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Basis for Marketing Research

Basis for Marketing Research:

Q. What are the fundamentals of marketing and promotional research? Why are they essential for decision making process?

As per my view for every business market research is significant. On continual basis successful business conduct research to maintain a competitive edge and to keep up with the market trend (Kotler, 2011).The process of market research encompasses following six steps.

  1. Determination of objectives:

Before initiating any market research it is necessary to determine its objectives. This is the significant part of the process and will avoid effort and time in further stages. For objective determination one should keep the following three questions in mind.

What is the reason of the research?

Which type of information is required?

How the information is going to utilize?

  1. Design of market research:

The experts or researchers lay out a design for attaining the information regarding marketing research (Cater, & Zabkar, 2009). The second point is necessary for the market research because most of the marketers do not create formal design plan while performing research.

  1. Data Collection:

The appropriate data collection can be challenging and complex. It is the third step. It involves many significant decisions. First thing to be considered in this level is how the participants of research will be contacted. There was at time when questionnaires were sent topotential respondent through the postal system.

  1.  Research Techniques:

There are two types of research techniques.

  1. Conclusive Research techniques
  2. Exploratory Research Techniques

Marketers prefer conclusive research techniques because it is more likely to use advanced analytical techniques, statistical tests rather than exploratory research techniques (qualitative techniques.

  1. Analyze the Data:

After application of research techniques and data collection it becomes necessary to analyze data. It can help marketers to conclude what has been erudite.

  1. Develop Action Plan:

From research marketers will be able to make marketing decision about how to distribute product/service, which media channels to employ (like direct marketing, radio or newspaper) or how to price the product/service (Ford, & Leonidou, 2013).

Marketing research was conducted by Coca Cola while they were doing anti-sugary drink campaign (Gigi DeVault, 2014).

 The Future of Marketing Research:


Q. Why the future of marketing research is important to define?

The purpose for the above question is to investigate those changes in technology and information requirements. Traditional Marketing Research industry is experiencing technological, economic and social change (Shankar, Venkatesh, Hofacker, & Naik, 2010). This industry is going to adopt new talent, tools, and reposition itself in a more consultative gap, or it is going to fall into decline.

  1. The Rise of Mobile Research:

Many mobile administrative are initiating to get a hold on mobile generated information and executing it to shape marketing decisions and customer retention.In an environment like mobile, hyper targeted messages and modified campaigns are key factors (Srinivasan, & Hanssens, 2009). And they can be only created with the help of services based on location and large data.

  1. Listening on Social Media:

More companies are repositioning their teams of social media into bright high technology, signalling the rising strategic significance of social channels, high profile spaces among the largest institutions of the world.

Three to four years back, financial institutions started to realize that they would require more workforces to manage the immense workload needed to maintain an effective and efficient presence of social media. And once banks initiated hiring specialists of social media it was predicted that these workers would ultimately obtain their digs.

  1. Gathering Imminent at the Speed of the Business:

The internet has amplified the speed of innovation and businesses. For organizations that require responding quickly to real time customer action, gathering imminent at the speed of the business operations is an important part of increasing a competitive edge.

The expansion and rising technological complexity of the communication infrastructure facilitates data collection on a much diverse and broader geographic scale and with speed previously impossible. So far at the meantime, marketers have to masters these means and comprehend their intrinsic limitations and understood biases. Due to technological complexity researcher needs to obtain in order to perform research in the progressively diverse and changing 21st century’s market place (Kotler, 2011).

The Oculus Rift is accessible, and it is providing entire new techniques of communication. Tesco is getting in first, with a supermarkets recreation with future of marketing (Kirsty Styles, March 24, 2014).

10 Step Guide to Questionnaire Design by RCU

Q. How to design an ideal and perfect questionnaire?

  1. Keep it Easy and Interesting:
  • Be succinct while designing the questionnaire (Smith, 2010).
  • Short worded questions can get more reliable answers, but it also need to be interesting.
  1. Keep it Small:
  • Try to keep the questionnaire precise and short.
  • The attention of the respondent will be distracted if the questionnaire gets too lengthy.
  1. Use Words Your Respondent would use:
  • Always try to use words that your respondents use and understand.
  • If the complex language being used in the questionnaire either in the form of instruction, response option, the interviewer would again not be able to trust the consequences that come back.
  1. Order of the Questions:
  • Research says the way we response one set of questions is strongly determined by the questions which instantly headed it.
  1. Evade Subjective Terms:
  • Avoid using terms in response option or the question that are unwrapping to broad understanding.
  1. Include a Middle Response Alternative if it Reflects Respondent
  • If the interviewer include the middle response option, and if they do not provide a middle option the more distort responses they will get.
  1. Evade Double Negative:
  • Likert scale provide a prompt and then the respondents are asked to either strongly agree through to strongly disagree. If the respondent prompt itself is written with negative expressions like ‘teachers do not talk to students, the respondents ought to say strongly disagree to actually concur with the question.
  1. Make Logical Scales:
  • While attaching label or scale makes sure that they are logical (Dillman, & Groves, 2011).
  1. Do not Forget Use of Zero:
  • It is good to use 0-10 scale and make it clear and understandable.
  1. Put the Personal Queries at the End:
  • It is attracting to put some easy questions at the beginning of the questionnaire (Lietz, 2010).

To make advertising decisions Team Secta conducted quantitative, qualitative, and secondary research to get understanding of the target market of 18-24 year old customers (Michael Cheng,

What is Questionnaire?

Q. What is questionnaire? Give the brief explanation on open-ended and close-ended questions.

A questionnaire is a research tool comprising of a series of different questions and other prompts for the reason for collecting information from different respondent (Melzack, & Katz, 2013). Though they are often premeditated for statistical examination and investigation of the responses, this is not constantly the case.

Questionnaires have many benefits over some other kinds of surveys and reviews in that they are inexpensive; it do not need as much endeavour from the questioner as telephone or verbal surveys, and often have consistent and reliable answers that make it uncomplicated to accumulate data for analysis (Melzack, & Katz, 2013). Questionnaires are also sharply restricted by the reality that respondents should be able to interpret the questions easily and reply to them without any complications.

Types of Questionnaire:

Questionnaire are of two kind one is close-ended and the other is open-ended. Following explanation is going to help to comprehend the layout of the questionnaire better.

  1. Close-Ended Questions:

Close-ended questions are multiple choice questions, where respondents are limited to select among any of the given answers (West, & Ussher 2010). There is no permanent restriction as to how many multiple choices must be given; the number can be odd or even.

  1. Open-Ended Questions:

Open-ended questions give opportunity to the audience to express their opinion in a freeway. These questions do not have prearranged set of answers and the respondents are free to reply whatever she/he feels. By putting open-ended questions in the questionnaire, an individual can obtain unexpected, insightful and true recommendations. Qualitative questions belong to this type of format.


Its design will rely on whether the researcher needs to gather quantitative information or exploratory information (King, Meiselman, & Thomas Carr, 2013).

  1. Formal standardized Questionnaires:

If the researcher is looking to analyse and enumerate hypothesis and the information is to be examined statistically, a formal questionnaire is planned.

  1. Exploratory Questionnaires:

Is the data to be gathered is qualitative or is not to be statistically assessed; it might be that no formal questionnaire is required.

A research was conducted on Dove with the help of open-ended and close-ended questionnaire (Ibrahim Khalil, Jan,2014).

Surveys and Sampling

Q. What is survey sampling? And how sampling survey is helpful to apply the different types of sampling in variety of scenarios?

In statistics survey sampling is explained as the procedure of determining a sample of elements from a target populace to perform a survey. The term survey might signify to numerous various techniques or types of observation (Basu, 2011). In survey sampling it most often requires a questionnaire employed to calculate the attitudes and characteristics of individuals. Diverse ways of getting in touch with the members of a sample once they have been chosen is the subject of survey data compilation.  As per my view point the reason of sampling is to lessen the amount or cost of work that it will take to survey the whole target populace. A survey that calculates the whole target populace is known as census.

Survey samples can be generally divided into two types:

  1. Probability sample
  2. Non-probability Sample

Probability Samples execute a sampling plan with particular probabilities might be adapted probabilities précised by an adaptive methods.  Probability sampling permits design based presumption regarding to the target populace (Thomas, et, al 2010). The presumptions are based on an identified objective probability distribution that was précised in the study protocol.

Non-probability Sample offers two possible advantages, lower cost and convenience. It does not entail random selection. The major disadvantage is that non-probability sampling methods do not permits to gauge the degree to which sample statistics are possibly to be different from populace parameters. In non-probability sampling samples are collected in a procedure that does not give opportunity to all people in populace of being selected (Basu, 2011).

Population Parameter vs. Sample Statistic

The purpose for conducting a sample survey is to calculate the value of some characteristic of a populace and to lessen the cost of tasks and activities that it would take to survey the whole aimed populace.

  • Populace Parameter.

It a population parameter is the accurate value of a population characteristic. It is a feature that directs a type of probability dispersion (Basu, 2011).

  • Sample Statistic.

It is a sample statistic is an approximation, totally based on sample data, of the populace parameter (Brick, Williams, & Montaquila, 2011). Or in other words as per my understanding it’s a calculation linked with a sample.

For example a public opinion investigator needs to know the voters’ percentage that favours a flat rate income tax law. Voters’ actual percentage is a populace parameter, whereas the calculation of that percentage is entirely based on the sample data.

On the Singapore manufacturing segment RSU issues authentic statistical data. The private and government sectors frequently employ this information for research analysis, formulation of doctrines and decision making regarding business. And the data is gathered only through surveys (2014).


Gigi DeVault, 2014, Market Research and Coca-Cola - The Anti-Obesity Campaign. Retrieved from

Michael Cheng2010, Final Research Report Advertising Research. Retrieved from

2014, Singapore Economic Development Board. Retrieved from

Ibrahim Khalil, Jan, 2014, Research Proposal on Effectiveness of brand expansion in personal care product: A case study on Dove of Unilever. Retrieved from

Kirsty Styles, March 24, 2014, Tesco Goes Virtual With Oculus Rift. Retrieved from



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