Market research

Market research is an organized effort to gather information about target markets and customers: know about them, starting with who they are.[1] It is a very important component of business strategy[2] and a major factor in maintaining competitiveness. Market research helps to identify and analyze the needs of the market, the market size and the competition. Its techniques encompass both qualitative techniques such as focus groups, in-depth interviews, and ethnography, as well as quantitative techniques such as customer surveys, and analysis of secondary data.

Marketing
Key concepts
Promotional content
Promotional media
Research

It includes social and opinion research, and is the systematic gathering and interpretation of information about individuals or organizations using statistical and analytical methods and techniques of the applied social sciences to gain insight or support decision making.[3]

Market research, marketing research, and marketing are a sequence of business activities;[4][5] sometimes these are handled informally.[6]

The field of marketing research is much older than that of market research.[7] Although both involve consumers, Marketing research is concerned specifically about marketing processes, such as advertising effectiveness and salesforce effectiveness, while market research is concerned specifically with markets and distribution.[8] Two explanations given for confusing Market research with Marketing research are the similarity of the terms and also that Market Research is a subset of Marketing Research.[9][10][11] Further confusion exists because of major companies with expertise and practices in both areas.[12]

History

Although market research started to be conceptualized and put into formal practice during the 1930s as an offshoot of the advertising boom of the Golden Age of radio in the United States, this was based on 1920s work by Daniel Starch. Starch "developed a theory that advertising had to be seen, read, believed, remembered, and most importantly, acted upon, in order to be considered effective."[13] Advertisers realized the significance of demographics by the patterns in which they sponsored of different radio programs.[14]

The Gallup Organization helped invent the public opinion poll; today, "Market research is a way of paying for it."[15]

Market research for business/planning

Market research is a way of getting an overview of consumers' wants, needs and beliefs. It can also involve discovering how they act. The research can be used to determine how a product could be marketed. Peter Drucker believed[16] market research to be the quintessence of marketing. Market research is a way that producers and the marketplace study the consumer and gather information about the consumers' needs. There are two major types of market research: primary research, which is sub-divided into quantitative and qualitative research, and secondary research.

Factors that can be investigated through market research include:

  • Market information: Through market information one can know the prices of different commodities in the market, as well as the supply and demand situation. Market researchers have a wider role than previously recognized by helping their clients to understand social, technical, and even legal aspects of markets.[17]
  • Market segmentation: Market segmentation is the division of the market or population into subgroups with similar motivations. It is widely used for segmenting on geographic differences, demographic differences (age, gender, ethnicity, etc.), technographic differences, psychographic differences, and differences in product use. For B2B segmentation firmographics is commonly used.
  • Market trends: Market trends are the upward or downward movement of a market, during a period of time. Determining the market size may be more difficult if one is starting with a new innovation. In this case, you will have to derive the figures from the number of potential customers, or customer segments.[18]
  • SWOT analysis: SWOT is a written analysis of the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats to a business entity. A SWOT may also be written up for the competition to understand how to develop the marketing and product mixes. SWOT method helps to determine and also reassess strategies and analyze business process
  • PEST analysis: PEST is an analysis about external environment . It includes a complete examine of a firm's Political, Economical, Social and Technological external factors, which may impact firms' objectives or profitability. They may become a benefit for the firm or harm its productivity.
  • Brand health tracker: Brand tracking is way of continuously measuring the health of a brand, both in terms of consumers’ usage of it (i.e. Brand Funnel) and what they think about it. Brand health can be measured in a number of ways, such as brand awareness, brand equity, brand usage and brand loyalty.

Another factor that can be measured is marketing effectiveness. This includes:

Data collection
Main article: Data collection

"Rigorous sampling methodologies combined with high-quality data collection" is what the magazine Advertising Age considers the backbone of market research.[20] Data collection can use larger audience samples than the few hundred or thousand typically used in market research.[21] Also required is the (at least passive)[22] cooperation of those being surveyed;[23] trust[24] is also helpful.[25]

Some data collection is incentivized: a simple form is when those on the road contribute to traffic reporting of which they are consumers. More complex is the relationship of consumer-to-business (C2B), which sometimes introduces reliability problems.[26] Other data collection is to know more about the market,[27] which is the purpose of market research.[28]

International influence from the Internet

The international growth of available research both from and via the Internet[13] has influenced a vast number of consumers and those from whom they make purchases.[29] Although emerging global markets, such as China, Indonesia and Russia are still smaller than the US in B2B e-commerce, their internet-fueled growth factor is stimulated by product-enhancing websites, graphics, and content designed to attract corporate and consumer/B2C shoppers. Estimates for 2010 show between US$400 billion and $600 billion in revenue was generated by this medium.

A report titled "Global B2C E-Commerce and Online Payment Market 2014" indicated a decrease in overall growth rates in North America and Western Europe, even as absolute growth numbers rose.

The UK Market Research Society (MRS) listed the top social media platforms primarily used by Millennials are LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube and Instagram.

Research and market sectors

Regarding details for worldwide corporate market research, "most of them are never written about because they are the consumer research done by the country's manufacturers."[30]

Market research data has loss prevention aspects; that less than 60 percent of all proposed modifications and new products are deemed failures.[30] When information about the market is difficult to acquire, and the cost of "going ahead with the decision" to offer the product or service is affordable, the research cost may be more profitably used "to ensure that the new line got the advertising send-off it needed to have the best chances of succeeding."[31]

As measured in revenue, USA based Amazon.com is the worldwide E-Commerce leader.

Market research for the film industry

The film industry is an example where the importance of testing film content and marketing material involves:

  1. concept testing, which evaluates reactions to a film idea and is fairly rare;
  2. positioning studios, which analyze a script for marketing opportunities;
  3. focus groups, which probe viewers' opinions about a film in small groups prior to release;
  4. test screenings, which involve the previewing of films prior to theatrical release;
  5. tracking studies, which gauge (often by telephone polling) an audience's awareness of a film on a weekly basis prior to and during theatrical release;
  6. advertising testing, which measures responses to marketing materials such as trailers and television advertisements;
  7. exit surveys, that measure audience reactions after seeing the film in the cinema.[32]

Small businesses and nonprofits

Small organizations and non-profits can derive needed information by observing the environment of their location. Small scale surveys and focus groups are low cost ways to gather information from potential and existing customers and donors. While secondary data (statistics, demographics, etc.) is available to the public in libraries or on the internet, primary sources, done well, can be quite valuable: talking for an hour each, to twelve people, two apiece from six potential clients, can "get inside their minds.. get a feel for their needs, wants and pain. You can’t get that from a questionnaire."[33]

See also

References
  1. Campbell Robertson (August 1, 2006). "Nielsen Brings a New Marketing Strategy to Broadway". The New York Times.
  2. McQuarrie, Edward (2005), The market research toolbox: a concise guide for beginners (2nd ed.), SAGE, ISBN 978-1-4129-1319-5
  3. International Code on Market and Social Research (PDF) (4 ed.). ICC/ESOMAR Amsterdam, the Netherlands. 2008. Archived from the original (PDF) on 3 September 2018. Retrieved 29 December 2009.
  4. "Commercial Item Handbook" (PDF). market research is a business operation
  5. Alex Burke. "What Is Formulated Marketing?". Hearst Newspapers. Marketing is a business process that ..
  6. Susan J. Hart; John R. Webb; Marian V. Jones. "Export Marketing Research and the Effect of Export Experience in Industrial SMEs": 18. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.461.857. Size of firm seems to be related to the use of informal market research Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  7. Journal of Marketing, Vol. 14, No. 5 (Apr., 1950), pp. 733-736 https://www.jstor.org/stable/1246952?seq=1#fndtn-page_scan_tab_contents
  8. McDonald, Malcolm (2007), Marketing Plans (6th ed.), Oxford, England: Butterworth-Heinemann, ISBN 978-0-7506-8386-9
  9. |url=https://www.slideshare.net/eminenture/market-research-38765720 |title=Market Research END-TO-END Benefits |quote=Because Market Research is a subset of Marketing Research, it is easy to see why the two terms are often confused. |date=September 6, 2014}}
  10. "Difference between Market Research and Marketing Research".
  11. Market Research is a subset of Marketing Research"Difference Between Market & Marketing Research". September 24, 2019. Market Research is a subset of Marketing Research
  12. US Census data is both for Market research and for Marketing research: "NAPCS Product List for NAICS 54191: Marketing Research" (PDF). data collection services for marketing research and public opinion surveys, by methods other than ... data collection services provided as part of a market research services package that includes
  13. Kuba Kierlanczyk (February 4, 2016). "A Brief History of Market Research".
  14. viz Soap radio
  15. Lisa Belkin (March 6, 1990). "Gallup Shifts Emphasis Toward Market Studies". The New York Times.
  16. Drucker, Peter F. (1974). Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices. Australia: Harper & Row. pp. 64–65. ISBN 0-06-011092-9. There will always, one can assume, be need for some selling. But the aim of marketing is to make selling superfluous. The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well that the product or service fits him and sells itself. Ideally, marketing should result in a customer who is ready to buy. All that should be needed then is to make the product or service available...
  17. Diaz Ruiz, C. A. (2013). "Assembling Market Representations". Marketing Theory. 13 (3): 245–261. doi:10.1177/1470593113487744.
  18. Ilar 1998
  19. Carol Vogel (December 20, 1992). "Dear Museumgoer: What Do You Think?". The New York Times.
  20. John McDonough; Karen Egolf (2015). The Advertising Age Encyclopedia of Advertising.
  21. When Data Science and Traditional Market Research Collide Published on November 24, 2020 by markestcast.com
  22. Natasha Singer (November 2, 2019). "The Government Protects Our Food and Cars. Why Not Our Data?". The New York Times. because Congress has never established an agency to
  23. Stuart Elliott (August 23, 1993). "The latest in market research: videogenic self-analyzing shoppers". The New York Times.
  24. Shira Ovide (July 21, 2020). "Beware the 'But China' Excuses". The New York Times. it’s hard to know when to believe them.
  25. Sandy Parakilas (November 19, 2017). "We Can't Trust Facebook to Regulate Itself". The New York Times. prioritized data collection over user protection and regulatory compliance
  26. Sapna Maheshwari (November 28, 2019). "When Is a Star Not Always a Star? When It's an Online Review". The New York Times. Customer reviews are incredibly important in e-commerce, but they can be unreliable or downright dishonest.
  27. "How Uber Uses Psychological Tricks to Push Its Drivers' Buttons". The New York Times. April 2, 2017. Faster pickup times mean more idle drivers ... armies of underemployed people looking for extra hours
  28. Karen Weise (December 19, 2019). "Prime Power: How Amazon Squeezes the Businesses Behind Its Store". The New York Times.
  29. Eric Pfanner (June 22, 2008). "Market research is getting a makeover". The New York Times.
  30. Philip H. Dougherty (November 16, 1975). "Market Research Is Now a National Pastime". The New York Times.
  31. Alan R. Andreasen (July 1983). "Cost-Conscious Marketing Research". Harvard Business Review.
  32. Drake, Philip (2008). McDonald & Wasko (ed.). Distribution and Marketing in Contemporary Hollywood. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing. pp. 63–82. ISBN 978-1-4051-3388-3.
  33. Graham Kenny (January 17, 2019). "Customer Surveys Are No Substitute for Actually Talking to Customers". Harvard Business Review.

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