Types of Marketing Research

Definition: The Marketing Research is the systematic process of collecting, recording and analyzing the information relevant to finding solutions to a problem in the field of marketing.

Types of Marketing Research

There are different types of marketing research classified on the basis of the research objective for which the study is to be carried out and the sources of data used to gather the information. The widely used classification of marketing research is based on the functional objectives of the research and are identified as:

1. Exploratory Market Research: The researcher uses the exploratory research when he has a very little information about the research problem and needs to gain insights about it before finding the solutions to it. It requires the researcher to clear his concept, gain insights, formulate problems, eliminate impractical ideas and formulate a hypothesis to check the relevancy of the research design.This can be done by using the secondary data, i.e. information available both inside and outside the organization, conducting observational studies, consulting experts, and processing feedback from the marketplace and surveys.
2. Descriptive Market Research: The descriptive research is concerned with testing the hypothesis to find out the accurate answers of the research problem. Such as, who are the prospective buyers of the product?, How the products are consumed?, What fraction of the population uses the product?, What is the demand forecast? And who are the potential competitors?The objective of the descriptive market research is to measure the frequency with which the things occur and the extent to which the variables under study are correlated.
3. Causal Market Research: The causal market research is conducted to establish the cause-and-effect relationship between the variables, such as if the packaging of the product is changed then what will be its effect on the product durability? Thus, this research is carried out to explain the facts that why a certain change in one variable is observed due to the change in the other.
4. Predictive Market Research: As the name suggests, the predictive research is conducted to forecast or predict certain market variable for which the research is designed. Such as predicting the future sales, projection of growth, test market to predict the success of a new product, defining of firm’s product line, etc.

The marketing research can be further classified on the basis of the type of data generated and the degree of mathematical accuracy required as:

• Qualitative Market Research
• Quantitative Market Research

Thus, there are several types of marketing research that an organization adopts on the basis of its pursued objectives and the form of data generated.