Advantages/Importance Of Marketing Research:
- Indicates current market trends: Marketing research keeps business unit in touch with the current market trends and offers guidance for facing market situation with confidence.
- Pinpoints deficiencies in marketing policies: MR pinpoints the deficiencies as regards products, pricing, promotion, etc. It gives guidance regarding different aspects of marketing. They include product development, branding, packaging and advertising.
- Explains customer resistance: MR is useful for finding out customer resistance to company’s products. The researcher also suggests remedial measures to deal with the situation. This makes the products and marketing policies agreeable to consumers.
- Suggests sales promotion techniques: MR enables a manufacturer to introduce appropriate sales promotion techniques, select most convenient channel of distribution, suitable pricing policy for the products and provision of discounts and concessions to dealers. Marketing research facilitates sales promotion.
- Offers guidance to marketing executives: MR offers information and guidance to marketing executives while framing marketing policies. Continuous research enables a company to face adverse’ marketing situation boldly. It acts as an insurance against possible changes in market environment.
- Facilitates selection and training of sales force: Marketing research is useful for the selection and training of staff in the sales organization. It also suggests the incentives that should be offered for motivation of employees concerned with marketing.
- Promotes business activities: Marketing research enables a business unit to grow/expand its activities. It creates goodwill in the market and also enables a business unit to earn high profits through consumer-oriented marketing policies and programmers.
- Facilitates appraisal of marketing policies: Research activities enable business executives to have an appraisal of the present marketing policies in the light of findings of research work. Suitable adjustments in the policies are also possible as per the suggestions made by the researchers.
- Suggests new marketing opportunities: MR suggests new marketing opportunities and the manner in which they can be exploited fully. It identifies emerging market opportunities.
- Facilitates inventory study: Marketing research is useful for the evaluation of company’s inventory policies and also for the introduction of more efficient ways of managing inventories including finished goods and raw materials.
- Provides marketing information: MR provides information on various aspects of marketing. It suggests relative strengths and weaknesses of the company. On the basis of such information, marketing executives find it easy to frame policies for the future period. MR provides information/ guidance and alternative solutions to current marketing problems.
- Suggests appropriate distribution channels: MR can be used to study the effectiveness of existing channels of distribution and the need of making suitable changes in the distribution system.
- Provides information on product acceptance: Marketing research helps in knowing the probability of acceptance of the product in its present form. It is also useful for the introduction of modifications in the existing product line of a firm.
- Creates progressive outlook: MR generates a progressive and dynamic outlook throughout the business organization. It promotes systematic thinking and a sense of professionalization within the company. It also creates enthusiasm among marketing executives. This brings success and stability to the whole business unit
- Has wider social significance: MR is of paramount importance from the social angle. It is the means by which the ultimate consumer literally becomes king of the market place, with his desires/ prejudices and every whim transmitted to the producer and distributor. In brief, MR has wider social significance. It is useful to all parties involved in the process of marketing.
Marketing research need not be treated as a fad. It is one of those fundamental tools that today’s marketing manager needs to keep sharpened all the time so that he might be-m a position to minimize the business or marketing risk.
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