Question

.

NEED ANSWER ASAP

******NEW ANSWER NEVER USED BEFORE****

Write a page paper on conducting marketing research. Discuss the steps involved in the process, how marketing managers use marketing research, and an industry example of successful marketing research.

PLEASE ANSWER THROUGHLY

COPY AND PASTE NOT ATTACHMENT

PLEASE ANSWER WITH A RESPONSE NEVER USED BEFORE

Answer 1

Marketing research forms the main basis of making informed decisions in a business. Marketing research is used by business managers to get updated with the changing tastes and preferences of the target market. Marketing research is an expensive process and many businesses scrap marketing research for this reason but could lead to detrimental results in the future for the firm if marketing research is avoided. Marketing research is of great importance to business during new product launches, finalizing sales promotion and advertising decisions. Marketing research helps a business to identify its target audience, customer behavior, buying habits, complaints and refine their marketing strategies accordingly. Primary marketing research is of great importance compared to secondary marketing research as it collects primary data directly from the stakeholders of the business. The marketing research process has five main stages including problem or opportunity definition, research plan development, data collection, analysis and action.
Consider the IT industry example of a company selling antivirus products or software. The above five stages of marketing research are explained in the perspective of.
1. Problem or Opportunity definition
In this stage of marketing research, the problem is defined in a clear and concise manner. Here several questions are developed to define the problem and identify the opportunity that lies as a result of solving the problem. In the case of an antivirus software company, the problem is the hacking, privacy and security concerns existing in the IT industry. The company finds an opportunity and states that the antivirus software will provide a solution to the privacy and security problems existing in the IT industry.
2. Research plan development
In this stage, techniques of conducting research are finalized. Some of the popular techniques to conduct primary marketing research include surveys, questionnaire, interviews, focus groups, user tests and analytics etc. Secondary marketing research techniques include data collection from reliable sources like journals, academic sources, magazines, annual reports etc. In the above case of an antivirus software company, primary marketing research in the form of surveys and questionnaire is found apt and finalized. The questionnaire pertaining to the various privacy and security issues were framed and distributed among the stakeholders of the IT industry to collect primary data.
3. Data collection
In this stage of marketing research, both quantitative and qualitative data is collected. The antivirus software company collects primary data through open and close-ended questions in the survey method adopted.
4. Data Analysis
In this stage, appropriate analytical tools are used to interpret the collected data into useful information. Based on this information, reports are generated to address the privacy and security problem. The antivirus software company collects information on privacy and security breaches and a report is made detailing the various online security threats posing the IT industry. Tools like percentage analysis, chi-square test, T-test are used to find the relationship between variables considered in the research study.
5. Take action
In this last stage, actions are taken based on the report. The antivirus software company includes the report findings into the software and develops robust antivirus software that solves the existing privacy and security problems.