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Introduction

6 May, 2015 - 16:28
WikiBooks (http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Marketing) by Wikibooks. Copyright by Wikibooks. Available under Creative Commons-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Market research is the process of systematic gathering, recording, and analyzing of data about customers, competitors, and the market. Market research can help create a business plan, launch a new product or service, optimize existing products and services, guide expansion into new markets, and more. It can be used to determine which portion of the population will be most likely to purchase a product or service, based on variables like age, gender, location, and income level. The research can inform what characteristics your target market has. With market research, companies can learn more about current and potential customers, often through satisfaction tracking programs.

The purpose of market research is to help companies make better business decisions and gain advantages against the competition. Market research represents the voice of the consumer in a company.

A list of questions that can be answered through market research:

  • What is happening in the market? What are the trends? Who are the competitors?
  • How do consumers talk about the products in the market?
  • Which consumer needs are important? Are the needs being met by current products?
A simple example of what market research can do for a business is the following. At the Chevrolet division of General Motors, they brought several disciplines together in a cross-functional team to develop a concept for a completely new Corvette. This team enabled the marketers to come up with an alternative concept, one that balanced 4 attributes: comfort and convenience, quality, styling, and performance. This was considered radical because comfort and convenience were not traditional Corvette values. However, market research demonstrated that consumers supported the alternative concept. As a result, the new Corvette was a huge success in the market.