Marketing Research, Market Research and Market Intelligence

Marketing Intelligence - Introduction

If an individual or firm has an interesting product or service idea for offering to market, how will they know whether people like it and want to buy it? If they are willing to buy it, what price are they willing to pay? What quantity they will buy? Marketing research, an activity of marketing, will provide answers to these questions. Marketing research is the process of collecting, analyzing, and reporting marketing information that can be used to answer questions or solve problems so as to improve a company’s top line, sales revenue.  Marketing research includes a wide range of activities of enquiry related to marketing questions. Market research is a narrower activity. Market research is the process of researching a specific market to determine its size and trends.



The many marketing questions that marketing research can help to answers include the issues related to:

Developing product ideas and designs
Determining if there is demand for a product to decide whether or not to produce it
Identifying market segments for a  product
Making pricing decisions
Evaluating packaging types
Evaluating in-store promotions
Measuring the satisfaction of customers
Measuring the satisfaction of channel partners
Evaluating the effectiveness of the Web site
Testing the effectiveness of ads and their placement
Making marketing channel decisions

Market Intelligence

Market intelligence is also an important marketing research activity and is often referred to as competitive intelligence. Marketing research is generally commissioned to solve a specific marketing problem at a specific point in time as a project. Market intelligence involves gathering information on a regular, ongoing basis to stay in touch with what’s happening in the marketplace related to company's offering.


Marketing Research and Market Demand Forecasting

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