Essentials of the supply chain management - Myassignmenthelp.Com

Question: Describe how marketing research fits within the overall marketing process. Answer: Marketing research fits very effectively within the overall marketing process. Marketing research refers to the procedure which companies use to gain information on market opportunities and challenges. The aim of marketing activities is to gain access to consumer bases which would allow companies to sell their products. Market research allows companies to gain information about the market, both home and international. The information pertains to various strategic areas like market competition, changing consumer preferences and supply chain management (Kotabe Kothari, 2016). The senior marketing teams in these companies follow the following steps to conduct marketing research: Defining the threats and opportunities. Determining the procedure they can take to gain deeper information about the issue. Identify the sources of data like suppliers and customers which can provide them with reliable data for the research. The marketing department then forms survey questions to interview these sources of information and determines sample sizes. The marketing departments analyze and interpret the information to prepare report which they present to the apex management. The apex management of the companies can use these pieces of information to form their marketing strategies. Thus, marketing researches as an important part of marketing process provide companies with strategic market information and pave way for strategy making (Monczka et al., 2015). The peer answer points out that market research consists of two steps namely, problem identification and problem solving. The peer paper mentions that marketing research is a significant marketing process. It also mentions that multinational companies like Kellogs use the process of marketing research to identify market threats by conducting interviews and surveys. The companies can use the information gained from the surveys and interviews to form strategies. However, the peer report mentions marketing research as a process very briefly and does not explore it in detail. It also does not mention how MNCs can use these steps to conduct the research. Research: Hugos, M. H. (2018). Essentials of supply chain management. John Wiley Sons. Kotabe, M., Kothari, T. (2016). Emerging market multinational companies evolutionary paths to building a competitive advantage from emerging markets to developed countries. Journal of World Business, 51(5), 729-743. Monczka, R. M., Handfield, R. B., Giunipero, L. C., Patterson, J. L. (2015). Purchasing and supply chain management. Cengage Learning.