Marketing and the Internet

Marketing and the Internet

Marketing Research is the systematic and objective identification, collection, analysis, and dissemination of information for the purpose of assisting management in decision- making related to the identification and solution of problems and opportunities in marketing. The planning, collection and analysis of data relevant to marketing decision making and the communication of the results of this analysis to management. Successful businesses are customer driven, market oriented and cost efficient. Marketing maximizes company profits and protects a company's position against new competition. Marketing improves performance even if a company is lucky enough to have built the world's best mousetrap. Marketing research provides a company the knowledge required for the best marketing. In today's rapidly changing business and information environments, market knowledge is increasingly valuable. Companies are rapidly introducing more new products and services to broader markets. Technology is spreading rapidly. Acquisitions, ownership changes, and mergers bring new and different competitors to markets.

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Companies are expanding into international markets. Rapid changes and increasing information needs require more comprehensive and timely marketing research.

Marketing research is important to both new and ongoing businesses -- and for both mature and new products. Most businesses, established and entrepreneurial, achieve success by a customer and market oriented approach. Companies should perform marketing research when starting a new business, when introducing a new product or service or when maintaining a current business -- in other words -- all the time!"

Marketing is a planning activity, hence involves much decision-making. To make adequate decisions requires adequate information; to make good decisions requires good information. 'Good' information means objective, unbiased and suitably precise information. This may not mean numerical data, but frequently does. Broadly speaking, market research deals with methods of obtaining and collecting such information for use in the marketing function.

The Internet is also...