The most important fields of study in marketing

Several nation-wide studies have been made in an attempt to establish the specific types of market research studies that business men consider most important. From these studies, it is possible to make a composite table of the types of studies found useful in business today. The twenty most important of these are as follows:
(a)    The competitive position of a company's products (share of market).
(b)    The total size of the market (for an entire industry).
(c)    Estimated demand for new products (size of new market).
(d)    Forecasts of future sales possibilities.
(e)    The specific characteristics of a market, by regions.
(f)    Potentials of sales territories.
(g)    Trends in current products and product-lines.
(h)    Acceptance of new products in market (new product testing).
(i)    Establishing or revising sales territories.
(j) Study of competition in its various aspects.
(k) Measuring variations in territorial yields.
(l) The effectiveness of advertising.
(m) Analyzing salesmen's activities and effectiveness.
(n) The economic factors that affect the sale of a product.
(o) Price studies
(p) Evaluating present sales methods and policies, (q) Determining source of customer dissatisfaction.
(r) Determining relative market profitability, (s) The simplification of a product-line, (t) Studies on the cost of distribution.
Research work calls for a high degree of competence and training. To be fully effective, the marketing researcher must also be thoroughly familiar with the organization and its problems. In the discussion of methods and techniques that follows, such familiarity with the individual firm's activities and problems is assumed.
There are six principal steps which should be taken by a market researcher. A discussion of these steps follows.
The first step a market researcher must take is to define the problem. This is not as simple as it sounds. It is one of the most difficult and probably the most important step in making a marketing research study. The precise definition of the problem sets the stage for techniques to be used, extent of information necessary, and the meaning of the findings.
No researcher can proceed with confidence until he knows precisely what he is trying to find out. Within this framework of exactly what we need to find out, he can determine subsequent steps. It is important to bear in mind that a general statement of the problem is not enough. In one case, for example, the problem was defined as the declining sales curve. Obviously, such a statement of problem is totally inadequate. We must isolate and identify the marketing elements of the problem such as the industry, the company, the products offered, what competition offers, and the size, location and needs of the market. Once the over-all problem has been stated, we proceed to refine and subdivide it into its logical segments. We then confine ourselves to those points or subdivisions of the problem that we need to cover and on which we need to develop facts. 11. Planning the procedure for fact gathering. Knowing the specific areas in which we need information, the second step is to develop the best procedure for getting the information. In technical language, this would be known as planning the research techniques. We know or we establish how many facts and what kinds of facts are readily available to us now; what printed or other available information can be gathered by simply collecting it. From this, we determine what has to be gathered first-hand. In marketing research, we would refer to this last as primary data.