Salesforecasts
Costforecasts
Producttesting
Consumerneeds
Consumerattitudes
Consumerproductusage
Marketsize/trends
Productreplacement
PROCEDURESANDTECHNIOUESINMARKETINGRESEARCH 57
Demographictrends
Legislativeimpact
Pricetesting
Marketingcommunicationtesting
Channellocations
Competition
Psychographictrends
Environmentaltrends
FI GURE3.2 Areasofresearchapplication
ProceduresandTechniquesinMarketingResearch
Consideringtherelativelyshortspanoftimeinwhichmarketingresearchhasdeveloped
sincethe1930s, it isquite remarkablethatsosophisticatedandthorougha collectionof
procedures andtechniquesshouldhavebeendeveloped.Inmany respects,marketingresearch
has advancedfasterthananyotherspecializedareainmarketingmanagement.Inviewof
thehighlyspecialized natureofmarketingresearch,it is notpossibleinthisdiscussionto
presentmorethananoutlineofthebasicproceduresandtechniques.
Itisimportantfora marketingmanagertobefamiliarwiththebasicproceduresand
techniquesofmarketingresearch.Itistruethatmanybusinesspeoplewillneverhaveocca-
siontoengagepersonallyinmarketingresearch.However,itisquitelikelythat theywill
befacedwitha needeithertosuperviseaninternalmarketingresearchactivityortowork
withanoutsidemarketingresearchfirm.Themanagerwhounderstandstheresearchfunc-
tionisina positiontojudgeintelligentlytheproposalsmadebyresearchspecialistsandto
evaluatetheirfindingsandrecommendations. Occasionally,themanagerherselfwillhave
toseeksolutionstomarketingproblems.Itmaynotbepossibletoobtaintheservicesof
marketingresearchspecialists. The managerfamiliarwiththebasicproceduresoffact-find-
inginmarketingshouldbeabletosupervisea reasonablysatisfactorysearchfortheinfor-
mationrequired.
Thereisnosinglesetofstepsina marketresearchprocedurethatisacceptedbyall.
Indeed,eachmarketingresearchproblemrequires, tosomedegree,itsownpeculiarpro-
cedure.However, thereisgeneralagreementthatfourmajoractivitiesshouldbeperformed
ina thoroughmarketingresearchproject.Theseare:(1)makinga preliminaryinvestiga-
tion;(2)creatingtheresearchdesign;(3)conductingtheinvestigation; and(4)processing
thedata/reportingresults(seeFigure3.3) 2
Makinga PreliminaryInvestigation
Therearetwophasesofactivityinthepreliminaryinvestigation. Thefirstoftheseinvolves
thedeterminationofthepurpose andscopeoftheresearch.Thesecondinvolvesaninves-
tigationintothemarketingenvironmentcalledtheinformalassessment.
DeterminingthePurposeandScopeo ftheResearch
Thebasicandcriticalprobleminmarketingresearchisseldomtheproblemthatappears
onthesurface. Itisthereforenecessarytoexplorebeneaththesurfacetoascertainthenature
andsizeoftheproblem.Thisisthevitalfirststepandmustbedonecorrectly,sinceevery
subsequentphaseoftheprojectis directedatsolvingthebasicproblem. Fortheresearch
