In today’s world, Marketing is one of the most important processes for businesses to sell their products and services and gain profit from it. Marketing Research is a process of collecting, interpreting, analysing, and using data to obtain effective solutions. To sustain in a competitive market and create a better place in the market, market research needs to be carried out properly. It helps to understand the overall market trends and helps to reach out maximum number of customers.
What is Research Process?
Marketing Research Process is a terminology that is used to describe the development and the actual concept of a product or service, awareness of the brand, and its overall progress. The important factors that are considered in the research process are product, price, place, and promotion. To launch a product or service in the market and gain profit, all these four factors need to work accordingly. The research process helps to find the change in customer behavior patterns if any one of the four factors is changed or updated. Marketers need to know about the expectations of customers, current market trends, and interests of customers to launch their products in the market and gain the attention of customers among all the available competitors.
Stages in Research Process
The research process studies the collection of data, analysis, and interpretation of data that helps to gain current insights and trends in the market. Below are the stages in the research process.
1. Defining the Problem
Defining the market research problem is the first step in the research process. Research starts when the market faces some problems. The problem needs to be studied to know about the causes, results, effects, and solutions to solve it. Defining the problem in the research process studies “why” and “how” questions related to the problem. Therefore the problem needs to be defined in detail. The definition of the problem consists of
- The causes or factors that are responsible for the problem due to which problems arise.
- The problems encountered due to the occurrence of any error.
- The solutions or methods that can be applied to solve the problem.
- The strategies and techniques that can be used further to avoid them.
2. Planning the Research Design
Research Design is defined as a strategy that is used to conduct market research and collection of data. The research design consists of techniques, methods, and procedures that will be used to collect the relevant data. The three types of marketing research designs are:
- Exploratory: For gaining the facts and opinions regarding the problem or any specific topic, exploratory research design is used. To carry out exploratory research journals, books, magazines, publications, metrics, and interviews are used.
- Descriptive: A descriptive research study is used to make a specific decision on a problem and then track its performance. Descriptive research needs to be analysed and measured statistically.
- Casual: Casual research design is used to study causes and their effect on the available variables. The casual research process makes use of theories and experiments to study the project.
3. Selecting a Sample
While solving or implementing any marketing research problem it is difficult to study the whole population or all the customers together at once. Therefore a smaller unit known as a sample is selected for further analysis. To select a sample, a few points need to be considered. Such as:
- Which sample to select from available population units?
- Type of method to be used for the selection of samples from all available units. For this, there are two types of methods; Probability Sampling and Non-probability Sampling. Probability Sampling is defined as a method in which the sample is selected randomly from all the available population units. However, Non-probability Sampling is defined as a method in which the samples or not selected randomly, either they are selected according to investigators’ judgment or by using some other methods.
- Size of Selected Samples: This size of selected samples helps to determine the cost and accuracy of the decisions.
4. Collecting Data
Data can be collected through various channels. These channels help to determine the difference between Operational Data and Experience Data. Operational Data is defined as a type of data that describes the costs, sales, profits, and account-related information. Experience Data is defined as a type of data that describes the experience and thoughts of customers, employees, and users.
With the help of surveys through social media platforms such as Email, Slack, WhatsApp, and SMS it is possible to reach more customers and gain more data. Data can also be collected with the help of observing the purchase patterns that were used in the past, and are used in the present by the customers. The type of data that is collected also plays a very important role. If data is invalid it is not useful for further analysis.
5. Analysing Marketing Research Data
Analysing the marketing research data is an important step. It helps to decide about the solutions and the measures that need to be avoided or to be practiced in the future. The analysis is made on the gathered data to check for the below parameters:
- To check whether the data that is collected is meaningful and relevant.
- The relationship between the data that is collected and the prior available data.
- To check whether the available data describes the solutions.
- Some key points that will help to make changes accordingly.
These above-mentioned points need to be checked once data is collected. Therefore various tools and strategies can be used for the same.
6. Drawing Conclusions and Preparing a Report
Once the problem is defined in detail, the sample of data points is selected, and relevant data is collected and analysed to make conclusions. According to the conclusion and solutions, reports are prepared in such a way that they are easy to understand. A report should be concise, complete, and represented with the help of charts and graphs, presentations, visual stories, etc. The two different types of reports are being prepared. They are:
- Technical Report: Technical reports consist of all the details about the problem or topic, strategies and techniques used, working flow, structure, and solutions.
- Summary Report: The summary report consists of the overall process of research, the findings achieved, and the conclusions.
In this way, different types of reports are made at the end of the research process.
7. Following Up
Following Up is the last phase in the research process. In prior phases the problem is defined in detail, the data is collected and interpreted and then the conclusions are made. Once the conclusions are made the follow-up of the overall process and the strategies and solutions need to be taken. All the solutions and decisions made are implemented in this phase. After the successful implementation of the strategies, they are properly monitored and evaluated. It checks whether all the techniques applied are effective and make a positive impact on the marketing process.