E-Marketing Professionals

Exploratory Research for Understanding a Problem Managers are often faced with situations that are so poorly understood that neither the real problem nor the available decision options are clear. For example, the marketing manager for Cheetos brand snacks may only know that sales are down. Not knowing the reason for the lower sales, the manager has no idea what to do to correct the situation. Sales could be down because of competitive activity, difficulties in the distribution of the product (perhaps stores have stopped carrying it or are out of stock), ineffective advertising, or any of a host of other reasons. A great deal of money can be wasted researching irrelevant issues if large-scale research projects are undertaken without a clear understanding of the nature of the problem

.