Chapter 2 - Wilson Marketing Research

The sequence of activities and events involved in undertaking a marketing research project.

A written document that sets out an organisation’s requirements from a marketing research project. This provides the specification against which the researchers will design the research project.

The submission prepared by the research agency for a potential client specifying the research to be undertaken. On the basis of the research proposal, the client will select an agency to undertake the research.

The procedure of asking a number of agencies to present their proposals verbally to the client company. The procedure is used to assist clients in selecting the research agency that will undertake a research project.

Research that is intended to develop initial ideas or insights and to provide direction for any further research needed.

Research aimed at evaluating alternative courses of action or measuring and monitoring the organisation’s performance.

Research studies that describe what is happening in a market without potentially explaining why it is happening.

Research studies that involve data collection at a single point in time, providing a ‘snapshot’ of the specific situation. The opposite of longitudinal studies.

Studies involving data collection at several periods in time, enabling trends over time to be examined. These may involve asking the same questions on a number of occasions of either the same respondents or of respondents with similar characteristics.

Research that examines whether one variable causes or determines the value of another variable.

Research that measures causality and involves the researcher changing one variable (e.g. price, packaging, shelf display, etc.) while observing the effects of those changes on another variable (e.g. sales) and controlling the extraneous variables.

A managerial tool used for scheduling a research project. It is a form of flow chart that provides a schematic representation incorporating the activity, time and personnel requirements for a given research project.

Information that has been previously gathered for some purpose other than the current research project. They may be data available within the organisation (internal data) or information available from published and electronic sources originating outside the organisation (external data).

Data collected by a programme of observation, qualitative or quantitative research, either separately or in combination, to meet the specific objectives of a marketing research project.

A data-gathering approach where information is collected on the behaviour of people, objects and organisations without any questions being asked of the participants.