means through which customers are attracted and the market for the product is developed. Marketing research process collects all relevant information about the targeted audience.

This information helps in designing a company offers an image that may attract customers and have a long-lasting effect on their mind. Positioning strategy is designed differently for each product that may attract large customers. These strategies should clearly denote the main features of products.

Process of Marketing Research

Problem identification.

The first and foremost step in the marketing research process. The identification of problems. For which the research is to be conducted. Unless and until the problem is recognized clearly. No clear cut plan can be formed leading to wastage of resources.

Research Plan Formulation

It consists of strategies. That is to be followed, for solving the problem and achieving the required objectives goals. It involves various  data sources . From which data is to be collected. Various research approaches, contacting ways and sampling methods.

Acquiring And Gathering Information

It is one of the important step in this process. Its focus is on a collection of all required information. Using various data sources. So that the result will come true and fair.

Interpretation Of Information

The successful collection of all required information. A systematic and proper study is to be done. To conduct a successful analysis of all collected information. To get details in accordance with the research plan.

Result Presentation

In this step, all the findings of the process are presented to  management  team. For the researcher to take efficient decision-making.

Decision Making

This is the ending of the marketing research process. Once the research results are presented to the management team. They use this research information in their decision-making.

Marketing research plays an important role in studying consumer behaviour. It is very efficient tool for the marketers to understand the trends of the market that mainly consists of information relating to new product launch in the market, trends in consumer demand, pricing strategy of the competitor and available close substitutes of the product.

Marketing research companies easily identify what their customers want which helps in developing products of their use so that competitive advantage over other competitors can be maintained in the market. It helps in finding out the target market and interacts directly with potential customers to get valuable feedback and suggestion. These all information acquired through this process enables in the smooth functioning of the marketing process.

Related posts:

• Nature and Importance of Consumer Behaviour
• Characteristics of Organisational Behaviour
• Functions of Marketing Information System
• Nature and Scope of Marketing Management
• Meaning & Process of Customer Relationship Management
• 9 Applications of Marketing Research

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