Our first lesson in making research plan and developing it

Marketna
Developing Research Plan

Mohamady

Developing the research plan

Lets say: The manager needs to know the cost of the research plan before approving it Making the research plan decisions depends on:

Data sources

Research approaches

Research instruments

Sampling plan

Contact methods

Data sources
The research plan Data sources are PRIMARY DATA or SECONDRY DATA or both

Primary Data

Data gathered for a specific purpose or a specific research project. Data collected for another purpose & already exist somwhere.

Secondary Data

Sources of secondary data:

Internal sources Government publications Periodicals & books Commercial data.

Research approaches
Primary data can be gathered in four ways
Observational research
Observing the relevant actors & settings 6 to 10 people invited to spend some time with a skilled moderator & should be held in pleasant surroundings. Useful before a large scale survey

Exploratory
Focus group research

Descriptive

Survey research

Carried to learn about peoples knowledge beliefs attitudes & to measure these magnitudes in the general population

Causal

Experimental research

Mangers have a high confidence in the conclusions of experiments

Research approaches
Exploratory research

Gathers preliminary information that will help define the proplem and suggest hypotheses.
Descriptive research

Provides a description: e.g., market potential for a product or demographics and survey of cosumers' attitudes.
Causal research

Test hypotheses about cause-and-effect relationships; experimental design with controls.

Research Instruments
Questionnaires
Consists of a set of questions presented to respondents for their answers, it the most common instrument used for collecting primary data for its flexibility.

It should be:
1- Carefully developed & debugged before administrated on a large scale 2- Carefully choosing questions wording & sequence 3- Avoid repeated & boring questions- choose simple, direct unbiased questions 4- Logical order Carefully choosing questions form - Close-end questions: Have specific answers. (e.g.: answered by Yes/No) - Open-end questions: Free to express thoughts. (how interviewee think and feel)

Research Instruments

Eye cameras Tachistoscope Audiometers

Galvanometers

Mechanical Instruments

GPS

Sampling plan
This plan calls for three decisions:
Sampling Unit Who is to be surveyed?

Define the target populations that will be sampled, where the sampling frame must be developed so that everyone in the population has an equal chance of being sampled. Sample Size How many people should be surveyed?

Larger samples are more reliable; however samples less than 1% of the population can give good reliability. Sampling Procedure
Probability

How should the respondents be chosen?

Simple random sample (all)

Where sampling error could be measured

Stratified random sample (age) Cluster random sample (area)

Non Probability

When cost & time in probability sampling is high

Convenience sample (accessible) Judgment sample (prospects)

Contact Methods
How the subject should be contacted, the choices are:
Mail Questionnaire Telephone Interviewing Personal Interviewing
Arranged Interviews Intercept Interviews

Best way to reach people who would not give personal interviews or could be biased or distorted by interviews Best method for gathering information quickly, but it has to be short & not too personal Most expensive - additional observations - it is subject to interviewsers bias or distortion

Marketing research process Step 3

The most expensive & the most prone to error:
Some respondents will not be at home Some respondents will refuse to co-operate Some respondents will give biased answers Some interviewers will be biased & dishonest

Step 4 analyzing information

After collecting the data the researcher will tabulate the data & apply statistical methods & techniques

Step 5 present findings

The researcher should not overwhelm management with figures & statistical techniques but rather should present major findings that are relevant to the major marketing decision facing management.

Make decision

Marketing discussion
When was the last time you participated in a survey? How helpful do you think was the information you provided? Could the research have been done differently?

SWOT Analysis

cost advantge financial resources customer loyality modern production facility patents Strengths Weaknesses

too narrow product line lack of managment depth high operation cost poor financial capability weak market image

Opportunities New market potential new technology required income level increasing

Threats Changing buyer tastes likely entry of new competition adverse government policies