You want your goods and services to sell. That is why you are in business. How do you know what to sell, when to sell it, whom to sell it to, etc.? Marketing research provides the answers to all of these questions. To begin with, you probably did some research or rode the coattails of others’ research to decide on your line of industry. Marketing drives business; that is not to be challenged. Businesses need to gather as much information about consumers as possible to effectively market their goods and services.

Forms of research

Let us look at forms of business research:

- Market research probes the business environment. Analyzing customers, competitors, market structure, government regulations, economic trends, technological advances, etc. are all a part of the process. Analysts gather the information and then relay the intelligence along to a pertinent source.
- Product research assesses what products can be produced with available technology and what the availability of making new products is like in relation to the future.
- Advertising research studies the effectiveness and popularity of various advertising mediums. Essentially, businesses want to get a reaction out of the customer both mental (by stimulating interest), and physical (by creating impetus to buy products or services).

Types of research

Ad tracking- intermittent to continuous research used to monitor a brand’s performance in relation to brand awareness, brand preference, and product usage

Brand equity research- studies how popular a brand’s image is with customers

Brand name testing- studies what mental responses customers have in relation to products

Eye tracking research- examines advertisements, package designs, and Web sites by tailing the behavior of the customer Concept testing- tests the theoretical advent of a concept via customers

There are many other types of business research concerning products/services, customers, manufacturers, businesses, etc. The influx of consumerism on the Web has invited more opportunities to analyze products and their market. All of the types of research seek to identify or solve product issues.

Defining research

- Primary research consists of gathering original data
- Secondary research is performed based on data
- Exploratory research provides views and comprehension in relation to a given issue or situation
- Conclusive research makes conclusions and then results can be generalized
- Qualitative research is used for exploratory purposes and uses small numbers of respondents that cannot be generalized to represent a whole population. Examples include focus groups, in-depth interviews, and projective techniques
- Quantitative research is used to draw conclusions and tests a specified theory. It uses a large number of respondents chosen through random sampling and includes surveys and questionnaires.
- Meta-analysis is a statistical method of combining data from multiple studies or from several types of studies
- Conceptualization is the process of converting vague mental images into real concepts
- Operationalization is the process of converting concepts into specific observable behaviors that one can measure
- Precision refers to the exactness of any given measure
- Validity refers to the question, “Are we measuring what we intended to measure?”