Marketing Research and Market Intelligence
Read this chapter. The American Marketing Association defines marketing research this way: "Marketing research is the function that links the consumer, customer, and public to the marketer through information--information used to identify and define marketing opportunities and problems; generate, refine, and evaluate marketing actions; monitor marketing performance; and improve understanding of marketing as a process. Marketing research specifies the information required to address these issues, designs the methods for collecting information, manages and implements the data collection process, and analyzes and communicates the findings and their implications".
Marketing Information Systems
Key Takeaway
Many marketing problems and opportunities can be
solved by gathering information from a company's daily operations and
analyzing it. Market intelligence involves gathering information on a
regular, ongoing basis to stay in touch with what's happening in the
marketplace. Marketing research is what a company has to resort to if it
can't answer a question by using market intelligence, internal company
data, or analytical software. Marketing research is not infallible,
however.