Marketing Research is a continuous process for collecting, investigating and interpreting information about a particular market a company operates in or a product/service the company offers for selling in that market, and also about potential and existing competitors and the past, present and potential customers who purchase and consume the offered product/service. Conducting marketing research means making an analysis of all information about the market, product/service, customers and competitors in order to investigate possible ways for the company to successfully operate in the market, sell the product/service, attract the target audience and gain competitive advantages.
Conducting marketing research is one of the key duties of marketing departments and teams. For any company it is also important to organize regular marketing research to get insight into the market, investigate spending habits of the customers, identify existing and potential competitors, develop solutions for product promotion and advertizing, increase company’s recognition, improve business reputation, and so on. Researching the market is an important activity providing any company with more business planning solutions that can improve the company’s performance, improve sales and increase revenue.
There are two methods of marketing research- primary research & secondary marketing research. While primary marketing research seeks to understand customer motivations, opinions and needs through quantitative and qualitative field research. In contrast to that, secondary marketing research uses already existing sources of information to gather the data.
The Advantages of Marketing Research
There is no doubt about the importance of marketing research. To prove this statement, let’s view why marketers should research markets. Market research is important for any business because it provides with the following opportunities:
Identify the customers: Marketing research gives a
Bibliography: * Website : http://smallbizbee.com http://www.pierobon.org/export/ch2/why.htm http://www.thecmosite.com @ResearchInfo.com MarketingProfs.com wiki.answers.com Book: Marketing Research: An Applied Orientation – Naresh K. Malhotra, 5 th Edition, 2008, Prentice-Hall , USA. Essentials of Marketing Research – William G. Zikmund & Berry J. Babin, 3rd Edition, 2007, Thomson , USA.