Explain Need and Importance of Marketing Research (MR)

Need and Importance of Marketing Research (MR)

A business faces many types of marketing problems. It faces problems about its product, price, place and promotion. It also faces problems about product design, packaging, branding, marketing channels, advertising, etc. Some marketing problems are very serious. Therefore, in the marketing, managers use marketing research as an important tool to solve marketing problems.

The need and importance of marketing research are depicted below.

Marketing research helps company and decision makers as follows:

1. Marketing research (MR) provides valuable data.
2. It studies and provides data about consumer behavior.
3. It helps to select suitable sales promotional techniques.
4. It supplies market-related information.
5. It helps a company to evaluate its marketing performance.
6. It also has miscellaneous needs and importance.

1. Provides valuable data

Marketing research provides valuable data to the decision makers. It provides data about demand, supply, consumer behavior, competition, etc. This data is used for decision making. This data improves the quality of decisions. It makes the decision very successful.

2. Studies consumer behaviour

Marketing research provides data about consumer behavior. It provides data about age, incomes, likes, dislikes, etc. of the consumers. It also finds out the opinions of the consumers about a company’s product. This data is used to make production and marketing policies.

3. Selects promotional techniques

Marketing research helps the company to select suitable sales promotion techniques. It helps to select marketing techniques. It helps to select proper media for advertising. It helps to solve the problems of after-sales service. It also helps to prepare the budget for advertising and sales promotion.

4. Supplies marketing information

Marketing research supplies data about the market situation.

This market-related data is used to find out:

1. The present and future demand and supply position.
2. The level of competition and steps taken to control it.
3. Market opportunities.
4. The cause of fall in sales level.

5. Evaluates marketing performance

Marketing research helps the company to evaluate its marketing performance and to take steps to improve it.

Marketing research is used to find out the effect of price, package, brand name, etc. on sales. It is used to find consumers’ reaction towards the company’s product. It is used to evaluate the inventory and pricing policies. It is also used to evaluate the effectiveness of advertising, sales promotion techniques, channels of distribution, etc.

6. Miscellaneous needs and importance

Miscellaneous needs and importance of marketing research are as follows:

• Marketing research improves the efficiency of the marketing department. This creates goodwill and good reputation.
• It helps the marketing manager to take the rational and effective decisions.
• It helps to choose suitable staff for doing research.
• It is used to make growth and expansions programs.
• It benefits all i.e. it benefits the company, distributor, advertising agency, consumer, government and the entire society.

So, marketing research is very helpful to everyone. But it is most useful to a manufacturer because it helps to answer the basic questions, i.e. what, where, when, who, whom and how to sell?