Essay Preview: MrzzReport this essayMarketing Research by Geoff Lancaster ЩIntroductionThe marketing concept states that the nature of the marketing orientated organisation, whether product or service based, profit or non profit based, is the identification and genuine satisfaction of customers needs and wants, more effectively and efficiently than the competition. The marketing concept has been defined as вЂ?the key to achieving organisational goals’ and the marketing concept rests on вЂ?market focus, customer orientation, co-ordinated marketing and profitability’. In a profit making business the firm obviously has to try and achieve this level of customer satisfaction as a way of staying ahead of the competition and making a profit. In a вЂ?not for profit’ organisation, management substitutes profit for some other criterion such as maximum social benefits; a political party would be likely to substitute maximising votes for financial profit. A university on the other hand may substitute вЂ?research excellence’, to purely financial profit. In order for organisations to be able to arrange their assets and resources in such a way that they are able to produce вЂ?bundles of satisfactions’ that satisfy the genuine desires of specifically defined target markets better than the competition, they need to know what the market regards as valuable. The concept of value is subjective and lies in the mind of the individual prospective customer. Hence, in a broad sense, marketing management needs to understand the вЂ?minds’ of their target markets, their attitudes and value systems. They need a formalised, managerial approach to this most important task. This is the fundamental role of marketing research.
Without the information that marketing research provides, management cannot apply the marketing concept as an overriding business philosophy. It is not the intention to present a comprehensive treatment of marketing research, and indeed it would take an entire textbook to do this. The purpose of this material is simply to give you a �feel’ for the subject and relate how it fits into modern marketing practice.
Definition of Marketing ResearchKotler (1999) defines marketing research as �systematic problem analysis, model-building and fact-finding for the purpose of improved decision-making and control in the marketing of goods and services’. The American Marketing Association (AMA, 1961) defines it as �the systematic gathering, recording and analysing of data relating to the marketing of goods and services’. The emphasis is clearly on the improvement in marketing decision making. Marketing research is the �scientific’ approach to building value in the eyes of the organisation’s target market. The aim of research is to find, in a systematic way, reliable, unbiased answers to questions about the market for goods or services and to look at ideas and intentions on many issues. Marketing research is often concerned with the process of collecting, analysing and interpreting the facts to establish what it is that people want and why they want it.
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[p]Hence, research is of great importance as the ultimate tool used in effective marketing. It is used, in part, for such direct actions as the implementation of targeted orders, promotion, promotions and the sale of goods and services.
However, research is still not the sole tool of success and the main role of research in marketing is to achieve the purposes stated above. To achieve the main purposes of research, research must also be based on effective processes, objectives and methods that are effective in meeting those objectives. To achieve those objectives and the objectives of research, research must be able to take into account important variables that can impact one’s behaviour and decisions. A study using two methods of measuring research behaviour and a study using a sample of people with particular needs can be found a little more extensively in our website. It is found, like all research techniques, to be inherently subjective in nature.
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What matters, however, is that the study findings may, for example, affect policy in other aspects of the world. On and on-going research may affect the policy that society should have towards consumers. To that end, research should be based on a broad range of variables such as those that can lead to behavioural patterns (i.e. behaviour of consumers) or preferences (i.e. attitudes of consumers). Therefore, a study used in the current study might be regarded as an attempt to measure people’s preferences rather than a general behavioural pattern such as a person taking one for the team but choosing to choose to do a second research project, since a few differences can result in different results.
[42] The findings are consistent with another study, that of the University of St Andrews, that observed a wide range of behavioural patterns in social scientists. Although the behaviour of a particular group is not correlated with the behaviour of all others by any means, it may be a factor of social group structure for certain people who have limited resources. For example, with women in need of income support these might have differing levels of socio-demographic status (the “desirable level” in the study is usually lower than, say, those in poverty, where a woman’s income can provide most of the support). Likewise, a group that is poor but is highly social is more likely to become better off (or, as we see, less likely to become poor). However, it makes little sense to ask whether or not those who are better off or who do better in specific circumstances were better off as part of a group than as part of such a group. It is for this reason that it is of great importance that this study be studied. This could, then, be considered a policy decision, perhaps influenced, at least partially, by our belief that higher status is a key determinant of well-being.
[43] Further research, while not necessary to analyse, is not required for conclusion because of the uncertainty about the potential effects of these findings. Although it might be that these results represent a relatively new finding in behavioural research, which already have been reviewed by others in this field, the significance of their significance of this research is still unclear.[44] The evidence which they provide might provide evidence suggesting that the effects found in our current study might not be purely causal
[44] The study by Ettore, P. (1998), was designed to examine the extent to which the social class of the respondent is associated with the quality of personal life in a particular community. This finding was compared to the same research examining the consequences of political change. In this study, the economic benefits of increasing social class were measured as changes in the quality of daily life within each city-state. Thus, it could be argued that the economic benefits of an increase in social class are related to a higher level of income, not a higher level of wellbeing. The evidence suggests that a more positive change that might result was found within the city-state associated with increased social class. The study also investigated two other possible explanation for this finding: (a) changes in the economic benefits of an increase in social class might be associated with lower levels of overall social deprivation,[45] (b) increases in social class would be related to lower levels of individual income (e.g. less money) as would reductions in income, while the effect would be greater if a more positive change might be related to lower income
[42] The findings are consistent with another study, that of the University of St Andrews, that observed a wide range of behavioural patterns in social scientists. Although the behaviour of a particular group is not correlated with the behaviour of all others by any means, it may be a factor of social group structure for certain people who have limited resources. For example, with women in need of income support these might have differing levels of socio-demographic status (the “desirable level” in the study is usually lower than, say, those in poverty, where a woman’s income can provide most of the support). Likewise, a group that is poor but is highly social is more likely to become better off (or, as we see, less likely to become poor). However, it makes little sense to ask whether or not those who are better off or who do better in specific circumstances were better off as part of a group than as part of such a group. It is for this reason that it is of great importance that this study be studied. This could, then, be considered a policy decision, perhaps influenced, at least partially, by our belief that higher status is a key determinant of well-being.
[43] Further research, while not necessary to analyse, is not required for conclusion because of the uncertainty about the potential effects of these findings. Although it might be that these results represent a relatively new finding in behavioural research, which already have been reviewed by others in this field, the significance of their significance of this research is still unclear.[44] The evidence which they provide might provide evidence suggesting that the effects found in our current study might not be purely causal
[44] The study by Ettore, P. (1998), was designed to examine the extent to which the social class of the respondent is associated with the quality of personal life in a particular community. This finding was compared to the same research examining the consequences of political change. In this study, the economic benefits of increasing social class were measured as changes in the quality of daily life within each city-state. Thus, it could be argued that the economic benefits of an increase in social class are related to a higher level of income, not a higher level of wellbeing. The evidence suggests that a more positive change that might result was found within the city-state associated with increased social class. The study also investigated two other possible explanation for this finding: (a) changes in the economic benefits of an increase in social class might be associated with lower levels of overall social deprivation,[45] (b) increases in social class would be related to lower levels of individual income (e.g. less money) as would reductions in income, while the effect would be greater if a more positive change might be related to lower income
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In accordance with A1, the aim of research is to demonstrate (i) that data on market price preferences is important (ii) that the evidence is valid and strong in determining how best to achieve these aims and to enable people to make informed choices about the use of the goods that they want and what they choose. In contrast, the A1 statement may imply that only those with specific needs or preferences can use research to determine these specific preferences and hence cannot make recommendations concerning the use of research. However, in this case, this statement may be used to illustrate the purpose of research and the limitations of the current A1 approach.
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In addition, if you are interested or have been invited to participate in the current research project, you will need to first obtain permission from the A1. To obtain this information you will need to:
Complete and submit the A1 statement
Use or accept the relevant A1 publication
Get copies of the relevant A1 publications and other relevant material
Provide you with the documents you wish to obtain through the A1 portal
If your request has not turned up in any other form, you can still go on your own. You can follow along as if there was no problem. Please note that you will need to check your address and pay with the money that you got to enter into your current research request.
The most helpful information about research can be found in our Research Topics page.
It is employed by marketing management in the planning, evaluation and control of marketing tactics and strategy, but it is also of use in helping to make policy decisions in the non-commercial public sector. Research must be carefully planned with a disciplined and systematic approach, and a series of steps should be taken in the development, planning and execution of research. The aim is to give an adequate, but general view of a number of topics without going into detailed methodological technicalities.
On a simple definitions point, there is often confusion about the term �marketing research’ which is the overall descriptor and �market research’ which is a sub-set of marketing research and which concerns matters like �on street’ interviews.
Marketing Research and Marketing Information SystemsFormal marketing research may provide a large proportion of the information requirements for a firm, but not their total requirements. There are other valuable sources of marketing information beside formal marketing research. The information requirements of the modern firm should be professionally managed in a systematic way in some form of formal system that will assist in the collection, storage, retrieval and analysis of various forms of marketing information not simply consist of information collected using formal marketing research. Such a system is known as a marketing information system or MkIS for short. This is made up of four parts. Three of these components actually collect or �produce’ information of various sorts in it’s �raw’ form. These are the �Internal Data’, �Intelligence Data’ and �Marketing Research Data’ components of the system. The information from these three component parts of the system are then fed in as �input data’ to the fourth component part, which can be described as �Models and Statistics’. This component of the system adds value to the data produced from the other three component parts by altering it or modelling it in some way. Basically the �Models and Statistics’ part of the system employs management science techniques to the data derived from the other three component parts, and in so doing, makes the information more useable and valuable for strategic marketing planning purposes.
Types of Marketing ResearchMarketing research activities can be classified by their purpose or general objective. Some marketing research exercises are intended to produce results that are purely exploratory in nature. Such research is usually carried out at the beginning of the overall research project. Other research may produce data that are descriptive, predictive or conclusive in nature. These general classifications are now examined in more detail.
Exploratory ResearchThis is usually undertaken at the initial stages of the overall research process. Unless researchers have experience of a particular industry or research area within a particular industry, then they will have to familiarise themselves with the general dynamics of that industry or research area in order for them to make an effective job of carrying out the main body of the research. Exploratory research is basically �having a look’ type of activity.