If the owners of six flags over georgia want to know where the amusement park's patrons are coming from, they could send an employee out to collect the state names from the license plates of cars parked in the six flags' parking lot. this is an example of the method of gathering marketing research.

Observation method

Explanation:

 The observation method is the process of gathering the data or information related to the marketing research process. The importance of the observation method is that it observes and also record all the events related to the research.

Observation method is one of the type of data or information collection method by using various types of observation practices in the research approach.  

According to the given example, the observation method is the process of gathering the marketing research as it is the most important method for observing the observation more accurately.  

Therefore, Observation method is the correct answer.