Conducting marketing researches and monitoring customer needs

The marketing researches enable organizations to obtain a higher level of precision in their market analyses and to enhance customer approach. The marketing research process can be represented as a project which can be planned and managed according to the project management rules. In this context, the project Marketing Research can be divided into three main phases that is Planning, Tracking and Reporting.

Planning of marketing research process
The planning of marketing research process is managed by Marketing Director. The marketing researchers are responsible for conducting the research, collecting data and reporting to Director. A marketing research can be arranged by using a systematic approach. Here is an example of such a plan:

1. Determining the problem
2. Selecting a data collection method
3. Select a sampling method
4. Setting budget and timeframe
5. Collecting the data
6. Analyzing the data
7. Checking for errors
8. Writing report

By using VIP Task Manager, Marketing Director can create a new research in task group 'Marketing Research' and specify tasks for the marketing researchers. Each task has such attributes as 'Due date', 'Priority', 'Comments', 'Attachment', 'Resources' and other.VIP Task Manager allows to plan tasks of the marketing research by time attributes (due dates, estimated time, start&finish dates) as well as by priority (Low, Normal, High).

Tracking marketing research process
The point is that research process should be tracked in order to make sure it is running according to the established plan. Many different aspects of the marketing research should be cautiously tracked and supervised by the managers of the marketing department. To begin tracking the marketing research team and its results, the best place to start is by monitoring to-do lists and comparing actual indicators with planned ones. For example, by using VIP Task Manager, Marketing Director can track time left to complete a task, compare estimated time with actual time. To find out why one or another task is delayed, the managers can use Comments and ask the marketing researchers what problems they face during the research process and what possible solution they have. The feedback and communication with the team members will allow to find non-standard and efficient solutions and resolve complicated problems.

Reporting marketing research process
After the market research work is completed, the research team has to write a report. A good report should contain all tasks of the research, assigned employees, timeframes, what was achieved and comparing to what parameters. Readers of the report (e.g. Marketing Director, supervisors) should get a clear understanding of the marketing research results when looking through the report. VIP Task Manager allows to create task reports which encompasses the research with detailed information. The report may include general information (task names, due dates, priorities, estimates time, etc.), resource assignments, notes, comments, attachments and custom fields. The marketing researchers can specify what target audience, market and location were researched and attach questionaries to the tasks. In VIP Task Manager any task report can be created in HTML, text or graph view. For graph reports, there are available Pie chart, Line chart, Column chart, Area chart and Bar chart.

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