Marketing Research as a Process - Assignment Example

The first step in the marketing research process is to ‘define the problem’ whereby the marketer specifically defines the goals that are to be achieved as well as the measures against which performance would be measured. The next step is to identify what data is needed for making marketing decisions and the means through which data will be collected i.e. questionnaires, interviews, etc. Being clear on the data requirement and the sources that would be used, the marketer moves ahead to collect the relevant data through primary and/or secondary sources.

After the data is gathered, it is analyzed to make the final decision (Malhotra 10-12). Through marketing research, customers’ insights could be gained on a one-to-one basis. Marketing research is the best way to improve business decisions because it enables one to incorporate customers’ desires, feedbacks, and suggestions into various aspects of business e.g. products, services, advertisements, etc. On the basis of marketing research, important marketing mix decisions could be taken e.g. decisions pertaining to features and appearance of the product, discounts, warranties, profit margins, the point of sales, sales promotions, branding, etc.

All these decisions will be backed by thorough research and thus there is a high probability of customer acceptance of those decisions which would ultimately lead to customer satisfaction. Marketing research techniques can range from as easy as questionnaires to complex ones requiring the assistance of marketing research firms, depending on the tenacity of the problem being tackled.