What Is Marketing Research?

Marketing is the process by which organizations create and distribute information to customers, prospects, and others in a way that drives sales. Marketing refers to the interactive process by which an organization undertakes to interact with its target audience, develop strong interpersonal relationships to generate value from the interaction, and create and deliver goods and services that satisfy a customer need in the most cost effective manner. In essence, marketing is the exchange of information and its processes between the seller and buyer, i.e., the organization and the customer. It may be done through advertising, sales promotion, public relations, or networking. These various processes of marketing enable organizations to compete successfully in the market.

Marketing is an ever-changing discipline that requires a constant set of marketing concepts and principles. While some of these marketing concepts and principles have been around for centuries, many are new concepts that were created after World War II. The most popular of these marketing concepts include social marketing, mass media marketing, and network marketing. Most of these marketing concepts emerged out of the efforts by marketing managers to develop a more cohesive strategy to counterbalance the traditionally localized and market-oriented strategies of the traditional marketing agencies.

Marketing has become increasingly fragmented due to technological developments. As such, there is a need for marketers to learn how to use technology to their advantage to increase product concept awareness, sales, and ultimately ROI. Internet marketing, for example, has provided marketers with a platform to distribute their messages to a global audience. The Internet also provides marketers with numerous marketing techniques to make products easily accessible to consumers, including the so-called three-dimensional marketing. This marketing concept enables marketers to use digital means such as videos, podcasts, and social networking sites to reach target audiences. With the advent of the Internet, marketers have been able to develop a more integrated concept of selling and marketing.

The main objective of marketing research is to understand consumer purchasing behavior. Marketers use this information to craft a marketing concept that addresses the purchasing behaviors of the target market, in order to provide customers with goods and services that meet their unique buying needs. Marketers conduct marketing research by collecting information from customers, prospecting customers, and testing goods and services on real and virtual markets. As such, marketers conduct marketing research to determine factors influencing buying decisions, such as product features, price, marketing strategies, brand name, customer service, and other factors.

Marketing research also provides marketers with a database of prospective customers to whom they can target their marketing efforts. This is achieved by conducting product tests and sending out mail campaigns. The success of these marketing campaigns depends on how well the products and services to meet the customers’ needs and preferences. This database also allows marketers to test marketing campaigns based on the products and services that sell and find out what works.

Marketing research is therefore an important aspect of all marketing activities. It allows marketers to gain insights into the buying habits of consumers. By studying consumer buying habits, marketers can fine tune their marketing strategies to make the most of these buying patterns. Furthermore, marketing research helps to determine the effectiveness of marketing strategies, such as advertisements. Marketers use marketing research results to improve the products and services they are selling and develop new marketing concepts.