Market Research

Research is the asking and systematic answering of questions. Finding out whether you should take an umbrella with you is not conducting research. Asking and looking into the question, what factors are associated with precipitation is. The key is systematic, though looking out the window in the morning to see what you should wear is not a bad idea. It's just not research.

Market research is research related to marketing questions. From Wikipedia, the free, on-line encyclopedia, we have:

Market research is the process of systematically gathering, recording and analyzing data and information about customers, competitors and the market. Its uses include to help create a business plan, launch a new product or service, fine tune existing products and services, and expand into new markets. Market research can be used to determine which portion of the population will purchase a product/service, based on variables like age, gender, location and income level.

If you're interested in this, read the whole article and follow the links. There have also been hundreds of market research textbooks written on the subject, though the recent paradigm shift in the economics of information may have made moot a lot of the information out there. So whatever you read has to be filtered through an ever more recent lens of what society is like now.

I don't recommend that entrepreneurs commission market research studies. Such studies take money, require investment in time, and may not be helpful at the end of the study because society changed while the study was being done. Gathering all the information an entreprendur can find on consumer habits and preferences and so forth is key, though. Not just commissioned market research. I'll explain in subsequent postings.

What do you think? I want to know. Post a comment.

Entrepreneurship informs all my professional activities. For entrepreneurial real estate, go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog and for entrepreneurial writing, to www.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com.