Importance of Marketing

Market Research

The collection and analysis of information about an organization consumers, competitors and the effectiveness of its marketing efforts, is called market research. It is also a component of a business strategy. Market research is a tool used to help an organization make decisions that makes the organization responsive to customers' needs to increase its profits. Market research is a crucial element in the startup of a new business and essential for an established business. When information collected is accurate, it can be used to develop a successful marketing plan (Susan Ward, 2011.)

Market Research is a key factor in gaining a competitor edge over an organizations competition and in the market. It provides the organization with valuable information to help guide important decisions to find informative solutions by using the gather information to identify and analyze the markets needs and sizes. Essentially, market research is discovering what an organization consumers need, want, discovering how the consumers behave and what the consumers believes. This collected information is useful to help an organization to determine how to market its product and identify problems and is used in an organization decision-making process.

Market Research and Marketing research are sometimes used interchangeably but are not technically the same and has many differences. Market research as defined is the collection of data about an organization's consumers, competitors, the market size and its trends. Marketing research involves market research but is a more general systematic process that applies to several of marketing problems.

There are different types of market research with the main distinction between "continuous" and "ad-hoc: research. Ad-hoc research focuses on specific marketing problems while continuous research focuses on studies with interview the sample of the organization consumers. Ad-hoc studies include product usage survey, corporate image surveys, customer satisfaction surveys and advertising development. Continuous research includes consumer panels, retail audits and television viewer ship/ radio listening panel (Riley, 2011.)

Wells Fargo

Wells Fargo used marketing research in various ways to guide the decision the company makes in today's ever-changing volatile economic climate. Wells Fargo uses market research to understand gain more knowledge about the economy to understand what risk and opportunities are present domestically and internationally and uses market research to determine its impact on the foreign exchange with daily, monthly reports to manage currency exposure and take advantage of foreign exchange market opportunities (Wells Fargo, 1999-2011.)

Other ways that Wells Fargo uses market