Introduction to Marketing Research PDF

TOPIC 1 Introduction To Marketing 1-27 1  LEARNING OUTCOMES By end of this topic, you should be able to: define what market research is; differentiate between basic and applied research; describe the importance of research to a manager; know when business research is needed....

TOPIC 1 Introduction To Marketing 1-27 1  LEARNING OUTCOMES By end of this topic, you should be able to: define what market research is; differentiate between basic and applied research; describe the importance of research to a manager; know when business research is needed. 1-27 2  Meaning of Marketing Research Marketing Research has two words, i.e., ‘marketing’ and ‘research’. Marketing means creating, communicating, and delivering value to the customers and managing customer relationships. Research means a systematic and complete study of a problem using scientific methods. So, “Marketing Research” is a systematic method of collecting, recording and analysing of data to solve marketing problems.” 1-27 3 Scope of Business Research 1-27 4  Scope of Business Research Business research covers wide range of phenomena: Problems may occur in any areas of business No clear boundaries on the classification of problems on the basis of areas Integration of problems related to two and more areas External environment facing the business 1-27 5 Illustration: i. Supposing you are a soft drink manufacturer and you have a new flavour of soft drink that you want to sell ii. Before you get into the selling stage, you must start off with an marketing research. That you must collect information systematically, in a methodical, organised manner. iii. Then you go out to conduct some surveys, focus groups, observations, or provide some free drinks to test the market. 1-27 6 iv. After collected the responses, you analyse the responses thoroughly. Every single consumer would tell you something different. v. If you group these information together, it will tell you something in common. That is what you need to cross-reference, or co-relate between consumers, like, certain age groups like certain flavour, certain income level groups like certain flavour. 1-27 7 vi. The last part is regarding the variety of information together. You don’t simply conduct surveys, or form focus groups. You want it from different variety of sources and from different ways to a lot of consumers for more accurate results. 1-27 8  Intuition Decisions vs. Marketing Research Intuition Decisions Based on feelings and prior knowledge Made automatically and instinctively Marketing Research Provides ‘hard data; based on supportable facts and figures. For marketing decision, it needs to combine both. 1-27 9 Four Stages in a Research Process To be a responsible marketeer, he/she has to understand and environment and the nature of the phenomena it presents. This can be understood as finding a solution to the missing gap between what we know and what it should be. In order to achieve this, marketeers 1-27 go through several 10  Stage 1: Problem identification Stage 2: Gather the relevant information Stage 3: Critical analysis of the information Stage 4: Provide solution to the problem 1-27 11  2 Types of Business Research A)Basic Research (also known as fundamental or pure research) 1. Primary objective of the advancement of knowledge and theoretical understanding 2. Not undertaken to solve any specific problem 3. Often is the foundation for further applied research 1-27 12 B) Applied Research 1. Use knowledge (research findings) for practical concerns 2. Solve problem faced by the organisation in the work setting 3. Application of known theories to the actual operational field. 1-27 13 Importance of Business Research to a Manager Research is important to any business manager: 1. To stay competitive in the market 2. To accurately identify or understand its customers 3. To scrutinise its industry rivals 4. To analyse and imitate key strategies 5. To keep abreast on all aspects of the business 1-27 14 6. To make right decisions in timely manner 7. To be well informed and up-to-date in their area of specialisation 8. To find out recent developments in particulate industries 9. To understand, predict and control the environment of the organisation. 1-27 15 1-27 16  When is Business Research Needed? We will conduct marketing research when a business needs to make a marketing decision. Typical factors: 1. Time constraints 2. Availability of data 3. Nature of decision 4. Benefit versus costs. 1-27 17  Typical situations: Introduce new product Change existing product Location for new store Where/when/how to advertise 1-27 18  e – o k w C t e Ne ark Fail? M ch e a r Re s A Brand Is More Than its Features !! Consumers feel the sense of loss1-27 when old Coke was discontinued 19 Ethical Consideration in Research The goal of ethics in research is to ensure that no one is harmed or suffers adverse consequences in the research. Honest assess of the capabilities Must be conducted in a professional manner Information collected shall not be misused for any other purpose Target respondents who can provide relevant information 1-27 20  Participation is voluntary Confidentiality of the replies Not to embarrass respondents Impartial and unbiased to accurately record all data. 1-27 21 1-27 22  QUIZ #1 Which of these is the best definition of a market- oriented business? A. The firm does market research after launching a product. B. The firm produces a good that it believes will be successful. C. The firm does market1-27 research before designing 23 a  ANSWER #1 Which of these is the best definition of a market- oriented business? A. The firm does market research after launching a product. B. The firm produces a good that it believes will be successful. C. The firm does market 1-27 research before 24  QUIZ #2 Which of the following questions is market research not likely to find an answer to? A. Would consumers be likely to buy my product? B. Which source of material should I use? C. What price would consumers be likely to pay? D. Which businesses will be the main competitors? 1-27 25  ANSWER #2 Which of the following questions is market research not likely to find an answer to? A. Would consumers be likely to buy my product? B. Which source of material should I use? C. What price would consumers be likely to pay? D. Which businesses will be the main competitors? 1-27 26  SUMMARY Marketing Research is a systematic method of collecting, recording and analysing of data to solve marketing problems. Basic research is fundamentally a pure research for the advancement of knowledge and theoretical understanding. Applied research practically uses findings to solve an organisation's work problems. 1-27 27  Marketing research assists managers to identify problems that are hindering performance or the ability to complete tasks, and come up with viable solutions to those problems. A business research is needed when there are time constraints to find the solutions, easy availability of data, nature of decision that needs big samples, and when benefit exceeds costs. 1-27 28