Product Leadership through Operational Excellence
In the fast changing and highly competitive world, building brands and maintaining brand leadership calls for an uncanny ability to re-write the rules of marketing as well as business. From each of the market leaders be it in computers, electronics, fashion, retail or any industry, one can identify the overall strategy that has made them […]
It is the People Who Contribute to Operational Excellence
Establishing leadership whether in a product market or a services market is not easy, especially in the fast changing world where the life cycle of products and services tends to be very short. A look at the Companies that have grown in stature and maintained their growth story tells you of the hard work that […]
Organizations and Types of Relationships
Organizations today live in highly dynamic environments. Essentially the existence and growth of the business is dependent upon several external and internal factors such as highly segmented geographical markets, aggressive competition and shorter life cycle. These and many more factors exert a lot of pressure on the Organizations to innovate both in terms of its […]
Consultative Selling – A Perspective
Consultative selling has been one of the most recent selling concepts that have evolved in the marketing field today. As Organizations have become customer oriented and service oriented, they have begun to realize that trying to sell their products or services to the Customers is not enough anymore. The salesmen are no longer just agents […]
Why Indian Firms Must Strive for Strategic Autonomy in Their Geoeconomic Strategies
Geopolitics, Economics, and Geoeconomics In the evolving global trading and economic system, firms and corporates are impacted as much by the economic policies of nations as they are by the geopolitical and foreign policies. In other words, any global firm wishing to do business in the international sphere has to be cognizant of both the […]
Research can be categorized either on the basis of technique (surveys, experiments, observation studies, etc) or on the basis of purpose. We will look at the techniques in the subsequent chapters. Now let us focus on the 3 methods of doing Marketing Research based on purpose:
As the name implies, exploratory research is the initial exploration done to get an idea and insights into the problem. Research is a relatively expensive process; exploratory research ensures that this process is not initiated without a thorough understanding of the problem. This study is qualitative (understanding the concept) rather than quantitative (providing precise measurement). Also, this type of research does not give conclusive evidence and subsequent research needs to be done.
Further, the following purposes justify the use of exploratory research:
A widely used method for executing exploratory research for this purpose is Concept Testing. Here, target consumers are introduced to an idea and asked how they feel about it, whether they are likely to use it, etc. It tests the likeability or acceptability of the new product before investing in its research and development.
This type of research is used when there is some comprehension of the problem, objectives are defined and the research questions are clearly formulated. Contrary to exploratory research, the proof descriptive research provides is used for formulating action plans. It helps answer the questions ‘when’, ‘who’, ‘what’, ‘how’ and ‘where’, but not ‘why’.
Descriptive research typically gives a detailed account of the characteristics or behaviour of a population. Hence the research work usually involves some element of consumer profiling and market segmentation.
Experimental studies demonstrate cause and effect relationships. They try to decipher the outcome marketing actions might have. For example, it is used when the purpose is to determine the impact of increase in price on usage.
This research is used in succession to exploratory and descriptive research and hence sufficient knowledge is gained on the topic by then. Experimental research is also popularly known as causal research.
The extent of uncertainty also affects what type of method should be chosen. The more well defined the situation is, the more the research agency will move from exploratory to descriptive to experimental research.
Degree of Problem Interpretation
The following cases will further help understand the significance of each type of research:
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