A market research programme
arises from the need to address a problem or a business need. When the problem
is not clearly understood, it is useful to first identify the symptoms,
consider the possible causes and the actions that could be taken to resolve the
problem. Ultimately some decisions need to be made, and the purpose of the
research is to guide decision makers and mitigate their risks.
Once a problem is understood it may be defined by
explicitly articulating the business issue, the business objectives that the
research needs to address, and the research objectives. A research proposal
should start by outlining these objectives.
Descriptive and Inferential Problems
From the previous chapter
we know that different forms of research address different types of business
needs. Quantitative research can find answers to questions such as: How many
people use my brand? What is my brand’s brand equity? Is it rising or falling?
This type of problem is called descriptive — it describes or summarizes
observations.
Quant is also well suited for inferential
problems that interpret the meaning of some descriptive measure or verify a
hypothesis. For instance — What are the factors driving brand equity? Do more
consumers prefer product formulation ‘A’ over formulation ‘B’? A research
question becomes a hypothesis when it is rephrased as a statement that can be
proved or disproved. For instance, the prior question may be rephrased as the
hypothesis — more consumers prefer product formulation ‘A’ over formulation
‘B’.
