Marketing research can be seen as the systematic and objective search for and analysis of (data and) Information relevant to the identification and solution of any problem in the field of marketing: Note the use of the wound "systematic" which stress the need for careful planning of the research in all its stage. This requires a clear and concise statement of the exercise, the techniques to be used, the information that is required and the analytical technique that will be employed. The word "objective" stresses the need for impartiality that is, seeking the fact without colouring due to already held views and options. Marketing research is fundamentally about the acquisition and analysis of information required for the making of marketing decision.
HOW INFORMATION CAN BE SOUGHT
The two basic areas in which the information is sought are the following: markets (existing and potentials) while marketing tactics and methods. The former is oriented towards what is happening outside the company, in the market place. While, the second is oriented towards in which the company is responding infernally to its customers, present and future.
WHAT MUST BE UNDERSTOOD IN MARKET RESEARCH:
This simply means the assessment of the nature and level of demand for products and service must be accurate, if economic resources are not be misused. It is the purpose of market research to find out, as accurately as possible, present and future market requirements. Market research means finding out whom the customer is, and what he/she will buy. Ideally, market research should provide information to enable a manufacture to design a product in accordance with customers' preference, to manufacture it in quantities that can be sold to pack it suitably, making appropriate arrangements for effective, advertising and distribution. In this ideal case, over - production and losses in tying of unsaleable stock will not occur.
THE ABSOLUTE IMPORTANCE OF MARKET RESEARCH
The absolute importance to a business of carrying out adequate and continuous market research can be illustrated by a medical parallel. A firm that ignores the need to carryout market research its like an medical doctor who prescribe treatment without undertaking any diagnosis of the patient and than refuse to consider the effects. Marketing research activities aim to find answers to some of the following Question:
-Who and where are the customers, and what are they like to buy? -Who are the non- customers and why do they buy?
-How is the market made up?
-How is the market divided into separate sections or "segment"?
-What are the patterns of market behaviour and why does it occur?
-What are the patterns of market demand?
-What products or services are demanded, and in what Quantities and Qualities?
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