Chapter Outline

I. African Communications Group: Bringing Modern Telecommunications to Tanzania
A. Market analysis
B. Industry analysis
C. Consumer needs and behavior
D. The business idea
E. Determining market potential and preparing a sales forecast

II. Marketing Challenges Addressed in Chapter 7

III. Every Forecast is Wrong!

IV. A Forecaster’s Toolkit: A Tool for Every Forecasting Setting
A. Statistical and other quantitative methods
B. Observation
C. Surveys
D. Analogy
E. Judgment
F. Market tests
G. Mathematics entailed in forecasting

V. Cautions and Caveats in Forecasting
A. Keys to good forecasting
B. Biases in forecasting

VI. Why Data? Why Market Research?

VII. Market Knowledge Systems: Charting a Path toward Competitive Advantage
A. Internal records systems
B. Marketing databases
C. Competitive intelligence systems
D. Client contact management systems
E. Other kinds of market knowledge systems

VIII. Marketing Research Resolves Specific Marketing Challenges
A. Step 1: Identify the managerial problem and establish research objectives
B. Step 2: Determine the data sources and types of data required
C. Step 3: Design the research
D. Step 4: Collect the data
E. Step 5: Analyze the data
F. Step 6: Report the results to the decision maker

IX. What Users of Marketing Research Should Ask

X. Rudimentary Competence: Are We There Yet?