Marketing Research Tools

Marketing Research Tools

Before launching or expanding a business venture, there needs to be an understanding of the industry, its competitors, and its customers. Market research is vital in assisting companies in the decision-making process and their marketing direction. Data from marketing research is important because it provides companies with ways to identify opportunities, identify market potential, minimize chances of loss, devise effective marketing strategies, gauge customer satisfaction, and serve as an evaluation tool.

A wide-range of marketing research tools is available to market researchers and organizational decision makers. The following focuses specifically on data collection methods for conducting both primary and secondary research and provides an examination of the differences in primary and secondary research when using qualitative and quantitative approaches.

Primary and Secondary Market Research

Primary Market Research

A company’s marketing research objective could be to establish the market level of a product or service; establish strategies of industry competitors; establish the level of consumer awareness, and establish what the four Ps should be (product, price, place, and promotion).

Market research is categorized into two types; primary and secondary market research. Primary market research, also referred to as field research, is tailored to the specific needs of a company. Primary market research allows companies to investigate specific areas of interest, which is conducted directly by the company or contracted out to a third party research firm. Primary data-collection methods aim at getting the right information about the trends in the market firsthand; under this approach a company gets inf...

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... the company already knows what it wants to study or not.

Works Cited

Brockfield Solutions. (2012). Secondary & Primary Research. Retrieved from http://www.brockfieldsolutions.co.uk/secondary-and-primary-research.aspx

DeVault, G. (n.d.). Choosing Between Qualitative and Quantitative Methods. What Are You Trying to Prove? Retrieved from http://marketresearch.about.com/od/market.research.techniques/a/Choosing-Between-Qualitative-And-Quantitative-Methods.htm

Entrepreneur Media, Inc. (2012). Marketing Research. Retrieved from http://www.entrepreneur.com/encyclopedia/term/82400 (and 82616).html

Kumar, D. A., & Day, G. S. (2007). Marketing Research (9th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.

SFGate. (2012). The Difference Between Secondary and Primary Market Research. Retrieved from http://allbusiness.sfgate.com/marketing/market-research/1310-2.html