DEFINITION OF MARKETING RESEARCH:

Market research is any organized effort to gather information about markets or customers. It is a very important component of business strategy. The term is commonly interchanged with marketing research; however, expert practitioners may wish to draw a distinction, in that marketing research is concerned specifically about marketing processes, while market research is concerned specifically with markets. Market Research is a key factor to get advantage over competitors. Market research provides important information to identify and analyze the market need, market size and competition.

What is a Marketing research problem?

Marketing research problems: for primary research conducted the problems might include costs and the amount of time it will take as in business time is money. Secondary research problems may include the information which is collected is not suitable for your needs as this is information carried out for someone elses needs and not your own so you may be trying to answer a question with the wrong information.

What is the distinction between the marketing research problem and management decision problem?
Marketing Research Problem * Asks what information is needed and how it should be obtained * Information oriented * Focuses on the underlying causes Management Decision Problem * Asks what the decision maker needs to do * Action oriented

Two methods for making marketing research more actionable:

Clear goal and monitoring could make marketing research more actionable.

Clearly defined objectives and a commitment to action are the foundation for achieving action.

Internal sponsor like senior decision maker is also a great method for making marketing research more actionable. Talk to the most senior decision maker.

The research did a great job of exploring the boundaries of the market, defining customer segments and their needs, and identifying likely competitors.

Marketing research problem of focus group:

Focus group: A focus group is a form of qualitative research in which a group of people are asked about their perceptions, opinions, beliefs and attitudes towards a product, service, concept, advertisement, idea, or packaging.[1] Questions are asked in an interactive group setting where participants are free to talk with other group members. The first focus groups were created at the Bureau of Applied Social Research in the USA, by associate director, sociologist Robert K. Merton.[2] The term itself was coined by psychologist and marketing expert Ernest Dichter. Emerging issue in marketing research of focus group: Focus groups are "One shot case studies" especially if they are measuring a property-disposition relationship within the social sciences, unless they are repeated. Focus groups can create severe issues of external validity, especially the reactive effects of the testing arrangement. A fundamental difficulty with

focus groups (and other forms of qualitative research) is the issue of observer dependency: the results obtained are influenced by the researcher, raising questions of validity. Another issue is with the setting itself. If the focus groups are held in a laboratory setting with a moderator who is a professor and the recording instrument is obtrusive, the participants may either hold back on their responses and/or try to answer the moderator's questions with answers the participants feel that the moderator wants to hear. Another issue with the focus group setting is the lack of anonymity. With all of the other participants, there cannot be any guarantee of confidentiality. Again we have to deal with the issues of the reactive effects of the testing arrangement. Douglas Rushkoff argues that focus groups are often useless, and frequently cause more trouble than they are intended to solve, with focus groups often aiming to please rather than offering their own opinions or evaluations, and with data often cherry picked to support a foregone conclusion. Rushkoff cites the disastrous introduction of New Coke in the 1980s as a vivid example of focus group analysis gone bad. In addition there is anecdotal evidence of focus groups rebelling, for instance the name for the Ford Focus, was created by a focus group which had grown bored and impatient and the irony of this was not picked up by the marketing team. Jonathan Ive, Apples senior vice president of industrial design, also said that Apple had found a good reason not to do focus groups : "They just ensure that you dont offend anyone, and produce bland inoffensive products."