BUS 3500 Week 6

This week we learned about marketing research. Marketing research is helpful and useful when there is uncertainty. This uncertainty could be for a new product, an existing product or just a new business venture. In an economic class I took, we learned that time is the most expensive commodity. With that in mind, the marketing research has to be worth the time spent on it.  One way to lower the cost of research is internet research in the form of internet surveys.

Internet surveys allow for:

·        Rapid development, real-time reporting:  Survey results can be tabulated and broadcast in a much shorter time frame.

·        Reduced costs:  Costs can be cut by 25 to 40 percent with results in half the time required for traditional telephone surveys.

·        Personalized questions and data:  Personalization allows relevance to each respondent’s own situation, thus speeding the response process.

·        Improved respondent participation:  Internet surveys take half as much time to complete as phone interviews and can be accomplished at the respondent’s convenience. 

·        Contact with the hard-to-reach:  Doctors, management, and high-income professionals are among the most surveyed and the most difficult to reach.  Many of these groups are well represented online.  

Needless to say I found the internet survey part of marketing research interesting. It was good to learn about marketing research. This is a very crucial and important part of any successful business. I would most likely use the internet survey approach as a way to determine customer satisfaction.