The twentieth century saw a great deal of innovation and invention in the field of marketing but the most recent and significant spike on the radar has been the emergence of the internet. Now almost thirty years old in terms of casual consumer use, the internet has reached out and touched people all over the globe, and when it comes to marketing, the process of gathering data to find out what people are interested in buying and why, will never be the same.

The internet added a new element of immediacy to market research. Suddenly, companies no longer had to send out review cards and wait with bated breath until the return of perhaps a quarter of the cards they sent out, if they were lucky. With the presence of the internet, feedback was amazingly quick and moreover, more honest than it had ever been given the anonymity of the medium. Suddenly, they could go to sites like Amazon and check consumer reviews and they could Google their own product names in order to get an idea about what was being said.

This veritable rush of information was addictive and at its first emergence, there was some contention among researchers as to whether or not to take it seriously. The people using the Internet, no matter how numerous, still represented a fairly small group of people. With the fact that even almost thirty years after the inception of this tool that more and more people are signing on every year, this demographic is one that everyone realized could not be ignored.

Early adapters started sending out surveys online and collecting information in this way. At this point, there was an issue with the immediacy of the medium; many of the responses that the researchers were trash, but more importantly, there was a great deal in terms of volume. A firm that might receive no more than twenty responses from a batch of 100 cards sent out could expect to receive hundreds of responses to a survey posted in the right place. In this way, market research took a whole new turn as the industry re-oriented itself to account for the internet.

The use of the internet also made responses highly personalized, both in terms of sending and receiving. People writing surveys could do a great deal to make them more personalized and given the ability to target specific demographics on sites such as MySpace and Facebook, this became quite an important tool indeed. Furthermore, the use of the internet dramatically reduced the operating costs of running marketing surveys and studies. Instead of paying for postage or the space to conduct focus group work, the researchers can now fire off a survey that costs a fraction of what was spent previously, if it cost anything at all.

Marketing research is and will always be an important factor in any business decision that is made and that will affect the customers, so make sure when doing your market research take every venue into account.

About Author

Derek Rogers is a freelance writer who represents many UK businesses. For marketing research and the internet, he recommends Impact Media Ltd, one of the UK’s leading suppliers of Marketing Research.

Ridge Technology Marketing specialises in helping technology and software companies to use market research to market and sell their solutions more effectively. The following samples of sales opportunities driven by technology market research illustrate just how effective this method of market research can be.

Sample 1:

Country                          UK                                              

Company                        On File

Industry                          Warehousing

Turnover

Employees                     350

Number Sites                  1                       

Telephone                       On file

Contact Name                 On file                

Contact Title                            

DDI/Mobile                      On file

Fax                         

Email                             On file                

Web Site                        On file

Date Identified:                29th August 2008

Lead Expires:                   

Project Summary:

The Client is currently using a bespoke ERP solution among 50 users and intends to replace the existing ERP application. The Client is open to evaluating various ERP solutions and has expressed an interest in MS Navision. It is envisaged that the new ERP system will commence implementation circa Jan.09. There is a budget available for this implementation but it has not been disclosed. There is future opportunity for a Warehouse Management System for the Client.

Sample 2:

Country                          USA    

Industry                          Medical Device

Turnover                          Unknown            

Employees                     600+

Number Sites                  6

Telephone                       On file

Contact Name                On file                

Contact Title                   IT Manager         

DDI/MobileFax               On file

Email                            On file                

Web Site                       On file

Date Identified:               18th August 2008

Lead Expires:                 20th November 2008

Project Summary:

The Client has 9 companies and requires a global ERP solution. The Client is predominantly Microsoft based and is currently launching a MS CRM solution globally. The emphasis for this project is on an ERP implementation in the US and North American market with the remaining global offices thereafter. The Client is considering both an upgrade of the existing MS Dynamics NAV ver 3 to Dynamics AX as well as a replacement of MS Dynamics NAV. The proposed ERP system should include MRP, Order Processing, Logistics, Automated Purchase Order Processing and automated personal expense and credit card management. The Client is also looking at a Financial Reporting tool, possibly third party to incorporate consolidated accounts as well as the 9 individual company accounts.

When implementing technology market research it is important to consider the primary objective of the research campaign. Is it to understand customer needs, understand product performance or to generate sales opportunities. The above samples had a singular goal of generating sales opportunities for clients and the campaign criteria for this was very clear. Clarity of campaign objectives in technology market research is the key to success.

About Author

Michael Kelly is the founder and CEO of Ridge Technology Market Research. Ridge Consulting is a Technology Market Research Company focused on helping technology companies with their market research needs in Europe and North America. The company provides a range of IT lead generation and IT Pay Per Lead services. Contact: Michael Kelly Ridge Technology Market Research +353 91 444 124 mkelly@ridgebusiness.com

Most new internet marketers ignore a systematic three-step approach to market research when they embark on an online business. They either have no clue as to where to start or end up creating a product with little or no demand.

It is essential to follow through this three-step approach, namely niche market identification, opportunity identification and lastly production creation. You will save much effort and disappointment by not jumping the gun on the sequence.

Market research is about niche identification. Big brand names create demand. As small business owner, we do not exert the same market influence. Instead our focus should be finding a specific market with specific need and creating a solution to target this niche market. Use free tools that provide these research functions

http://www.FreeWordTrackerTool.com
http://www.FreeAdwordsTool.com
http://www.FreeKeywordDiscoveryTool.com

Start with a single keyword e.g. Guitar. Say, you have an interest in blues guitar. The natural instinct will be to research keywords – blues guitar. By doing that though, you have precluded yourself from other potential market opportunities associated with guitar e.g. second-hand guitars, guitar chords, guitar lessons online.

Look for less competitive keywords that appear in the search results. They represent potential niche markets that may yet to be fully exploited. Do a Google search to verify your suspicions using this method – type allintitle: keyword. This will return websites with your targeted keywords. This gives you a feel of your competition especially if you are planning to use SEO (Search Engine Optimization) to promote your product.

Extend your research by exploring micro-niche markets with common root words e.g. Blues guitar + learn/teach/online class. Some useful root words to help identify niche markets are: fix, help, learn, buy, solution, solve, successful, prevent, problem, get rid of, do it yourself, recipe, unrevealed etc.

Take advantage of other valuable tools you can use to uncover niche markets:

http:// www.google.com/press/zzeitgeist.html
http://buzz.yahoo.com
http://www.blogpulse.com
http://www.eBay.com
http://www.amazon.com

Now that you have identified your niche, the second step is to identify the problems faced by people in that niche market. You can research through search engines, forums, blogs and even offline resources e.g. Papers, advertisements, magazines and TV. When you have identified a problem, you have identified an opportunity!

The final step is to find/create a product to satisfy your niche market. There are several approaches to accomplish this.

– Create content websites (Content Publishing)
– Promote other people’s products (Affiliate Marketing)
– Selling other people’s product through resale license ( Resale Rights Marketing)
– Sell your own products/ services (Product Creation)

It is important to get the first step right as it gives you confidence and a clear goal to work with. Once you have defined your niche market and target audience, creating the perfect solution that will bring you money and credibility would be much easier.

About Author

Vince Png(www.vincepng.com)
Learn with me how to start a profitable online business with no prior experience and little money in your pocket.

Hi,
Marketing research is basic foundation for every marketers to obtain the road map to success, requires extensive of deep research analysis and method of research itself. Great numbers marketing professional fail at end, the reasons behind this failure due to lack of in accuracy of marketing research, fail in this first step will definitely have impact on the analysis of Sales Potentials, market share and finally the market share analysis compare with the competitor analysis as we are talking on variety of specifications into segmented area.

The author currently is working offline, and involve in pumps sales and marketing for oil and gas industry on the downstream side, for 1 month gone, found that the sales potentials can not meet the requirements to match the pump specification and segmented market, hence were experience during tender stage it was run out of spec and failure to comply with market requirements.

Specifically, I have report to management that we should extract all the market analysis and redone the research to overcome this failure in the future.

Vice verse the management agreed upon to, and my task now is to recalculate the Identification Project List all over again, count prospective sales potentials and last but not least to justify the manufacturing Pumps specification whether it is in the market share specification, if the answer is yes, then it would be calculated as Sales Potentials.

In my several years experience in marketing, the basic research is the key success to measure our market progress, it doesn’t matter whether at the end we will win the tender or lost it, what really matter now is to have the right guidelines to measure the right market viability to end results.If the 1st year, marketing plan has been implemented as mentioned above, the 2nd year is the turning point to determine how much market share we are interested to acquire, with an advantage of previous year maintaining the relationship with customer.

I do hope the above article on short note of market research is use full for readers to apply their marketing skill.

About Author

Ari is the author and owner of this article, feel free to copy if interested but must include name of author and url
http://www.onlinemarketing2you.com

For most businesses, large and small, potential customers are no longer restricted to specific geographical locations. Rapid advancements in IT and physical logistics has enabled businesses to target global markets and compete successfully with local players. So where does the need arise for market research services outsourcing? 

Well, that’s not all that difficult to answer because it is quite obvious that competitors are also doing the same thing, i.e, targeting global markets. Market research services outsourcing helps because it allows businesses to discover newer markets and customers that may have remained untouched. Moving on to greener pastures certainly helps and businesses can achieve that easily by choosing market research services outsourcing. 
Market research services outsourcing projects are managed by highly qualified and trained market research professionals who have a way with numbers and other prerequisites such as data collection, classification, and processing. Their main asset is however their ability to analyze raw data and information and discover gold nuggets in the form of newer markets and customers on behalf of their clients. 

It helps when newer markets are discovered because it allows businesses to gain the first-mover advantage and utilize available market potential to its maximum. Competitors will start moving in soon after, but a year or two is enough to achieve the leadership position and enjoy the privileges that come with it. 
A new discovery however does not diminish the need for market research services outsourcing because competition in the market has become so intense that available potential in a newly discovered market gets utilized pretty quickly. Businesses thus need to be constantly on the prowl in search for newer markets and customers, something that they can do quite easily by choosing market research services outsourcing. 

The ability to locate newer markets and customers on a regular basis has become one of the crucial factors that determines business success and that’s the main reason why more and more businesses are choosing market research services outsourcing.

About Author

Py cobb
Web analyst/Content Manager
Telegenisys Inc.