Types of Market Research

Marketing research is carried out by various organizations for two different reasons. First reason is to identify the problems associated with marketing and second one is to solve those marketing problems. These two reasons serve as the basis for classifying the market research into the two distinct categories. The two categories are the research of problem identification and research of problem solving.

Problem identification research: The problem identification research basically is undertaken to understand and analyze those problems that are not apparent but do, exist or are, in the future, likely to come up. The examples of this kind of research are the research and surveys conducted to gauge the market share, market potential, brand and vendor image, sales analysis, market characteristics, short-range or long-range forecasting and trends in business.

The results from this kind of research help companies to know well in advance whether the market is declining which also may indicate that the company may have problems achieving the growth targets. The research also unveils problems such as a firm losing its market share while market potential seems to be increasing. The results obtained from such research help in the recognition of social, cultural or economic trends as such changes in the consumer behavior may be part of larger underlying problems or even potential opportunities.

Problem solving research Once the problem or even and opportunity has been circled, problem solving research begins to solve the problem and come to an acceptable solution. Corrective actions are then taken to reposition a product or restructure it for a better consumer satisfaction. Two out of three companies carry out problem solving research.

Other categorization of Market research depending upon the structure and methodology of the market research can be primary and secondary kind of Business research.

The Primary research: The Primary market research involves an exhaustive testing of variables like focus groups. The activities like surveys, field tests, interviews tailored specifically to that product are conducted to study the product positioning

The Secondary Research: In secondary research, indirect information is compiled from many other sources appearing applicable to an existing or even a new product and is then used to estimate the product positioning.

The advantages of secondary research as evident from its generalized methodology as compared to the customized one of the primary research lies in the fact that it is easily accessible and fairly cheap. The obvious disadvantage of a secondary research is that it is often not specific to a product and the research and can be difficult to sometimes validate.