To be effective in marketing, research is essential; That's a given. Specifically what has to be researched is not always as clear to beginning marketers because there are many different elements involved and a marketer has understand the many patterns of marketing data s/he must decipher in order to find that which will be most valuable to the type of business which s/he's doing the research for. In other words, recognizing the value of a "niche tresaure" when s/he happens upon one during research. Let's take a look at some of the benefits of research done for marketing and see what we can accomplish.

Marketing research is done in many forms and all these forms are known as problem-identification research.

 Research in advertising is done to determine the copy testing of advertisements. It is also used to learn the efficiency of ads placed in a particular medium, the customer attention it gets, the message it delivers and how it motivates the customers to buy the product. Commercial eye tracking is done to understand the visual behavior of the customer. Ads, websites, etc., are analyzed for this. Before an advertisement is released in the market, its performance can be forecasted with the help of copy testing which takes consumers' level of attention, motivation, brand approval & appreciation, and entertainment into consideration.

When a customer buys something online s/he analyzes it in order to make a good decision, this is one of the criteria upon which consumer decision research is done. Interviews and surveys can be done to understand the consumer’s level of satisfaction, which is known as customer satisfaction studies. The demographic and psychology of people in a particular geographical region can be studied with the help of segmentation research.

When analyzing is to be done about brand recognition, brand performance, brand preference and awareness, ad tracking is done. A favorite brand can be recognized with the help of brand equity research. Tests are conducted so as to determine what the customer thinks about a brand or a product and it is specifically known as brand name testing. The demand of a product can be understood by demand estimation. After the demand of the product is taken care of, the quality should be checked from time to time. Appointing mystery shoppers who are usually employees of the market research firm accomplishes this at times. They buy goods through a salesperson and notes down the whole experience. This procedure can be used to do research about rival companies’ products also.

 Before the practical application of a concept, concept testing should be undertaken which will inform whether the targeted audience will like the idea or not. Test marketing is done by introducing a product in small numbers in the market and observing the sales, after which the product is launched on a large-scale. After the initial phase, when the company thinks of increasing the price of the product, price elasticity testing should be carried out which shows the customer reactions to price fluctuations. Distribution channel audits are conducted to understand the attitudes of retailers and distributors towards specific products and brands.

A more tech-savvy form of marketing research is Internet strategic intelligence. The likes and dislikes of the customers can be directly ascertained with the help of chats, blogs and forums. Online panels are a group of experts who accept the marketing research done online.  All the researches that are carried out can be classified as primary research, which gathers original data, and secondary research, which is based on a primary research plus information published by other resources. Secondary research costs less as research is done on already researched data, but the result isn’t as efficient.

 The research designs used in marketing research are either based on questioning or are based on observations. Quantitative marketing research and qualitative marketing research are based on questioning. Quantitative marketing research is done to derive conclusions like questionnaires forms and survey. The number of respondents involved is high. Qualitative marketing research is done to understand something like in-depth interviews and projective techniques.

 Marketing research based on observations is called experimental technique and ethnographic studies. Test markets and purchase laboratories are examples of experimental techniques. The quantity measured is determined by understanding the factors that are responsible for the success of a product and then one or some of the factors are changed and the result is observed. In ethnographic studies observations are done longitudinally or done at several instances of time or cross-sectional at only a particular time.

 Research done for marketing is similar to exit polling in politics. The market is studied from different angles, at different time, and under different circumstances.
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