Page 125 - Foundations of Marketing

92 Part 2 | Marketing Research and Target Markets

alleviate it, leading to unnecessary expenses and a continuation of the underlying issue.
For example, companies that market eco-friendly products such as hybrid cars and CFL
light bulbs have found that shifting marketing strategy to highlight convenience first and
sustainability second has improved sales. The real problem causing slow sales was not a
defect in the products, but that consumers still want to know about how the product is an
improvement over previous products, after which they will be happy to pay a price premium
8
for eco-friendliness.
Researchers and decision makers should remain in the problem or issue definition stage
as long as needed, until they are certain they have designed a research plan that addresses the
issue. Taking the necessary steps to allow researchers to refine a broad, indefinite problem or
issue into a precise and testable research statement is a prerequisite for the next step in the
research process. Some companies hire firms such as Booshaka to assist them. As you can see
in the advertisement, Booshaka helps companies to understand the problem, define the issue,
learn how to leverage customer feedback, and manage data gathered from word-of-mouth
marketing online. Word-of-mouth is an increasingly important element of many firm’s mar-
keting strategies, yet many marketers do not understand how to manage the tool and require
outside experts.

Designing the Research Project
Once the problem or issue has been defined, the next step is to create a research design , an
overall plan for obtaining the information needed to address the issue. This step requires for-
mulating a hypothesis and determining what type of research is most appropriate for testing
the hypothesis to ensure the results are reliable and valid.
research design An overall plan
for obtaining the information
needed to address a research Developing a Hypothesis
problem or issue
The objective statement of a marketing research project should include a hypothesis based on
hypothesis An informed
guess or assumption about both previous research and expected research findings. A hypothesis is an informed guess or
a certain problem or set of assumption about a certain problem or set of circumstances. It is what a researcher seeks to
circumstances prove or disprove and is based on all the insight and knowledge available about the problem

Locating and Defining
Research Issues and Problems
Companies like Booshaka can
identify market opportunities
or changes in the competitive Courtesy of Booshaka.com
environment, which can assist
marketing researchers in
defining a problem.

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