Question

It is easy to regurgitate the five steps of the marketing research process. How can you apply this process to your daily lives? Think about how you solve complicated problems or how you research the purchase of a big ticket item (car, house, computer or smart phone). How might you be able to use the marketing research process to help you make these decisions?

Answer 1

Marketing research process is the systematic gathering, recording, and analysis of qualitative and quantitative data about issues relating to marketing products and services. The goal of marketing research is to identify and assess how changing elements of the marketing mix impacts customer behavior. There is a misconception that marketing research process is entirely associated with a business process, however, once we start applying marketing research process in daily life, we realize how beneficial the whole process can be during many operations, even while making tough decisions. Five major steps in marketing research process includes: Defining the problem or opportunity; Developing the research plan; Collecting relevant data and information; Analyzing data and reporting findings; and Taking appropriate action. Let us see the example of a person planning to buy a house, who decides to utilize marketing research process to take the best decision. In the first step of defining the problem or opportunity, he figures out what should be the take away from the research process, that is buying a house that best suits the needs of his family and himself. In this step, he identifies and clearly defines his requirement, say, a duplex villa in a gated community not very far from the city, and is easily accessible to a metro station/bus hub. In the next step of developing the research plan, he includes all methods that would help him answer the research problem or explore an opportunity identified in step one, say different ways of accessing houses for sale. In the third step of collecting relevant data and information, he gathers all relevant data, be it quantitative or qualitative, he requires about each house available for sale. In this step, he might also ask for people's opinion about similar houses they bought. In the fourth step of analyzing data and reporting findings, he consolidates all gathered data and does a detailed analysis of the data, giving emphasis to his requirements, and then rate the houses on the basis of this analysis. Even if there is no need for a formal marketing research report, it would be great if the study and results are reviewed so that he could articulate the recommended course of action. In the final step of taking appropriate action, he would take a wise decision based on his findings and report regarding the best feasible option of house from those he considered during the course of research process, and ultimately buys the house. It is not a single case where we can use marketing research process in our daily lives. The applications are numerous, ranging from buying an item to booking a holiday to selling an item and many others.