A systematic procedure for targeting market research

Discusses the targeting and reporting of commercial marketing research. The treatment of this critical stage of the research process is severely underrepresented in the academic marketing literature and in marketing research texts. Six prerequisites for effective targeting and reporting are identified. An extended model of the research process, incorporating the tasks that are essential for targeting and reporting is developed. The model and the six prerequisites are then used as the basis for the development of an operational procedure that allows a targeted set of research hypotheses to be developed from a decision problem, together with a formal record of the logical links between them. The importance of these written links for effective decision support, and the use of these links in the research reporting process, is also discussed.