Marketing Research: An Aid to Decision Making
Read this chapter. The American Marketing Association defines marketing research this way: "Marketing research is the function that links the consumer, customer, and public to the marketer through information--information used to identify and define marketing opportunities and problems; generate, refine, and evaluate marketing actions; monitor marketing performance; and improve understanding of marketing as a process. Marketing research specifies the information required to address these issues, designs the methods for collecting information, manages and implements the data collection process, and analyzes and communicates the findings and their implications".
The Nature and Importance of Marketing Research
Informal and, by today's standards, crude attempts to analyze the market date back to the
earliest days of the marketing revolution. Only in recent years, however, has the role of
research as it relates to management been clearly recognized.
Reflecting this change in orientation, the following definition of marketing research
is offered: marketing research is the scientific and controlled gathering of non routine marketing information undertaken to help management solve marketing problems. There is often
hearty disagreement over the answer to the question of whether marketing research is a science. One's answer depends on the employed definition of "science". To be specific, a research
activity should use the scientific method. In this method, hypotheses (tentative statements
of relationships or of solutions to problems) are drawn from informal observations. These
hypotheses are then tested. Ultimately, the hypothesis is accepted, rejected, or modified
according to the results of the test. In a true science, verified hypotheses are turned into
"jaws". In marketing research, verified hypotheses become the generalizations upon which
management develops its marketing programs. (To simplify our discussion, we will use "questions" as a synonym of "hypothesis").
The mechanics of marketing research must be controlled so that the right facts are
obtained in the answer to the correct problem. The control of fact-finding is the responsibility of the research director, who must correctly design the research and carefully supervise its execution to ensure that it goes according to plan. Maintaining control in marketing
research is often difficult because of the distance that separates the researcher and the market and because the services of outsiders are often required to complete a research project.