Malhotra MR6e 02

Chapter Two

Defining the Marketing
Research Problem and
Developing an Approach

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Chapter Outline
1) Overview
2) Importance of Defining a Problem

3) The Process of Defining the Problem and Developing an Approach
4) Tasks involved in Problem Definition

i.

Discussions with Decision Makers

ii. Interviews with Industry Experts iii. Secondary Data Analysis iv. Qualitative Research
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Chapter Outline
5) Environmental Context of the Problem
i.

Past Information and Forecasts

ii.

Resources and Constraints

iii. Objectives iv. Buyer Behavior
v.

Legal Environment

vi. Economic Environment vii. Marketing and Technological Skills
6) Management Decision Problem and
Marketing Research Problem

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Chapter Outline
7) Defining the Marketing Research Problem
8) Components of an Approach

i.

Objective / Theoretical Foundations

ii.

Analytical Model

iii. Research Questions iv. Hypothesis
v. Specification of Information Needed

9) International Marketing Research
10) Ethics in Marketing Research
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Chapter Outline

11) Summary

12) Key Terms and
Concepts

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Chain Restaurant Study

One day I received a phone call from a research analyst who introduced himself as one of our alumni.
He was working for a restaurant chain in town and wanted help analyzing the data he had collected while conducting a marketing research study.
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Chain Restaurant Study

When we met, he presented me with a copy of the questionnaire and asked how he should analyze the data. My first question to him was,

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Chain Restaurant Study

When he looked perplexed, I explained that data analysis is not an independent exercise. Rather, the goal of data analysis is to PROVIDE
INFORMATION RELATED TO