With the spurt in complexity of problems facing the marketing executive, there has been an increase in her/his need for relevant marketing information about the environment, competition, and particularly customers. The sophistication in information technology has accelerated this process and has underscored the utility of marketing research toward managerial decision-making. The objectives of this course are to: to develop marketing research problem definition skills, to develop the abilities to create marketing research designs as well as critically evaluate alternative research designs, and to provide an introduction to the various data analysis procedures. This course is designed to make the interaction between management and marketing research as productive as possible, by making each student an intelligent user and consumer of marketing research. Three learning vehicles are used in the course: a) textbook and readings, b) lectures, and c) discussion of problems and cases. This course is designed primarily for executives who will be using marketing research than just doing marketing research. The course recognizes that to be an intelligent user of marketing research, the marketing executive needs to have a very good understanding of the various stages in the marketing research process. The learning vehicles aim to provide this understanding.
