Introduction to Market Research

Overview

This course concentrates on the foundations of market research. You will be introduced to the essentials and nature of market research, the research process and the importance of a research proposal. Focus will be devoted to problem formulation, problem solving, research questions and research objectives. The course will be completed with a discussion of ethics on market research. Learners who successfully complete this course will be able to: - Discuss the fundamentals of market research - Reflect on the research process - Formulate research questions and research objectives - Develop a research proposal - Ethics in market research This course is for market research analysts, social media strategists, marketing managers, product managers and market researchers.

Syllabus

Week 1

This week focuses on the fundamentals of research and the motivations of studying market research. We define market research and we discuss the differences between market research and marketing research. Attention is devoted to marketing intelligence vs market research. The various stages of the market research process are discussed and the importance of market research problem identification and formulation is discussed. The week finishes with a discussion regarding the components of the market research proposal.

Week 2

The week commences with an understanding of theory, research hypotheses and propositions and opposing research philosophies. The week continues with ethics in market research. The week ends with an introduction regarding quantitative and qualitative research approaches.

Week 3

This week focuses on the fundamentals of research and commences with a definition of research design and continues with the identification and discussion of the different types of research design. Errors in research design are discussed and the week finishes with fieldwork and a discussion of the different types of data.

Week 4

The week commences with data preparation analysis and how to plan the research project. The week continues with coding and how to prepare a codebook and with data preparation and analysis and scales of measurement. The week ends with report preparation and presentation.