BLOG POST 5: MARKETING RESEARCH

Hello... I apologize for posting two readings within a couple hours of each other! I am trying to get better with time management...

Today I would like to discuss Marketing Research.

what is marketing research?

Marketing research is the gathering of information about a consumers' preferences when it comes to buying products and services. This research starts with a company looking at who they would like to market too. Teen? Adults? Children? After they decide who their target market is they have to do research on what products and services they are wanting to buy. This will help the company know how to market their products to this specific target market. After the product is researched and decided on, the company must do research on how the consumer behaves while purchasing an item. A lot of the time this information is gathered through surveying their target market through online surveys, or ones mailed to them.

(source: http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/marketing-research.html)

five-step marketing research approach

As with a lot of things in marketing, theres a step by step process that goes a long with market research. 

1) Define the problem

2) Develop the research plan

3) Collect relevant information

4) Develop the findings

5) Take marketing actions

1) define the problem

To start off, the company must set research objectives and identify possible marketing actions.They must have a clear research purpose. If their research purpose is not clear, it is quite possible their research may not ever turn into marketing actions, which is the end goal of this process. There are multiple different kinds of research that can occur in this step. 

www.businessinsider.com

Exploratory research helps the company determine which is the best method for collecting data they need.

Descriptive research is the research that is done to determine why the consumer behaves the way they do. 

Causal research determines the cause of the consumer's behavior. Why did the consumer stop buying a certain product? Why did the consumer decide to buy this product in the summer but not the winter?

2) develop the research plan

How are we going to collect the data? Which form of research are we going to use? First, the company must identify the data they need to take marketing action. This may be information such as who is going to buy their product, so their target market. 

Next, the method they are going to use to obtain this information is decided. Do they survey their target market? If so, how? By phone, or in person? These are all questions that need to be answered in this step of the market research plan.

cce.clark.edu

3) collect relevant information & data

In this step, the research is actually conducted. The company can look at two types of data to help the collect information.

Secondary data is data that was already recorded before the project started. Examples would be the U.S. Census, or surveys conducted for magazines and newspapers.

Primary data is data that is collected specifically for this project. An example of this would be a putting an ad out on social media for people to respond to and comment on, or holding a panel or an experiment to find out certain information.

Companies can also use observational data, or mechanical methods. Observational data comes from observing people's behavior, where as using mechanical methods would involve the company to use social media such as Twitter or Facebook, or to create a survey.

ozil-conseil.com

4) develop findings

Here, the company analyzes the data. How are the sales? What factors contribute to the sales trends? Their findings are presented and it usually tells the company what kind of marketing action is needed to occur. 

5) take marketing actions

www.webpresencegroup.net

Marketing actions occur. Ads are put out and the company hopefully starts to make sales. The results of the marketing actions are evaluated and then it is determined if the marketing research process was successful or not. Usually the decision itself is analyzed along with the decision process that was used. What changes can be made? What can we do better? 

upscaledmarketing.com

Surveys can be given to consumers about how they liked the product, and what made them buy it. This will show the success or failure of the market research that was previously done. Changes to the marketing actions that had previously taken place can also happen, making the marketing strategy for the company stronger. 

I hope you are all enjoying my posts... Thanks for reading...