Effective Marketing Business Plan

Marketing research can be classified into three categories:

• Exploratory research.
• Descriptive research.
• Causal research

These classifications are made in accordance with the objective of the investigation. In some cases, the investigation is in one of these categories, but in other cases the different phases of the research project is divided into different categories.

Exploratory Marketing Research

Aims at the formulation of the problems more precisely, clarifying concepts, gathering explanations get a view, eliminating impractical ideas and hypothesis formation. Exploratory marketing research can be done through a literature search, reviewing some people about their experiences, group discussions and case studies. In examining the people, exploratory research is not a representative sample, but rather, try to interview those who have knowledge and you might be able to provide insight on the relationship between variables. Case studies can include situations of contrast or comparison against an organization recognized for its excellence. Exploratory marketing research may develop hypotheses, but not tested. Exploratory research is characterized by its flexibility.

Descriptive Marketing Research

Is more rigid than exploratory marketing research attempts to describe the users of a product, determine the proportion of the population using a product, or predict future demand for a product. Unlike exploratory research, descriptive marketing research should define the questions, respondents, and the method of analysis before data collection begins. In other words, the who, what, where, when, how and why aspects of the research should be defined. Such preparation allows one the opportunity to make necessary changes before the costly process of data collection has begun.

There are two basic types of descriptive Marketing Research:

Longitudinal studies and cross-sectional studies. Longitudinal studies are time series analysis to repeated measurements of the same people, allowing one to control behavior, such as brands. However, longitudinal studies are not necessarily representative since many people may refuse to participate in the necessary commitment. Cross-sectional studies of the sample to the population to make measurements at a specific point in time. A special type of cross-sectional analysis is a cohort analysis, which follows a group of individuals who experience the same event at the same time interval. The cohort analysis are useful in predicting long-term demand for the product.

Causal marketing research is to find cause and effect relationships between variables. This is achieved this goal through laboratory experiments and field.