How marketing research determines the mamanement decision problem

The management decision is always connected with the problem or opportunity the company comes across at some point its business activity. It may be the decision about the introduction of the new product or adoption of the most effecting pricing or campaign.

To help the client undertake the decision which action to follow, the market researcher starts with the research process, which first step is the problem definition. The researcher must understand what the needs and objectives of his client are and know how to translate the management problem into the market research problem. Market research problem unlike the managerial problem does not focus on action but rather concerns what kind of information is needed to come to the solution or make the decision. To be able fully understand what kind of information is needed the researcher often is required to consult with management (problem audit), industry experts, investigate the secondary data or undertake some qualitative research. The understanding of the problem comes also from the deep understanding the environmental context of the problem that means the background of the problem. The factors here are past information and forecast, Resources and Constrains, Objectives, Buyer Behavior, Legal environment, Economic Environment, and Marketing and Technological skills. The company exists with the complex environment all of its factors have an impact on it.

The second step in the research process is the design formulation. It is the set of procedures and instructions, the blueprint of the research. It answers the following questions:

a) What kind information is needed? (regarding a problem or population)

b) How obtain and how use the secondary data?

d) Whether the qualitative, descriptive or causal research is needed?

e) How collect the qualitative data and what kind of measurement and scaling procedures use (how to measure variables)?

f) What sample size should be and what sampling process should be applied?

g) What kind of interviewing tool is needed and how it should be constructed (questionnaire)?

h) Above points should be followed by the plan of data analysis.

The research design is classified as exploratory or causal. The exploratory serves as the tool that helps to understand the confronting researcher problem, while the conclusive research assists in testing the specific hypotheses and in examination of the relationship between variables. The exploratory research results usually need to be further tested, while the findings of conclusive research are used “as an input into decision making” (Malhotra 76)

The next process in the research process would involve the fieldwork and the data collection. The main concerns in this step are selection, training, supervision and evaluation of field workers to assure the quality of data, interviewing and control cheating. Data collection entails the interviewing of the respondents by the fieldworkers. There are many possible interviewing method; personal, by telephone through mail or through internet.

Once above steps have been completed the data that have been collected must me prepared and analyzed. “Data preparation includes the editing, coding, transcription and verification of data” (Malhotra 10), after that the data is analyzed and it means the hypotheses are tested and the results are being interpreted the way that they will “imply about the solution to the management problems and recommending a course of action to the management” (Stevens 16).

The final step is the construction and preparation of report and the oral presentation. The report should be easily to understand for the management and should include the description of the research questions, the research design, and method of data collection, control and analysis and of course the results.