Interpreting And Reporting The Findings

The market researcher must now interpret the findings draw conclusions and report them to management. The researcher should not try to overwhelm managers with numbers and fancy statistical techniques. Rather the researcher should present important findings that are useful in the major decisions faced by management.

However interpretation should not be left only to the researchers. They are often experts in research design and statistics but the marketing manager knows more about the problem and the decisions that must be made. The best research means little if the manager blindly accepts faulty interpretations from the researcher. Similarly managers may be biased they might tend to accept research results that show what they expected and to reject those that they did not expect or hope for. In many cases findings can be interpreted in different ways and discussions between researchers and managers will help point to the best interpretations. Thus managers and researchers must work together closely when interpretations research results and both must share responsibility for the research process and resulting decisions.