Marketing Research:
What Is It and Why Is It Necessary?

Marketing research is a vital activity performed either in house or by outside firms for small and large businesses, government agencies, non-profit organizations, and the like. It includes collecting and analyzing information, along with communicating the relevancy of that information to decision-makers.

Marketing research can reveal consumer characteristics that are relevant to product/service development and marketing strategy such as:

Demographic Socioeconomic Psychological Life-style Awareness Behavior (past, present and intended) Motivation

In addition, marketing research can identify competitor activity, market share, new product opportunities, employee satisfaction, and much more.

To collect information, marketing research utilizes either or both of the following methods:

Primary Research:	Custom designed to address specific questions and which utilizes observation, questioning and/or experimentation
Secondary Research:	Available data from either internal and/or external sources

In today's competitive environment, decision-makers require accurate, timely, and useful information to profit from existing opportunities. Knowledge gained from marketing research can confirm or refute prior perceptions, thus reducing decision-making risk, and help organizations remain innovative in meeting the needs of their customers.