My marketing research is an on Effectiveness of distribution channel The marketing research process involves a number of interrelated activities which don’t rigidly follow a particular sequence. Following are the various steps in the research methodology process. . Formulating the research problem Choice of research design 2. Determine source of data 3. 5. Determining sample design & sample size 6. Organizing and conducting the field survey 7. Processing and analyzing the data collected data 8.
Preparing the research report.”Research design is the plan, structure and strategy of investigation conceived so as to obtain answer to research questions and to control variables”. The definition consists of three important terms – plan, structure and strategy. The plan is an outline of the research but structure of the research is a more specific outline and the strategy shows how the research will be carried out. : Research design can be grouped in three broad categories: A.
In the case of exploratory research, the focus is on the discovery of ideas. In a business where sales have been declining for the past few months, the management may conduct exploratory research to find the most likely cause. An exploratory study is generally based on the secondary data that are readily available since the objective of the research is to generate new ideas, respondent should be given sufficient redeem to express themselves. Descriptive studies are undertaken in many circumstances.
When the researcher is interested in knowing the characteristics of certain group such as age, sex, occupation then a descriptive study may be necessary in other use, when researcher is interested in knowing the proportion of the people in a given population who have behaved in a particular manner. The descriptive studies are factual and very simple. It is also well structured. Descriptive studies can be divided in two categories – cross sectional and longitudinal. Cross sectional study is concerned with a sample of elements I. E. Lied studies and surveys while longitudinal studies are based on panel data and panel method which is a sample of respondents who are reinterpreted from time to time. A causal design investigates the cause and effect relationship between two or more variables. The design of causal research is based on reasoning along well tested lines. The method of agreement and the method of differences are use in causal research formulated by John mill. :
Data which are collected first hand is primary data for collecting primary data. There are four methods I. E. Observation method, Field experiment method, Laboratory method, Experiment method and survey method. From that I select survey method. From survey, Questionnaire is necessary which consist the various questions relating with the research. The questionnaire should be designed well so that study becomes easy. Questionnaire survey can be done through Personal interview, B. SECONDARY DATA:- Any data which have been gathered earlier for some other purpose are secondary data in the hand of the researcher.
Thus, primary data collected by one person may become the secondary data for another person. Secondary data saves time, cost and energy of researcher. But secondary data shouldn’t be outdated. The source of secondary data are accounting records, sales force reports, internal expert, other respondents of company and government publications etc.
