Abstract:
Understanding marketing research begins with understanding marketing
and marketing management. This study builds a concise normative
model for marketing management and infers from it the scope and
nature of marketing research and the role various organizations should
take in conducting it. Marketing research activities in the Pacific
Northwestern forest industry are examined against this model, and implications
of the study from the viewpoint of the researcher's university
position in Finland are discussed.
The way marketing research is viewed by individual Pacific Northwestern
forest industry marketing managers and researchers varies
considerably from person to person. A specialized marketing research
function is established in. only a few organizations, and even within these
organizations intensity of research work varies greatly. Marketing research
work concentrates in these companies on the definition of market
potentials for new and established products, which also is an important topic for trade association studies. Little research is conducted on
consumer behavior. Applications of operations research in marketing
management are few.
Methodology applied is relatively unsophisticated. Marketing
managers thought that time and monetary constraints mostly restrict
marketing research work in the industry. Researchers mentioned as
such factors production orientation of managers and their lack of understanding
new research concepts. Future growth of marketing research
in the industry was anticipated by most of the researchers.
A study similar to this is expected to prove useful in Finland for
coordinating marketing research work in the Finnish forest industry.
