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1. To determine the characteristics of

market research.
2. To discuss the six steps in the
marketing research process.
3. To evaluate several ways of
researching markets.

 A well-organized collection and

analysis of data about particular
groups of people (target markets),
competitors and other factors of
markets

target market: a specific group of consumers to

whom a company aims the selling of its products
or services

 Includes six steps:

1. defining the problem
2. developing the approach
3. identifying the research design
4. collecting the data
5. analyzing and interpreting the data
6. preparing the research report
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 A problem within a company may concern:

market potential
market share
company image
sales analysis
forecasting
any factor effecting the market potential of a
product

The problem will most likely be recognized on

more than one level of management
market potential: the maximum possible
sales of a product or service a company is
capable of producing
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 market share: the percentage of the

total sales of a specific product or
service from a given company
company image: the way current and
potential customers view the company
or organization
sales analysis: the process of
gathering, analyzing and comparing the
sales data of a company
forecasting: the estimating or
predicting in advance of future results of
sales by looking at current and past
sales
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 Consider the process necessary to reach your

marketing objective
Consider factors involved in the campaign:
project analysis: determines the difficulty of
the project and how capable your team is of
achieving the set goals
skills analysis: evaluates how much internal
and external research must be done and
determines who is
able to gather
the information
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 budget analysis: highlights available

funds and determines how much the
project is going to cost to complete
environment: determines the economic
environment relative to the companys
products or services, the influencing
factors of the environment and related
government regulations
overall theory: establishes the
hypothesis to prove or disprove with
research
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 Develop a framework for the design of

the research program
Set aside time and upper
management assistance
this step takes the most
amount of time, thought and
expertise of all steps in the process

Incorporate primary and secondary

data research
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 Are divided into the following categories:

secondary data which includes
internal and external research

primary data which includes

qualitative and quantitative research

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Secondary Data

Primary Data

Internal

Quantitative
External

Qualitative
descriptive

ready to use

information
other than
company
records

focus
Groups

causal

published
materials

projective
techniques
previously
gathered
information

exploratory
databases

depth
Interviews

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 Should be evaluated before any other

data is collected
Consists of information previously
gathered for a purpose other than the
one at hand
Can be located quickly and
inexpensively
Should be examined for reliability,
validity, relevance and accuracy
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Internal

External

published
materials

information
other than
company
records

ready to
use

previously
gathered
information

databases
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 Ready to use data

Data requiring little further processing
May include:

sales invoices
warranty cards
invoice books
management records
customer comments or suggestions
annual sales charts and goals

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 Includes
published materials

statistical data
census data
government publications
directories

computerized databases
bibliographic databases
numerical databases

syndicated services
surveys
scanner tracking of individuals
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 Is researched specifically for the matter at

hand
Is conducted after secondary data has
been collected
Is usually more expensive than secondary
data
Can be obtained through communication
or observation
observation: the recording of actions performed by
either a person or an electronic device.

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Qualitative

focus
groups

projective
techniques

Quantitative

exploratory
research
causal
research

depth
interviews

descriptive
research
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 Is collecting, analyzing and interpreting

data by observing what people do and
say
Involves in-depth interviewing of small
groups in an unstructured manner
Develops an initial understanding of
pubic opinion regarding products
Breaks down into focus groups,
projective techniques and depth
interviews

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 Consist of a small, prescreened, group of 8-12

participants discussing a specific topic in a
relaxed atmosphere
Are conducted to gather information on the launch
of a new product and determine its accessibility
and adaptability into the market
prescreening: selecting contestants on the
basis of demographics, product usage and past
consumer behavior
demographics: the physical characteristics of a
population, such as: age, gender, income,
education, occupation, etc.
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 Are used to judge customer reactions to a

new advertising campaign
May obtain depth data pertaining to
motivation, branding, intentions, knowledge
and attitudes
Use a moderator to take and record the
observations of the participants
Consist of asking questions, drawing out
answers and encouraging discussion
amongst the group
Are usually recorded with audiocassettes
and/or videos
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 The Buick division of General Motors held

focus groups to help develop a new model
of car they were working on. They set up
the focus groups in 20 different locations
across the country in order to interview a
wide selection of people. The research
found the main features people desired in
the car were a stylish body, legitimate
backseat, at least 20 miles to the gallon
and certain speeds of acceleration.
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 Place participants in stimulating activities

where they may reveal information they would
not under direct questioning
Examples of projective techniques:
cartoons: respondents are asked to
complete a comic strip
scenario with their own
phrases or situations
word association: respondents are given
a word and then asked to reply with the first
word or phrase which comes to mind
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 Are instructed one-on-one interviews

used to gain opinions of respondents
Utilize projection techniques such as
cartoons and word association
Are ideal for researching sensitive,
personal or confidential topics
Are good for interviewing people with
busy lifestyles not able to attend
focus groups
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 Uses structured questions of a

large number of participants
where response options are
predetermined
Consists of numbers and hard
data and is used to find a final
course of action
Breaks down into exploratory,
descriptive and causal
research
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 Is used to provide insight and understanding,

clarify concepts and form hypothesis
Is flexible and is used as a basis of study
when little is known about the topic or
situation of the campaign
Is usually followed by further exploratory
research or conclusive research
hypothesis: a temporary theory to explain certain
facts to guide an investigation (or in this case, to
guide the research); tested for accuracy

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Joe Pop decides he would like to produce a new

drink. Before he begins his descriptive research he
must determine that his market is in need of the new
drink and that it will be profitable for him to begin
production. He looks up past records of his sales and
the demand graph from last year. He also sets up a
taste testing study and a focus group discussion to
better understand his markets need for this new
product. After the studies and a bit more research he
can determine whether or not to begin a campaign for
his new item.

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 Is a form of conclusive research

Describes market characteristics or functions
Seeks to:
identify users of a particular product
determine the percentage of the population
buying or using the product
forecast or predict the products future demand
conclusive research: tests the hypothesis with
clearly defined formal and structured data
through large sample groups

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 cross-sectional study: the observation of a

defined population at varying time intervals under
diverse environmental conditions
longitudinal study: a single group is followed
over time to measure improvement of a task
involving a product

population: a group of pre-selected people involved

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in the research study

 sampling: using a subset of the

population to make generalizations
about a topic
subset: a pre-selected group of individuals
participating in a research study representing
the entire population in terms of gender, race,
age, ethnicity, etc.

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Busy Bee cleaning company has noticed a need for a

new vacuum cleaner. They now must determine what
aspects their customers would like to see in a new
product and figure out how many people would be
interested in buying this new vacuum. The company
decides to conduct a study involving two neighbors.
One will use the new vacuum for two weeks, while the
other will use the old one. After the study, the
neighbors will judge the cleanliness of their carpets
and decide what they like and dislike about their
vacuums. With this information they will be able to
decide what type of budget to set aside for the new
product and project their future profits from it.

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 Is also a form of conclusive research

determining cause and effect relationships
Is completed by manipulating one or more
independent variables through
experiments and
determining the
effects of those
changes
independent variable: a variable in an experiment
determining the outcome of other variables
(dependent variables)

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 Correlation study:
examines the relationship among multiple
characteristics or variables
when one variable increases another variable
should increase or decrease consistently

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A grocer wants to determine if the change in

packaging style (independent variable) will have
an effect on the sale of limes (dependent variable)
through the use of an experiment. Before the
experiment, the store sold the limes in preweighted five pound bags. After recording the
sales of the limes with the package design, the
store started to sell the limes in an open produce
bin, therefore manipulating the independent
variable. The change showed higher sales of the
limes. The question now becomes, did the
packaging change cause this increase in sales?

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 Use the various questioning techniques and

methods to gather information
The most common techniques are
questionnaires
interviews

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 Are used to gain the following information:

attitudes, opinions, awareness, knowledge,
intentions, behavior, etc. through the use of
written or verbal questions
Should follow a specific order:
researcher must identify themselves
ask interesting, involving questions first
move from general to specific questions
ask personal or demographic questions last
thank the participants

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 Mail questionnaires
Telephone interviews
Online surveys

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 Advantages:
inexpensive
allow respondents to answer at their leisure
easy to reach target population

Disadvantages:
results can take a long time to receive
low response rates

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 Advantages:
fast completion time
ability to cover a large geographic area
use of few interviewers

Disadvantages:
interview length limited
unlisted numbers/call screening
lack of visuals
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 Advantages:

short turnaround
use of visual stimulus
inexpensive
easy to access participants

Disadvantages:
do not reflect population as a whole
response rate lower for longer surveys

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 Social desirability bias: the tendency of

candidates to give answers thought to be socially
accepted or correct
Assessment of non-attitudes: the question
requires a response the participant never thought
about or considered before
Rating scales: unclear answers involving words
like sometimes, often, rarely, etc. could be
interpreted differently by every person

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 Advantages:

high participation rates

use of visuals
prescreening of individuals
interviewer can probe and explain

Disadvantages:
high costs
time consuming
need for highly trained interviewers
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 Fixed alternative: provide multiple

choice answers, are best when possible
answers are few and clear-cut
Open-ended: allow the respondent to
better express his or her answer, more
difficult to analyze (often used in depth
interviews)
Projective methods: vague questions or
stimulus response questions and
activities
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 Caused by interviewers
intentional errors by leading a respondent to
provide a certain response with a biased
question
unintentional errors by not having a clear
understanding of the interview process

Caused by respondents
Intentional errors by lying or not responding
Unintentional errors by not understanding the
question, guessing, or not paying attention
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 Nominal: consists of assigning items to groups

or categories (i.e. religion race, gender, etc.)
Interval: maintain equal intervals between
numbers (i.e. the Fahrenheit scale for
temperatures)
Ordinal: used for ranking, so higher numbers
represent higher values (i.e. asking a person
how much they like ice cream on a scale from
one to five)
Ratio: are like interval scales, but they have a
true zero point (i.e. height, age, weight, length,
etc.)
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 Determine customer preferences

about the business brands compared
to competitors
Get a better focus on who makes up
the target market and their needs and
wants
Compare data to the hypothesis
established
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 A brief summary of the overall

research process and the
objectives
Includes the data collected from
the research methods and
where and how it was collected
Incorporates the information
sources
Breaks down the number of
interviews/questionnaires by
respondent type, country and
region
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 Explains how the respondents were

selected and discusses how they
reflect the entire population
Should be factual, precise and
comprehensive
Contains all of the results pertaining
to customer preferences, target
market, competition, etc.
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Define The
Problem

Developing the
Approach

Identifying the
Research
Design

market
Potential
market
Share
company
Image
sales
Analysis
forecasting

project
Analysis
skills
Analysis
budget
Analysis
environment
overall
Theory

secondary
vs. primary
data
internal vs.
external
research
qualitative
vs.
quantitative
research

Collecting
The Data
various
questioning
techniques
and
methods
nonsampling
errors

Analyze and
Interpret Data

The Research
Report

target
market
customer
preferences
compare to
hypothesis

brief
summary
information
sources
factual, and
precise
results

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1. How many steps are in the

marketing research process?
2. What is the project analysis?
3. What are the two main types of
data?
4. Which type of data is collected first?
5. What does qualitative research
consist of?
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6. What are demographics?

7. Name two types of questionnaires.
8. What is one advantage of a mail
questionnaire?
9. What category of research does a
focus group fall into?
10.What is a nominal measurement
scale?
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 Definition of Market Research. (2005-2008 ). Retrieved

October 8, 2008, from Market Research Portal:
http://www.marketresearchworld.net/index.php?option=com
_content&task=view&id=14&Itemid=38
Marketing Research. (1999-2007). Retrieved October 8,
2008, from QuickMBA:
http://www.quickmba.com/marketing/research/
Marketing Research Ch4 . (2008). Retrieved October 8,
2008, from Slide Share:
http://www.slideshare.net/kkjjkevin03/marketing-researchch4/
The Six Steps In Marketing Research. (2001-2008).
Retrieved October 8, 2008, from Polaris Marketing
Research:
http://www.polarismr.com/education/steps_index.html

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 Focus Groups. (n.d.). Retrieved October 8, 2008, from Asia

Market Research:
http://www.asiamarketresearch.com/glossary/focusgroups.htm
Marketing Research Ch3. (2008). Retrieved October 8,
2008, from Slide Share:
http://www.slideshare.net/kkjjkevin03/marketing-researchch3
Measurement Scales. (2008, September 12). Retrieved
October 8, 2008, from HyperStat Online Statistics Textbook:
http://davidmlane.com/hyperstat/index.html
Routio, P. (2007, August 3). Models in the Research
Process. Retrieved October 6, 2008, from
http://www2.uiah.fi/projects/metodi/177.htm
Survey Design. (2007-2008). Retrieved October 8, 2008,
from Creative Research Systems:
http://www.surveysystem.com/sdesign.htm
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