Stages in the Marketing Research process - I

Marketing research is a systematic process requiring a lot of careful planning and analysis. It is not possible to define a generic structure for the entire marketing research process (i.e. the process may vary from case to case). But, most of the marketing research activities usually follow the following steps:

You will observe that (based on your work experience and learning’s in the field of marketing research) majority of the marketing research activities follow this selected pattern, with some minor modifications or tweaks.

In this article a basic idea of what happens in the first four stages of marketing research is being presented. In the next article we will take up the next four steps.

Define the problem:

Marketing research involves a lot of time and cost and therefore is a costly process and thus a misguided/misconceived problem definition can lead to a large amount of losses.  Thus, defining a very clear definition of the problem is of utmost importance. Precise definition of the problem will help further in clearly defining the objectives and also to collect the data as per the requirements.

Defining the problem is a step prior to determining the purpose of the research. Exploratory research may come in handy to define the problem more precisely. Usually, some pilot studies, experience surveys, and secondary research will help.

Define the research objectives:

After defining the research problem research objectives need to be compulsorily identified/defined.

Research Objectives may be in:

1.       Quantitative terms 

2.       Qualitative terms

3.       Both quantitative and qualitative terms

These research objectives can be expressed as:

1.       Research question statements

2.       Hypothesis

[Definition - Hypothesis: A supposition or proposed explanation made on the basis of limited evidence as a starting point for further investigation.]

Plan the research design:

After defining the problem and the research objective, the next step involves planning the research and the activities included. During this phase you should be able to identify the sources of information to be tapped, the methodology to collect and collate the data, defining the sample size and targeted demography along with the cost and time involved, considering the timelines for conducting the research.

Define/Plan the sample:

In this stage, you will identify the part of the population that should be ideal for rolling out a research and to get results which are authentic and speak for the entire population being targeted. Defining the targeted population also may be a difficult.

Another important issue is the sample size and how big or small it should be? Common wisdom says that larger samples will provide us with more reliable information. A small sample can also give a reliable measure of the universe if probability sampling is used.

The two classic sampling methods are:

1.       Probabilistic

2.       Non-probabilistic

[Note: the next four stages are explained in the next post - Stages in the Marketing Research process - II]