The document outlines the 5 steps of the marketing research process: 1) Defining the problem, 2) Analyzing the situation, 3) Getting problem-specific data, 4) Interpreting the data, and 5) Solving the problem. It emphasizes that properly defining the problem is critical, as researching the wrong problem wastes time and resources. Secondary research including informal discussions can help define the problem and determine if primary research is needed. Primary research methods include qualitative questioning, quantitative surveys, and observation. Proper interpretation and application of the research findings is necessary to solve the problem and guide marketing decisions.

2.  When you as a manager or a business owner
come to that point – a point for making strategic
decisions and choosing direction for your company
future or its products and services – you should
have in mind the following 5 steps marketing
research process for conducting a successful
marketing research project:
 Defining the problem
 Analyzing the situation
 Getting problem specific data
 Interpreting the data
 Solving the problem

4. Defining the problem is often the most difficult step in the marketing
research process. It is very important for the objectives of the research to be
clearly defined, because the best research job on the wrong problem is a
wasted effort, time and resources for the company.
Finding the right problem level almost solves the problem
Let me share with you one example about the importance of understanding
the problem-and then trying to solve it.
Fab One Shot was a laundry product developed to clean, soften and reduce
static cling all in one step. Marketing managers were sure that Fab One Shot
was going to appeal to heavy users, especially working women with large
families. Research show that 80% of this women used 3 different laundry
products, but they were looking for more convenience. When marketing
managers found that other firms were testing similar products, they rushed
Fab One Shot into distribution. They have spent lots of money in advertising
but the results were poor. Main reason: the research never addressed the
problem of how the heavy user target market would react.

5. Don’t confuse problems with symptoms
The problem definition step sound simple- and that is the
danger. It is easy to confuse problems with symptoms. When
this happens, the research objectives are not clear, and
researchers may ignore relevant questions while analyzing
unimportant questions in expensive detail.
Setting research objectives may require more
understanding
Companies rarely have enough time and money to study
everything. A manager must narrow the research objectives.
One good way is to develop a list of research questions that
includes all the possible problem areas. Then the manager
can consider the items in the list more completely before
narrowing down to final research objectives.

6. What information do we already have?
A situation analysis is an informal study of what information
is already available in the problem area. It can help define the
problem and specify what additional information, if any, is
needed.
Pick the brains around you
The situation analysis usually involves informal talks with
informed people. Informed people can be employees in the
company, customers, subcontractors, stakeholders, etc.
Situation analysis helps educate a researcher
The situation analysis is especially important if the researcher
is a research specialist who doesn’t know much about the
management decisions to be made or if the marketing
manager is dealing with unfamiliar areas.

7. Secondary data may provide the answers-or some
background
Secondary data is information that has been collected or
published already. There are numerous sources of secondary
data: company’s files, libraries, associations, government
agencies, private research organizations, etc.
This days the most powerful source for secondary data is the
Internet. But be aware that there are lots of information on the
Internet that does not necessary are true. Therefore always
check the source of the data.
Situation analysis yields a lot for very little
Situation analysis can be very informative but takes a little
time. It is inexpensive compared with more formal research
(like survey). It can help focus further research or even
eliminate the need of it entirely.

8. Gathering primary data
The next step after the secondary data research is to
plan a formal research project and gather primary data.
There are different methods for collecting primary data.
Which approach to use depends on the nature of the
problem and how much time and money are available.
Since most of the primary data collection is conducted
to learn something about the customers, there are 2
basic methods for obtaining information about
customers: questioning and observing. Questioning
can range from qualitative to quantitative research,
while there are many kinds of observing.

10. Questioning – Qualitative research
Qualitative questioning seeks in-depth, open-ended
responses, not yes or no answer. The researcher tries to get
people to share their thoughts on a topic without giving them
many directions or guidelines about what to say. The real
advantage of this approach is depth. Each person can be
asked follow-up questions so that researcher really
understands what that respondent is thinking. The depth of the
qualitative approach gets at the details – even if the
researcher needs a lot of judgment to summarize it all. Focus
groups a good example of qualitative questioning.
Questioning – Quantitative research
Qualitative research can provide good ideas-hypotheses. But
we need other approaches based on more representative
samples and objective measures to test the hypotheses.

11. Quantitative research seeks structured responses that can be summarized in
numbers, like percentages, averages, or other statistics. For example,
marketing researcher might calculate what percentage of respondents have
tried a new product and then figure an average score for how satisfied they
were.
Furthermore there are several advantages of the quantitative research:
Structure questioning gives more objective results
Fixed responses speed up answering and analysis
We can measure attitudes with quantitative research
It can be conducted in many forms: by mail, phone, in person, via website…
Observing – what you see is what you get
Observing, as a method of collecting data, focuses on a well-defined
problem. Here we are not talking about the casual observations that may
stimulate ideas in the early steps of a research project. With the observation
method, researchers try to see or record what the subject does naturally.
They don’t want the observing to influence the subject’s behavior.

12. What does it really mean?
After collecting the data, it has to be analyzed to decide what it all means. In
quantitative research, this step usually involves statistics.
Is your sample really representative?
It is usually impossible for marketing managers to collect all the information
they want about everyone in a population. Therefore, marketing researcher
typically study only a sample, a part, of a relevant population. How well a
sample represents the total population affects the results.
Research results are not exact
An estimate from a sample, even a representative one, usually varies
somewhat from the true value for a total population. Managers sometimes
forget this. There is a common rule for the accuracy of the results: The larger
the sample size, the greater the accuracy of estimates from a random
sample. But have in mind that the larger the sample size is, the greater the
cost of the research will be.

13. Validity problems can destroy research
Even if the sample is carefully planned, it is also important to
evaluate the quality of the research data itself. Managers and
researchers should be sure that the research data really measures
what it is supposed to measure.
Validity problems are important in marketing research, because
many people will try to answer even when they don’t know what they
are talking about. Further, poorly worded question can mean different
things to different people and invalidate the results.
Poor interpretation can destroy research
Marketing manager must consider whether the analysis of data
supports the conclusions drawn in the interpretation step.
Sometimes technical specialists pick the right statistical procedure,
their calculations are exact, but they misinterpret the data because
they don’t understand the management problem. To solve this
problem marketing managers and researchers should work together.

14. In this step managers use the research
results to make marketing decisions. When
the research process is finished the
marketing manager should be able to
apply the findings in marketing strategy
planning, the choice of a target market or
the mix in the 4Ps. If the research doesn’t
provide information to help guide these
decisions, the company has wasted
research time and money.