Marketing Students Name Institution A pharmaceutical manufacturer followed sales representatives in the field to observe some 150 interactions between sales reps and physicians and support staff. They watched sales reps approach the doctors, how they got around their gatekeepers, how they delivered their brands messages, and so forth. These observations led to improvements in training new reps. In what category of research would this study fall Provide advantages and disadvantages of this category of research. What would be the next step in the marketing research process Category of Research in which the study falls It is clear that the pharmaceutical company was involved in observation technique which falls under the qualitative research methodology. This is because the pharmaceutical company sales representatives were involved in observing the doctors being approached by sales representatives who had to go round gatekeepers to deliver their messages. Observation is a very innate as well as a demanding qualitative data collection paradigm. Some of the advantages and disadvantages of Qualitative research are outlined below (Denzin and Lincoln, 2010). Advantages of Qualitative