Marketing research – a necessary process for any company. For a new player is the ability to find their market segment, to understand what he can claim and what the niche is not occupied. For long-time players – to understand at what direction, he can expect is to invest and withdraw capital from the firm to bring more profit. In itself, this market research: a) clarification of needs, desires and preferences consumers, in other words, what motivates consumer demand for certain goods or services, b) a study of direct competitors in the market, and c) the study of markets themselves, or specific market segments. Methods allowing to obtain the necessary data for analysis, are an important part of the study as a whole. After all, on the correct methods and their combination depends on the reliability of the data.
All methods of marketing Research can be divided into three groups: qualitative, quantitative and desk. Qualitative Methods: A group of methods has received this name because they do not give quantitative results (in contrast to all other), and only qualitative. These include: group interviews (discussions with focus groups), in-depth interviews with experts or users (expert interviews), the methods of "mystery shopping" and "brainstorm". Quantitative Method: This is the primary method of research when hypotheses solution already exist. It is a statistical method and it gives clear and quantitative results. By this method include personal interviews with consumers and phone polls. Cabinet method: This method is based on the study of materials, collecting and analyzing information from secondary sources. In this case, the sources are the publications, legislation, electronic sources, customer data. In order to choose the right methods of marketing research, you need to be clear about the purpose and objectives of the study, and for this you must understand the problem you want solved.