marketing research

Marketing research is the study of a given market in order to optimize product promotion and ensure that inbound and outbound marketing initiatives are cost-effective. Marketing research is often carried out to guide changes in product features and delivery schemes.

A company may perform its own marketing research or hire a third-party consultants. A company’s efforts to see if their marketing initiatives address the needs of their customer base might include the use of focus groups. Marketing research efforts often also include the use of consumer panels to test ongoing changes in products and marketing and gather customer feedback. Another increasingly common and fast way for prominent companies to gather consumer opinions is through monitoring sentiment in customer communication and interaction on social media sites.

Companies perform marketing research to ensure marketing initiatives consistently demonstrate a return on investment (ROI) . Although marketing research costs can be significant, they can also help ensure a product or service is promoted to the right customer base. When a product has been assured of meeting customer expectations in price, reliability and functionality, it can have a much lower risk of failure in a market.