Marketing Research

Other Technologies

In addition to the Internet, marketing research has benefited from other technological improvements including:

• Virtual Reality and Simulations - Marketers can use computer developed virtual worlds to simulate real world customer activity such as store shopping.  While this type of research is mostly performed in a controlled laboratory setting, there are emerging virtual worlds on the Internet where marketers can test concepts and communicate with customers.
• Global Positioning Systems – GPS enables marketers to track inventory and even track mobile sales and service personnel.  Soon GPS will be a common feature of customers’ communication devices, such as cellphones, offering marketers the potential to locate and track customers.
• Data Analysis Software – As we will see in the Planning for Market Research Tutorial, research includes gathering information and it also involves analyzing what is collected.  A number of software and statistical programs have been refined to give marketers greater insight into what the data really means.

Affordable Research

For many years formal research projects were considered something that only the largest marketers could afford due to the expense of carrying out relevant research.  However, the technologies discussed above make it affordable for companies of all sizes to engage in research that were financially prohibitive  just few years ago.  For instance, surveying customers is quick and easy using one of the many online survey services which charge low fees to create, distribute and analyze results.