Page 1

1. “Consumer Research, a part of marketing research is an Applied

Research” Justify the statement.

Ans:

Consumer Research

Customer research is conducted so as to identify customer segments, needs, and behaviors. It can
be carried out as part of market research, user research, or design research. Even so, it always
focuses on researching current or potential customers of a specific brand or product in order to
identify unmet customer needs and/or opportunities for business growth.

Customer research can focus on simple demographics of an existing or potential customer group
(such as age, gender, and income level). Indeed, these considerations are vital determinants of a
product’s target audience. However, such research also often seeks to understand various
behaviors and motivators—factors which place a product’s use and potential on a higher level of
study. Thus, the goal of such research is to expose clear details about who is—or will be—using
a product as well as the reasons behind their doing so and how they go about using it (including
the contextual areas of “where” and “when”). Customer research may be conducted via a variety
of quantitative and qualitative methods such as interviews, surveys, focus groups, and
ethnographic field studies. It also commonly involves doing desk research of online reviews,
forums, and social media to explore what customers are saying about a product.

While customer research is usually conducted as part of a design project, it is also often
conducted in other departments of an organization. In some cases, customer research is part of
marketing—for instance, to ensure that marketing campaigns have the right focus. In other cases,
it can be carried out as part of concept development or ideation so as to identify opportunities for
future products, services, or features. In any case, such research is an essential ingredient in
keeping the end users in clear sight long before the end of any design phase.

Consumer market research is based on two types of research method:

1. Qualitative Consumer Research

Qualitative research is descriptive in nature; it’s a method that uses open-ended questions, to
gain meaningful insights from respondents and heavily relies on the following market research
methods:

Focus Groups: Focus groups as the name suggests is a small group of highly validated subject
experts who come together to analyze a product or service. Focus group comprises of 6-10
respondents. A moderator is assigned to the focus group, which helps facilitate discussions
among the members to draw meaningful insights

One-to-one Interview: This is a more conversational method, where the researcher asks open-
ended questions to collect data from the respondents. This method heavily depends on the
expertise of the researcher. How much the researcher is able to probe with relevant questions to
 Page 2

get maximum insights? This is a time-consuming method and can take more than one attempt to
gain the desired insights.

Content/ Text Analysis: Text analysis is a qualitative research method where researchers analyze
social life by decoding words and images from the documents available. Researchers analyze the
context in which the images are used and draw conclusions from them. Social media is an
example of text analysis. In the last decade or so, inferences are drawn based on consumer
behavior on social media.

2. Quantitative Consumer Research

In the age of technology and information, meaningful data is more precious than platinum.
Billion dollar companies have risen and fallen on how well they have been able to collect and
analyze data, to draw validated insights.

Quantitative research is all about numbers and statistics. An evolved consumer who purchases
regularly can vouch for how customer-centric businesses have become today. It’s all about
customer satisfaction, to gain loyal customers. With just one questions companies are able to
collect data that has the power to make or break a company. Net Promoter Score question, “On a
scale from 0-10 how likely are you to recommend our brand to your family or friends?”

How organic word-of-mouth is influencing consumer behavior and how they need to spend less
on advertising and invest their time and resources to make sure they provide exceptional
customer service.

Online surveys, questionnaires, and polls are the preferred data collection tools. Data that is
obtained from consumers is then statistically, mathematically and numerically evaluated to
understand consumer preference.

The consumer research process can be broken down into the following steps:

1. Develop research objectives: The first step to the consumer research process is to clearly
define the research objective, the purpose of research, why is the research being
conducted, to understand what? A clear statement of purpose can help emphasize the
purpose.

2. Collect Secondary data: Collect secondary data first, it helps in understanding if research
has been conducted earlier and if there are any pieces of evidence related to the subject
matter that can be used by an organization to make informed decisions regarding
consumers.

3. Primary Research: In primary research organizations or businesses collect their own data
or employ a third party to collect data on their behalf. This research makes use of various
data collection methods (qualitative and quantitative) that helps researchers collect data
first hand.
 Page 3

4. Collect and analyze data: Data is collected and analyzed and inference is drawn to
understand consumer behavior and purchase pattern.

Consumers are the reason for a business to run and flourish. Gathering enough information about
consumers is never going to hurt any business, in fact, it will only add up to the information a
business would need to associate with its consumers and manufacture products that will help
their business refine and grow.

Launching a product or offering new services can be quite an exciting time for a brand.
However, there are a lot of aspects that need to be taken into consideration while a band has
something new to offer to consumers.

Marketing Research

Marketing research is "the process or set of processes that links the producers, customers, and
end users to the marketer through information used to identify and define marketing
opportunities and problems; generate, refine, and evaluate marketing actions; monitor marketing
performance; and improve understanding of marketing as a process. Marketing research specifies
the information required to address these issues, designs the method for collecting information,
manages and implements the data collection process, analyzes the results, and communicates the
findings and their implications."

It is the systematic gathering, recording, and analysis of qualitative and quantitative data about
issues relating to marketing products and services. The goal of marketing research is to identify
and assess how changing elements of the marketing mix impacts customer behavior. The term is
commonly interchanged with market research; however, expert practitioners may wish to draw a
distinction, in that market research is concerned specifically with markets, while marketing
research is concerned specifically about marketing processes.

Market research is defined as the process of evaluating the feasibility of a new product or
service, through research conducted directly with potential consumers. This method allows
organizations or businesses to discover their target market, collect and document opinions and
make informed decisions. Market research can be conducted directly by organizations or
companies or can be outsourced to agencies which have expertise in this process.

The process of market research can be done through deploying surveys, interacting with a group
of people also known as sample, conducting interviews and other similar processes.  

Primary purpose of conducting market research is to understand or examine the market

associated with a particular product or service, to decide how the audience will react to a product
or service. The information obtained from conducting market research can be used to tailor
marketing/ advertising activities or to determine what are the feature priorities/service
requirement (if any) of consumers.
 Page 4

Whether an organization or business wishes to know purchase behavior of consumers or the

likelihood of consumers paying a certain cost for a product, market research helps in drawing
meaningful conclusions.

Depending on the methods and tools required, following are the types:

1. Primary Market Research (A combination of both Qualitative and Quantitative Research):

Primary market research is a process, where organizations or businesses get in touch with the end
consumers or employ a third party to carry out relevant studies to collect data. The data collected
can be qualitative data (non-numerical data) or quantitative data (numerical or statistical data).

As mentioned earlier primary market research is a combination of qualitative market research

and quantitative market research. Qualitative market research study involves semi-structured or
unstructured data collected through some of the commonly used qualitative research methods
like:

Qualitative research methods are used by organizations to conducted structured market research
by using online surveys, questionnaires and polls to gain statistical insights to make informed
decisions.

This method was once conducted using pen and paper. This has now evolved to sending
structured online surveys to the respondents to gain actionable insights. Researchers tend to use
modern and technology-oriented survey platforms to structure and design their survey to evoke
maximum response from respondents.

Through a well-structured mechanism, data is easily collected and reported and necessary action
can be taken with all the information that is made available first hand.

2. Secondary Market Research: Secondary research uses information that is organized by outside
source like government agencies, media, chambers of commerce etc. This information is
published in newspaper, magazines, books, company website, free government and
nongovernment agencies and so on. Secondary source makes use of the following:

Public sources: Public sources like library are an awesome way of gathering free information.
Government libraries usually offer services free of cost and a researcher can document available
information.

Educational Institutions: Although not a very popular source of collecting information, most
universities and educational institutions are a rich source of information as many research
projects are carried out there than any business sector.

Applied Research

Applied Marketing Research, Inc. is the place to come for information and actionable results that
will insure customer satisfaction and help your business succeed. A full-service market research
firm, Applied was established in 1993. Applier’s staff excels in the process of global marketing
 Page 5

research and customer marketing. Applied researchers respond quickly to client needs for
information and are totally committed to high quality research and systems. Combined with
practical hands-on experience in marketing and sales management, Applied offers a unique blend
of theoretical and real-world expertise.

Applied provides quantitative and qualitative marketing research services including:

 Traditional or web-based focus groups (virtual, chat and bulletin board) that may use
projective and dial testing techniques
 Executive in-depth interviews (phone, web or on-site)
 Online survey research (mobile and PC)
 Advanced in-house multivariate and statistical modeling (conjoint analysis, significance
testing, etc.)
 In-home product usage testing
 Mixed method survey (combining on-line, mail, and phone data collection
methodologies)
 Longitudinal tracking studies
 Reports formatted to meet your company style preferences

Specific types of studies performed:

 Product development, packaging and concept testing research

 Pricing research
 Market segmentation research
 Brand identity and brand awareness research
 Advertising campaign, promotion and marketing communications research
 Consumer attitude and usage research
 Customer/employee/vendor satisfaction and loyalty research

Consumer research is a part of marketing research in which inclination; motivation and

purchase behavior of the targeted customers are identified. Consumer research helps businesses
or organizations understand customer psychology and create detailed purchasing behavior
profiles. Consumer research is conducted to improve brand equity. A brand needs to know what
consumers think when buying a product or service offered by a brand. Every good business idea
needs efficient consumer research for it to be successful. Consumer insights are essential to
determine brand positioning among consumers. Consumer research is conducted to boost sales.
The objective of consumer research is to look into various territories of consumer psychology
and understand their buying pattern, what kind of packaging they like and other similar attributes
that help brands to sell their products and services better.
 Page 6

According to a study conducted, till a decade ago, researchers thought differently about the
consumer psychology, where little or no emphasis was put on emotions, mood or the situation
that could influence a customer’s buying decision.

Many believed marketing was applied economics. Consumers always took decisions based on
statistics and math and evaluated goods and services rationally and then selected items from
those brands that gave them the highest customer satisfaction at the lowest cost.

However, this is no longer the situation. Consumers are very well aware of brands and their
competitors. A loyal customer is the one who would not only return to repeatedly purchase from
a brand but also, recommend his/her family and friends to buy from the same brand even if the
prices are slightly higher but provides an exceptional customer service for products purchased or
services offered.

It uses research techniques to provide systematic information about what customers need. Using
this information brands can make changes in their products and services, making them more
customer-centric thereby increasing customer satisfaction. This will in turn help to boost
business. Here is where consumer research plays a pivotal role. The importance of consumer
research cannot be emphasized more. Following points summarizes the importance of consumer
research in marketing research:

1. To understand market readiness: However good a product or service may be, consumers
have to be ready to accept it. Creating a product requires investments which in return
expect ROI from product or service purchases. However, if a market is mature enough to
accept this utility; it has a low chance of succeeding by tapping into market potential.
Therefore, before launching a product or service, organizations need to conduct consumer
research, to understand if people are ready to spend on the utility it provides.

2. Identify target consumers: By conducting consumer research, brands and organizations

can understand their target market based on geographic segmentation and know who
exactly is interested in buying their products. According to the data or feedback received
from the consumer, research brands can even customize their marketing and branding
approach to better appeal to the specific consumer segment.

3. Product/Service updates through feedback: Conducting consumer research, provides

valuable feedback from consumers about the attributes and features of products and
services. This feedback enables organizations to understand consumer perception and
provide a more suitable solution based on actual market needs which helps them tweak
their offering to perfection.

An organization that has an in-depth understanding about the customer decision-making process
is most likely to design a product, put a certain price tag to it, establish distribution centers and
promote a product based on consumer research insights such that it produces increased consumer
interest and purchases.
 Page 7

For example, a consumer Electronics Company wants to understand, thought process of a

consumer when purchasing an electronic device, which can help a company to launch new
products, manage the supply of the stock, etc. Carrying out a Consumer electronics survey can be
useful to understand the market demand, understand the flaws in their product and also find out
issues in the various processes that influence the purchase of their goods. A consumer electronics
survey can be helpful to gather information about the shopping experiences of consumers when
purchasing electronics. This can enable a company to make well-informed and wise decisions
regarding their products and services.

When a brand is developing a new product, consumer research is conducted to understand what
consumers want or need in a product, what attributes are missing and what are they looking for?
An efficient survey software really makes it easy for organizations to conduct efficient research.

Market Research deals with processes to understand customers and end consumers which help
the marketer to build market strategy. It helps in analyzing the market using porter’s five forces
which deals with the market condition. The strengths, weakness, opportunities and threats are
analyzed. They help in defining the marketing goals, generate and define marketing activities,
monitor them and improve performance and understanding of the market and consumers. The
market research also guides the company in addressing the issues by conducting surveys and get
customer opinions.

Marketing research is often partitioned into two categorical pairs

• Consumer marketing research, and

• Business-to-business (B2B) marketing research

Consumer research has two paradigms viz

• Qualitative marketing research- Text analysis

• Quantitative marketing research- Number analysis

Here is a list outlining the main benefits of investing in marketing research. It helps business
strengthen their position use market research to gain a better perspective and understanding of
your market or target audience and marketing research is any set of techniques used to gather
information and better understand a company’s target market. Effective market research
identifies customer needs, drives, fears and frustrations. Therefore consumer research is a part of
marketing research.
 Page 8

Conclusion:

Consumer research is a part of market research in which inclination; motivation and purchase
behavior of the targeted customers are identified. Consumer research helps businesses or
organizations understand customer psychology and create detailed purchasing behavior profiles.
Consumer marketing research is a form of applied sociology that concentrates on understanding
the preferences, attitudes, and behaviors of consumers in a market-based economy, and it aims to
understand the effects and comparative success of marketing campaigns. Consumer is market
research in which the preferences, motivations, and buying behavior of the targeted customer are
identified through direct observation, mail surveys, telephone or face to face interviews, and
from published sources. Market research is the process of determining the viability of a new
service or product through research conducted directly with potential customers. Market research
allows a company to discover the target market and get opinions and other feedback from
consumers about their interest in the product or service. The purpose of market research is to
look at the market associated with a particular good or service to ascertain how the audience will
receive it. This can include information gathering for the purpose of market segmentation and
product differentiation, which can be used to tailor advertising efforts or determine which
features are seen as a priority to the consumer. A business must engage in a variety of tasks to
complete the market research process. It needs to gather information based on the market sector
being examined. The business needs to analyze and interpret the resulting data to determine the
presence of any patterns or relevant data points that it can use in the decision-making process.
Consumer research is the research done on consumer’s preferences attitudes, loyalty usage and
behavior in a market. It helps in understanding customers so that the marketing campaigns can be
designed accordingly. Consumer buyer. Consumer buying, consumer product. Market research
aims to understand the reasons consumers will buy your product. It studies such things as
consumer behavior including how cultural, societal and personal factors influence that behavior.
The aim of consumer research is to gather information about consumer’s needs and preferences
so you can market to them more effectively so it is always part of marketing research.
 Page 9

BIBLIOGRAPHY

https://www.questionpro.com/blog/consumer-research

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marketing_research

https://www.mbaskool.com

Assael, Henry (1998) Consumer behavior and marketing action. 6th ed. Cincinnati, Ohio: South-
Western College Publishing.

Blythe, Jim (2013) Consumer behavior. London: Thomson.

Consumer behavior & market analysis by lecturer Mrs.Sima Karna, Nepal Business Collage
Nepal