Marketing research gives the opportunity and means for the companies to learn their customers, or it links consumers to marketers through information. Also, it helps to identify problems and opportunities, evaluate marketing strategies and their performance (Shoemaker 1994, p. 39). The research process consists of six steps with many implications to be considered to avoid problems.
The first step is identification of managerial problems and research objectives (Walker & Mullins 2014, p. 136). The most frequent mistake of marketers is defining unclear objectives which threatens the whole research process. For example, the tactic problems, such as pricing, demand specific goals, and wrongly defined objectives can cause unfocused research and the appearance of unusable and unnecessary information further, which leads to confusion (Young & Javalgi 2007, p. 116).
The second step is dedicated to determining the appropriate sources of data (Walker & Mullins 2014, p. 136). Even if the objectives are defined correctly, wrong choice of the data won’t answer the necessary questions and the research will become just a waste of time and finances. Sometimes marketers forget about the previously gathered data, that should be also considered and inserted in the existing context. Another challenge appears mostly in studying foreign markets. For instance, secondary sources of data may not be available in some developing regions (Young & Javalgi 2007, p. 117).
The third step is a design research, where the data collection approach and the sample size are determined (Walker & Mullins 2014, p. 136). Here, researchers need to have a broad knowledge of the existing types of data collection in order to pick the best options for the particular situation. Wrong research design causes wrong data collection and leads to useless results. To be more specific, the sample size and geography matter. People from rural areas can give different opinion than people from urban areas. Also, cultural norms and social structure of the population should be considered to avoid sampling mistakes. Additionally, such issues as questionnaire length in the opinion polls or absence of incentives for the questioned people can negatively affect the research results (Young & Javalgi 2007, p. 120).
The fourth step is the data collection itself. Technical problems appear on this stage of research (Walker & Mullins 2014, p. 136). Poorly developed infrastructure (lack of internet connection, mail services, lack of space etc.) is the reason of mistakes on this step of the research process (Young & Javalgi 2007, p. 120). Many problems are caused by subjective data collectors (Walker & Mullins 2014, p. 136). This means that there is always a risk of getting not the real answers of interviewees, but biased interpretations of the data collectors. People hear only what they want to hear (Walker & Mullins 2014, p. 136). Social, cultural and legal circumstances (for example, privacy laws) can become barriers to gather necessary data (Young & Javalgi 2007, p. 121). For instance, people won’t answer the questions if their feelings are hurt. Finally, nowadays new unusual data sources appeared (social media, mobile data etc.) (Brennan et al. 2015, p. 286). So, due to lack of experience, it is problematic for marketers to derive valuable information from the huge amount of data.
The gathered data is analyzed on the fifth step. Analyzing big data can always cause troubles (Brennan et al. 2015, p. 286), for example, simple tabulation errors can appear (Walker & Mullins 2014, p.136). Also, cultural challenges and translation within different languages may lead to confusing results in international research. Subjective interpretation of the gathered answers, word phrases and sentence constructions may be misleading (Young & Javalgi 2007, p. 119).
The sixth, final step, is reporting results (Walker & Mullins 2014, p. 136). Subjectivity is the key issue here, because ill-educated, arrogant, or distracted decision makers may wrongly interpret the results and wrongly apply them to the current circumstances.
References
Brennan, L., Fry, M., & Previte, J. (2015). Strengthening social marketing research: Harnessing “insight” through ethnography. Australasian Marketing Journal (AMJ), 23(4), 286-293.
Shoemaker, S. (1994). Understanding the marketing research process: A guide to using an outside research supplier. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 13(1), 39-56.
Walker, O. C., & Mullins, J. W. (2014). Marketing strategy: A decision-focused approach (8th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill/Irwin.
Young, R. B., & Javalgi, R. G. (2007). International marketing research: A global project management perspective. Business Horizons, 50(2), 113-122.
