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Marketing
research
MARKETING research is
a systematic gathering, recording and analysis of facts and opinions
to aid in providing information for marketing decision-making.
Marketers need information to identify marketing problems and
opportunities and to assist in responding to the problems and
opportunities that have been identified. The basic function of
marketing research therefore is to obtain information that will
assist marketers in making accurate decisions. The basic premise of
marketing research is identical to that of military strategy. In
marketing, as in war, intelligence is regarded as the hidden eye of
the armed forces, making battles to be fought based on information
of the enemy’s positions. In the same vein, marketing research is
concerned with the provision of information which enables companies
to plan their marketing mix and strategy. The major types of
marketing research are marketing communications research which
covers advertising research, studies of premium, sampling, coupons,
sweepstakes, deals, sales compensation research and studies of
public relations effectiveness.
There is also product research which covers competitive product
research, packaging research, test marketing of new products and
studies of existing products’ acceptability by customers. There is
also markets and sales research which covers estimates of market
potentials, market share evaluation, identification of market
characteristics, and gathering information on customers and
competitors. Another type of marketing research is pricing research
which examines the relationship between a product’s price and
demand, relationship between a product’s price and quality and
distribution research which covers studies of distribution channels
and warehouse location of studies.
From the above, it is obvious that the term “marketing research”
entails a broader sphere restricted to research activity directed
towards the market place itself. Some scholars contend that market
research is concerned with measurement and analysis of markets,
while marketing research is concerned with all those factors which
impinge upon the marketing of goods and services and so includes the
study of advertising effectiveness, distributive channels.
competitive products and marketing policies and the whole field of
consumer behaviour. Essentially there are three types of error in
marketing research namely, researcher’s error, respondent error and
statistical error.
Researchers and interviewers may introduce error by using wrong
questions, by improper sequencing or by not following the principles
of research that ensure accurate research information that is
relevant to the need of the time. These problems can be controlled
through careful planning and supervision. However, respondent error
is extremely difficult to control. People sometimes lie. Researchers
can do little or nothing about this. Statistical error can occur
when a sample is not representative. Conclusions will not be valid
in such a case because the sample is different from the population
of the study.
The socio-economic, technological and cultural structures of
developing countries do hinder the utilization of certain marketing
research techniques and methods. Some scholars opine that
statistical documentation is often unsatisfactory in developing
countries because of inadequate facilities for collection and
retrieval of relevant data and limited funds available to the
research institutions. Moreover, the marketing experts who are
qualified to conduct marketing research in developing countries are
associated with the government or other research institutions. The
major problem is that access to these experts is limited. The
bureaucratic attitude of the government environment constitutes a
major problem towards obtaining advice from civil servants. Another
problem of marketing research is the prevailing attitude of
government administrators who view marketing as a mechanistic
process that is not related to production.
Marketing Research Process I
The marketing research process consists of the necessary steps in
developing and implementing a marketing research project. The need
for marketing managers to have sufficient understanding of the
marketing research process has often been drummed into our ears by
scholars and practitioners of marketing in the business world. This
will enable marketing managers to participate in making key
decisions in research design and assess the validity of research
results. A research design is a blue-print for gathering the primary
data needed to solve a particular research problem. The first and
the most difficult decision in the research process is the
definition of research problem. If researchers cannot identify the
problem confronting the marketing organization, then the research
process will not be conducted correctly. If the research problem is
not properly defined, the researcher will collect information that
will be irrelevant to the marketing manager’s decision, hence the
effort will be largely wasted. To help define the true problem, a
firm must conduct a situation analysis which is an investigation of
the variables, internal and external, to the firm that relate to the
problem area.
After the situation analysis has been conducted, the problem can be
defined vividly and objectives can be determined for research.
Another step in the marketing research process is to determine
specific information that is needed as well as the sources of the
information. Research objectives may be used to determine the
information that is needed. Having identified the objectives and
some information needs, the researchers then conduct further
exploratory research to have better understanding of the nature of
the problem and determine information needs. Therefore, they discuss
with individuals who might shed light on the problem. Basically, the
sources of information can be divided into primary data and
secondary data. Primary data are original data obtained specifically
for the existing project. Secondary data have already been collected
or published for other purpose.
The sources of primary data are personal interviews, observational
methods, survey methods etc while secondary data sources include
libraries, trade professional and Business Associations and
International Agencies. The third step in the marketing research
process is to design the sample. Most marketing research projects
require samples of the population because it is too expensive to
contact all the people in the study population: Researchers may have
to spend huge sums of money which they may not be able to afford if
they must contact all the people that make up the study population.
A good sampling plan can be used to obtain a representative sample.
In developing the sampling plan, researchers must take decisions on
individuals to be selected from the study population how to select
them and the number of people to select. There are two major types
of sampling plans.
In a probability sample, each individual in the population has a
known probability of being selected. Because there is a known
probability for each individual. the researcher can estimate what is
known as sampling error. Sampling error is a measure of the extent
to which the sample can be expected to mirror the population on the
characteristics or phenomena being studied. However, in a
non-probability sample, the probability of a person being included
in the sample is unknown, and so the sampling error cannot be
evaluated. Probability sampling methods comprise simple random
sampling; stratified sampling and cluster sampling. The
nonprobability sampling methods are judgment sampling, convenience
sampling and quota sampling. Quantitative research is done using a
smaller sample with a view to gaining insights rather than
generating numbers. It is exploratory and diagnostic and is used to
build up background information.
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