Have you ever wondered what marketing research is exactly? If you have, you came to the right place!
The short answer is that marketing research is research related to marketing activities and for the purpose of providing intelligence for future marketing activities.
The American Marketing Association adopted two definitions for the practice of Marketing Research:
- “Marketing research is the systematic gathering, recording, and analysis of data about issues relating to marketing products and services.” (ama.org)
- “The function that links the consumer, customer, and public to the marketer through information—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.” (http://marketing-dictionary.org/ama)
No matter which definition you like best, the point remains that marketing research focuses on the marketing discipline and the activities related to it. Marketing research is a science that when executed correctly, provides powerful insights into the environment. Therefore, marketing research helps marketers and other executives make decisions that are based more on data and information and less on guess-work and intuition.
