P3-Describe how a selected organisation uses marketing research to contribute to the development of its marketing plans
In this section of the unit the investigation of the marketing research used by Kellogg’s will be shown through thorough research and evaluation also how it links in to the development of Kellogg’s marketing plans.
The Purpose of Market Research
Marketing research is what informs business’s make decisions by helping it to understand the changing dynamics of its market. This involves finding out more about customers, competitors and the overall marketing environment.
The purpose of doing this is to gather data on customers and potential customers.
The pure definition of market research is systematically gathering, recording and analysing data and also about the issues relating to marketing products and services. There are two types of research’s that can be conducted: * Primary * Secondary
These research can then be formed into either quantitative or qualitative
Primary Research
Primary research is data and information that the business has gathered first-hand and has not been gathered before.
Internal primary research data sources include: * Sales figures for the business’s own products * Customer data held on a central database.
External primary research methods include: * Questionnaires and Surveys * Interviews and Focus Groups * Mystery Shoppers,
And other observation techniques.
Secondary Research
Secondary research uses data and information that has been collected before, either from within the organisation which can also be seen as internal data or by another organisation which is mostly regarded to as external data.

Secondary research is sometimes referred to as ‘desk research’ and sources include: * Reports from sales and regional representatives * Previous marketing research