Frank is a brand manager for Heinz. He hires a research firm and when he meets the research company representative he states: "Here's the information I want to know. Tell me the change in market shares every time my top three competitors change advertising strategies." The most important question the researcher should ask is:

What decision are you trying to make using that information?

Explanation:

By knowing the answer to the question, the researcher could designed their research to provide the most relevant data specifically for that purpose.

for example,

let's say that the purpose of the research is to find out which advertising strategies work the best.

The researcher could specifically separate the date and divided the market shares based on different periods. Each different periods are made represent different advertising strategies.

This would provide frank with the information regarding which strategies cause the most increases in market shares.

answer; encouraging the development of innovations by firms attempting to break a monopoly; (creative destruction)