Introduction
Everyday marketers run into some type of marketing problem, whether it is a product failure, or something that can be or needs to be improved. Once recognizing that there needs to be changes made to a certain product marketers then start their marketing research. There is a process that a marketer goes through that helps him/her out in solving and retrieving information about a particular product. According to Kerin, Hartley, and Rudelius (2015) the market research process is “the process of defining a marketing problem and opportunity systematically collecting and analyzing information, and recommending actions” (p.194). This process follows five steps that will in the end allow the marketer to come up with an decision and find a way to improve its’ product. Define the Problem and define the Research Plan
Marketing research contributes to the financial standings of a company. The first step to begin the market research process is to define the problem, according to Kerin (2015). Every company has their own problem that they must try to resolve to get better marketing results. For instance, a car company may notice that they have not been selling as many products as they should be, in comparison to past years. A rival company may be selling a similar car but their car offers more features. So, the company may find that they must to incorporate some of the latest technology in their cars, to pique the interest of some consumers. The goal is the find the issue with current marketing and look for room for improvement (Kerin 2015).
To begin this process, the researchers have one of three options when it comes to the types of marketing research, which include exploratory, descriptive and causal. The first type, exploratory, provides ideas about a relatively vague problem (Kerin 2015). For example, the issue could be that the car company was concerned