Stages of marketing research

Preparation is crucial in marketing research and it is unwise to jump to collecting data until you have carefully planned the process.

The image to the right shows each of the stages of marketing research (left column) and the result produced from that stage next to it in the right column. As you can see, data is not collected until the fourth stage of the process. Before this, sevearl other steps should be taken.

The design of marketing research is fundament to the whole process and includes a definition of the problem, costs and the value of information that could be obtained.

Any stage (or part) of marketing research may be subcontracted to external company(ies) depending on the human and financial resources available to you internally.