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".
Marketer's Vocabulary
Marketing research
The scientific and controlled gathering of non routine marketing information
undertaken to help management solve marketing problems.
Informal assessment
An unstructured search of the marketing environment.
Research design
Plan proposed for testing the research questions as well as collecting and processing information.
Experimental approach
Variable interest must be manipulated and everyone participating in the
experiment must have a known and equal chance of being selected.
Historical/case method
Reliance is placed on past experiences in seeking solutions to current
marketing problems.
Survey approach
Marketing information is collected either from observation or by questionnaire
or interview.
Secondary source data
Information that has been previously published and can come from
within or outside the business.
Primary information
Information gathered to address a particular problem.
Data processing
Procedures for sorting, assembling, and reporting data.