Today, qualitative and quantitative marketing research is essential before a product or a project is launched. Marketing research originated from consumer product markets, where the final purchasers were far removed from the manufacturer and it was necessary to get close to them to get their views on their products. These days research is done on new products to understand acceptability, as well as on old products to ensure their long term continued existence.
Marketing research is essential in new product launch as any variables that affect sales need to be tested. But new product research requires a very different approach to researching existing products.
Through marketing research, we attempt to arrive at certain conclusions. As we deal with human behavior, there are many different behavior patterns, and it is very difficult to identify each and every one of these and quantify them. We use marketing research to reduce the area of uncertainty. Research findings attempt to quantify the unknown and make educated guesses.
Useful links:
http://upandrunning.bplans.com/2012/01/23/the-benefit-of-market-research/
Informative content, as you’ve mentioned market research is the basic practice that every organization needs before launching a product or to keep track of competitors. We had issues in gathering data from remote locations where network issue was common. Using an app like Brew Survey we could collect data from any locations & sync accurate data.