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Marketing Research Essay

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According to the American Marketing Association:
Marketing research is the function that links the consumer, customer, and public to the marketer through information—information used to identify and define marketing opportunities and problems; generate, refine, and evaluate marketing actions; monitor marketing performance; and improve understanding of marketing as a process. Marketing research specifies the information required to address these issues, designs the method for collecting information, manages and implements the data collection process, analyzes, and communicates the findings and their implications. (Marketing Research, 2007, p.9).
Marketing research can be an extensive and involved process. Companies that are aware of this …show more content…

Face to face interviews, surveys, focus groups, and observations are all tools used in primary research. These tools help researchers gather data directly from the targeted groups. Primary research is proprietary information that the researchers own and can use as they see fit. The researcher can make this information available to others or not. This type of discovery can be exciting and create an advantage to the researcher because it has yet to be disclosed. Further, primary research allows the researcher to have a greater degree of control over the research process while looking for answers to specific research questions. However, primary research is time consuming because the process can be lengthy and involved. Developing the rapport that is required to conduct many of the studies that are involved in primary research takes time and effort. Additionally, primary research can be expensive.
According to Aaker, Kumar, and Day (2007), secondary research is composed of “data that were collected by persons or agencies for purposes other than solving the problem at hand” (p. 110). Secondary research is often used to help researchers narrow the scope of their research. Researchers have little control over secondary research. However, secondary research is less expensive and, with the wealth of information it provides, it can be overwhelming. Still, if done properly, secondary research can answer the research question just as thoroughly as primary

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