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