Marketing research is the systematic collection, analysis and interpretation of data as it pertains to marketing conditions. The main reason for carrying out this research is to figure out the change in the consumer behavior due to the changing elements of the marketing mix (i.e., product, price, place, promotion). The marketers should know about trends that are changing in the market and should explore changes in customer’s tastes and preferences, new products that are launching in the market and competitor’s product prices.
There are certain steps that should be taken when performing marketing research. You can find the six steps below.
The first step is to define the problem. The problem should be defined adequately because if the problem is too vague, this could result in wasting scarce resources. If the problem is too narrow, then it will be hard to reach an exact conclusion.
The second step is to develop a research plan. This step involves gathering types of information relevant to the research objective such as data sources, research approaches, sampling plan and contact methods.
The third step is to collect information. This can be one of the most expensive parts of marketing research. The researcher must adopt the methods to collect the information and he may find it difficult due to people’s unwillingness to give answers or not at home.
The fourth step is to analyze the information. Once the information is collected, the next step is to organize it so that analysis can be done. Researchers apply several statistical approaches to perform this analysis such as computing averages. Some advanced decision models are also used to analyze the data.
The fifth step is to present the findings. The findings should be shown to the top management levels at this point, such as the CEO, managing director, board of directors so that they can make the marketing decisions that should line up with the research.
The final and last step is to make the decision. Once the findings are presented to the top level of management, the management is to decide whether to rely on the findings and make decisions or discard the findings as unsuitable.
Marketing research is done to gather the information about the market and design marketing strategies.
