Analysis and Reporting (Basic Marketing Research Book 3)

On such occasions its methods tend to be less theoretically rigorous and its analysis more superficial. The market research brief Marketing research can be concerned with any of a variety of aspects of the market: The question remains as to how the researcher decides where to focus the study, and to what depth each issue should be investigated.

The answer should lie in a document called the research brief. The brief must inform the researcher which aspects of the market are particularly important. In particular, the research brief should include: Each of these components of the brief is explained in a little more detail in the section that follows. The purpose of the research It is not at all unusual for marketing managers to neglect to tell the researcher the precise purpose of the research. They often do not appreciate the need to do so. Instead, they simply state what they think they need to know. This is not quite the same thing.

To appreciate the difference consider the case of the marketing research agency which was contacted by the International Coffee Organisation ICO and asked to carry out a survey of young people in the age group They wanted information on the coffee drinking habits of these young people: In response, the research organisation developed a set of wide-ranging proposals which included taking a large random sample of young people. In fact much of the information was interesting rather than important.

Important information is that information which directly assists in making decisions and the ICO had not told the research company the purpose of the research. The initial reason for the study had been a suspicion, on the part of the ICO, that an increasing percentage of young people were consuming beverages other than coffee, particularly soft drinks, and simply never developed the coffee drinking habit. Had this been explained to the research company then it is likely that their proposals would have been radically different.

To begin with, the sample would have been composed of year old non-coffee drinkers rather than a random sample of all year olds. Second, the focus would have been non-coffee drinking habits rather than coffee drinking habits. Unless the purpose of the research is stated in unambiguous terms it is difficult for the marketing researcher to translate the decision-maker's problem into a research problem and study design. At first glance this might appear to meet all of the requirements of being clear, concise, attainable, measurable and quantifiable.

In practice it would possibly meet only one of these criteria, i. Here is another case to be considered. A small engineering firm had purchased a prototype tree-lifter from a private research company.

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This machine was suitable for lifting semi-mature trees, complete with root-ball intact, and transplanting such trees in another location. It was thought to have potential in certain types of tree nurseries and plantations. The problem with the objective is that the marketing manager needs to know the potential market for the new tree-lifter is that it is not attainable.

One could find out how many tree-lifters were currently being sold but this is not the same as the objective set by the marketing manager. The market potential for any new brand is a function of at least 4 things, as shown in Figure 1. However, since the company had not decided their pricing policy an important element could not be tested. In large measure, it was also possible to gauge the likely reaction from competitors.

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The researchers began by looking at the basis of competition to determine whether it was on price, product quality or unique product features. The researchers were able to look at precedents. They examined the pattern of response on past occasions when one or other of those companies already in the market had launched a new product. An audit of the environment was undertaken too, but the missing component was the company's' own plans for exploiting the market.

Since the company had no involvement in the agricultural engineering sector, prior to acquiring the rights to the tree-lifter, they had no agreements with distributors, no idea of which, if any, of the distributors would be prepared to stock their product; they had no salesmen trained in selling into this industry and so on. The product's potential depended very much on such initiatives. The solution would have been to undertake a study which would have described the market in detail in terms of customers, competitors and the environment.

The company could then have put a marketing plan together and conducted a follow-up study to test their propositions out on the marketplace. The need to set a time horizon for marketing research Inevitably there are deadlines which the marketing research activity must fit and these must be stated clearly at the outset of the research. As was said earlier, because of time pressures, management is often seeking quick answers from marketing research.

He or she is likely to put forward a design which is less elegant, and gives rise to less precise information but delivers the results on schedule. A resource allocation, including the budget and facilities There are essentially two approaches to establishing the resource allocation to a particular marketing research exercise. Management can start with the problem and work out how much it will cost to solve it.

Alternatively, they can decide how much the management can afford to spend, at the time, and seek the best answer they can for the time, money and manpower allocated. In practice the decision-makers prefer the latter approach and the researchers the former. In the end, some kind of compromise develops. A reporting period The researcher must also know from the outset of the study the points in time when interim reports are required, if any, and the deadline for the final report.

The form of interim reports should also be specified at the outset, whether verbal or written, and whether presentations are to be made to a group nature and size of the group or an individual. In addition there are several characteristics of a good research brief and these are that it: The research proposal Having received the research brief, the researcher responds with a research proposal. This is a document which develops after having given careful consideration to the contents of the research brief. The research proposal sets out the research design and the procedures to be followed.

The eight steps are set out in figure 1. These are only briefly discussed here since the remainder of this textbook consists of a detailed explanation of each step. Problem definition The point has already been made that the decision-maker should clearly communicate the purpose of the research to the marketing researcher but it is often the case that the objectives are not fully explained to the individual carrying out the study.

Decision-makers seldom work out their objectives fully or, if they have, they are not willing to fully disclose them. In theory, responsibility for ensuring that the research proceeds along clearly defined lines rests with the decision-maker. In many instances the researcher has to take the initiative. For example, the decision-maker could be asked what he has in mind when he uses the term market potential. This is a legitimate question since the researcher is charged with the responsibility to develop a research design which will provide the right kind of information.

Another approach is to focus the discussions with the person commissioning the research on the decisions which would be made given alternative findings which the study might come up with. This process frequently proves of great value to the decision-maker in that it helps him think through the objectives and perhaps select the most important of the objectives.

Other helpful procedures include brainstorming, reviews of research on related problems and researching secondary sources of information as well as studying competitive products. Kerlinger 2 suggests that a well-defined marketing research problem tends to have three common characteristics as shown in figure 1. Hypothesis generation Whilst it is true that the purpose of research is to address some question, nonetheless one does not test research questions directly.

For example, there may be interest in answering the question: Research questions are too broad to be directly testable. Instead, the question is reduced to one or more hypotheses implied by these questions. There are two key characteristics which all hypotheses must have: These characteristics imply that it is relationships, rather than variables, which are tested; the hypotheses specify how the variables are related and that these are measurable or potentially measurable.

Statements lacking any or all of these characteristics are not research hypotheses. For example, consider the following hypothesis: Moreover, both variables are potentially measurable. The criteria have been met.

Guide to market research and analysis

However for the purposes of statistical testing it is more usual to find hypotheses stated in the so-called null form, e. If these problems can be resolved then we may indeed have a hypothesis. Hypotheses are central to progress in research. The point has been made that it is all too easy when conducting research to collect "interesting data" as opposed to "important data". Data and questions which enable researchers to test explicit hypotheses are important. The rest are merely interesting. There is a second advantage of stating hypotheses, namely that implicit notions or explanations for events become explicit and this often leads to modifications of these explanations, even before data is collected.

On occasion a given hypotheses may be too broad to be tested. However, other testable hypotheses may be deduced from it. A problem really cannot be solved unless it is reduced to hypothesis form, because a problem is a question, usually of a broad nature, and is not directly testable. Decision on type of study Marketing research can be carried out on one of three levels: The chief purpose of exploratory research is to reach a better understanding of the research problem.

This includes helping to identify the variables which should be measured within the study. When there is little understanding of the topic it is impossible to formulate hypotheses without some exploratory studies. For example, crop residues such a straw are high in lignin a wood-like substance and low in nutrients. This makes them a poor animal feed since the lignin acts against digestibility and the low nutrient content means poor food value.

However, if treated in a strong alkali, plus a little heat, the lignin breaks down and the nutrient content increases.

Analyzing and Interpreting Information

A company was established to exploit this technology and did so successfully for 4 seasons. After this period sales began to slow down. Three other manufacturers had entered the market by this time. The company, Animal Feed Systems, did not know whether the whole industry had slowed down or if only their product was suffering. Nor did they know if the problem was temporary in that perhaps the market comprised of "early adopters" had been saturated but it was only a matter of time before other farmers began to buy their systems when they saw how well they worked.

It was also possible that if a problem did exist it could lie in any one of a number of areas: This is a good example of a situation where insufficient knowledge prevented the development of clear objectives, since the problem could not be articulated with any precision and therefore research of an exploratory nature was required.

Exploratory research is intended to help researchers formulate a problem in such a way that it can be researched and suggest testable hypotheses. Typically, a descriptive study specifies the number and size of market segments, the alternative ways in which products are currently distributed, listing and comparison of the attributes and features of competitive products, etc. This type of study can involve the description of the extent of association between variables.

For example, the researcher may observe that there is an association between the geographical location of consumers and their tendency to consume red meat. Note that the researcher is able to describe the relationship rather than explain it. Nonetheless if the relationship between the two is fairly stable this descriptive information may be sufficient for the purposes of prediction.

The researcher may, for example, be able to predict how fast the per capita consumption of red meat is likely to rise over a given time period. The principal difference between exploratory and descriptive research is that, in the case of the latter, specific research questions have been formulated before the research is undertaken.

Analyzing, Interpreting and Reporting Basic Research Results

Causal research deals with the "why" questions. That is, there are occasions when the researcher will want to know why a change in one variable brings about a change in another. In summary then there are three distinct types of marketing research study: The purpose of each is summarised in figure 1. In some cases, a research programme will be of one kind or another, but in other instances these three typologies will represent phases within a single marketing research investigation.

Decision on data collection method The next set of decisions concerns the method s of data gathering to be employed. The main methods of data collection are secondary data searches, observation, the survey, experimentation and consumer panels. Each of these topics is dealt with later on, so they are simply noted here. Development of an analysis plan Those new to marketing research often intuitively believe that decisions about the techniques of analysis to be used can be left until after the data has been collected.

Such an approach is ill-advised. Before interviews are conducted the following checklist should be applied: Or, if the calculations have to be performed manually, is there sufficient time to complete them and then to check them? Therefore consideration has to be given to issues such as these before the fieldwork is undertaken. Data collection At this stage the researcher is ready to go into the field and collect data.

The various issues relating to data collection constitute the main body of the text and therefore, are not dwelt upon here. Analysis of data The word 'analysis' has two component parts, the prefix 'ana' meaning 'above' and the Greek root 'lysis' meaning 'to break up or dissolve'. Thus data analysis can be described as: These are the number of samples to be compared, whether the samples being compared are independent of one another and the level of data measurement. Suppose a fruit juice processor wishes to test the acceptability of a new drink based on a novel combination of tropical fruit juices.

There are several alternative research designs which might be employed, each involving different numbers of samples. Test A Comparing sales in a test market and the market share of the product it is targeted to replace. Samples are said to be dependent, or related, when the measurement taken from one sample in no way affects the measurement taken from another sample. Take for example the outline of test B above. Ideally, the organization's management decides what the research goals should be. Then a research expert helps the organization to determine what the research methods should be, and how the resulting data will be analyzed and reported back to the organization.

If an organization can afford any outside help at all, it should be for identifying the appropriate research methods and how the data can be collected. The organization might find a less expensive resource to apply the methods, e.

If no outside help can be obtained, the organization can still learn a great deal by applying the methods and analyzing results themselves. However, there is a strong chance that data about the strengths and weaknesses of a product, service or program will not be interpreted fairly if the data are analyzed by the people responsible for ensuring the product, service or program is a good one. These people will be "policing" themselves. This caution is not to fault these people, but rather to recognize the strong biases inherent in trying to objectively look at and publicly at least within the organization report about their work.

Therefore, if at all possible, have someone other than the those responsible for the product, service or program to look at and determine research results.

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Ensure your research plan is documented so that you can regularly and efficiently carry out your research activities. In your plan, record enough information so that someone outside of the organization can understand what you're researching and how. For example, consider the following format:.

To round out your knowledge of this Library topic, you may want to review some related topics, available from the link below. Each of the related topics includes free, online resources. Also, scan the Recommended Books listed below. They have been selected for their relevance and highly practical nature. Library's Blogs List of Blogs. Add to Library Community Rules Submit your links. Learn Consulting Online Courses.

Learn Strategic Planning Online Courses. Always start with your research goals When analyzing data whether from questionnaires, interviews, focus groups, or whatever , always start from review of your research goals, i. Basic analysis of "quantitative" information for information other than commentary, e. Make copies of your data and store the master copy away. Use the copy for making edits, cutting and pasting, etc.

Guide to market research and analysis - Canada Business Network

Tabulate the information, i. For ratings and rankings, consider computing a mean, or average, for each question. For example, "For question 1, the average ranking was 2.

This is more meaningful than indicating, e. Consider conveying the range of answers, e. Basic analysis of "qualitative" information respondents' verbal answers in interviews, focus groups, or written commentary on questionnaires: Read through all the data. Organize comments into similar categories, e. Label the categories or themes, e. Attempt to identify patterns, or associations and causal relationships in the themes, e.