Marketing Research
| Author | Christine Latino |
| Pages | 502-507 |
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Accelerating product cycles, easy access to information on products and services, highly discerning consumers, and fierce competition among companies are all a reality in the world of business. Too many companies are chasing too few consumers. Therefore, knowing, understanding, and responding to one's target market is more important than ever. And this requires information—good information. Good information can lead to successful products and services. Good information is the result of market research. Marketing gurus Kevin Clancy and Peter Krieg in their book, Counterintuitive Marketing, wrote, "Marketing research, we believe, poses many dangers and many opportunities. Bad research can, and often does, lead companies in the wrong direction. Good research, on the other hand, is the sine qua non of the counterintuitive approach to great marketing" (quoted in DeVries, 2005).
According to the Marketing Research Association, "Marketing research is a process used by businesses to collect, analyze and interpret information used to make sound business decisions and successfully manage the business" (2005). Marketing research is a $6-billion-a-year industry. Marketing research provides, analyzes, and interprets information for manufacturers on how consumers view their products and services and on how they can better meet consumer needs. The ultimate goal is to please the consumer in order to get, or keep, the consumer's business.
Marketing research as an organized business activity began between 1910 and 1920. The appointment of Charles Collidge Parlin as manager of the Commercial Research Division of the Advertising Department of the Curtis Publishing Company in 1911 is generally noted to be the beginning of marketing research. Parlin's success led several industrial firms and advertising media to establish research divisions. In 1915 the U.S. Rubber Company hired Dr. Paul H. Nystrom to manage a newly established Department of Commercial Research. In 1917 Swift and Company hired Dr. Louis D. H. Weld from Yale University to become manager of their Commercial Research Department.
In 1919 Professor C. S. Duncan of the University of Chicago published Commercial Research: An Outline of Working Principles, considered to be the first major book on commercial research. In 1921 Percival White's Market Analysis was published; the first research book to gain a large readership, it went through several editions. Market
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Call center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, October 8, 2004.
Research and Analysis by Lyndon O. Brown, published in 1937, became one of the most popular college textbooks of the period, reflecting the growing interest in marketing research on the college campus. After 1940, numerous research textbooks were published and the number of business schools offering research courses grew rapidly.
Following World War II (1939–1945), the growth of marketing research increased dramatically. By 1948 more than 200 marketing research organizations had been created in the United States. An estimated $50 million was spent on marketing research activities in 1947. Over the next three decades this expenditure level increased more than tenfold.
Major advances in marketing research methodology were made from 1910 to 1920. Questionnaires, or surveys, became a popular method of data collection. With the growth of survey research came improvements in questionnaire design and question construction. During the 1930s sampling became a serious methodological issue. Modern approaches to probability sampling slowly gained acceptance in this period.
From 1950 through the early 1960s, methodological innovations occurred at a fairly steady pace. At this time, a major development occurred: the commercial availability of large-scale digital computers. The computer was responsible for rapidly increasing the pace of methodological innovation, especially in the area of quantitative marketing research. As the field of marketing research attracted increasing interest, two new journals began publication in the 1960s: the Journal of Marketing Research and the Journal of Advertising Research. Technological advances have had a major impact on many aspects of the marketing research profession. These innovations have included checkout scanners in supermarkets, computer-assisted telephone interviewing, database marketing, data analysis by computers, data collection on the Internet, and Web-based surveys.
The second decade of the Internet age has confirmed the Internet as a consumer and business communications medium. In 2005 companies were projected to spend
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more than $1.1 billion on online market research, a 16 percent increase over 2004. The advantages of online research are self-evident: There is no need for data entry or interviews, and responses are collected automatically, saving time and money while eliminating coding errors and interviewer bias. Also, respondents may feel more comfortable in answering sensitive questions with their anonymity ensured. Ultimately, the Internet, if used properly, can provide the quickest path to valuable insight into a customer's mind.
Marketing research can be classified as exploratory research, conclusive research, and performance-monitoring research. The stage in the decision-making process for which the information is needed determines the type of research required.
Exploratory...
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