Market Research Definition
Blog
24 April 2018
The principal task of marketing is to fulfill the aspirations of the consumer.
Sounds lofty doesn't it? But essentially that is it, and increasingly in today's world, the emphasis is on the word aspirations.
It is imperative therefore to understand what consumers want, how they make their choices and what their sources of information and influence process are.
Therefore, we can define market research as the function that provides the necessary information about the consumer to the marketer.
In the process, an organisation can identify new opportunities in the market; evaluate and monitor marketing actions and, in general, evolve a better marketing plan.
So, we can say that a market research definition would be that it acts as the link between the consumer and the marketer.
There are many similar descriptions used to describe market research. It could be termed consumer marketing research, customer market research or product research in marketing. All of these are describing essentially the same thing.
Market research is a systematic, objective collection and analysis of data about a particular target market.
It always incorporates some form of data collection—whether it be secondary research (often referred to as desk research) or primary market research, which is collected directly from a respondent.
The purpose of any marketing research project or marketing research report is to achieve an increased understanding of the subject matter.
With markets throughout the world becoming increasingly more competitive, market research is now on the agenda of most organisations, whether they are large or small.