The researcher next plus the marketing research plan into action. This involves collecting processing and analyzing the information. Data collection can be carried out by the company’s marketing research staff or by outside firms. The data collection phase of the marketing research process is generally the most expensive and the most subject to error. Researchers should watch closely to make sure that the plan is implemented correctly. They must guard against problems with contacting respondents with respondents who refuse to cooperate or who give biased answers and with interviewers who make mistakes or take shortcuts.
Researchers must also process and analyze the collected data to isolate important information and findings. They need to check data for accuracy and completeness and code it for analysis. The researchers then tabulate the results and compute statistical measures.
