Part I - Essay part

1. Discuss on the definition and concept of marketing research

 Marketing research is the process or set of processes that links the producers,
customers, and end users to the marketer through information used to identify
and define marketing opportunities and problems; generate, refine, and evaluate
marketing actions; monitor marketing performance; and improve understanding of
marketing as a process.
 Marketing research is defined as the process of gathering data on goods and
services to determine whether the product or service will satisfy customers'
needs.
 Market research can identify market trends, demographics, economic shifts,
customer's buying habits, and important information on competition.
2. State the factors that influence marketing research decisions
 Population Growth:- The increase in population naturally increases the
demand too.
 Increasing Households:- The growth of demand for household products is more
than it is to the total population at any time.
 Disposal income:- Automation in industries, birth of many new firms etc. Open
door of employment. Thus people have increased their income and in turn aim
for more satisfaction and more comforts.
 Surplus Income:- The people have surplus income left after meeting the expenses
on essential items. This surplus amount will be spent on non-necessary products
or luxury goods.
 Technological Development:- Some technological advancement may outmode the
existing products; in turn the whole industry may come to a standstill
 Mass Communication Media:- The growth of mass communication media:
newspaper, magazines, radio, television etc. facilitates the buyers to learn about
the new product available for sale.
3. Discuss on the classification of marketing research
 Marketing research is divided in to search (exploratory), descriptive, and causal .
A. Search (exploratory) :- gives the researcher and manager an idea being
researched, food for generating new market idea. The methods of obtaining
information in this study is not formalized. As new data are received, corrections
are made to the work. It's goal is finding ideas , understanding. It has flexible
feature and uses secondary data and qualitative research methods.
B. Descriptive:- The purpose of descriptive research is to evaluate the prevalence of
certain marketing characteristics and on this basis to identify not just the ones
that are encountered, but the most typical ones. The goal is description of the
market, it's characteristics, their interrelations. Has fixed structure, based on
 hypotheses put forward earlier feature. Uses secondary data, formalized survey,
formalized observation.
C. Casual :- Are conducted to record the changes occurring in a specially planned
marketing experiment, during which a controlled marketing environment artificially
created. They enable the researcher to conclude that there is a casual
relationship between the events or the values of parameters . The goal is
evaluation and verification of observable patterns. It has manipulating one or
more variable while fixing other independent variable. It uses experiments.
4. Discuss on the marketing information system
 MIS is the systematic collection, analysis, interpretation , storage and dissemination
of the market information, from both internal and external sources, to the
marketers on a regular, continues basis.
5. Discuss on the scope of marketing research
 The scope of marketing research could cover the business problems relating to the
following:-
 Types of consumers that compromise present and potential markets.
 Buying habits and pattern consumption.
 Size and location of different markets.
 Marketing and manufacturing capabilities of competitors.
 Most suitable entry timing.
 Chances of improvement of current channels.
 Optimum use of promo- tools.
 New mantras of emerging segments.
 The current and prospective competitive position.
6. Discuss on the marketing research process
 Define the problem or opportunity :- In order to do any research and collect data,
we have to know what we are trying to learn from the research.
 Develop marketing research plan :- It help us to answer the research problem or
explore an opportunity defined in step one.
 Collect relevant data and information :- Data will be collected in quantitative or
qualitative, which is descriptive and observational.
 Analyze data and report findings :- it’s important to look for trends as opposed to
specific pieces of information.
 Put Your Research into Action :- research is complete. It’s time to present findings and
take action.
Part II - Essay part
1. Identify the difference between primary and secondary data sources
The fundamental differences between primary and secondary data are discussed in
the following points:
1. The term primary data refers to the data originated by the researcher for the first
time. Secondary data is the already existing data, collected by the investigator
agencies and organizations earlier.
 2. Primary data is a real-time data whereas secondary data is one which relates to
the past.
3. Primary data is collected for addressing the problem at hand while secondary data
is collected for purposes other than the problem at hand.
4. Primary data collection is a very involved process. On the other hand, secondary
data collection process is rapid and easy.
5. Primary data collection sources include surveys, observations, experiments,
questionnaire, personal interview, etc. On the contrary, secondary data collection
sources are government publications, websites, books, journal articles, internal records
etc.
6. Primary data collection requires a large amount of resources like time, cost and
manpower. Conversely, secondary data is relatively inexpensive and quickly available.
7. Primary data is always specific to the researcher’s needs, and he controls the
quality of research. In contrast, secondary data is neither specific to the
researcher’s need, nor he has control over the data quality.
8. Primary data is available in the raw form whereas secondary data is the refined
form of primary data. It can also be said that secondary data is obtained when
statistical methods are applied to the primary data.
9. Data collected through primary sources are more reliable and accurate as compared
to the secondary resource.
2. Discuss on the advantages and limitations of secondary data
 Secondary data offer several advantages as it is easily available, saves time and cost
of the researcher. But there are some disadvantages associated with this, as the
data is gathered for the purposes other than the problem in mind, so the
usefulness of the data may be limited in a number of ways like relevance and
accuracy.
3. Discuss the different methods of collecting primary data
 Questionnaire:-  is the most common data collecting method. The process may
look very simple because after we have a sample or focus group, we just ask the
questions and record the answers. The tough part is finding the perfect group and
questions. To ask the questions, we can use our own survey, which can be filled in
online or in a personal format. Another way to ask questions is through
interviewing. The biggest advantage of this data collecting method is that we can
get tons of data. 
 Observation :- Compared to questionnaires, observation has a big advantage: the
observed person does not know that he or she is being observed, so the
behavior will be natural. In this case, we can lock out the unconscious or
conscious lies. On the other side of the coin, this data collecting method can only
be used on a small scale.
 Experiment :-  It is a creative and fast-developing type of data collecting. The
common characteristics of every experiments are laboratory conditions and
simulated market. When we are collecting data from an experiment, we always
use one or both of the methods above as well. The biggest advantage of this
 data collecting method is that we can find answers to questions that could not
be answered with other measuring techniques. The disadvantages of the
experiment are that there are just a few qualified companies for leading the
process and that it needs deep planning and preparing to collect usable data,
4. Explain in detail the syndicated sources of secondary data, briefly
It  includes books, personal sources, journal, newspaper, website, government record etc.
Secondary data are known to be readily available compared to that of primary data.
It requires very little research and need for manpower to use these sources.
 Books:-  are one of the most traditional ways of collecting data. Books, when
carefully chosen are an authentic source of authentic data and can be useful
in preparing a literature review.
 Published Sources :- There are a variety of published sources available for
different research topics. The authenticity of the data generated from these
sources depends majorly on the writer and publishing company.  Published
sources may be printed or electronic as the case may be. They may be paid or free
depending on the writer and publishing company's decision.
 Unpublished Personal Sources :- This may not be readily available and easily
accessible compared to the published sources. They only become accessible if
the researcher shares with another researcher who is not allowed to share it
with a third party.
 Journal :- are gradually becoming more important than books these days when
data collection is concerned. This is because journals are updated regularly with
new publications on a periodic basis, therefore giving to date information .Also,
journals are usually more specific when it comes to research. For example, we
can have a journal on, "Secondary data collection for quantitative data" while a
book will simply be titled, "Secondary data collection".
 Newspapers :- In most cases, the information passed through a newspaper is
usually very reliable. Hence, making it one of the most authentic sources of
collecting secondary data. The kind of data commonly shared in newspapers is
usually more political, economic, and educational than scientific. Therefore,
newspapers may not be the best source for scientific data collection.
 Websites :- The information shared on websites are mostly not regulated and
as such may not be trusted compared to other sources. However, there are
some regulated websites that only share authentic data and can be trusted by
researchers. Most of these websites are usually government websites or
private organizations that are paid, data collectors.
 Blogs :- are one of the most common online sources for data and may even
be less authentic than websites. These days, practically everyone owns a blog
and a lot of people use these blogs to drive traffic to their website or make
money through paid ads. Therefore, they cannot always be trusted. For
example, a blogger may write good things about a product because he or she
was paid to do so by the manufacturer even though these things are not
true.
  Diaries :- They are personal records and as such rarely used for data collection
by researchers. Also, diaries are usually personal, except for these days when
people now share public diaries containing specific events in their life.
 Government Records :-  are a very important and authentic source of
secondary data. They contain information useful in marketing, management,
humanities, and social science research. Some of these records include; census
data, health records, education institute records, etc. They are usually collected
to aid proper planning, allocation of funds, and prioritizing of projects.
 Podcasts :- are gradually becoming very common these days, and a lot of
people listen to them as an alternative to radio. They are more or less like
online radio stations and are generating increasing popularity. Information is
usually shared during podcasts, and listeners can use it as a source of data
collection. Some other sources of data collection include:
 Letters
 Radio stations
 Public sector records.
5. Discuss on the difference between probability and non- probability sampling
1. sampling technique, in which the subjects of the population get an equal
opportunity to be selected as a representative sample, is known as probability
sampling. A sampling method in which it is not known that which individual from
the population will be chosen as a sample, is called non-probability sampling.
2. The basis of probability sampling is randomization or chance, so it is also known
as Random sampling. On the contrary, in non-probability sampling randomization
technique is not applied for selecting a sample. Hence it is considered as Non-
random sampling.
3. In probability sampling, the sampler chooses the representative to be part of
the sample randomly, whereas, in non-probability sampling, the subject is chosen
arbitrarily, to belong to the sample by the researcher.
4. The chances of selection in probability sampling, are fixed and known. As
opposed to non-probability sampling, the selection probability is zero, i.e. it is
neither specified not known.
5. Probability sampling is used when the research is conclusive in nature. On the
other hand, when the research is exploratory, non-probability sampling should be
used.
6. The results generated by probability sampling, are free from bias while the results
of non-probability sampling are more or less biased.
7. As the subjects are selected randomly by the researcher in probability sampling,
so the extent to which it represents the whole population is higher as compared
to the non-probability sampling. That is why  extrapolation of results to the entire
population is possible in the probability sampling but not in non-probability
sampling.
8. Probability sampling test hypothesis  but non-probability sampling generates it.
6. Discuss the difference between census and sampling
1. The census is a systematic method that collects and records the data about the
members of the population. The sampling is defined as the subset of the
population selected to represent the entire group, in all its characteristics.
2. The census is alternately known as a complete enumeration survey method. In
contrast, sampling is also known as a partial enumeration survey method.
3. In the census, each and every unit of population is researched. On the contrary,
only a handful of items is selected from the population for research.
4. Census, is a very time-consuming method of survey, whereas, in the case of
sampling, the survey does not take much time.
5. The census method requires high capital investment as it involves the research
and collection of all the values of the population. Unlike  sampling which is a
comparatively economical method.
6. The results drawn by conducting a census  is accurate and reliable while there are
chances of errors in the results drawn from the sample.
7. The size of the sample determines the probability of errors in the outcome, i.e.
the larger the size of population the less are the chances of errors and the
smaller the size; the higher are the chances of errors. This is not possible with
census as all the items are taken into consideration.
8. Census is best suited for the population of heterogeneous nature. As opposed to
sampling which is appropriate for homogeneous nature.
7. Explain in detail the reasons up on which census survey is used for conducting
research
 The census also helps with the equitable distribution of public funds, as federal
and state funding for things like educational programs, healthcare, law
enforcement and highways is allocated in part based on population. "Equitably
distributing the billions of dollars of public money requires up-to-date population
data."
8. Explain in detail the reasons up on which sample survey is used for conducting
research.
 Sampling is done because we usually cannot gather data from the entire
population. Even in relatively small populations, the data may be needed urgently,
and including everyone in the population in our data collection may take too long.
9. Discuss on different types probability sampling techniques
 Simple random sampling :- Simple random sampling refers to any sampling method
that has the following properties.
 The population consists of N objects.
 The sample consists of n objects.
 If all possible samples of n objects are equally likely to occur, the sampling
method is called simple random sampling.
 There are many ways to obtain a simple random sample. One way would be the
lottery method. Each of the N population members is assigned a unique number.
The numbers are placed in a bowl and thoroughly mixed. Then, a blind-folded
researcher selects n numbers. Population members having the selected numbers
are included in the sample.
 Stratified sampling :- With stratified sampling, the population is divided into groups,
based on some characteristic. Then, within each group, a probability sample (often a
simple random sample) is selected. In stratified sampling, the groups are called
strata.
 Cluster sampling :- With cluster sampling, every member of the population is
assigned to one, and only one, group. Each group is called a cluster. A sample of
clusters is chosen, using a probability method (often simple random sampling). Only
individuals within sampled clusters are surveyed.
 Multistage sampling :- With multistage sampling, we select a sample by using
combinations of different sampling methods
9.1. Explain in brief the advantages and disadvantages of each probability sampling
techniques
Advantages
 Cluster sampling :- Convenience and ease of use.
 Simple random sampling:-  Creates samples that are highly representative of the
population.
 Stratified random sampling:-  Creates strata or layers that are highly
representative of strata or layers in the population.
 Systematic sampling:-  Creates samples that are highly representative of the
population, without the need for a  random number generator.
9.2. Explain in brief the advantages and disadvantages of each non- probability sampling
techniques
Disadvantages
 Cluster sampling :-  Might not work well if unit members are not homogeneous (i.e.
if they are different from each other).
 Simple random sampling :-  Tedious and time consuming, especially when creating
larger samples.
 Stratified random sampling :- Tedious and time consuming, especially when
creating larger samples.
 Systematic sampling :-  Not as random as simple random sampling,
10. Explaining in brief the factors that can affect the sample size
1.The  margin of error (also referred to as the confidence interval) :- measures the
precision with which an estimate from a single sample approximates the
population value.  A margin of  error will  get narrower as  the sample  size increases.
The margin of  error selected  depends on  the precision  needed to make population
estimates from a sample.
2. Confidence level :- It is the estimated probability that a population estimate lies within
a given margin of error. As the confidence level increases, so too does the sample size.
A researcher that  chooses a confidence  level of  90% will  need a smaller sample than a
researcher who is required to be 99% confident that the  population estimate lies within
the margin of error.
3. Population variability :- The more heterogeneous our population, the bigger the
required sample size. An initial estimate of this value is the standard deviation of one or
more samples.
11. Identify the difference between participant and non-participant observations
 In participant observations, researcher participate the interactions between
participants.
 If the observer observes by making himself, more or less, a member of the group
he is observing so that the members of the group experience.
-We can get an in-depth picture of behavior
-Observer may bias participants behaviors
 In non-participant observations, researcher does not participate the interactions
between participants.
 When the observer observes as a detached emissary without any attempt on his
part to experience through participation what others feel.
-We can get a more limited picture of behavior
-Observer cannot bias participant's behavior

12. What are the advantages and disadvantages of personal interview over telephone
interview?
Advantage
Wide Geographic Access:- Small business owners have wide geographic access with
telephone interviews. Nearly everyone in the United States has a land-line telephone or
cell phone, and most of these numbers can be purchased from phone companies for a
price. Phone interviewers also have access to in-house or online phone directories. This
enables marketers to call and talk to virtually any customer in any market. For example,
a small restaurant company may obtain customer feedback in all 10 of its major
markets in a four-state area.
Cost- and Time-Effective :- Telephone interviews are relatively cost-effective compared to
other methods of surveying customers. Other interview methods, such as direct mail, cost
much more. A 10-minute phone call, for example, costs very little with most phone plans.
Hence, it does not cost a fortune for a small business to complete 300 or 350 survey.
Disadvantage
Hard to Make a Connection :- Business owners may find it hard to make a connection
with customers over phone interviews. For one, they can't view the people they are
interviewing. Hence, they can't see people's reactions to help determine whether the
answers are truthful. In-person interviews are just the opposite, as interviewers can study
respondents facial expressions or gestures to determine whether their responses are
truthful.
 Intrusive for Customers :- Another drawback of phone interviews is that they can be
intrusive. Most calls are done at random, often interrupting people's dinner or evenings.
Hence, people may hang up before the survey is complete or refuse to participate.
Limited Complexity of Question:- sit is difficult to get people to elaborate on their
responses by phone. The reason is that most phone interviews must be limited to five
or 10 minutes. People would hang up with longer telephone surveys, resulting in partially
completed interviews. Therefore, companies using phone interviews generally keep their
questions and answers relatively brief. Many of these questions must be multiple-choice
in nature instead of open-ended. The open-ended questions are more informative
because they allow customers to elaborate why they responded as they did on multiple-
choice questions.
13. State the steps needed in designing a questionnaire
  Deciding the Purpose
The initial step in developing a questionnaire is to ask yourself what you want to know.
For instance, you may want to know how satisfied your customers are, what services they
would like you to offer or which competitors they use. Begin by making a list of all the
questions you want answered.
 Understanding the Use
Before you star t a survey, you need to understand how you will use the data. For
example, if you want to compare local clients to out-of-town clients, you will need to ask
people who complete the questionnaire where they live.
Selecting Your Target
A key component of survey design is deciding whom to survey. You need to decide, for
instance, whether you want to target a specific demographic or if you want answers
from a broad cross section of the public.
Choosing a Method
Surveys can be administered in a variety of ways — for example, in person, by phone or
online. Choose a method that you think will be most convenient for your customers or
other respondents.
Selecting Question Types
Survey questions take one of two forms — they are either quantitative or qualitative.
Quantitative questions are used to get concrete responses, such as the number of times
a customer visits your store. Qualitative questions ask for opinions, such as how satisfied
they are.
Writing Questions
Questions should be written as succinctly as possible. State your questions in plain,
simple language. Avoid using complicated sentence structure or uncommon words.
Arranging Questions
The placement of survey questions needs to be carefully thought out. To ease your
respondents into the questionnaire, start with simple questions that do not ask for much
personal information. In longer surveys, it helps to mix up question types — for instance,
changing from yes-or-no questions to open-response questions — to keep the respondent
interested.
Testing
Test your questionnaire on friends, family and employees. This helps you to identify
unclear questions, awkward wording or other mistakes that you may not notice on your
own. Rewrite any problem questions before administering the questionnaire to real
respondents.
Part III- Work out the following question
A. Selam Abel was commissioned to develop an extra-large rose for Rose Bowl
Parade. A random sample of roses from hybrid A bushes yielded the following
diameters(in centimeters) for mature peak roses: 2,3,4,5,6,8,10,10.
Compute the following : mean, mode, median, range, variance, standard deviation and
coefficient of variation.
Solution:-
A. Mean :- Computing mean for individual series x̅ ꞊ ∑x
n
''2,3,4,5,6,8,10,10''
x̅ ꞊ 48∕8 ꞊6
B. Mode :- It is the most frequently happening value/ category.
'' 2,3,4,5,6,8,10,10'' is Uni- mode.
C. Median :- Is the value of the middle item (Average of the two middle items).
[n/2] th + [n+1/2] th for even individual series.
2
so :- ''2,3,4,5,6,8,10,10''
꞊ 8/2 + 8+1/2 ꞊ 4+4.5
2 2
꞊ 4.25 ( the fourth item)
D. Range :- Highest value - Lowest value
10-2꞊ 8
E. Variance :- For individual value (ungrouped data)
S2 ꞊ ∑(x1 - x)̅ 2
n
S ꞊ (2+3+4+5+6+8+10+10)꞊48
2

꞊48x48
꞊2304/8 ꞊ 288
꞊(2x2+3x3+4x4+5x5+6x6+8x8+10x10+10x10)
꞊345-288꞊57
Then subtract 1 from the number of items
8-1 ꞊7 57/7꞊8.14
F. Standard deviation :- √∑(x1-x)̅ 2/n
√8.14 ꞊ 2.85
G. Coefficient of Variation :- Standard deviation (√)
Mean (x)̅ x100%
꞊ ''2,3,4,5,6,8,10,10"
First let's find x̅
x̅ ꞊ ∑x ꞊ 2+3+4+5+6+8+10+10 ꞊ 48/8 ꞊ 6
n 8
Then √
꞊ 2.85
CV ꞊ √ x 100%
x̅
꞊2.85 x 100 % ꞊ 47.5
60