Marketing Research Process: Market And Make Strategic Plans

Market Research Process
Name
Institution
Market Research
The market research process is a vital process, which usually steers organizations to greater success. The process helps an organization to analyze its market and make strategic plans on how to increase its market share, customer satisfaction and loyalty and increased sales volume and revenues. The market research process if well conducted can help organizations achieve their goals easily, and the reverse occurs if it is not well planned and carried out. This is because of the careful analysis and implementation of competitive strategies to override their competitors from the information collected about changes in consumer preferences, change in prices of products, customer concerns, available technological innovations in the market (Market Research Methods, 2011). Accordingly, this paper discusses the steps in the market research process and the unethical dilemmas that may exist while conducting a market research.
Market Research Process
The market research process involves a number of sequential steps applied keenly to get the desired results. The process involves the following steps: definition of the objectives and need for the study, determining the research designs to be used, designing and preparing chosen research instruments, sampling and collecting data from the market, analyzing the data and visualizing and communicating the results (Market Research Methods, 2011). These steps require adequate planning and design for the process to be effective and achieve the desired objectives.
Definition of the Objectives and Need For the Study
Before conducting a market research, it is important to establish the reasons why we need to conduct the research. This majorly relies on the intended results and information needed by the organization at the end of the research process to address the problems it experiences. Study objectives help to keep the researchers on course in focusing on what they have to achieve avoiding confusion and other unnecessary expenses. The objectives may include determining the market prices of products, analysing consumer behaviour, their preferences and feedback on how we can improve our products to meet their needs, carrying out a competitor analysis and to find out the current technological trends and innovations in the market and their applications to businesses (Market Research Methods, 2011). These objectives define the path taken by researchers in achieving their set goals.
Determination of Research Design
This involves finding out the most suitable plan to obtain the relevant data. It relies on the chosen research method where the two should be complementary. The chosen research design is influenced by how the research is conducted, communication medium whether telephone, in-person, or online and the how the sample is identified. The research methods could be surveys, focus group discussions, or interviews, which dictate the research design adopted. The research could be exploratory, descriptive, or causal (Clow & James, 2013).
Designing and Preparing the Chosen Research Instrument
This stage prepares the researcher to carry out the actual study. It involves designing the questions and other supporti...