Marketing research is the process of gathering, analyzing and interpreting information about a market, a product or service to be offered for sale in the market, and about the past, present and potential customers for the product or service, research into the characteristics, spending habits, location and needs of your business’s target market, the industry as a whole, and the particular competitors you face.
The data gathered can be used to improve sales and also help solve problems in the market or industry.
Marketing Research process.
Defining and understanding the problem.
Understanding and defining the problem will help a lot in directing the efforts and also the kind of action that should be taken in order to get the right information or data.
Developing the research plan.
This step involves gathering the information relevant to the research objective. It includes:
- Data Sources: The researcher can collect the data pertaining to the research problem from either the primary source or the secondary source or both the sources of information.The primary source is the first-hand data that does not exist in any books or research reports whereas the secondary data is the second-hand data which is available in the books, journals, reports, etc.
- Research Approaches: The Secondary data are readily available in books, journals, magazines, reports, online, etc. But the primary data must be collected and to do so.
Information Gathering.
At this stage, the researcher has to come up methods to collect the information, as he may find it difficult to gather the correct information because of the respondent’s biasedness, unwillingness to give answers.
Analysis.
After the information gathering process, the data collated is examined through several statistical techniques and also combining a whole lot of averages.
Presentation.
On completion of the analysis process the data is presented to necessary departments for approval or necessary action to be taken.
Action.
This brings us to the final stage which means making informed decisions with the available data.