“Market research is any organized effort to gather information about target markets or customers.” It helps companies to identify and analyze the market size, market needs, competitors and their power, in creating a strong and effective business strategy. Before 1920’s companies publish ed their advertisement based on their copywriters thoughts and hoped that readers

would act upon the information provided. In the late 1920’s Daniel Starch ­ an American psychologist and marketing researcher ­ developed the idea of marketing research. In the early 1930’s he founded the first research company. The very first type of research was look like interview ­ they asked people on the streets about certain publication in the newspaper. It helped them to collect the data about how effective different ads were. Within several years many companies not only followed Daniel Starch’s example, but also improved the new techniques.

Economy becoming more competitive and having actual knowledge about preferences of your target audience has

become integral for every business. Today market research plays an extremely important role in business sphere. First of all, it allows business owners to determine the affectivity of the business before committing financial resources to the venture.
Second, it helps to create an effective business, marketing, adv, and other strategies based on target audiences’ insights and needs. Third, it helps to create a successful positioning for brand in contrast to competitors. Forth, it identifies new business opportunities. Here only a few reasons why companies should conduct market research.

There are two methods of marketing research ­ quantitative and qualitative. Each offers valuable information to make

business decision. To determine the method of research ­ is the very first step. Which one to choose depends on what question you need an answer. Lets look through each of the methods.

Quantitative

Focuses on obtaining data that can be represented numerically and analyzed statistically
Questions: Who? What? How many?
Requirements to the interviewer: not high
The analysis: objective, it is possible to generalize on all population
Selection: big selection of respondents
Quantitative method of research is an approach that focused on logic and data. It reveals what people think from numerical and statistical point of view. For instance, this approach suits better if we need to know how many of our customers support changes in our products or service.

Qualitative

Generally directing on an explanation of the reasons, obtaining information on deep motivation, needs of respondents, detailed information about reasons of their behavior
Questions: How? Why? What for?
Requirements to the interviewer: the highly skilled moderator
The analysis: subjective, it is impossible to generalize on all population
Selection: small number of respondents
Qualitative research based on how people feel in this situation, what they think about it, and why they make this certain choice. For instance, if you are thinking about changing your brand strategy you need to choose qualitative method to