Market research is any organized effort to gather information about
markets or customers. It is a very important component of
business strategy.
[1] The term is commonly interchanged with
marketing research; however, expert practitioners may wish to draw a distinction, in that
marketing research is concerned specifically about marketing processes, while
market research is concerned specifically with markets.
[2]
Market research is a key factor to get advantage over
competitors. Market research provides important information to identify and analyze the market need, market size and competition.
Market research, which includes social and opinion research, 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.
History
Market research began to be conceptualized and put into formal
practice during the 1920s, as an offshoot of the advertising boom of the
Golden Age of radio in the
United States. Advertisers began to realize the significance of
demographics revealed by sponsorship of different radio programs.
Market research for business/planning
Market research is for discovering what people want, need, or
believe. It can also involve discovering how they act. Once that
research is completed, it can be used to determine how to market your
product.
Peter Drucker believed
[4] market research to be the quintessence of marketing.
There are two major types of market research.
Primary Research sub-divided into
Quantitative and
Qualitative research and
Secondary research.
For starting up a business, there are some important things:
Through
Market information
one can know the prices of different commodities in the market, as well
as the supply and demand situation. Information about the markets can
be obtained from different sources, varieties and formats, as well as
the sources and varieties that have to be obtained to make the business
work.
Market segmentation is the division of the market or population into
subgroups with similar motivations. It is widely used for segmenting on
geographic differences, personality differences, demographic
differences,
technographic differences, use of product differences, psychographic differences and gender differences. For B2B segmentation
firmographics is commonly used.
Market trends are the upward or downward movement of a market, during
a period of time. The market size is more difficult to estimate if one
is starting with something completely new. In this case, you will have
to derive the figures from the number of potential customers, or
customer segments. [Ilar 1998]
Besides information about the target market, one also needs
information about one's competitors, customers, products, etc. Lastly,
you need to measure
marketing effectiveness. A few techniques are:
Market Research for the Film Industry
It is important to test marketing material for films to see how an
audience will receive it. There are several market research practices
that may be used: (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; and finally (7) exit surveys, that measure
audience reactions after seeing the film in the cinema.
[6]
Synonyms
The term
inbound marketing is sometimes used as an informal synonym for market research.
[7] However, the
newer sense has largely displaced it.
Financial performance
Top 9 of the market research sector 2009
From the
Honomichl Top 50:
Global market research turnover in 2009