Market Research is a process of collection and analysis of data for the purpose of study of the requirements of specific markets, acceptability of products, target market and competition and methods of developing and exploiting new markets. But before one starts conducting market research and strategy studies one has to keep this fact in mind that it requires a comprehensive understanding of the problem to be addressed, the market, the application of research procedures.

The primary goal of any market research project is to achieve an increased understanding of the subject matter.

The information collected through market research can be divided in two categories, primary information which is gathered through primary research like Email, telemarketing and personal interviews. The other category, secondary information is gathered through secondary research on compiled database organized by a source.

Primary Research

When research is conducted to gather original data, it is called primary research. For this original research plan must be devised for data collection, data input and then the production and analysis of the subsequent results. Although it is a lengthy and expensive to conduct, results of the research are original hence more relevant to the needs of the client. The two basic types of primary research are qualitative and quantitative

Quantitative Research

Quantitative research is numerically oriented, and requires measurement of market phenomena and often involves statistical analysis. The main rule with quantitative research is that every respondent is asked the same series of questions. The approach is very structured and normally involves large numbers of interviews/questionnaires.

Qualitative Research

Qualitative research provides an understanding of how or why things are as they are. Unlike quantitative research there are no fixed set of questions but, instead, a topic guide is used to explore various issues in-depth. The discussion between the interviewer and the respondent is largely determined by the respondents' own thoughts and feelings. As with quantitative techniques, there are also various types of qualitative methodologies.

Descriptive research is the most commonly used and the basic reason for using this is to identify the cause of a market phenomena. For instance, this research could be done in order to find out about a which particular age group is buying a particular brand of a consumer good, and whether a company’s market share differs between geographical regions or to discover the number of competitor a company has in a targeted marketplace.

Casual Research is done to find out the consequent effect of changing one variable on another. The research is used to measure what impact a specific change will have on existing market conditions and helps to predict hypothetical scenarios upon which a company can base its business plan. To summarize, causal research is a way of forecasting how different actions now will have an impact on a business in the future.

Exploratory research allows market researcher to gain a greater understanding of a specific subject about which little is known. For example, just because generally we have idea that 3G phones exist, it doesn’t necessarily mean that we understand how they work. Exploratory research can help to garner information in this instance. It differs mainly in design from descriptive research, exploratory research is used principally to gain a deeper understanding of something. The design is far more flexible and dynamic than that of descriptive research.