Market research Information & Market research Links at HealthHaven.com

Market research is any organized effort to gather information about markets or customers. It is a very important component of business strategy.^[1] The term is commonly interchanged with marketing research; however, expert practitioners may wish to draw a distinction, in that marketing research is concerned specifically about marketing processes, while market research is concerned specifically with markets.^[2]

[edit] History

Market research began to be conceptualized and put into formal practice during the 1920s,^[3] as an offshoot of the advertising boom of the Golden Age of radio in the United States. Advertisers began to realize the significance of demographics revealed by sponsorship of different radio programs, so they increasingly sought more direct feedback about their markets.

[edit] Market research for business/planning

Market research is for discovering what people want, need, or believe. It can also involve discovering how they act. Once that research is completed, it can be used to determine how to market your product.

Questionnaires and focus group discussion surveys are some of the instruments for market research.

For starting up a business, there are some important things:

Market information

Through Market information you can know the prices of the different commodities in the market, the supply and the demand situation. Information about the markets can be obtained from different sources and varieties and formats. And the sources and varieties have to be obtained to make the business work

Market segmentation

Market segmentation is the division of the market or population into subgroups with similar motivations. it is widely used for segmenting on geographic differences, personality differences, demographic differences, technographic differences, use of product differences, and psychographic differences and also gender differences.

Market trends

The upward or downward movements of a market, during a period of time. The market size is more difficult to estimate if you are starting with something completely new. In this case, you will have to derive the figures from the number of potential customers or customer segments. [Ilar 1998]

Besides information about the target market, you also need information about your competitor, your customers, products etc. Lastly, you need to measure marketing effectiveness. A few techniques are:

Customer analysis
Choice Modelling
Competitor analysis
Risk analysis
Product research
Advertising the research
Marketing mix modeling

[edit] Financial performance

[edit] Top ten of the market research sector 2006

Rank	Company	Sales in 2006 (million USD)	Growth in %
1	Nielsen Company	3,696.0	2.6
2	IMS Health Inc.	1,958.6	8.9
3	Taylor Nelson Sofres	1,851.1	2.5
4	Kantar Group	1,401.4	4.1
5	GfK AG	1,397.3	5.4
6	Ipsos	1,077.0	6.5
7	Synovate	739.6	9.5
8	IRI	665.0	6.6
9	Westat	425.8	0.8
10	Arbitron	329.3	5.9

[edit] See also

[edit] References

^ McQuarrie, Edward (2005), The market research toolbox: a concise guide for beginners (2nd ed.), SAGE, ISBN 9781412913195, http://books.google.com/books?id=qYW8vE0nx4gC&printsec=frontcover&dq=%22market+research%22&ei=ACykStO0D5OwNpDJxYoI#v=snippet&q=%22gather%20information%20about%22&f=false
^ McDonald, Malcolm (2007), Marketing Plans (6th ed.), Oxford, England: Butterworth-Heinemann, ISBN 978-0750683869, http://books.google.com/books?id=os0K20MsepoC&pg=PA364&dq=%22market+research+vs.+marketing+research%22&ei=q5R5St70HKbUyQTl9cXVDA#v=onepage&q=&f=false
^ Google News results for "market research", 1900-1929., Google, 2009, http://news.google.com/archivesearch?as_user_ldate=1900&as_user_hdate=1929&q=%22market+research%22&num=100&scoring=a&hl=en&ned=us&um=1&q=%22market+research%22&lnav=od&btnG=Go

Bradley, Nigel Marketing Research. Tools and Techniques.Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2007 ISBN 0-19-928196-3 ISBN 978-0-19-928196-1
Marder, Eric The Laws of Choice—Predicting Customer Behavior (The Free Press division of Simon and Schuster, 1997. ISBN 0-684-83545-2
Visha Consultants (nd)Market Research, Marketing Research. Tools and Techniques.
Young, Charles E, The Advertising Handbook, Ideas in Flight, Seattle, WA, April 2005. ISBN 0-9765574-0-1
Kotler, Philip and Armstrong, Gary Principles of Marketing Pearson, Prentice Hall, New Jersey, 2007 ISBN 978-0-13-239002-6, ISBN 0-13-239002-7

[edit] External links

Honomichl Top 50 - 2008. Marketingpower.com. Annual business report of the top 50 players in the U.S. marketing research industry. American Marketing Association

[McQuarrie-0] McQuarrie, Edward (2005), The market research toolbox: a concise guide for beginners (2nd ed.), SAGE, ISBN 9781412913195, http://books.google.com/books?id=qYW8vE0nx4gC&printsec=frontcover&dq=%22market+research%22&ei=ACykStO0D5OwNpDJxYoI#v=snippet&q=%22gather%20information%20about%22&f=false

[McDonald-1] McDonald, Malcolm (2007), Marketing Plans (6th ed.), Oxford, England: Butterworth-Heinemann, ISBN 978-0750683869, http://books.google.com/books?id=os0K20MsepoC&pg=PA364&dq=%22market+research+vs.+marketing+research%22&ei=q5R5St70HKbUyQTl9cXVDA#v=onepage&q=&f=false

[Google_News-2] Google News results for "market research", 1900-1929., Google, 2009, http://news.google.com/archivesearch?as_user_ldate=1900&as_user_hdate=1929&q=%22market+research%22&num=100&scoring=a&hl=en&ned=us&um=1&q=%22market+research%22&lnav=od&btnG=Go

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