Quality of a Marketing Research Project

Question: Discuss, using examples where relevant, how you would ensure the quality of a marketing research project. Answer: Marketing research is a process or set of processes that links the customers and producers to the marketer through information. Such information helps in identifying and defining marketing opportunities. It is an effort to gather information about customers or target markets. Market research is a very important component of business strategy. Quality in the marketing research process is ambiguous. It is not a step, but a process. While measuring quality, one is actually measuring the quality of customers experience. It can happen and must be ensured at every stage of the research process (Savin-Baden and Major 2012). Data collection is a significant part of the marketing research. The marketing decisions are made depending on the analysis of the data collected from a research project. For making appropriate decisions, quality of the data acts as a critical element for the data collected. Data collection must be high in quality and relevant (Birley and Moreland 2014). Quality can also be referred as the degree to which the data represents actual scenario. High quality data is reliable, valid and also represents faithfulness. In certain instances, researchers try obtaining data from various sources to ensure the validity and reliability of data collected. The two characteristics determining the quality of data are- reliability and validity (Csikszentmihalyi and Larson 2014). It is necessary to devise research questions as a poor structure may affect the choice of study design. It is imperative to formulate a proper research question that would be relevant and answerable. Hypothesis can also be developed from the research question and it drives data collection for the study. The quality of data collection can be made better if the research question and hypothesis for the project is appropriate. The relevance of data can be ensured with appropriate sampling strategy, intervention and outcome variables (Zikmund 2014). A few other factors such as availability and affordability form a part of the data collection. Data must be collected quickly so that the research process is affordable and can be completed on time. If data cannot be obtained in a timely fashion, the marketing research must not be conducted (Bell 2014). The researchers can collect both primary and secondary data. Primary data is newly obtained data for a specific project. Secondary data is already collected for purposes other than problem at hand. The researcher needs to decide if the primary data collection or secondary data collection method would be appropriate for the situation. The researcher can also use both data collection methods (Palinkas et al. 2013). There are different ways to ensure that the data collected from primary and secondary sources are high in quality. For primary data, the researcher must follow similar researches conducted in the past, imagine possible answers and craft an analytical response. The different ideas and values must be crafted from frame of reference. The data collected must be compared and contrasted with the similar data from other source in the same time period. The reliability must be measured (Taylor and Bogdan 2013). For example, Mr. X works for an advertising agency that is hired by ABC Medicine, the manufacturers of a drug product. If the product is consumed once in a day, it shall prevent the consumers from getting cancer. The ad agency wants to check the reliability and validity for the claim made by ABC that would not be problematic in the market. Mr. X found a published article regarding the product and considers that the drug is worth advertising. However, Mr. X shall be concerned regarding reliability and validity of the information (Silverman 2016). Validity refers to the truthfulness of the information. The truthfulness of the source must be assessed with respect to the information presented. In the given example, Mr. X believes that the article read by him regarding cancer-free pills would suit the description. The study was conducted, supported and observed by 400 patients. The article was credible and peer-reviewed. It is important to follow peer-reviewed article as it ensures that it has been reviewed by other experts in the field. Therefore, Mr. X can jump at the conclusion of calling the data valid. Secondly, reliability refers to the level of trust or belief in the information. Mr. X can be asked to support the medical and marketing claims for the prescribed drug. Mr. X shall check how the information was obtained by the author. Certain criteria such as biasness, expertise and personal gains must be assessed. If the information was published in a blog, it should be eliminated as it does not ensure the expertise of inform ation-provider. The date must be checked by the researcher and current articles should be considered as reliable. The information source must be assessed if it is questionable, unsupported or not well-researched. The works cited must also be reviewed to check the quality of references (Taylor and Bogdan 2013). The publication source must also be checked if it is a university press, government agency and purpose of the publication. The primary and secondary sources of data must be assessed to ensure high quality. The researcher shall evaluate the purpose or intention of authors research paper. The language shall be free of emotion-rousing words or biased. The authors point of view in the secondary sources must be impartial and fulfil the objectives of the research. A high-quality research paper must be easy to read and the content must not be repetitive (Silverman 2016). Conclusively, not all information is created with a standard quality. Just because the information is found in the library does not mean that it would be accurate to conduct an appropriate marketing research. It is necessary to critically evaluate necessary information in an academic setting. The researcher must evaluate every item to determine the credibility and quality for supporting the best research. The presentation allow the researchers to interact with clients, also it provides useful feedback of the overall performance of the project. A formal report which contains detailed information about our research project. References Bell, J., 2014.Doing your research project. Maidenhead: McGraw-Hill Open University Press. Birley, G. and Moreland, N., 2014.A practical guide to academic research. London: Kogan Page. CSIKSZENTMIHALYI, M. and LARSON, R., 2014. Validity and Reliability of the Experience-Sampling Method.The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 175(9), pp.526-536. Palinkas, L., Horwitz, S., Green, C., Wisdom, J., Duan, N. and Hoagwood, K., 2013. Purposeful Sampling for Qualitative Data Collection and Analysis in Mixed Method Implementation Research.Administration and Policy in Mental Health and Mental Health Services Research, 42(5), pp.533-544. Savin-Baden, M. and Major, C., 2012.Qualitative research. Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge. Silverman, D., 2016.Doing qualitative research. London: Sage Publications. Taylor, S. and Bogdan, R., 2013.Introduction to qualitative research methods. New York: Wiley. Zikmund, W., 2014.Business research methods. Mason, OH: Thomson/South-Western.