Market research process by Dr.Ho Cao Viet

1. Ho Cao Viet (PhD)
MARKETING INTELLIGENCE

2.  To learn the steps in the marketing
research process.
 To understand how the steps in the
marketing research process are
interrelated and that the steps may not
proceed in order.
 To be able to know when market research
may be needed and when it may not be
needed.
 To know which step is the most important
in the marketing research process.

3. 1. Establish the need for the marketing research.
2. Define the problem.
3. Establish research objectives.
4. Determine the research design.
5. Identify information types and sources.
6. Determine the methods of accessing data.
7. Design data collection forms.
8. Determine sample plan and size.
9. Collect data.
10. Analyze data.
11. Prepare and present the final research report.
Figure 1.1: Eleven Steps in the Marketing Research Process.

4.  Few comments about the process:
1. It is rare in practice a research project
follows all the exact steps.
 Research is an interactive process where a
researcher by discovering something may move
forward or backwards in the process.
2. May not involve every step shown
 The research problem may be resolved, for
example by a review of secondary data, thereby
eliminating the need to determine a sample plan
or size.
3. What’s important is although every
research project is different, there are
enough commonalities to follow the eleven
steps of marketing research.

5.  A good monitoring system will alert the
marketing manager to a problem that can be
attacked by marketing research.
 Regardless of the monitoring system used a
good monitoring system constantly searches
for hints that the companies marketing mix
may be out of “sync” in the market place.
 Marketing research may not be needed
 Information is already available
 There is insufficient time for marketing research
 Resources are not available
 Costs outweigh the value of the research

6.  Defining the problem is the single most
important step in the marketing research
process.
 Often studies are commissioned without a
clear understanding of the problem that
needs to be addressed.
 Exploratory research is needed to define the
problem so research may be conducted.
 Problem definition involves:
1. Specifying the symptoms
2. Itemising the possible causes of the symptoms
3. Listing the reasonable alternative courses of action
that the marketing manager can undertake to solve
the problem.

7.  Research objectives identify what
specific pieces of information are
necessary to solve the problem at hand.
 Research objectives step is the
specification of the specific types of
information useful to the managers as
they grapple for a solution to the
marketing problem at hand.

8.  There are three types of research design:
1. Exploratory Research Design - is defined as
collecting information in an unstructured and
informal manner. Examples: Reading
periodicals, visiting competitors premises,
examine company sales and profits vs. industry
sales and profit, clipping service.
2. Descriptive Research Design - refers to a set of
methods and procedure that describe marketing
variables. Portray these variables by answering
who, what, why and how questions. example:
consumer attitude survey to your companies
services.
3. Casual Research Design – designs allow us to
isolate causes and their effects.
 Casual research is conducted by controlling various
factors to determine which factor is causing the problem.
 By changing one factor, say price, we can monitor its
effect on a key consequence, such as sales. In other
words, casual design allows us to determine causality, or
which variable is causing another variable to change.

9. Basically two types of data information
available to a marketing researcher:
A. Secondary data – as it name implies,
refers to information that has been
collected for some other purpose.
B. Primary data - refers to information
that has been gathered specifically to
serve the research objectives at hand.

10. Once the researcher has determined which
type or types of information are needed, he or
she must determine methods of accessing
data.
Methods of accessing external secondary data
have improved over the last five years:
 Information processing technology.
 Easy and Quick retrieval.
 Internal data- company reports, salespersons,
executives, MIS and other information sources.
There are several different methods of
collecting primary data including:
 Telephone surveys
 Mail surveys
 Door-to-door interviews
 Mall-intercept studies
 New data collection methods are emerging.

11.  Questionnaires and observation forms must be
designed with great care.
 Questionnaires – which record the information
communicated by respondents or the respondent’s
behavior as observed by the researcher
 Structured Questionnaires - list questions that
have pre-specified answer choices.
 Unstructured questionnaires – have open ended
questions and/or questions that are asked based
on a response.
 Disguised-true object of the study is not
identified.
 Undisguised- respondent is made fully aware of the
purpose/or sponsor of the survey.

12.  A sample plan identifies who is to be sampled
and how to select them for study.
 A sample element refers to a unit of the entity
being studied.
 A sample Frame is a list from which the
sample elements are drawn for the sample.
 A sample plan specify how to draw the sample
elements from the sample plan.
 Methods are available to help the researcher
determine the sample size required for the
research study.

13.  Data collection is usually done by trained
interviewers who are employed by field data
collection companies to collect primary data.
 Being ware of errors that may occur is
important.
 Non-sampling Errors are attributable to factors
other than sampling errors.
 Wrong sample elements to interview
 Securing participants who refuse to
participate
 Not a home
 Interviewing subjects who give the wrong
information.
 Hiring interviewers who cheat and fill out
fictitious survey questionnaires.

14.  Data analysis involves entering data into
computer files, inspecting it for errors and
running tabulations and various statistical
tests.
 Data cleaning – process by which the raw data
are checked to verify that the data has been
correctly inputted from the data collection
form to the computer software program. Use
SPSS
 Coding – is the process of assigning all
response categories a numerical value
males=1, females=2.
 Tabulation – which refers to the actual
counting of the number of observations that
fall into each possible response category.

15.  Preparing the marketing research report
involves describing the process used,
building meaningful tables, and using
presentation graphics for clarity.
 Preparing the SPSS software allows you
to prepare graphics to enhance your
written or oral presentation.

16.  Virtually all market research projects are
different.
 Some are limited to review of secondary data;
others require complex designs involving large
scale collection of primary data.
 Understand the eleven steps of the research
process.
 Steps can give researchers an overview of the
entire research process.
 Gives researchers a procedure to follow and a
framework.
 Many steps outlined are interactive and the
researcher may decide which ones to use.