Business executives are becoming increasingly dependent upon marketing research. They want quick and pertinently accurate information flow from the internal and external environments of firms to facilitate the process of decision-making. The decisions may be concerning environmental changes and probable impact on the firm, setting objectives, formulating policies, finding marketing opportunities, determining marketing sub-strategies, planning marketing programmers, allocating resources to programmers planning and organizing specific marketing operations and making tactical decision regarding required changes. The increasing importance of marketing research is based on the following three trends.

Business executives are pushed away from the local markets because there is a tendency and need for expanding operations. This widening gap between the  executives and markets can be felled by an appropriate and timely flow of information from the markets to the executives. This accurate and timely information is required by executives for effective decision-making. If the information flow is not maintaining continuous flow of accurate, reliable, and timely information attains heightened significance in view the of the Government policies of globalization.

Today, there is a manifold increase in consumers real income (purchasing power). The increase in discretionally income (income that can be spent for non-essential items) of consumers attains new dimensions. Consumers can purchase non-essential items out of their discretionary incomes after comparing several competitive items available to them. The consumer may purchase a color TV. a re-frigerator, an air-conditioner, a stereo or any other such item with his discretionary income or put is in saving bank account. The marketing executives are interested to know: What are the consumer’s preferences in buying and how promotional tools could be applied to favorably change his attitude toward company’s products? The discretionary expenditure can only be measured with the help of a planned research. The businessman is interested to know that how these discretionary incomes anc be attracted and how the consumer can be allured to spend these on his goods rather than on the competitors’.

Marketing executives require information on the effectiveness of such marketing tools as branding, product differentiation, market segmentation, advertising, and sales promotion. These are the tools which can create difference, real or imagined, in the minds of consumers regarding competitive products. Firms lacking this essential information are at a competitive disadvantage in relation to other firms in the same industry. It may be expected, all other things being equal, that the firm with inadequate information flow (marketing research) will have to pay a severe penalty in the form of reduced sales and profits.

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