9 Stages to Marketing Research Success

Marketing research is very important component of a business used to identify and define the opportunities and problems that they will encounter on the market. The aim

"Marketing research is systematic problem analysis, model building and fact-finding for the purpose of improved decision-king and control in the marketing of goods and services." Philip Kotler

This module aims to help postgraduate students gain insights and understanding of marketing research and research methods. This module allows students to cultivate team spirit through teamwork, time management and creativity through the development of a research project. This individual reflection summary will discuss my experience throughout the module with regards to my attitude, knowledge and skills obtained and applied to undertake a professional research study at a postgraduate level.

The finally step of the marketing research process is information reporting. Information reporting consists of written research reports from marketing mangers that will be submitted to management that summarizes the research results and draws conclusions (Brown, 2014). Research reports need to be very clear and accurate as higher level managers will judge the research conducted as well as utilizing it to aide them in making their final decision. Also, the reports need to be clear and accurate because the project will be no more successful than the research report itself. Finally, the written research

In business, managers need to respond to any issues that may arise in the business. While one may be prone to do this based on past experience, the wiser choice would be to use business research to gather the information to make decisions as business research will increase the likelihood that the solution would make a positive impact. According to Business Research Methods, the definition of business research is the structured questioning which provides information by which to guide wise decisions that maximize the impact of the

Data collection methods are the third process.  Data can be collected in many ways such as: observation, surveys, focus groups, and reanalysis of existing data, questionnaires, and interviews (Hagan, 2010, p. 19).  Data collection is a vital portion of any kind of research.  Inaccurate data collection will affect the results of a study and inevitably lead to invalid results.

Key concepts of a marketing research problem is first determine management decision problems, and then defining a broad marketing research problem, which in turn should be narrowed down by specific components. These specific components guide researchers to define an approach to the problem, find relevant objective/theoretical framework and choose among

Devise and document measures and procedures for measuring the impact of the research information on the marketing decisions

“Problems researched with the use of appropriate methods greatly enhance the value of the research.” (Sekaran, 2003) Data can be collected through interviews, questionnaires, observations, and through other techniques, like projective tests. In even more detail, interviews can be conducted in a variety of different ways such as over the phone, through the computer, interviews through the electronic media, and face-to-face. Questionnaires can be conducted personally or administered electronically. “Interviewing, administering questionnaires, and observing people and phenomena are the three main data collection methods in survey research.” (Sekaran, 2003) As stated before, data can be collected in many different ways; however the value of the research is only greatly enhanced when personal opinions and bias is left out of the collection of data.

The procedure used to collect information for the research study is a survey and the techniques used were interview and questionnaire. An interview is when questions are posed to an individual to obtain information (What Is Survey Research? - Definition, Methods & Types, n.d.). A questionnaire is a series of written questions a participant answers (What Is Survey Research? - Definition, Methods & Types, n.d.). Follow- up questionnaires were administered to participant face- to- face and participants who were living long distance were interviewed by telephone.

Most of the businessmen consider market research the key to a successful business empire. It is quite essential to conduct a thorough research to analyze the prospects of an existing or new product. A well-conducted research proves fruitful in evaluating the business situations, the potential sales of a product, prospective customers and so forth.

The telephone surveys or the web surveys are more convenient for participants to complete, in the comfort of their own home, or on the go, as long as they are very brief, with only a few questions asked. However, it is very easy to lie or exaggerate, especially if you’re not directly in the presence of the interviewer. This is where face-to-face interviews come in – a direct way of obtaining information, with the interviewer asking the participant questions. Also, if you are using random sampling, you can easily select and ask random people on the road to take part in your survey, avoiding

In conclusion, there are many different data collection methods that are used for research. Many arguments in

The prime managerial value of management research is that it reduces uncertainty by providing information that improves the decision-making process. The decision –making process associated with the development and implementation of a strategy involves four interrelated stages.

Given the situation, a determination can be made about its relation to each of the first three steps in the marketing research process. At this point, Joe has already undertaken some actions that are consistent with the defining research objectives step. The first thing that Joe has done is define his situational problem. Although it appears to be lacking in content and clarity, he recognizes “that a great deal of research in