Market Research Process: From Analysis to Data Sources
Preliminary Studies
Preliminary studies lay the foundation for future work.
Situation Analysis
We analyzed the situation, handling all available information to obtain a complete picture of the organization regarding:
- The company and the sector: Its evolution, products, importance in the sector, past problems, provided solutions, etc.
- The market and customers: Analysis of the geographical distribution of the market, seasonal variations in sales, customer type, etc.
- Commercial organization: Distribution channels, return on net sales, margins, discounts offered, bonuses, etc.
- Position in the network: Due to the great importance that the network gives companies, a report comparing their situation with regard to competition, both domestically and internationally, should be made, even if not implemented.
- For a complete and thorough analysis of the situation, we need to get a “historical” perspective on the above data, which means having information from the previous three to five years, depending on the degree of rigor and depth that we want to implement in the study.
Preliminary Investigation
This work is done from your office, without having to go out. It does not always have to be exhaustive, since knowledge of the company and previous studies that have been made or come by regularly may be enough to afford to proceed to subsequent phases.
Setting Objectives
It may seem that the recognition of marketing problems is quite simple. However, experience shows that it is one of the most difficult tasks encountered by managers. One must accept that you cannot always capture all the information, and the technical director of a research institute will hardly have a magic crystal ball, as is sometimes asked.
Real Research
Data Sources
The work prior to any investigation should always be the analysis and compilation of all information that can be obtained in relation to the problems to be investigated. Although in the market there are a number of case reports, data, studies of public agencies and associations, etc. that are available to the analyst, they constitute a valuable source and in most cases are not often used, despite the immediacy with which they can be obtained.
After choosing potential sources of data, we evaluate them, taking into account the following aspects:
- Reliability
- Origin of the source
- Degree of obsolescence
- Proven validity
The data sources can be divided into internal and external. Internal sources are those whose information obtained comes from the company. This is the best case for the research teams, as the updating of data held by the company itself is a valuable source of information. External sources are those from different non-business organizations, publications, the Internet, etc.
Sample Design
If we decided to conduct market research using a survey, we define the sample. It is clear that for any company that intends to know how many households in a small town have Internet and digital television, the procedure will be simple: ask the 400 or 500 homes in this small town. But what every company wants, generally, is not such data available locally, but those on an entire country or a large geographical area, and this figure would be impossible to determine if it would have to ask every family. Hence the need to define the sample.