MARKET RESEARCH

Market Research

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Table of Content

Introduction3

Importance of marketing research for market oriented companies like Walmart4

Customer Loyalty Schemes5

Customer Knowledge from Marketing Research6

WALMART VALS Segmentation8

Qualitative vs. Quantitative9

Consumer Buying Process9

Physical Process10

Psychological Process10

References11

Market Research

Introduction

The term refers to a continuous process of collection and analysis of data related to commodities, business practices and capabilities within the market in order to satisfy the demands of customers. In other words, the collection and analysis of the market information for the development of understanding regarding the customer preferences, brand/corporate image, effectiveness of marketing strategies is known as market research. Marketing research helps to analyse different factors affecting a business, and provide insight information upon which companies' decision can be taken. In real world situation, marketing research help companies to determine what their customers want, how will they react in certain situations and how the company can meet the expectations of their customers? Market research is considered as a technique to provide business with the information that will help them seize a large share of market. There are several utility of market research like it helps start ups by providing market insight, while help established business to understand their market (Terrill & Middlebrooks, 2000). Moreover, market research also helps business to analyse the changing preferences and behaviour of the customers. The above discussion demonstrates the importance of market research for any business, as it helps companies in making informed decisions. The future of any company relies mainly on its decision, which simplify that regardless of the size of the company market research is vital for every one. With increasing competition in the market, the importance to obtain knowledge regarding, how customers shop, why they shop, when they shop and what they shop and where they will prefer to shop, have increased drastically in every sector.

Importance of marketing research for market oriented companies like Walmart

Earlier stated the importance of market research, clearly stress why marketing research is important for market oriented companies like Walmart. It reveals the consumer behaviour and the market situation to the company, which ultimately help company to devise strategy in a way that it will encourage people to purchase from Walmart (Terrill & Middlebrooks, 2000). The insight regarding market situation and consumer preferences help company to make changes in their operational and marketing strategies. Market oriented companies like Walmart operates in a very competitive market and work on very low profit margin on every product that is 1 to 2 percent. The fact stated makes it vital for the company to know its customers and market well, so that they can do business well. Losing customer in this business can be interpreted as losing profits and ultimately losing market grasp (Griffin, 1995). Several examples in the business of retail can be found, who started to lose customers and ultimately went bankrupt. Retail companies work on a very lower profit margin, which increases the risk to business, while at the same time demand to consistently monitor and evaluate market and ...