This document provides an overview of marketing research and its purpose. It discusses the marketing research process, including defining problems, developing approaches, designing research, collecting and analyzing primary and secondary data, and reporting findings. Primary data collection methods like questionnaires, interviews, focus groups and observation are explained. Secondary data sources include internal company records and external sources like government statistics, trade associations, and commercial reports. The document also distinguishes between qualitative and quantitative information and research methods.

1. MARKETING RESEARCH higher diploma assignment
By: MAHA H

2. Table of contents
S.no Topic Page no
1. Marketing Research and its purpose 3
2. Scanning the environment 4
3. Marketing Research Process to achieve objectives 5
4. Primary data 6
 Questionnaires
 Interviews
 Focus groups
 Observation
5. Secondary data 9
 Internal sources of information
 External sources of information
6. Qualitative and Quantitative information 11
7. References 12
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3. Market Research and Marketing Research are often confused
with each other. Market Research is simply the research done into a specific market and it is a very
narrow concept .Marketing Research on the other hand is much broader and not only includes market
research, but also areas such as research into new products, modes of distribution i.e researching the
whole of a company's marketing process .
Marketing research is a systematic gathering, recording and analyzing the data that links the consumer,
customer, and public to the marketer through the information that is used to identify and define marketing
opportunities and problems i.e generating, refining and evaluating the marketing actions, monitoring the
marketing performance, and understanding marketing as a process. Marketing research also specifies the
information that is required to address issues and designing methods for the data managing, implementing
the collection process of data, analyzing it and thus communicating the findings and the suggestions.
Purpose of Marketing Research
It can help a business do one or more of the following such as:
 Gain a more detailed understanding of the consumer's needs – it can help the firms to discover
consumer's opinions on a huge range of issues such as prices of the product, packaging, recent
advertising campaigns etc.
 Reduce the risk of product/business failure - there is no guarantee that any new idea will be a
commercial success, but an accurate and up to date information of the market can help a business
to make informed decisions i.e. leading to products that consumers want sufficiently in order to
achieve commercial success.
 Forecast future trends - marketing research does not only provide information of the current
state of the market but it can also be used to anticipate the future customer needs so that the firms
can then make necessary adjustments to their product portfolios and the levels of output in order
to remain successful.
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4. Scanning the environment
Environmental scanning is the acquisition and the use of information about events, trends, and
relationships in an organization's external environment, the information of which would assist the
management to plan the organization's future course of action. Organizations scan the environment to
understand about the external forces of change so that they may develop effective responses which may
secure or improve their position in the future. They scan to avoid surprises, to identify threats and
opportunities, to gain competitive advantage, and to improve long-term and short-term planning. The
degree to which an organization's ability to adapt to its outside environment is dependent is about
knowing and interpreting the external changes that are taking place. Therefore, environmental scanning
constitutes a primary mode of organizational learning and it may also include both looking at information
(viewing) and looking for information (searching). It could range from a casual conversation at the lunch
table to a formal market research program.
Scanning is influenced by external factors such as environmental turbulence, resource dependency and
organizational factors such as the nature of the business and the strategy pursued information factors (the
availability and quality of information) and personal factors (scanner's knowledge or cognitive style).
Thus, the research on scanning investigates the effect of situational dimensions, organizational strategies,
information needs, and personal traits on scanning behavior.
Figure 1:
Scanning is influenced by the external factors like environmental turbulence, resource dependency and
organizational factors like the nature of the business and the strategy pursued, information factors like the
availability and quality of information and personal factors like the scanner's knowledge or cognitive
style. Thus, the research on scanning investigates the effect of situational dimensions, organizational
strategies, information needs, and personal traits on scanning behavior (as shown in Figure 1 and 2).
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5. Figure 2:
Every company has to follow a series of steps of the Marketing Research Process in order to achieve
its objectives.
Defining the market problem – the problem identified should be clear and precise.
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6. Developing an approach – the approach developed or designed should be nearly flawless and should
be able to solve the identified problem.
Developing an actual research design – it should be designed very carefully with expertise, time and
thought as it is the most encompassing step of the research process.
Marketing research can be classified into:
 Exploratory research - The purpose of it is to reach a better understanding of the research
problem.
 Descriptive research - As the name suggests, it is concerned with describing market and
marketing mix characteristics.
 Causal research – it deals with the questions when the researcher wants to know why a change in
one variable brings about a change in another.
Data collection – this step involves all the field related work i.e. the information is gathered. E.g. through
questionnaires, observation, interviews etc.
Data preparation and analysis – in this step all the data is collected and is systematically organized
so that it can easily be interpreted and analyzed by the decision makers.
Report preparation and presentation – This is the final step of the marketing research process; the data
findings and the information should be reported and presented in such a way that the decision makers can
easily make use of it to make fruitful decisions.
The data collected can be classified into:
Primary data – It is also known as field research and it collects the first hand data involving the
direct contact with the potential or existing customers. This kind of data can be collected by using
methods such as interviews, questionnaires etc. The key point is that the data which the company
collects in the research is unique to the firm and no one else can have access to it until it is published.
The data is always collected by choosing a sample and its size of the population to ask.
Sample and sample size - Samples can random or non random. Random samples can either be simple
non-random or multi-random (stratified). Non random samples may include quotas, selective or
judgmental methods. With random samples it is possible to be more sophisticated in the analysis by
using parametric methods of analysis or else project results with greater statistical reliability. With
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7. non random sampling techniques, descriptive statistics are more appropriate. Another important
decision is the sample size, the larger the sample size and more difficult it is to obtain i.e. if randomly
chosen the higher the cost will be whereas, quota sampling might be cheaper.
Some of the main methods of primary data collection may include:
Questionnaires
Interviews
Focus groups
Observation
Questionnaires
A questionnaire is a set of questions to be answered by the respondents as a means of collecting of data. It
usually takes the written form. The questions asked in a questionnaire can either be close ended or open
ended or both.
Interviews
Interviewing is a method that is primarily used to gain an understanding of the underlying reasons and
motivations of people’s attitudes, preferences or behavior. Interviews usually consist of the interviewer
(the person asking the questions) and an interviewee (a person answering the questions).The interviews
can be based on either be personal i.e. one-to-one basis or in a group. They can be conducted at work, at
home, in the street or in a shopping centre, or some other agreed location. Interviews can be conducted
face to face or over the telephone etc.
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8. Focus groups
They are basically the discussions conducted by a researcher with a group of respondents who are
considered to be representative for the target market. These meetings are usually held in an informal
setting and are moderated by the researcher and the sessions are videotaped.
Focus groups is perhaps an ideal technique available in terms of costs and time to test new ideas and
concepts towards brands and products in order to study customer's response to creative media such as
advertisements and packaging design or to detect trends in consumer's aspect and perception. One of the
important benefits of focus groups is the presence of several respondents in the same time, providing a
certain synergy. Disadvantages may refer mainly to the costs that maybe involved or the scarcity of good
professionals to conduct the interviews and discussions.
Observation
It involves recording the behavioral patterns of people, objects and events in a systematic manner.
Few of the observational methods may be:
Structured or unstructured - structured observation is where the researcher specifies in detail
what is to be observed and how the measurements are to be recorded. In unstructured
observation, the researcher monitors all aspects of the phenomenon that seem relevant.
Disguised or undisguised - In disguised observation the respondents are unaware that they are
being observed and thus they behave naturally. In undisguised observation the respondents are
aware that they are being observed.
Natural or contrived – in natural observation involves observing the behavior as it takes place in
the environment. In contrived observation, the respondent's behavior is observed in an artificial
environment.
Personal – In this kind of observation a researcher observes actual behavior as it occurs.
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9. Secondary data
It is also known as desk research. It is the data which has already been collected by individuals or
agencies for purposes other than those of our particular research study. As secondary data is already
available it is entirely appropriate and wholly adequate to draw conclusions in order to answer the
questions or to solve the problem. It is far cheaper to collect secondary data than to collect primary data.
For same level of the research budget at times a thorough examination of secondary sources can yield a
great deal of more information than the primary data collection process.
The data is collected either by the:
Internal sources of information – a lot of information may already be available readily n cheaply
from the firm's own records. Some of the examples of the internal sources may include:
Sales department–of every organization may collect information in the course of their everyday
operations. It provides information from the sales records, pricing data, customer records, sales
reports etc.
Finance department– may provide detailed information on costs of manufacturing products or
providing services and marketing each of its products and product lines..
Transport data: Most of the companies keep records relating to their transport operations they can
be used to determine the most profitable routes, and loads, as well as the most cost effective
routing patterns. Also, may enable the enterprise to perform trade-off analysis and thereby
establish whether it makes economic sense to own or hire vehicles, or the point at which a balance
of the two gives the best financial outcome.
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10. Storage data: It consists of the rate of stock turn, stock handling costs, also assessing the
efficiency of certain marketing operations and of the marketing system as a whole. Used to use
information that it offers in order to calculate profitability.
External sources of information – these are the sources of information obtained from outside the
company. These sources may be varied and tend to depend on the type of the product that is being
researched. This type of data is inevitably of a general nature as it has been gathered for some
purpose other than research that is being undertaken. Some examples of the external sources may
include:
Government statistics – may provide detailed general information about things such as:
· Population censuses
· Social surveys, family expenditure surveys
· Import/export statistics
· Production statistics
· Agricultural statistics
Trade associations- of an industry may provide information about that industry. It may
differ widely in the extent of their data collection and information dissemination activities.
However, it is worth checking with them to decide what they publish.
Commercial services – they are the published market research reports and other
publications that are available from a wide range of organizations which charge for their
information. Marketers are interested in media statistics and consumer information which
can be obtained from large scale consumer panels.
National and international institutions - Bank economic reviews, university research
reports, journals and articles are all useful sources of information and the international
agencies such as World Bank, IMF, IFAD, UNDP etc produce a plethora of secondary data
which can prove extremely useful to the marketing researcher.
The data that is collected from both the primary data or secondary data methods stated above can be
classified into:
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11. Qualitative information – it refers to the conditions or information that can at most be only
partially enumerated. For example: descriptions of beliefs and cultural practices etc. Qualitative
methods capture the contextual setting associated with the information or the situations affecting
people’s lives. For example it can be drawn from n-depth interviews, focus group discussions,
casual meetings etc.
 Quantitative information - it refers to the data or information that can be enumerated.
Quantitative information is gathered to summarize the experience of large groups of people, to
make comparisons between groups, and to track changes among them over time. Quantitative
information can be expressed in numbers. For example it can be drawn from, Service statistics,
Surveys, census etc.
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12. References:
http://www.quickmba.com/marketing/research/
http://people.uwec.edu/piercech/researchmethods/data%20collection%20methods/data%20collection%
20methods.htm
Karen Borrington and Peter Stimpson 1999, IGCSE Business Studies, John Murray Ltd, United
Kingdom.
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