Marketing Research for Benchmarking in a SME. Case Study (II)

Abstract

The topic of marketing research conducted in small company is an intriguing one, given the potential contradiction between the fundamental need to obtain information about competition, on the one hand, and the limited resources at the disposal, on the other hand. The attempt of this article is to demonstrate that, beyond the traditional resources (both financial and human), the competencies to design and execute the research, to process and analyse the information are, often, even more limiting factor, but not impossible to be achieved. A small company is evaluated based on how it achieves the ability to develop and perform quantitative researches, as well, with the specific objective to understand the customer value, the structure of the market it operates in, and the state of direct competition, via benchmarking. While the first part of the article detailed the exploratory research performed through a qualitative study (focus group), this second part develops the market survey itself.