Marketing research is the systematic and objective collection, recording, analysis, interpretation, reporting of the data needed for solving specific marketing problems. It is an analytical approach to making decisions and to verify the effects of the decision which have already been made.
Marketing involves decision making. Most of the decisions taken in marketing are taken in an environment of uncertainties.
Some of these decisions include the choice of the opportunities to serve in the market, the choice of the group of customers to serve target marketing, the specific types and quality of services to be offered along with products, how the products will be developed and commercialized, when and how to introduce them to the market, the appropriate price to charge for the products, what research is very broad.
It covers the pre-production, production, selling, and customers post purchase activities for both decisions yet to be taken and those that have already been taken. A good marketing executive would not take any major decision in the performance of his duties without reliance on the information obtained through marketing research. The higher the quantity and quality of the information obtained through the research, the higher the probability of taking a right decision.
