Importance of Proper Marketing Research
There are two crucially important parts of a business, without which no business can survive. These are the Financial or Business Manager and the Market Research Director. In a small business they can be the same. The Financial manager handles accounts and money, a fairly straight forward position. The Marketing Research Director is a bit more complex.
Marketing is the keystone of any business or organization. It defines the purpose of the business and not only how it works, but if it workes at all! Marketing involves product development, advertising, and customer relations; the Market Research Director has to understand how each area works and how they interact.
Product development means finding a suitable product or service and establishing need as well as the cost for providing it. Develop a generator that produces 5000 kilowatts of electricity an hour and costs $50 to produce, profits are assured. A hand cranked generator that will barely operate a light bulb and cost $50 may be a more difficult product to market. Determining the direction of researching and developing a product is one aspect of the job of Marketing Research Director.
Market Research director should also be the one that determines the direction advertising takes. Should a place in the Caribbean emphasize the American Market or the Europeans? Directing research to decide what factors and costs are involved are not simple. It needs a basic understanding of economics, currency exchanges, and what people want!
Customer relations are also important to a products success and a Market Research Director needs to do surveys to understand what is happening. A TV show may be widely accepted, but then fall drastically in the rating. Why? What happened? Research is called for and the direction the research takes is the responsibility of the Director of Market Research!
Then the Market Research Director has to look at how all these factors interrelate. Was another, cheaper product put on the market that replaced the companies or the price just too high? Did advertising raise expectations too much and then the customers felt disappointed? What can be done to improve marketing and sales? That is the job of Market Research Director, determining the direction of market research!
If the Market Research Director does their job, then the accountants and financial people will have a job. You can't count the money if it all goes out and nothing comes in, or at least not for long!
