Marketing Research
Marketing research strategies are procedures that expose loopholes in the industry where a product or service needs introduction. It helps marketers and marketing firms to establish weaknesses and strengths that rival firms enjoy in the market and can also determine the market share that a firm controls. However, for products and services previously available, marketing research can show businesses whether they are meeting their clients’ needs and opportunities. Therefore, market research is an operative way to learn about prospective customers, their attitudes, habits and tendencies. Firms should use it to determine the physical area of a trade and demographic features of customers such as age, sex, income and informative level. Although marketing research offers detailed information about the market or industry of a product, it is vital to consider the needs, problems and procedures that will enhance satisfactory research.
Need for marketing research
Organizations that conduct marketing inquiry on a regular basis situated to connect with their customers. This helps them to identify the preferences of the clients, which contributes to quality production of goods and services. Without suitable analysis of the market situation, the company can use the wrong technique resulting to low sales and customer influence.
A firm conducts marketing research through sample surveys, which are helpful in influencing opinions of the audience or customers. These views are in turn used to regulate business and marketing strategies in order to harvest greater success. Market research and analysis assists firms to plan ahead in order to plan for long term basis. This is because in business, demand is always varying and; therefore, it is essential to know how possessions are fluctuating. Market research needs employment of a different form of skill because they have the essential experience and market research may take up a lot of time (Beall, 2010).
Additionally, companies and other organizations use promoting research to control the risks associated with providing new products and services. This is due to the actuality that these organizations do not want to spend a lot of money mounting a product line that research shows will be unsuccessful. Therefore, some problems may make marketing research expensive and produce results of doubtful value for the business.
Estimation of the market size for investment or business planning is also viable through accurate implementation of marketing research. This will determine the market leaders and potential gaps evident in the industry. Organizations can employ this strategy to counter the influence of the rival firms in the market and establish a strong proportion of the share. New product lines that a firm wishes to introduce can only succeed if the company uses marketing research in recognizing new product/service openings and value-added offerings. This will depend on the stage of the commodity and the status of the company that plans to introduce the product or service (Beall, 2010).
According to Rowley (2012), customers’ expectations and preferences regarding chances in sales and demand will influence the establishment of fresh market research. This helps in understanding what customers expect of the producers and how well the company will deliver the services or products. For already established firms, marketing research helps them reinforce their market segments by identifying the most cost-effective customer segments and how to safeguard them. This involves use of strategic methods like pricing and quality provision of services that will threaten new firms from accessing that segment. Market segmentation strategy is vital for firms because it makes it possible for companies to modify the marketing mix for definite target markets, thus sustaining customer needs.
Small companies can also perform marketing research to assess their success. Consumer products businesses often perform research to ensure that customers contented with their products. Similarly, a business proprietor may want to identify how well consumers in a certain target group like their products. Hence, the proprietor may conduct marketing research to determine their product satisfaction level. Therefore, business proprietors often use promoting research to evaluate detailed attribute assessments, including how consumers rate their product quality, service and expertise (Rowley, 2012).
Definition of problem
Formulating a problem is the initial step in the research procedure. This is because; in many cases research begins with a problem that the organization is facing. This implies that this problem needs to be understood, the cause analysed, and solutions established. Therefore, marketing research problem is a situation where a corporation intends to trade a product or service that seals an opportunity or gaps or intended use. In order to guarantee that there will be clients for the service, a firm needs to hire a distinctive team of experts to execute demographic investigation, opportunity-cost valuation for production, delivery and marketing (Kuhfeld, Tobias & Garratt, 2004).
Defining the problem entails of two steps, which involve setting objectives and setting up measures of accomplishment and standards used to get a solution to the problem. An example of a marketing objective would be improved sales and profits, determination of the size of the market, consumers or best market location. For instance, a research problem for the size of the market would be; how many competitors are selling similar products? It would also be essential to conduct a test market before venturing in the market or selling a product to customers. This may involve selling a commodity in only one geographic area to identify how well it sells then; increasing the product countrywide if the results are positive. Another research problem would be; where is the suitable place to sell products? However, before starting the research it is vital to identify accurate information that a firm is hoping to discover by declaring clearly and accurately what the firm are attempting to discover. This is a crucial stage that should not be hurried since time and money spent on deciding the exact nature of the challenge often saves time and finances in the end (Kuhfeld, Tobias & Garratt, 2004).
Research objectives should go together with the problems identified since this is the main purpose of the research conducted. Research objectives form the basis of conducting control analysis of the marketing research in the continuous and short runs. It will depend on the accuracy of the organization in the process of research. Therefore, research objectives provide management with appropriate, precise, reliable, legal, and current information. This encompasses the competitive marketing setting and the growing costs attributed to poor verdict making, which require that marketing research, deliver sound information. Research problems achieved through the objectives set, in order, to certify that all properties used to the best amount of the firm.
Research design
According to Kuhfeld, Tobias & Garratt (2004), determination of the suitable research design is the decisive phase in which the mode of relaying reliable analysis used. This is because the solidity of the research project will decide the accomplishment or failure of the research package to a large level. It is evident that this is the time-wasting phase of all the steps, and it needs cautious thinking and detailed execution since the choice of the design will significantly determine the outcome of the research. The diverse activities involved in this course include feedback scrutiny, qualitative and measurable analysis, formulating questionnaires as well as selection of data and processes. This suggests that the survey is a direct technique of collecting quantifiable or numerical statistics and qualitative or vivid information. However, when there are inaccuracies in the survey project, marketing research difficulties can surface. For instance, a company might use a process, which is intended to collect an unsystematic sample from the target customer population, but the method is not accidental. Therefore, the business cannot simplify its survey results to characterize the target population. There are two main approaches to a research problem: Quantitative Research and Qualitative Research. However, the suitable design depends on the research problem, in addition to the orientation of, the investigator. This is due to the actuality that every design has its positive and negative margins.
Quantitative Research
Quantitative research aims at determining the relationship between an independent variable and a dependent or outcome variable in a market population. These designs are either descriptive, which means segments usually measured on one occasion or experimental meaning businesses measured before and after an action. Therefore, a descriptive investigation establishes only links between inconstant while an experiment launches causality. Therefore, quantitative research allows the investigator to measure and examine data since the relationship between two different variables is studied in detail. Hence, this is beneficial because the investigator is objective about the discoveries of the study. Quantitative research can also be used to assess assumptions in experiments because of its capacity to measure data using data (Kuhfeld, Tobias & Garratt, 2004).
However, the main drawback of quantitative research is that the framework of the experiment always disregarded. This implies that quantitative research does not assess things in a normal setting or discuss the significance items have for different individuals as qualitative research does. Another shortcoming is that a bulky model of the market must be considered meaning that the bulky the model of people investigated the more statistically corrects the outcomes will be (Kuhfeld, Tobias & Garratt, 2004).
Qualitative Research
Unlike quantitative research, qualitative research is a highly independent research discipline, intended to look, past the proportions, to get an understanding of the customer’s emotional state, impressions and perspectives. This is because it provides insights into the situation of a problem, creating ideas and hypotheses for advanced quantitative research. Therefore, qualitative research is suitable during the initial phases of a study when the investigator may be hesitant of exactly what will be considered. Since this research does not require a stern design plan before it starts, it gives the researcher liberty to let the study unfold logically. Another advantage is that this research looks at the environment and social sense and how it affects consumers, which is beneficial in the social sciences such as marketing.
However, the method is involving because the researcher uses more time at the marketing research, which offers a subjective opinion of the investigation and participants. The researcher physically interprets the research according to biased view, which tilts the data assembled. Another drawback is that this investigation method is time uncontrollable and can waste time before getting the correct outcome (Kuhfeld, Tobias & Garratt, 2004).
Methods of accessing data
Methods practiced in marketing research involve data gathering such as accumulating too much information about the market, usually before any additional steps are conducted such as forming a marketing model. This strategy depends on desk research and field research. Data is also categorized into primary and secondary groups. This implies that primary data are collected on the ground while secondary data are assembled from all the material that is at present obtainable on the topic, and is often considered first when performing desk research.
The objective of primary research is to accumulate data from analysing existing sales and the value of current practices. This means that primary research also considers competitors’ strategies into account, providing information about the market competition. Accumulation of primary data involves the use of interviews, which is either through phone or face-to-face, dispatching questionnaires and conducting surveys via online or by mail and involving focus groups who participate in gathering a sampling of prospective clients or consumers and receiving their direct feedback (Kolb, 2008).
Alternatively, Kolb (2008) suggests that the objective of secondary study is to analyse data, which had previously been circulated. This implies that, with secondary data, organizations can classify competitors, establish standards and identify target fragments. The firm’s segments are the consumers who fall into the planned demographic. These are people who enjoy a definite lifestyle, exhibit distinct behavioural forms or fall into a scheduled age group.
Designing data collection forms (or scripts)
The crucial purpose of data gathering is to acquire information to retain on record, make choices about vital issues, or convey information on to other parties. The data collection form is the focal point of any research project since it contains the data used to test the research hypotheses. However, in cases where faults are made in translating the questions of interest into items on the form, the outcomes sought might not be accessible. The first step in designing a data collection form is by identifying the sources of data whether interviewed subjects or secondary sources. This helps in identifying the number of forms to prepare, which will accommodate all the information in the field (Kolb, 2008).
Determination of the sample plan and size
Determining sample size is an essential aspect because samples that are too bulky may waste period, funds and funds while samples that are too insignificant may contribute to erroneous results. Therefore, in many cases, marketers can easily decide the limited sample size required to assess a constraint, such as the population average (Banks, 2010).
When formulating the numerical validity of data, there are various standards to consider. These include the population, which is the total coverage or total quantity of consumers to whom a researcher wants to apply the data. Another criterion is the use of probability or proportion, which determines the fraction of consumers expected in the survey. The last consideration is the margin of inaccuracy or confidence Interval. This considers the amount of influence or potential fault accepted (Banks, 2010).
Methods of data analysis
The process used to evaluate data depends on the methodology used to accumulate the information whether secondary investigation, primary measurable research or primary qualitative investigation. Therefore, for primary investigation the selection of technique of analysis is determined by research gadget used to collect the facts (Kolb, 2008).
Descriptive analysis describes the results acquired, which uses the results to provide a precipitate of what has been assembled, for instance, the number of consumers who liked or disliked a product without providing a declaration of whether the consequences hold up to statistical assessment.
However, to move past defining results requires the application of inferential data examination where progressive statistical methods are used to make decisions. This means making inferences about some problem such as customers different from other categories of customers (Kolb, 2008).
References
Banks, S. (2010). Designing Marketing Research to Increase Validity. Journal of Marketing,
28(4), 32-40.
Beall, A. E. (2010). Strategic market research: A guide to conducting research that drives
Businesses. New York: iUniverse.
Kolb, B. M. (2008). Marketing research: A practical approach. Los Angeles:
SAGE.
Kuhfeld, W. F., Tobias, R. D., & Garratt, M. (2004). Efficient Experimental Design with
Marketing Research Applications. Journal of Marketing Research (JMR), 31(4), 545-557.
Rowley, J. (2012). Evidence-based marketing. International Journal of Market Research,
54(4), 521-541. doi:10.2501/IJMR-54-4-521-541.
