The retail mall owner told the marketing researcher, $"$We have the option of staying open late twice a week, or opening up an hour early every day. We need to know which will be most profitable since we cannot do both. The decision must be made in $11$ weeks, and we only have $$10,000$ budgeted for this research project." In which stage of the marketing research process would this statement have been made?

Multiple Choice

Define the problem.

Conclusions and report.

Formal Research design.

Data collection and analysis