market research

The gathering and evaluation of data regarding consumers' preferences for products and services.

Systematic collection and analysis of data relating to sale and distribution of financial products and services. Market research is an early step in the marketing process, and includes an analysis of market demand for a new product, or for existing products, as well as appropriate methods of distributing those products. Techniques in market research include telephone polling and focus group interviews to determine customer attitudes, pricing sensitivity, and willingness to use delivery alternatives. Most large banks have their own market research departments that evaluate not only products, but their Brick and Mortar branch banking networks through which most banking products are sold.

Gathering, analyzing, and interpreting data concerning market conditions; see also Feasibility Study.
Example: Market research typically includes a detailed data collection phase, whereas market analysis focuses principally on interpreting data that have already been collected.

The term market research encompasses a number of activities that are designed to connect marketers to consumers through information gathering and evaluation. Market research provides businesses with information about their customers, their competitors, and their overall industry. It is commonly used to identify marketing problems and opportunities, as well as to develop and evaluate the effectiveness of marketing strategies. Small business owners, because of their usually limited financial resources, have a particular need for adequate, accurate, and current information to aid them in making decisions. Market research can help entrepreneurs evaluate the feasibility of a start-up venture before investing a great deal of time and capital, for example, as well as assist them in effectively marketing their goods and services. Employing such marketing strategies as market segmentation and product differentiation would be nearly impossible without first conducting market research.

Although market research can be costly, it is often even more costly to make erroneous decisions based upon bad or inadequate information. In fact, an average business spends between 25 and 50 percent of its annual marketing budget on research activities. Conducting large-scale market research in-house is not possible for many small businesses, since it requires a comprehensive understanding of the problem to be addressed, the market, and the application of research procedures. But there is a great deal of helpful information available to entrepreneurs who know where to look, and there are many consultants, advertising firms, and market research specialists who offer their services to small businesses for a fee.

The information gathered through market re-search can be divided into two main categories. The first category—primary information—generally does not exist in a coherent form before the marketer gathers it in response to a particular question or problem. The most common methods of gathering primary market research information are through direct mail, telemarketing, and personal interviews. The other category—secondary information—has already been compiled and organized by a source other than the marketer. Rather than looking at a specific marketing problem faced by an individual company, secondary information generally tracks trends within a market, an industry, a demographic group, or a geographic region. A great deal of valuable secondary information is available to small business owners at little or no cost. Some possible sources of secondary market research information include government reports, trade association records, newspaper and magazine surveys, university-sponsored research, local chamber of commerce records, on-line services, and competitors' annual reports.

Market research can provide small business owners with the information they need to answer a wide range of questions, including: Who are my customers? Where are they located? How much and how often will they buy? and What product attributes do they prefer? Given the importance of market research—and its potential cost—experts recommend that businesses follow a step-by-step approach in order to gain the most benefits from their research activieties.

The first step in the market research process is to define the marketing problem to be addressed. Next, a marketer should determine what information is needed to solve the problem, as well as what sources should be used to acquire the information. Many businesses make a preliminary investigation at this early stage in order to give their definition of the problem more focus and to develop tentative answers that can be tested during the next stage of the process. The third step involves planning the research. This step includes selecting the techniques to be used for gathering data and deciding on an appropriate group, or sample, to be included in the research. Fourth, a marketer actually gathers the necessary data. The fifth step involves analyzing and interpreting the information that has been gathered. Finally, the marketer reaches a conclusion about the marketing problem and translates the findings into changes in the firm's overall marketing strategy.

There are three general types of market research suppliers that can assist small businesses with one or more steps in the above process. Some firms specialize in conducting overall market research that they release to a variety of clients for a fee. This type of firm includes syndicated services such as A.C. Nielsen and Company, which provides viewership ratings for national television programs. There are also custom market research firms that handle all aspects of the process, from defining the marketing problem and designing research techniques to evaluating results and formulating new marketing strategies. In contrast, smaller, specialty line suppliers usually concentrate on one aspect of the process. Marketers who wish to secure the services of a market research firm usually obtain bids from a number of suppliers. The following sections provide more information about the various types of market research that such suppliers perform.

Types of Market Research

AUDIENCE RESEARCH. Research on who is listening, watching, and reading is important to marketers of television and radio programs and print publications—as well as to advertisers who wish to reach a certain target audience with their message. Television and radio ratings demonstrate the popularity of shows and determine how much stations can charge for advertising spots during broadcasts. Publication subscription lists, which are audited by tabulating companies to ensure their veracity, are important in determining the per page rate for advertising.

PRODUCT RESEARCH. Product research includes simple, in-person research such as taste tests conducted in malls and in the aisles of grocery stores, as well as elaborate, long-term "beta testing" of high-tech products by selected, experienced users. The objective of product research can be simple; for example, a company may tweak the taste of an existing product, then measure consumers' reactions to see if there is room in the market for a variation. It can also be more extensive, as when a company develops prototypes of proposed new products that may be intended for market introduction months down the road.

In product research, as in all market research, there is a danger to paying too much attention to the wrong things. For instance, the introduction of New Coke was based on the outcome of taste tests that showed the public wanted a sweeter product. But later an angry public, outraged that Coca-Cola was planning to change the familiar formula, forced the company to ignore its taste tests and leave the original Coke on the market. The company had put too much stock in the results of the taste test studies, and had failed to factor in research that showed consumers were happy with the product as it was.

BRAND RESEARCH. Brands, the named products that advertising pushes and for which manufacturers can charge consumers the most money, are always being studied. Advertisers want to know if consumers have strong brand loyalty ("I'd never buy another brand, even if they gave me a coupon"); if the brand has any emotional appeal ("My dear mother used only that brand"); and what the consumer thinks could be improved about the brand ("If only it came in a refillable container").

Brand research, too, has its perils. Campbell's Soup once convened a focus group comprised of its best soup customers. One of the findings was that those customers saw no need for a low-salt alternative soup Campbell's wanted to market. Concerned that the general public seemed to want low-sodium products, Campbell's retested groups other than their best customers. This research found a market interested in a low-sodium soup. The loyal Campbell's customers loved the saltier product, while a larger group of potential customers preferred the low-salt alternative.

PSYCHOLOGICAL RESEARCH. Perhaps the most controversial type of market research is psychological research. This type of research tries to determine why people buy certain products based on a profile of the way the consumers live their lives. One company has divided all Americans into more than 60 psychological profiles. This company contends the lifestyles these people have established, based upon their past buying habits and their cultural upbringing, influences their buying decisions so strongly that individual differences can sometimes be negated.

Psychological research is controversial because it measures attitudes about buying rather than the buying itself. Critics point to conflicting information uncovered through other market research studies. In one series of research projects, researchers asked people what they were planning to buy before they entered a store. After the people surveyed left the store, the same researcher examined what was actually in their shopping carts. Only 30 percent of the people bought what they had said they planned to buy just a half hour earlier.

SCANNER RESEARCH. In contrast, there is no fooling the checkout scanner at the supermarket or the department store: it records what was actually purchased. This is valuable information an advertiser can use to help plan an ongoing marketing strategy. Scanner technology has changed the way advertisers track the sale of consumer products. Before scanners, advertisers received sales information only when retailers reordered stock, generally every two weeks. This meant that the advertisers had no way to quickly measure the effect of national advertising, in-store sales promotions, or the couponing of similar products by their competitors. Now, computer technology can send scanner information to advertisers within days or even hours.

DATABASE RESEARCH. Virtually every type of consumer—credit card holders, smokers, drinkers, car buyers, video buyers—shows up on thousands of lists and databases that are regularly cross-referenced to mine nuggets of marketing research. Database research is growing in popularity among marketers because the raw data has already been contributed by the purchaser. All the marketer has to do is develop a computer program to look for common buying patterns.

Database research can be thought of as the ultimate tool in market segmentation research. For example, from zip code lists, marketers may determine where the wealthy people live in a city. That list can be merged with a list of licensed drivers. The resulting list can be merged with another list of owners of cars of a certain make older than a certain year. The resulting list can be merged with another list of subscribers to car enthusiast magazines. The final list will deliver a potential market for a new luxury car soon to be introduced and profiled in the car magazines. The people on the potential buyers' list could then be mailed an invitation to come see the new car.

Database research also allows companies to build personal relationships with people who have proven from past purchases that they are potential customers. For example, a motorcycle manufacturer such as Harley Davidson may discover from database research that a family with a motorcycle has a teenage son. That son is a potential new customer for everything from clothes to a new motorcycle of his own. Maintaining a personal relationship with customers also provides businesses with a basis for more detailed and economical market research than might be possible through random sampling.

POST-SALES OR CUSTOMER SATISFACTION RESEARCH. Most companies no longer believe that a sale ends their relationship with a customer. Nearly one-third of the research revenues generated by the leading American market research firms concern customer satisfaction. Many companies now wait a few days or weeks, then contact customers with survey questionnaires or telephone calls. Companies want reassurance that the customer enjoyed the buying experience and that the product or service has met the buyer's expectations.

The reason behind post-sales research is to ensure that current customers are happy, will consider themselves future customers, and will spread positive word-of-mouth messages about the product and company. One study found that 70 percent of customers believed it was important for companies to stay in contact with them, but less than one-third of those same customers reported that they had heard from companies whose products they purchased. Nearly 90 percent of those surveyed said they would be more likely to choose a company's products if it stayed in touch with them and sought their satisfaction.

Personal Research Methods

CLOSED-END QUESTIONNAIRE. A closed-end questionnaire is the type of market research most people have experienced. It includes such common activities as filling out a comment card at a restaurant or responding to a telephone survey. In closed-end questionnaires, the person being surveyed cannot expound on their answers. Such surveys usually ask for "yes" or "no" responses or for measures of multiple choice opinion (e.g., "extremely interested, " "somewhat interested, " "not interested"). This type of market research is generally conducted to elicit the opinions and beliefs of the public. It is commonly used for political polling and to determine the awareness or popularity of a product or service.

The inherent problem with multiple-choice questionnaires that ask for clear-cut answers is that many people do not think in a clear-cut fashion. If not carefully prepared, closed-ended questions may elicit answers that do not provide a clear view of the person being surveyed. Sometimes, the company conducting the survey may intentionally or inadvertently write questions that elicit the answers it wants to receive, rather than answers that provide a true picture of what is happening in the marketplace.

OPEN-ENDED QUESTIONNAIRE. Over time, market researchers have grown increasingly aware that people often have opinions that do not fit into a multiple-choice questionnaire. To capture these opinions and try to analyze them, researchers are shifting toward open-ended research—asking people to say exactly what is on their minds. For example, manufacturers are giving customers plenty of space on questionnaires to explain their likes and dislikes about products and services, and telephone researchers will frequently mix closed-end and open-end questions on the same survey to try to delve deeper. A "no" response to whether a person watches a particular cable television station may trigger a follow-up question of "Why not?, " for instance, and the answer will be taken down word for word.

A problem with both closed- and open-ended questionnaire research, particularly when conducted over the telephone, is that people gradually become bored or annoyed and stop providing their true opinions. In addition, some studies have shown that a large percentage of Americans refuse to answer marketing research surveys.

FOCUS GROUPS. In-person, sit-down discussions around a table with groups of consumers, would-be consumers, never-buyers, or any other demographic group a company wishes to bring together are called focus groups. This can be the least expensive type of market research when handled on a local basis by a small business wanting to get a handle on its customers. Or, it can be one of the most expensive if a major corporation wants to test its plans in various sections of the country. Small, local businesses may invite a focus group to a neighborhood home to sit around the dinner table and discuss how the company can develop new markets. In contrast, most major corporations conduct their focus groups in a controlled environment, usually with a one-way mirror at one end of the room. This allows executives to observe the proceedings unobtrusively or to videotape the session for further study.

The key to gathering good information from a focus group is for the moderator to keep the conversation flowing freely without taking a side. The moderator's job is to involve everyone in the discussion and prevent any individuals from dominating the conversation. Most market research experts agree that focus group research should be accompanied by other types of research and not be the sole basis for launching new products. The reason is that opinions expressed among strangers may not always reflect the way people would react when alone. For example, a focus group discussing low-fat foods may garner an enthusiastic response from people who want to be publicly perceived as being concerned about their health. The same people, however, might say they never buy low-fat products if questioned during an anonymous phone interview.

Further Reading:

The Entrepreneur Magazine Small Business Advisor. Wiley, 1995.

Haim, Alexander, and Charles D. Schewe. The Portable MBA in Marketing. Wiley, 1992.

Lehmann, Donald R. Marketing Research and Analysis. 3rd Ed. Irwin, 1988.

Lury, Giles. "Market Research Cannot Cover for the 'Vision Thing.' " Marketing. November 9, 2000.

"Market Research Is Accessible, Rewarding to Small Retailers." Knight-Ridder/Tribune Business News. January 19, 2000.

Stevens, Mark. The Macmillan Small Business Handbook. Macmillan, 1988.

Westfall, Tina Cook. "Market Research: Nothing Is as Convincing as Hard Numbers." Atlanta Business Chronicle. August 29, 1998.

See also: Focus Groups

For more information on market research, visit Britannica.com.

Marketing Research evolved as the U.S. economy shifted from a production-driven one to a market-driven one. As the American production of goods and services, plus imports, was beginning to satiate American demand, marketers needed to learn how to tailor their products to the needs and likes of an increasingly discerning public. This tailoring resulted in increased market demand and, for successful companies, increased market share.

Formal marketing research was initiated in 1911 when the Curtis Publishing Company appointed its first director of commercial research. Early practitioners were inspired by the efforts of Frederick W. Taylor, famous for his time and motion studies, and others to employ disciplines of "scientific management" to improve business processes and thereby improve results. Marketing research has evolved into an industry consisting of large and small firms worldwide as well as dedicated market research departments in all large and many small companies. Expenditures for marketing research in the United States exceeded $1 billion in 2000.

The American Marketing Association defines marketing research as "the function that links the consumer, customer, and public to the marketer through … information used to identify and define marketing opportunities and problems; generate, refine, and evaluate marketing actions; monitor marketing performance; and improve understanding of marketing as a process." Marketing research "specifies the information required to address these issues, designs the method for collecting information, manages and implements the data collection process, analyzes the results, and communicates the findings and their implications."

Marketing research consists of gaining consumer input and data. It is the lifeline between companies and customers, and it allows the application of scientific methods to gain knowledge about consumers, buyers, competitors, markets, and marketing.

In general terms, marketing research is either primary research or secondary research. Primary research is either qualitative or quantitative. Qualitative research explores, defines, and describes. It involves in-depth studies of limited samples of people. Use of focus groups is a popular tool of qualitative research. In this format, participants are prescreened to assure that they match the sociodemographic profile of the brand or company performing the research (that is, they are either customers or potential target customers). Once screened, groups of eight to twelve customers participate in a group discussion, with a company-hired moderator, to discuss the topic at hand: new products, reaction to advertising or packaging, or assessment of goods or services. Use of one-on-one interviews is another popular tool of qualitative research. Often these are conducted in shopping malls (mall intercepts), where shoppers are approached, screened to match a predetermined sociodemographic profile, and escorted to a facility for a thirty-minute to one-hour interview.

Quantitative research measures, estimates, and quantifies. It generally involves polling of a broad sample of people. This choice is necessary when statistically significant results are required. Large companies and well-known packaged-goods brands use this type of research when they want to be certain that consumer opinions are representative of the population at large. In the last decade especially, political opinion polls have become popular for U.S. presidents and others to assure that they are taking the public's point of view into consideration in policymaking and that they remain popular among their constituents.

Specific research objectives may require a mix of qualitative and quantitative research. Examples include awareness and attitude surveys, brand image surveys, advertising tracking, promotion testing, media mix evaluation, new products research, marketing optimization research, and customer loyalty evaluation.

Secondary research entails gathering information from already published data and sources. Some applications for secondary research include competitive intelligence (where one company wants to monitor its competitors, their spending, their new product introductions, their staffing, or their financial performance) and trend assessment. As an example, Albing International Marketing, a global home furnishings consultancy, used secondary research data to prepare a market study, Windows on the Millennium—Across the Threshold to the New Century (2001), which cited ten key trends expected to shape and impact the home furnishings industry in the subsequent decade. The trends were listed under the following headings: Home and Family, Leisure, The Aging Population, The Ethnic Influence, The Spiritual Search, Information and Technology, The Environment, The Wealth Effect, Globalization and Nationalism, and The Value Mentality.

New methodologies and new technologies are continually being adopted by the marketing research industry. New research techniques provide deeper insight into buyer behavior, even using predictive models of how their behavior will change under alternative scenarios. The computer has been integrated into nearly every phase of research, from computer-assisted telephone and personal interviews to disk-by-mail data collection to Internet sampling. The Internet has become the key portal for gathering secondary research. In addition to access to public library databases, several sites exist exclusively to sell market research reports on a broad variety of subjects (for example, Profound, Factiva, Market Research.com). It is only a matter of Time until Web-based survey research becomes an industry norm.

Bibliography

Mendelsohn, Susan. "In Search of Market Research." Information World Review (March 2002).

Neal, William D. "Getting Serious about Marketing Research." Marketing Research (Summer 2002).

Thomas, Jerry W. "Marketing Research." Executive Excellence (November 2001).

Wade, A. Kenneth. "Focus Groups Research Role is Shifting." Marketing News (4 March 2002).

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Marketing

"Consumer research" redirects here. For the product review magazine, see Consumer Reports.

Research is the scholarly or scientific practice of gathering existing or new information in order to enhance one's knowledge of a specific area. Research has many categories, from medicine to literature. Marketing research, or market research, is a form of business research and is generally divided into two categories: consumer market research and business-to-business (B2B) market research, which was previously known as industrial marketing research. Consumer marketing research studies the buying habits of individual people while business-to-business marketing research investigates the markets for products sold by one business to another.

Consumer marketing research is a form of applied sociology that concentrates on understanding the behaviours, whims and preferences, of consumers in a market-based economy. The field of consumer marketing research as a statistical science was pioneered by Arthur Nielsen with the founding of the ACNielsen Company in 1923.

In addition to marketing research, other forms of business research include:

• Market research is broader in scope and examines all aspects of a business environment. It asks questions about competitors, market structure, government regulations, economic trends, technological advances, and numerous other factors that make up the business environment. (See Environmental scanning.) Sometimes the term refers more particularly to the financial analysis of companies, industries, or sectors. In this case, financial analysts usually carry out the research and provide the results to investment advisors and potential investors.

• Product research - This looks at what products can be produced with available technology, and what new product innovations near-future technology can develop. (see New Product Development)

• Advertising research - is a specialized form of marketing research conducted to improve the efficacy of advertising. copy testing, also known as pre-testing, is a form of customized research that predicts in-market performance of an ad before it airs by analyzing audience levels of attention, brand linkage, motivation, entertainment, and communication, as well as breaking down the ad’s flow of attention and flow of emotion. Pre-testing is also used on ads still in rough (ripomatic or animatic) form. (Young, p213)

Types of marketing research

Marketing research techniques come in many forms, including:

• Ad Tracking – periodic or continuous in-market research to monitor a brand’s performance using measures such as brand awareness, brand preference, and product usage. (Young, 2005)

• Advertising Research – used to predict copy testing or track the efficacy of advertisements for any medium, measured by the ad’s ability to get attention, communicate the message, build the brand’s image, and motivate the consumer to purchase the product or service. (Young, 2005)

• Brand equity research - how favorably do consumers view the brand?

• Brand name testing - what do consumers feel about the names of the products?

• Commercial eye tracking research - examine advertisements, package designs, websites, etc by analyzing visual behavior of the consumer

• Concept testing - to test the acceptance of a concept by target consumers

• Coolhunting - to make observations and predictions in changes of new or existing cultural trends in areas such as fashion, music, films, television, youth culture and lifestyle

• consumer decision process research - to determine what motivates people to buy and what decision-making process they use

• Copy testing – predicts in-market performance of an ad before it airs by analyzing audience levels of attention, brand linkage, motivation, entertainment, and communication, as well as breaking down the ad’s flow of attention and flow of emotion. (Young, p 213)

• Customer satisfaction studies - exit interviews or surveys that determine a customer's level of satisfaction with the quality of the transaction

• Demand estimation - to determine the approximate level of demand for the product

• Distribution channel audits - to assess distributors’ and retailers’ attitudes toward a product, brand, or company

• Internet strategic intelligence - searching for customer opinions in the Internet: chats, forums, web pages, blogs... where people express freely about their experiences with products, becoming strong "opinion formers"

• Marketing effectiveness and analytics - Building models and measuring results to determine the effectiveness of individual marketing activities.

• mystery shopping - An employee or representative of the market research firm anonymously contacts a salesperson and indicates he or she is shopping for a product. The shopper then records the entire experience. This method is often used for quality control or for researching competitors' products.

• Positioning research - how does the target market see the brand relative to competitors? - what does the brand stand for?

• Price elasticity testing - to determine how sensitive customers are to price changes

• Sales forecasting - to determine the expected level of sales given the level of demand. With respect to other factors like Advertising expenditure, sales promotion etc.

• Segmentation research - to determine the demographic, psychographic, and behavioural characteristics of potential buyers

• Online panel - a group of individual who accepted to respond to marketing research online

• Store audit - to measure the sales of a product or product line at a statistically selected store sample in order to determine market share, or to determine whether a retail store provides adequate service

• Test marketing - a small-scale product launch used to determine the likely acceptance of the product when it is introduced into a wider market

• Viral Marketing Research - refers to marketing research designed to estimate the probability that specific communications will be transmitted throughout an individuals Social Network. Estimates of Social Networking Potential (SNP) are combined with estimates of selling effectiveness to estimate ROI on specific combinations of messages and media.

All of these forms of marketing research can be classified as either problem-identification research or as problem-solving research.

A company collects primary research by gathering original data. Secondary research is conducted on data published previously and usually by someone else. Secondary research costs far less than primary research, but seldom comes in a form that exactly meets the needs of the researcher.

A similar distinction exists between exploratory research and conclusive research. Exploratory research provides insights into and comprehension of an issue or situation. It should draw definitive conclusions only with extreme caution. Conclusive research draws conclusions: the results of the study can be generalized to the whole population.

Exploratory research is conducted to explore a problem to get some basic idea about the solution at the preliminary stages of research. It may serve as the input to conclusive research. Exploratory research information is collected by focus group interviews, reviewing literature or books, discussing with experts, etc. This is unstructured and qualitative in nature. If a secondary source of data is unable to serve the purpose, a convenience sample of small size can be collected. Conclusive research is conducted to draw some conclusion about the problem. It is essentially, structured and quantitative research, and the output of this research is the input to management information systems (MIS).

Exploratory research is also conducted to simplify the findings of the conclusive or descriptive research, if the findings are very hard to interpret for the marketing manager.

Marketing research methods

Methodologically, marketing research uses the following types of research designs:^[1]

Based on questioning:

• Qualitative marketing research - generally used for exploratory purposes - small number of respondents - not generalizable to the whole population - statistical significance and confidence not calculated - examples include focus groups, in-depth interviews, and projective techniques
• Quantitative marketing research - generally used to draw conclusions - tests a specific hypothesis - uses random sampling techniques so as to infer from the sample to the population - involves a large number of respondents - examples include surveys and questionnaires

Based on observations:

• Ethnographic studies -, by nature qualitative, the researcher observes social phenomena in their natural setting - observations can occur cross-sectionally (observations made at one time) or longitudinally (observations occur over several time-periods) - examples include product-use analysis and computer cookie traces
• Experimental techniques -, by nature quantitative, the researcher creates a quasi-artificial environment to try to control spurious factors, then manipulates at least one of the variables - examples include purchase laboratories and test markets

Researchers often use more than one research design. They may start with secondary research to get background information, then conduct a focus group (qualitative research design) to explore the issues. Finally they might do a full nation-wide survey (quantitative research design) in order to devise specific recommendations for the client.

Business to business market research

Business to business (B2B) research is inevitably more complicated than consumer research. The researchers need to know what type of multi-faceted approach will answer the objectives, since seldom is it possible to find the answers using just one method. Finding the right respondents is crucial in B2B research since they are often busy, and may not want to participate. Encouraging them to “open up” is yet another skill required of the B2B researcher. Last, but not least, most business research leads to strategic decisions and this means that the business researcher must have expertise in developing strategies that are strongly rooted in the research findings and acceptable to the client.

There are four key factors that make B2B market research special and different to consumer markets:^[2]

• The decision making unit is far more complex in B2B markets than in consumer markets
• B2B products and their applications are more complex than consumer products
• B2B marketers address a much smaller number of customers who are very much larger in their consumption of products than is the case in consumer markets
• Personal relationships are of critical importance in B2B markets.

Most of B2B market research today is done online, using online panels.

Commonly used marketing research terms

Market research techniques resemble those used in political polling and social science research. Meta-analysis (also called the Schmidt-Hunter technique) refers to a statistical method of combining data from multiple studies or from several types of studies. Conceptualization means the process of converting vague mental images into definable concepts. Operationalization is the process of converting concepts into specific observable behaviors that a researcher can measure. Precision refers to the exactness of any given measure. Reliability refers to the likelihood that a given operationalized construct will yield the same results if re-measured. Validity refers to the extent to which a measure provides data that captures the meaning of the operationalized construct as defined in the study. It asks, “Are we measuring what we intended to measure?”

Applied research sets out to prove a specific hypothesis of value to the clients paying for the research. For example, a cigarette company might commission research that attempts to show that cigarettes are good for one's health. Many researchers have ethical misgivings about doing applied research.

Sugging (or selling under the guise of market research) forms a sales technique in which sales people pretend to conduct marketing research, but with the real purpose of obtaining buyer motivation and buyer decision-making information to be used in a subsequent sales call.

Frugging comprises the practice of soliciting funds under the pretense of being a research organization.

References

1. ^ Marketing Research: An Applied Orientation 2006 (5th Edition) by Naresh Malhotra. ISBN 0132221179

   This book is a must for marketing researchers.http://www.amazon.com/Marketing-Research-Applied-Orientation-Student/dp/0132221179

2. ^ *"Business-to-Business Marketing" By Paul Hague, Nick Hague and Matt Harrison (undated) accessed October 9, 2006

• Marder, Eric The Laws of Choice -- Predicting Customer Behavior (The Free Press division of Simon and Schuster, 1997. ISBN 0-684-83545-2
• Young, Charles E, The Advertising Handbook, Ideas in Flight, Seattle, WA, April 2005. ISBN 0-9765574-0-1

See also

• Ad Tracking
• A/B testing
• Advertising Research
• Commercial eye tracking
• Copy testing
• experimental techniques
• Global Marketing
• Industry or market research
• Integrated Marketing Communications
• Knowledge management
• List of marketing research firms
• Marketing
• Marketing research mix
• Master of Marketing Research
• Observational techniques
• Propaganda
• Quantitative marketing research
• Qualitative marketing research

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