Solution      For Mr. Dolapo who has just developed a new product in lagos and intends to carry out a market research aimed at determining the effectiveness of its product in lagos need a market research for the answer of undertaking the job effectively.    What is marketing research? Marketing research is defined by british institute of management as the objective of gathering, recording, analyzing, anticipating and satisfying of facts about problems relating to the transfer and sale of goods and services from producer to consumer or user. However, marketing research for the aim of determining product effectiveness is generally applied research in that it is problem oriented and decision oriented, that is, it comes as a result of problem. In other words, if there is no problem, there will be no need for making research of introducing a newly product.   THE VALUE OF INFORMATION FOR THE DEVELOPED PRODUCT.    Mr. Dolapo needs the value of information in undertaking his job effectively. Information can be useful, but what determine it real value to the product that he has just developed? In general, the value of information is determine by     The ability and willingness to acts on the information.      The accuracy of information.     The level of decisiveness that would exist without the information.     The level of risk aversion.     The reaction of competitors to any decision improved by information.    The cost of information in term of money.       He also needs the market research process for the developed product effectiveness. Once the need for aimed at determining the effectiveness of the developed product is Mr. Dolapo’s objectives, he has to follow the following marketing research steps:   THE MARKETING RESEARCH PROCESSES           Define the problem.     Determine research design.     Identify data types and source.     Design data collection form and questionnaires     Collect the data    Analyze and interpret the data.     Prepare the research report.    Hypothesis testing.     Product life circle    Evaluating the result   THE PROBLEM DEFINITION   The decision problem faced by a management, or individual in introducing a product must be translated into a market research problem in the form of question that define the information that required to make the decision and how this information can be obtained. Thus, the decision problem is translated into a research problem. For example a decision problem may be whether to launch a new product. The corresponding research problem might be to assess whether the market would accept the new product.    The objective of the research should be define clearly, to ensure that true decision problem is addressed, it is useful for the researcher to outline possible scenarios of the research result and then for the decision maker to formulate plans of action under each scenario. The use of such scenarios can ensure that the purpose of the research is agreed upon before it commence.     THE RESEARCH DESIGN     Making research for the benefit of discovering the effectiveness of a newly developed product or goods can be classified in one of three categories: ·        Exploratory research ·        Descriptive research ·        Causal research.   These classifications are made according to the objective of research. In some case the research will fall into one of these categories, but in other cases different phases of the same research project will fall into different categories.   Exploratory research has the goal of formulation problems more precisely, clarifying concept, gathering explanations, gaining, and elimination impractical ideas and forming hypotheses.   Descriptive research is more rigid than exploratory research and seeks to describe user of a product, determine the proportion of the population that uses a product, or predict future demand for a product. Descriptive research defines question, people surveyed and the method of analysis prior to beginning data collection. There are two basic types of descriptive research: longitudinal studies and cross-sectional studies. Longitudinal studies are time series analyses that make repeated measurements of the same individuals, thus allowing one to monitor behavior such as brand- switching. However, longitudinal studies are not necessarily representative since many people may refuse to participate because of commitment required. Cross-sectional studies sample the population to make measurement at a specific point in time. A special type of cross-sectional analysis is a cohort analysis, which tracks an aggregate of individuals who experience the same event within the same time interval over time. Cohort analyses are useful for long time forecasting of product demand.   Causal research seeks to find cause and affect relationship between variables. It accomplishes this goal through laboratory and field experiments.     DATA TYPE AND SOURCES.  Secondary data-:   Before going through the time and expenses of collecting primary data, one should check for secondary data that previously may have been collected for other purposes but that can be used in the immediate study. Secondary data may be internal to the firm, such as sales invoice and warranty card, or may be external to the firm such as published data or commercially available data. Several criteria that Mr. Dolapo should use to evaluate the secondary data are:    Whether the data is useful in the research study.     How current the data is and whether it applies to time period of interest.     Error and accuracy- whether the data is dependable and can be verified.    Specification and methodologies used.    Objective of original data collection    Nature of the data.    Primary data   Often, secondary data must be supplemented by primary data originate specifically for the study at hand. Some common types of primary data are:     Demographic and socioeconomic characteristics      Attitudes and opinions     Awareness and knowledge e.g. brand awareness      Motivation      Behavior Finally, primary data can be obtained by communication or observation. Communication involves questioning respondents either verbally or in writing.   QUESTIONNAIRE DESIGN  The questionnaire is an important tool for Mr. Dolapo to gather primary data. Poorly constructed questions can result in large error and invalidate the research data. So significant effort should bee put into the questionnaire design. The questionnaire of Mr. Dolapo for effectiveness research should be tested through prior to conducting the survey.   DATA COLLECTION    Using the appropriate research instrument, the research collect needed data from respondents. This phase of study requires field work. The researcher or those working for Mr. Dolapo will go out to the field and collect data form respondents.   DATA ANALYSIS    Before analysis can be performed, raw data must be transformed into the right format. First, it must be edited so that error can be corrected or omitted. The data must then be coded; this procedure converts the edited raw data into numbers or symbols.   HYPOTHESIS TESTING    The main purpose of a test market is to forecast the likely result of planned national launch. It may also be use to check the relative effectiveness of different marketing mix in comparative areas. Additionally, it provides opportunities to test the operational efficiency of the marketing plan. Basically, test marketing is a field experiment conducted under management disciplines, but unlike laboratory experiments, not in a controlled environment In real life conditions, products and promotional backup are exposed to the acid test of consumer acceptance or rejection. This experimental marketing is a form of risk control. Test market proposals should be evaluated on a cost benefit basis i.e. by assessing the relationship between the cost involved and the estimated benefit while are likely to result.  He also needs to determine the product life circle to arrive at the effectiveness of the product he has developed.     PRODUCT LIFE CIRCLE   The concept of product life circle (PLC) and innovation strategy is directly associated product, in generally, have limited lines during which they retain profit earning capacity. The span of useful lives varies considering according to the nature of demand and marketing management decision. Basically the product life circle theory state products tend to follow a pattern similar to biological development.  Form the birth of growth to maturity and then eventual decline and death.   Being a market leader may be invigorating but it also entails high risk, new product innovation and risk and inseparable products may fail for many reasons, perhaps because they are “before their time” or required radical alteration to ingrained habits of consumption or to traditional ways of behaving.   Thus, constant market surveillance by marketing research is vital.   The viability of a new product could be analyzed against the frame work of simple decision model. As shown below. The purpose of these steps in a new product development, the stage includes preliminary and formal economic analyses and also new product evaluation which of course should include marketing research.   A NEW PRODUCT PROGRAMMING        Active search for new product or services {initial screening).      Preliminary economic analysis (detail research}.      Development of tangible product for evaluation by new product team.      Product testing and probable amendment.     Commercial station, inviting detailed planning. Finally the evaluating the result is the most aspect Mr. Dolapo needed most for the aimed at determining the effectiveness of his product.   EVALUATING THE RESULT.    The final stage in test marketing or in process of undertaking a newly developed product for a great aimed at determining the effectiveness of any market product. On expert evaluation of the test results rest important business decision, involving perhaps heavy capital investment and the setting up of volume production lines. Test market results may indicate that a certain percentage market success has been achieved, but merely to project this same percentage to the wider national market would be naïve and likely to be distinctly misleading more sophisticated evaluation is called for study should be made of significant factors such as demographic structure of the population, types of outlet available, strength variations among regions in competitors, activities, which may result in variations between the test area and the national market.             Various approaches can be made to the projection of test market result; for example. Direct market share, proportionate population, buying index or sales ratio.   Straight projection, as in direct market share is obviously simple, but highly fallible. It ignores the inevitable differences in the multiple variable of market behavior   A prediction on the other hand, derive from more complex calculations, in the process of which some attempts have been made to obtain a deeper understanding of market behavior. A model is likely to have developed to act as a basic guide. The simple projection of the market share for example could be improved by a prediction using a scale up factor:-   (1)   Buying index :-                               I = Product field national sales                                     Product field test area sale Per capita usage:-                                  I= national population                                       Test area population                                                                (I = sale-up factor).   These formulae can further elaborated by incorporating a "correction factor” to allow for differences in distribution efficiency and other changes which may have taken place between the test marketing operation and the national launch.   It is unlikely that a new product will attract sales equally from existing brands in a test market; product positioning, strength of competition brand loyalty e.t.c will modify the extent of market share erosion. Taking these kinds of factors into account, test market result could be extrapolated if data were available on competitive brand shares before and after a market test.   If Mr. Dolapo can go through all this research processes, we believe he will arrive at his aimed of determining the effectiveness of his new product recently developed in lagos .   Value of content for the undertaking.         The definition of marketing research       The value of information for the developed product      Marketing research steps to undertake the job effectively