Core Concepts of Marketing

70 CHAPTER 3 M ARKETINGRESEARCH: ANAIDTODECISIONMAKING

MARKETING CAPSULE.

1.The following steps are involvedinconducting marketing

research:

a. Making a preliminary investigation

b. Creatingthe researchdesign

Summary

c. Conductingtheinvestigation

d. Processingthe data/delivertheresults

Fourmajor elements are involvedinundertakingmarketing re search. Thefirstelementif.a prelimi-

nary investigation.Thisinitial study permits the researchertodeterminethepurposeandscopeofhis

researchaswell as to identify tent ative questions.

Creating a researchdesign to testthe questions is the most importantandmostcomplicated

aspectof marketingresearch.Itcommences with theselectionoftheapproachtobetaken.Thethree

mostcommonlyusedarethe experimental , theobservational,andthesurveyapproaches.Anygiven

projec t mayuse oneormoreof thethree.

It is alsonecessary to determine thetypesofdatathatwillbe neededtosolvethemarketing

proble mandtolocatesources where thi s information canbeobtained. Datasourcesaregt;nerally

cl assifi edas either primary or secondary.Secondarydataaremadeupofpreviouslycollectedinfor-

mationandareobtainedfromhistoricalrecords,publications, govemmentdocuments, andthelike.

Primarydataaregathered forthefirst time.The survey methodisprobablythemostfrequentlyused

methodforcollec ting primary data.Data are by gatheredbym ail,bytelephone,bypersonalinter-

viewing, and online.

Anothercritical aspect of most m arketing rese archprojects is theselectionofthesample.A

probab ilitysampl e involvestheselectionofrespondents insucha way thateveryunitinthepoolhas

the same chance of beingselected. One method of drawinga probability sample isbytheuseofa

tableofrandomd igi ts. Anonpro bability sample is drawn on ajudgmentalbasis;[herespondentsare

selectedbecause they are considered toberepresentative of thegro upfromwhichtheyaredrawn.

Thefinalas pectof the research designis the anticipationofthere sultsandthedecisionasto

howth e datawillbe summarized and reported.Itis becomingmoreandmorecommoninlargemar-

ketingresearchprojectsto makeuseof acomputerfortheprocessingandtabulationoftheresearch

results.Some problems usually arise , however, andcarefulsupervisionandcontrolofthedata-col-

lectionactivitiesareimportant.It is particularly criticaltogl1Q!'daga~nstvariouskindsofsurveybias

that cancreepinto a project.

Marketer'sVocabulary

Marketingresearch Thescientificand controlledgathelingofnonroutinemarketinginformation

undertakentohelpmanagementsolve marketing problems.

Informalassessment An unstructuredsearchofth e marketingenvironmenl.

Researchdesign Planproposed for testing the research questionsas wellascollectingandpro-

cess inginformation.

Experimentalapproach Variableinterestmust be manipulatedamiev(;ryoneparticipatinginthe

experiment must have a knownand equal chanceof beingselected.