Marketing Research

1. 1
Marketing research
• What is marketing?
• What is the marketing concept?
• What is marketing strategy ?

2. 2
What is Marketing?
• Marketing has been defined by the AMA as an organizational
function and a set of processes for creating, communicating
and delivering value to customers and for managing customer
relationships in ways that benefit the organization and its
stakeholders.

3. 3
What is Marketing Strategy?
• A Marketing Strategy consists of selecting a segment of the
market as the company’s target market and designing the
proper “mix” of the product/service, price, promotion, and
distribution system to meet the wants and needs of the
consumers within the target market.

4. 4
What is Marketing Research?
• Definition 1
“Marketing research is the process of designing, gathering,
analyzing, and reporting information that may be used to
solve a specific marketing problem”
( Burns and Bush).

5. Definition 2
Marketing research: the function that 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 the
understanding of marketing as a process.
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6. 6
Objectives of
Marketing Research
• Identify marketing opportunities and problems.
• Generate, refine, and evaluate potential marketing actions.
• Monitor marketing performance.
• Improve marketing as a process.
• To link the consumer to the marketer by providing information
that can be used in making marketing decisions.

7. Application of Marketing
Research
• Application of marketing research can be divided
into two broad areas:
• Strategic
• Tactical
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8. 1. Strategic
Among the strategic areas marketing research applications would be
• demand forecasting,
• sales forecasting,
• segmentation studies,
• identification of target markets for a given product,
• positioning strategies identification.
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9. 2. Tactical
In tactical application, we would have applications such as
• product testing,
• pricing research,
• advertising research,
• promotional research,
• distribution and logistics related research
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10. Some examples of application of Marketing
Research
• A study of consumer buying habits for detergents-frequency ,pack size,
effect of promotion, brand loyalty and so forth.
• To find out the potential demand for ready-to-eat chapattis in Mumbai
City.
• To determine which of the three proposed ingredients-tulsi, coconut oil or
neem, the consumer would like to have in toilet soap.
• To find the effectiveness of the advertising campaign for a car brand.
• To determine brand awareness and brand loyalty for branded PC.
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11. Limitation of marketing research
• As marketing research can be extremely
rewarding to a Customer Competition firm, it
is wise to know that it is subject to certain
limitations.
• Marketing research tends to be fragmentary in
its approach as a result of which it becomes
difficult to have an overall perspective in which
a marketing problem is to be viewed and
studied.
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12. • Marketing research is criticized on the ground
that it becomes too superficial and faculty in
industry.
• There is an absence of a meaningful dialogue
between the marketing management and the
marketing research team. As a result,
marketing researchers get divorced form the
main stream of marketing
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13. Marketing Research during different
phases of the administrative process
• Phase I –Setting goals and establishing strategies
• Phase 2- Developing a plan
• Phase 3- Putting the plan into action
• Phase 4 –Evaluating the plans effectiveness
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14. Phase 1-Setting goals and
establishing strategies
• Dissatisfaction and needs in relevant market
segment.
• Demand size and trend
• Industry/market strucutre composition , competition
• Technological and materials innovations
• Distribution, environmental and legal developments.
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15. Phase 2 – Developing a plan
• Identify key market segments by product
category.
• Identify market segment attitudes toward
present products, promotions and advertising.
• Test the effectiveness of advertising and
promotion .
• Evaluate the needs and attitudes of channel
members.
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16. Phase -3- Putting the plan into
action
• Total industry and product class sales.
• Firm’s sales, by product and market
• Product availability in retail stores , shelf
space, retailer support, and so on
• Awareness and trial in relevant market
segments.
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17. Phase 4 – Evaluating the plan’s
effectiveness
• End of period compilation and
aggregation of operating data to present
and accurate picture of performance.
• Also summary of survey findings on
consumer awareness, trial attitudes,
preferences, repurchase rates, and so
on.
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18. The Marketing Research Process: 11
Steps
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 Step One: Establishing the Need for Marketing Research
 Step Two: Defining the Problem
 Step Three: Establishing Research Objectives
 Step Four: Determining Research Design
 Step Five: Identifying Information Types and Sources
 Step Six: Determining Methods of Accessing Data

19. The Marketing Research Process:
11 Steps
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• Step Seven: Designing Data Collection Forms
• Step Eight: Determining Sample Plan and Size
• Step Nine: Collecting Data
• Step Ten: Analyzing Data
• Step Eleven: Preparing and Presenting the Final Report

20. The Marketing Research Process: 11
Steps
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Marketing Research 5e :Burns &Bush

21. Step 1: Establish the Need for
Marketing Research
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• Is there a real need for marketing research?
• Research takes time and costs money.
• Marketing research is not always needed.

22. Step 1: Establish the Need for
Marketing Research
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• When is marketing research not needed?
– The information is already available.
– Decisions must be made now.
– We can’t afford research.
– Costs outweigh the value of marketing
research.

23. Step 2: Define the Problem
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• This is the most important of the 11 steps.
• If the problem is incorrectly defined, all else is
wasted effort.
• Problems may be either specific or general.

24. Step 2: Define the Problem
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• Problems stem from gaps between what is
supposed to happen and what did happen and
gaps between what did happen and what could
be happening.

25. Step 3: Establish Objectives
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• Research objectives, when achieved, provide the
information necessary to solve the problem identified
in step 2.
• Research objectives state what the researchers must
do.

26. Step Four: Determine Research Design
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• Exploratory Research: collecting information in an
unstructured and informal manner.
• Descriptive Research refers to a set of methods and
procedures describing marketing variables.
• Causal Research (experiments): allows isolation of
causes and effects.

27. Step 5: Identify Information Types
and Sources
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• Primary information: information collected
specifically for the problem at hand.
• Secondary information: information already
collected

28. Step 6: Determine Methods of
Accessing Data
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 Secondary data is relatively easy to access;
primary data is more complex.
 Three main choices for primary data:
Have a person ask questions
Use computer assisted or direct questioning
Allow respondents to answer questions
themselves without computer assistance

29. Step 7: Design Data Collection
Forms
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• Questionnaire must be worded objectively, clearly, and
without bias in order to communicate with
respondents.
• Software programs are available to assist marketing
researchers in preparing forms.

30. Step 8: Determine Sample Plan and
Size
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• Sample plan refers to the process used to select units
from the population to be included in the sample.
• Sample size refers to determining how many elements
of the population should be included in the sample.

31. Step 9: Collect Data
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• Data collection is very important because, regardless of
the data analysis methods used, data analysis cannot
fix bad data.
• Nonsampling errors may occur during data collection.

32. Step 9: Collect Data
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• Data collection errors may be attributed to field
workers or respondents.
• Researchers must know the sources of these errors
and the controls to minimize them.

33. Step 10: Analyze Data
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• Data analysis involves entering data into computer
files, inspecting data for errors, and running
tabulations and various statistical tests.
• Data cleaning is a process by which raw data are
checked to verify that the data have been correctly
inputted from the data collection form to the
computer software program.

34. Step 11: Prepare and Present the
Final Research Report
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• The last step is one of the most important phases of
marketing research.
• Its importance cannot be overstated because it is the
report, or its presentation, that properly
communicates the results to the client.