Seek and Ye shall Find.

• Author: Richards, Lori
• Position: Marketing research

Here's the scoop on basic marketing research:

Do you really need a certain piece of information?

Is it worth the cost to find it?

When can you do your own research?

And when do you need outside help?

Bank marketers are often called upon to answer difficult questions. Here's a sample: What new products or services should we offer? Do we need to open a new branch? Why are customers closing their accounts?

Managers must rely on information to answer these questions, and that is the role of marketing research.

The first step in deciding whether you need to conduct market research is to weigh the value of the information versus the cost of acquiring it. Start by defining your objective. What questions are you trying to answer? Do you have sufficient information internal to your organization to make a strong recommendation, or do you need to go outside the organization? If your information needs go beyond what you currently have access to, and the value of the information outweighs the cost of obtaining it, you should consider doing market research.

Market research can cover a variety of topics and help to answer a multitude of questions. If your research questions can be answered with secondary research or information that has already been gathered, you may save money. Secondary research is often less expensive than primary research or research that you collect yourself. Some excellent sources of secondary research information include census data, and research and industry journals. In addition, there are companies that specialize in secondary research. Conducting Web searches may also prove to be a time- and cost-effective way of finding secondary research information on your topic.

There are some drawbacks to using secondary research, however. The main one is that the information you need may not be available, or it may not be in the precise format that you need. In addition, the information could be out of date. As a result, primary research may be necessary.

Primary research

When considering primary research, start by outlining your research objectives and your ideas in a request for a proposal (RFP) that can be sent to research suppliers. Requests for proposals can take a variety of formats and may range from a short outline or e-mail to a formal document outlining all of your research requirements. Or, you may wish to call a few suppliers and share your ideas with them directly. The key factor to remember at this stage is to have a clear...