Gathering Marketing Intelligence: The Project Approach LEARNING OBJECTIVES |. Explain the difference between a program strategy and a project strategy in marketing research. 2. Outline the steps in the research process and show how the steps are interrelated. 3. Cite the most critical error in marketing research, 4. Highlight the main differences between the utility, justice, and rights approaches to ethical reasoning. INTRODUCTION Chapter | highlighted the many kinds of problems that marketing research can be used to solve. It emphasized that ‘marketing research is a firm's communication link with the environment and can help the marketing manager in planning, problem solving, and control. Every company has its own way of using marketing research. As noted in Chapter 2, ‘researchers can gather information on a continuous basis and use it as input to an information system. Sometimes, however, companies need specific, customized information that is not contained in the company’s information system. These situa- tions call for the project approach to gathering the necessary information. A company’s program strategy for marketing research is its overall philosophy of how marketing research projects fit into its srg pA =A program strategy specifies the it are to be conducted and for what es. It might even specify how often these studies are to take place. Program strategy typically answers such purposes ‘5 questions as “Should we do marketing research?” and “How often?” and “What kind?” How the individual studies are designed is the basis of a firs project strategy. Project strategy addresses the issue of “Now that we've decided to go ahead with marketing research in a particular area, how should we proceed? Should we use in-store surveys, mail questionnaires, or a Web-based survey? Should we question more people or fewer?” In sum, project strategy deals with how a speci study shouldbe conducted, wheseas sromeara strategy addresses the question of what type of studies the firm should conduct. RAM STRATEGY _ A company’s philosophy of how marketing research fis into its marketing plan project STRATEGY The design of individual marketing research tudles that are to be conductor, Scanned with CamScannerGathoring Marketing Intelligence: The Project Approscy a (= a “> zz SG FIGURE 3.1 Stages In tho Research Process All research projects require their own special emphases and approaches, because the Problems or opportu. nities they address are different. As a result, research procedures are custom tailored to the situation, Even $0, there isa general sequence of steps—the research process (see Figure 3.1)—that can be followed when designing the research project. This chapter overviews the research process, and the remaining chapters discuss the sa in the process in more detail, In addition, because unethical practices can be found at each stage of the researh process, we'll introduce some basic notions of marketing research ethics at the end of the chapter. @ SEQUENCE OF STEPS IN MARKETING RESEARCH — Formulate Problem (Chapter-4) he first—and most important—step in the marketing research process is to define the marketing problem to be ved. Only when the problem is precisely defined can research be designed to provide the needed information, Tart of the process of problem definition includes-specifying imager’ decision problenmand one or more search problems to be mtktressed.Each project to be undertaken should tie back directly tothe decision problem, fo further steps in the research process should be taken until the decision problem and the research problem(s) can be stated explicitly, This is the main purpose of the research request agreement, a document that clearly states the research problem(s) to be addressed in a research project Determine Research Design (Chapters-5-6) The choice of research design depends on about the phenomenon to be investigated exp about the problem. If relatively lite is known search ¥§ needed. Typically, exploratory research is used when the problem to be solved is broad or vague) It may involve reviewing published data, interviewing knowl- edgeable people, conducting focus groups, or investigating trade literature tha sinittar-casescfo-any event, one of the most important charactétistics of exploratory research is its flexibility. Because researchers know little about the problem at this point, they must be ready to follow their intuition about possitle areas and tactics of investigation. Some researchers apply the label “qualitative research” to this kind of research. nstead of being broad or vague, a problem iswell defined ae : : and clearly stated, descriptive or causa research is needed. In these research designs, data collection is nor flexible but rigidly speciffed, both yitirrespect-4a.the data collection forms and the sample design-"The descriptive design focuses “on describing 4 population, often RESEARCH PROCESS The sequence of steps In the design and Implementation of a research study. v Scanned with CamScanner48 Inte troduction to Marketing Research Manacer’s Focus Manacer'siec Paxer chapters will place much emphasis on usues that should be cons a CESARE muse complete to perform ualty research, At tsp we se wat 2 be catia! fOr you as a marketing manager to have a strong background in these ws evaluate proposed research projec be completely dependent on the recommendations of cers 26 you attempt (0 viii be placing yOUr COreer in the Aad she duality of the information produced by completed studies. n other words, you Wi ‘wil be a formidable force hands of others—a risky Proposition at best. Armed with research expertise, however, YOU f research services and an the marketing efforts of your organization. You will be an effective independent consumer eee invaluable sounding board as research providers seek feedback on the methods they peoroes ‘and the limitations ang an information-