Limitations of Marketing Research

Following are the most serious limitations:

1. It is not a Substitute for Executive Decisions:

Marketing research is merely a tool that facilitates decision making process and is not a substitute for sound decisions.

Ultimately the decisions are to be made by the marketing executives. Marketing research undertakes an enquiry, supplies information relevant to the problems and helps the managers to make decisions on more rational basis.

The effectiveness of the marketing research depends on the skill and experience of the decision maker. Marketing research cannot replace executive judgment because, decision maker is to take into account the total environment a cluster of factual, intellectual and emotional forces in which he operates on one hand and the constraints on the resources, on the other.

It is impossible for an executive to take into account all these forces and limits to arrive at one best possible decision.

2. It cannot predict the Future Precisely:

Predictions or readings made available by marketing research are not perfect and they cannot be because, they are approximations. Marketing research can predict tendencies but not the certainties.

None has yet found an accurate answer to the question as to what is going to happen in the future because, future is certainly uncertain. At its best, marketing research can reduce the size of these uncertainties and make possible more reliable projections.

In this dynamic market environment, the data collected becomes stale and research findings based on them rather irrelevant. Moreover, the decision-maker is handicapped for the want of all the relevant information caused by data gaps and paucity.

3. Ail Marketing Problems cannot be Researched:

It is very essential to note at this level that not all the marketing problems are capable of being researched. A research problem is one that makes possible observation or data collections through which a solution can be recommended.

One cannot come to valid research conclusions because of the limitations of tools and techniques of research on one hand and the intangible and subjective variables defying the actual measurement on the other hand.

Thus, the decision on advertising budget appropriations, projection of consumer performances in terms of sales estimates, promotion of employees, choice over profitability and consumer satisfaction, to illustrate a few cases.

Some problems cannot be solved merely on the basis of data collected that involve value judgment. Further, no complete answer can be given to a particular question because; there is yawning gap between research findings and actual market responses.

4. Resistance by Executives:

Most of the enterprises do not have an independent marketing research department. This fact itself speaks of spare use or marketing research than a regular full-time. There is strong resistance on the part of business executives to use research because they fear visualize a threat to their personal status; that such a research may evaluate them negatively a fear of branding them as inefficient or incompetent.

This fear gets magnified by the fact that both the executives have failed to use the specialists because, they hardly understand them and their problems; there is a tug of war between line and staff officers. This reflects in keeping in isolation the marketing research department from key executives