Defining Marketing Research: Marketing research (also called consumer research) is a
form of business research. The field of marketing research as a statistical science was
pioneered by Arthur Nielsen with the founding of the ACNielsen Company in 1923.
Marketing research is a systematic and objective study of problems pertaining to the
marketing of goods and services. It is applicable to any area of marketing. Research is the
only tool an organization has to keep in contact with its external operating environment.
Authors have defined Marketing Research in many ways: Kotler (1999) defines marketing
research as ‗systematic problem analysis, model-building and fact-finding for the purpose of
improved decision-making and control in the marketing of goods and services
The American Marketing Association (AMA, 1961) defines it as ‗the systematic gathering,
recording and analyzing of data relating to the marketing of goods and services ‘
Green and Tull have defined marketing research as the systematic and objective search for
and analysis of information relevant to the identification and solution of any problem in the
field of marketing.
Scope of marketing research:
Product Management: One of the major scope of marketing research is to manage the
current products and new products.
In product management Marketing Research is helpful in
o Competitive Intelligence – To understand the competitive product stretegy.
o Prelaunch strategy for new products
o Test Marketing – To monitor the performance of the brand by launching in a select area
and then taking it across the country. In other words, it is a small-scale product launch used to
determine the likely acceptance of the product when it is introduced into a wider market.
o Concept testing - to test the acceptance of a concept by target consumers.
SALES ANALYSIS: Marketing research is used to study the sales trend and make suitable
strategies when required. It is used to
o Assess market potential
o Estimation of demand for a product
o Market share estimation
o Study seasonal variation for a product
o Market segmentation studies
o Estimate size of the market
o Need analysis to find out where the product fits in
Corporate Research: Marketing Research is used to analyse the corporate effectiveness.
o Assessing the image of the company
o Knowledge of the company activities
Advertising Research: Advertising is an arena in which Marketing Research is extensively
used.
o Readership feedbacks – Mainly carried out for newspapers and magazines
o Advertising Recall – To assess the recall of television or other advertising and thereby
assess its effectiveness.
Syndicated Research: This is compiled by agencies on a regular basis and sold to
organisations on subscription basis.
All of these forms of marketing research can be classified as either problem identification
research or as problem-solving research.
Marketing Research Methods Methodologically, marketing research uses four types of
research designs, namely:
Qualitative marketing research – This is generally used for exploratory purposes. The data
collected is qualitative and focuses on people ‘s opinions and attitudes towards a product or
service. The respondents are generally few in number and the findings cannot be generalised
tot eh whole population. No statistical methods are generally applied. Ex: Focus groups, In-
depth interviews, and Projective techniques
Quantitative marketing research – This is generally used to draw conclusions for a specific
problem. It tests a specific hypothesis and uses random sampling techniques so as to infer
from the sample to the population. It involves a large number of respondents and analysis is
carried out using statistical techniques. Ex: Surveys and Questionnaires
Observational techniques - The researcher observes social phenomena in their natural
setting and draws conclusion from the same. The observations can occur cross-sectionally
(observations made at one time) or longitudinally (observations occur over several time-
periods) Ex: Product-use analysis and computer cookie tracing
Experimental techniques – Here, the researcher creates a quasiartificial environment to try
to control spurious factors, then manipulates at least one of the variables to get an answer to a
research Ex: Test marketing and Purchase laboratories
Process of Market Research
Define the research problem
Determine research design
Identify data types and sources
Design data collection forms
Determine sampling design and size
Collect the data
Analyse and interpret the data
Prepare the research report
Market intelligence defined as data or information about the environment in which a
company is doing business. include data collection and analysis, derive insights, and
share findings throughout an organization. It is relevant to the organization’s market
segments and helps determine market segmentation and market opportunities
Types of Market Intelligence
Each type addresses a separate aspect of a business’s environment.
Competitive Intelligence: Data on your competitor’s strengths, weaknesses, position
in the market, and business strategies. It also helps you create strategies to boost your
competitive advantage.
Product Intelligence: Data on the lifecycles of your products and competitors’
products. This includes tracking product development, pricing, and performance. This
helps your business innovate products to meet changing market needs.
Market Understanding: Data on the broader market in which your business sits.
Market understanding may include assessing overall market size, growth rate, trends,
and market segments, and larger trends that may drive changes in your market. This is
a 1000-foot view of your market. Market understanding helps your business identify
opportunities and threads and adjust your strategies.
Customer Understanding: Data to help you deeply understand your customers’
attitudes, behaviours, needs, and satisfaction. Customer understanding helps your
business adapt products and offerings to meet customer needs, which boosts customer
loyalty in the long term.
Marketing Information System
Definition: The Marketing Information System refers to the systematic collection,
analysis, interpretation, storage and dissemination of the market information, from
both the internal and external sources, to the marketers on a regular, continuous basis.
1. Internal Records: The Company can collect information through its internal records
comprising of sales data, customer database, product database, financial data,
operations data, etc. The detailed explanation of the internal sources of data is given
below:
The information can be collected from the documents such as invoices, transmit
copies, billing documents prepared by the firms once they receive the order for the
goods and services from the customers, dealers or the sales representatives.
The current sales data should be maintained on a regular basis that serves as an aide to
a the Marketing Information System. The reports on current sales and the inventory
levels help the management to decide on its objectives, and the marketers can make
use of this information to design their future sales strategy.
The Companies maintain several databases such as*Customer Database- wherein the
complete information about the customer’s name, address, phone number, the
frequency of purchase, financial position, etc. is saved.
*Product Database- wherein the complete information about the product’s price,
features, variants, is stored.
*Salesperson database, wherein the complete information about the salesperson, his
name, address, phone number, sales target, etc. is saved.
The companies store their data in the data warehouse from where the data can be
retrieved anytime the need arises. Once the data is stored, the statistical experts mine
it by applying several computer software and techniques to convert it into meaningful
information that gives facts and figures.
Marketing Intelligence System: The marketing intelligence system provides the data
about the happenings in the market, i.e. data related to the marketing environment
which is external to the organization. It includes the information about the changing
market trends, competitor’s pricing strategy, change in the customer’s tastes and
preferences, new products launched in the market, promotion strategy of the
competitor, etc.
Marketing Decision Support System: It includes several software programs that can
be used by the marketers to analyze the data, collected so far, to take better marketing
decisions.With the use of computers, the marking managers can save the huge data in
a tabular form and can apply statistical programs to analyze the data and make the
decisions in line with the findings.
