Why Marketing Research Is More Important Than Ever

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In a society where the trends change overnight and consumer tastes evolve by the second, it is marketing research that points us in the right direction. It is not sufficient to possess data - we must also attain knowledge, which requires making sense of uncertainty.

Every winning campaign, product launch or rebranding exercise begins with a simple question: What do we need to understand before taking action? Focusing on that research as part of the first step in the marketing research process means judgments will be made based on wisdom, not guess. Companies who skip this step will likely end up wasting time and money misleading their decisions.

Try to picture a business rolling out a new product and not having any better sense of who its actual public is or what motivates them to buy. It’s like sailing without a compass. Marketing research allows companies to determine who their target consumers are, consider who else is already out there competing for share of mind and dollars and what kinds of risks they could face if they try to get their goods on shelves. They look to see if the information they are looking for is already in house, or can instead be obtained from elsewhere and deployed such that every dollar spent also goes toward getting results.

Marketing research also aids in determining if the benefit is worth the cost. Not all decisions need a weighty study behind them, but in high-stakes situations research can often mean the difference between failure and success. By asking the right questions and getting good information, marketing actually takes ambiguity and turns it into policy plans, thoughts into deeds.

Marketing research is vital because it provides a sense of confidence to those who do it. That certainty makes it ritualistic for corporations to go with intention, flow with situations, and connect with individuals in humanly meaningful ways, the core mechanism of all solid marketing.