What is the process of market research?

Market research is an orderly activity. It includes three parts: preparation stage, implementation stage and summary stage. The preparatory stage of the study is mainly to determine the purpose, requirements and scope of the study, and make a research plan accordingly. There are three steps in this stage. \x0d\ (1) Propose research questions: Marketing researchers propose research topics according to the requirements of decision makers or new situations and problems found in marketing research activities. \x0d\ (2) Preliminary situation analysis: according to the survey topics, collect relevant information and conduct preliminary analysis and research. In many cases, marketing researchers don't know what they need to investigate, or they can't grasp the focus and scope of the research, so they can't determine the content of the research. Therefore, it is necessary to collect some relevant data for analysis, find out the crux, and lay the foundation for further research. This research method is usually called exploratory research. The data sources collected by exploratory investigation are: existing data, and data obtained through investigation by experts or related personnel. After exploratory investigation, the problems that need to be investigated have been made clear, and the problems that need to be solved next. \x0d\ (3) Formulation of research plan: The research purpose, specific research objects, steps and time of the research process, the selection method of investigation units, the collection method and processing method of research data must also be clearly defined in this plan. The main task of this stage is to organize investigators to collect data in depth according to the research plan. It also includes two steps: \x0d\ (1) Organizing and training researchers: enterprises often lack experienced researchers. To carry out market research, researchers should be trained first, so that they can have the knowledge of research plan, research technology, research objectives, economy and law related to this research. \x0d\ (2) Collecting data: The first thing to collect is secondary data, also called secondary data. Its sources are usually statistical data published by state organs, financial services departments, industry organizations, market research and information consulting institutions, and some are published in research reports or books and papers of scientific research institutions. The method of collecting these materials is relatively easy and the cost is relatively low. We usually refer to the investigation conducted with second-hand materials as desk research. Secondly, first-hand information, that is, original data, is collected through field investigation. At this time, it is necessary to determine a good method to choose the investigation unit according to the investigation methods and methods already determined in the investigation plan. First, determine each respondent one by one, and then use the designed investigation methods and methods to obtain the required information. We call the research work based on first-hand information field investigation. Compared with previous research activities, this research activity costs a lot, but it is the main provider of information needed for research. The methods and skills of market research mentioned in this chapter are to collect first-hand information, that is, to introduce how to conduct field research. Whether we can give full play to the role of market research in the investigation and summary stage is closely related to two specific tasks of investigation and summary. \x0d\ (1) Data collation and analysis: The data obtained through marketing surveys are often quite messy, and some of them only reflect a certain aspect of the problem, which is very one-sided or false, so these data must be audited, classified and tabulated. Audit is to eliminate the false and retain the true, not only to audit the correctness of the data, but also to audit the comprehensiveness and comparability of the data. Classification is to facilitate the further use of data. The purpose of tabulation is to make all kinds of relevant or causal economic factors more clearly displayed, which is convenient for in-depth analysis and research. \x0d\ (2) Prepare the investigation report: it is a written report on the concluding comments of the investigation activities. The principle of compilation should be to reflect the facts objectively, fairly and comprehensively, so as to minimize the uncertainty of marketing managers before making decisions. The contents of the research report include: the basic situation of the research object, the analysis and explanation of the facts of the research problem, and the conclusions and suggestions of the researchers.