The process of research involves collecting and analyzing information about a product, event or a phenomenon. Marketing research, therefore, can refer to the gathering of information about the market trends, production, and speculation about the future of trading in a particular area of production. The information acquired through the research process provides vital considerations when the proprietors are to make marketing decisions. The owners and entrepreneurs cannot manage to operate without the invaluable information that the research offers. Marketing research is a primary source of information dealing with the business project, having to analyze the market trends for particular products and services, the economic flows and shifts, the industry and its competitors, customers’ spending trends on specific goods and services as well as the demographic information for the investment (Crouch, Sunny & Matthew, 2012).
Marketing research often aims at gaining enough information about a business and the satisfaction of the investment’s customers. The sole purpose, therefore, is to monitor the business flow of the investment and the practices used during the service provision to customers. An investor must have an invariant priority to customer satisfaction and to achieve this, the enterprise must remain outstanding among the other similar service providers. Therefore, the proprietor must get information about what the principal business competitors are offering and try to make his own better.
Research practices in marketing and business provide information to the entrepreneur that they can publish and store in the company’s database. This information is vital to the company during certain situations which demand the analysis of particular trends in the market (Crouch, Sunny & Matthew, 2012). The information also determines the direction of the company’s business during critical decisions when the corporation needs to specialize in a particular service or product. Therefore, it is fair to assume that research is the founding block of marketing. Conducting thorough researches can provide the proprietor with multiple options to follow in the market and thus reducing the risk that would pose to the enterprise.
Every company that seeks success in marketing must make research a core tool. The research can be shallow or elaborate, but most important is that the needed information is accessible when the need arises. The information will help the management of the company identify the weaknesses in their businesses, and thus solve them as necessary (Crouch, Sunny & Matthew, 2012). It also helps them find new trends in the market and shift their business as they would wish. Business goals and targets have so much to depend on in the research information if they are to be achievable.
A practical example of a market research process that small enterprises use is questionnaires. The company management forms a series of short questions about an individual product or service which they offer and print them in small paper pieces. The customers then receive the documents after the service, and they can fill the questionnaires and drop them at a designated point within the business premises. For example, a manager of a small supermarket can want to get information from her customers regarding the services that they offer to the customers, the product range they deal with, the customers’ satisfaction as well as the goods that they feel the supermarket should stock or improve. The company can opt to offer an incentive, say an award, to the customer whose questionnaire form or maybe a raffle ticket number wins in a draw within the premises. That would make the research a success since many of the customers would practically participate in the draw, hence providing the company with the information that they require most.
A practical example of a marketing research problem would be establishing fuel station. Imagine that you are the manager of Petrolia Fuel Company, and you want to ensure that the company, which is a new investment, achieves similar to or beyond the more established competitors. What are the several ways you would act and make sure your company survives and thrives in the market? What unique services would you offer to your clients? How would you ensure that the firm is publicized and known to many people? How would you acquire the information that you would use to make your company a reliable service provider while also making higher levels of profit?
- Crouch, Sunny, and Matthew Housden. Marketing research for managers. Routledge, 2012.
