Discover the World of Marketing Research

Marketing Research: An Overview

• Marketing research involves gathering and analyzing data about marketing products and services to understand how changing elements of the marketing mix impacts customer behavior.

• It involves specifying data requirements, designing data collection methods, analyzing the data, and forwarding results and findings to those empowered to act on them.

• Marketing research is often partitioned into two sets of categorical pairs: by target market or by methodological approach.

• Consumer marketing research is a form of applied sociology that concentrates on understanding the preferences, attitudes, and behaviors of consumers in a market-based economy.

• The purpose of marketing research is to provide management with relevant, accurate, reliable, valid, and up-to-date market information.

• Marketing research helps the marketing manager link the marketing variables with the environment and the consumers. It helps remove uncertainty by providing relevant information about the marketing variables, environment, and consumers.

• The roles of marketing researchers and marketing managers are changing, with researchers becoming more involved in decision making, and managers becoming more involved in research.

• The history of marketing research dates back to the medieval period, and it created a precedent for the systemic collection of marketing information.

• By the 19th century, the rise of mass-production and improved transportation systems led to the creation of national markets and the need for more detailed information about customers, competitors, distribution systems, and market communications.

• Market researchers were exploring ways to understand the different market needs and behaviors of groups of consumers by the 1820s, and manufacturers were producing models of tin toys for specific geographic markets by the 1880s.

• Marketing research has adapted to innovations in technology, and B2B and B2C companies now demand both quantitative and qualitative marketing research to better understand their target audience and the motivations behind customer behaviors.

• Marketing research is systematic, objective, and attempts to provide accurate information that reflects a true state of affairs while being conducted impartially and free from personal or political biases.Marketing Research: Types, Methods, and Careers

• Marketing research is done to identify and solve marketing problems.

• There are two types of marketing research: problem identification research and problem-solving research.

• Standardized services are research studies conducted for different client firms but in a standard way.

• Marketing research techniques include surveys, focus groups, and experiments.

• Primary and secondary are the two main sources of data for marketing research.

• Exploratory research provides insights into an issue or situation, while conclusive research draws conclusions.

• B2B research is more complicated than consumer research, as the former requires a multi-faceted approach.

• Four key factors make B2B market research different from consumer markets.

• International marketing research relies more on primary data rather than secondary information.

• Meta-analysis refers to a statistical method of combining data from multiple studies.

• There are various positions available in marketing research, including vice president of marketing research, research director, and project manager.

• People with a variety of backgrounds and skills are needed in marketing research.