Marketing Research "is the planning for, collection, and analysis of data relevant to marketing decision making and the communication of the results of this analysis to management." As the previous definition illustrates, in order to measure the success of the marketing plan, a marketing research is the appropriate tool for a company to use. By having a thorough knowledge of factors that have an impact on the target market and the marketing mix, management can be proactive rather than reactive. Actually, research is the difference between viewing the turbulent marketing environment as a threat or as an opportunity.
Pure observation: the marketer watches behavior of customers in real-life situation, either in situ or by videotaping the consumers (less intrusive). Videotaping can be specifically recommended when studying patterns of different cultures, since we can easily compare behaviors taped and highlight similarities and / or differences.
Trace measures: consist in collecting and recording traces of consumers' behavior. Such traces can be fingerprints or tear of packages, empty packages, garbage cans analysis and any other ways a marketer can imagine (it's all about creativity here!). In eMarketing, trace measures come under the form of recorded visits and hits – there are numerous professional applications that can help an emarketer analyze the behavior of visitors on his company's website.
Archival measures: can be any type of historical records, public records, archives, libraries, collections of personal documents etc. Such data can prove to be of great use in analyzing behavioral trends and changes in time. Marketers can also identify cultural values and attitudes of a population at a given moment by studying mass media content and advertisement of the timeframe questioned.
Entrapment measures: those are indirect techniques (by comparison to the previously mentioned ones) and consist in asking the respondent to react to a specific stimulus or situation, when the actual subject of investigation is totally different. The marketer plants the real stimulus among many fake ones and studies reactions. The method is quite unobtrusive and the marketer can gather valuable, non-reactive facts. When the respondent becomes aware of the true subject under investigation (s)he might change the behavior and compromise the study.
For years market research companies have assembled groups of participants into survey pools or survey panels, groups of people willing to provide an opinion on a range of subjects. Often incentives of nominal value were offered as a 'thank you' for the participant's time; however the explosion of 'paid for taking surveys' websites has spawned a new profession - the professional survey participant (PSP).
For companies that are relying on market research generated by panels of PSP's the question they must ask is how flawed is the data that they are relying on? Does the average PSP represent a cross section of society or a niche? What social group do they really belong to and is it smart for a company to base research on groups of people that are willing to comment part time, and sometimes, full time, on anything and everything?
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