Marketing research is a group of sociological research, consisting of a systematic search, collection and analysis of the information received. They allow managers to make the right decisions in matters of production and marketing of products, their presentation on the market.
In simple words: if you have accumulated a lot of doubts, unresolved issues or unachieved business plans, then marketing research is the data that is not enough for a new round.
10 Types of Market Research You Can Do Online
Marketing research is relevant for a surplus market, where the buyer has all the advantages. Depending on the purpose of a particular marketing research, its object may be the market, competitors, consumer or product. Most often, the tool is used to:
- get information about how things are on the market, and develop a new company strategy based on real economic conditions, or at
- least adjust the old one;
- make key marketing decisions using the insights and ideas received;
- correctly allocate advertising budgets and choose suitable promotion channels;
- assess the performance of the company. Analyze sales dynamics, brand image, position in relation to competitors, customer satisfaction and loyalty;
develop an anti-crisis action plan as a matter of urgency, minimizing losses. Like what happened during the pandemic. The business faced a drop in sales in a number of niches, high competition in digital and other things. By the way, we wrote about the benefits of analytics in times of crisis and mentioned the global brand Leroy Merlin, which received +270% of transactions with the help of a usability audit with the same number of site visitors.
In the process, marketers perform various operations. For example:
- search for information (its collection, filtering, sorting);
- description of problems (their structuring, identification and definition);
- establishing a link between the problem and certain factors;
- testing suitable options for solving business problems;
- forecasting market development before and after the introduction of a new strategy.
Now search engines and social networks are one of the most popular platforms for selling services and goods. In order to effectively promote your business in their open spaces, you need to constantly analyze the information received from there. Online marketing research will allow you to characterize the external marketing environment, understand how the market is developing, evaluate consumer behavior and competitor strategies.
Stages of online marketing research:
- Definition of tasks and goals.
- Drawing up a research plan.
- Search and collection of information.
- Analysis of the received information.
- Presentation of results.
Doing research online is different:
- tools for working with data. Mostly online panels are used – these are sites where respondents register on their own, providing some socio-demographic data about themselves, and take part in various studies. Allocate business panels, consumer and specialized (working in a specific niche, for example, in the field of education or healthcare);
- data collection methods and sources.