Impact of Technology on Market Research for Data Collection

Question: Discuss about theImpact of Technology on Market Research for Data Collection. Answer: Introduction Market research in the words of Blackman, (2010) can be defined as the ways in which information is gathered to know about the need and preferences of consumers. It is mostly done by the businesses to access the viability of products and service which helps in the discovery of target market and also record opinions to know the interest about the product. This particular report has been prepared to understand the ways in which technology has impacted market research by considering cases situation of ResMarket. The study will assist them in analyzing the impact on technology by making use of appropriate literature and market examples. Main Body Impact of Technology on Market Research Market research is done for the purpose of data collection, integration and data analysis to know the preferences of consumers and their consumption patterns. In the recent years, the impact of technology and advancement on the way of doing market research has been changed in a drastic manner. Till the last decade, most of the market research was done by collecting the data face to face, by emails or rarely by phone. However, the introduction of the internet completely changed the game and introduced online surveys, website visits, and many more other technologies (Krishnan, 2011). Social Media is one such discovery that has made the market research more viable and easy to collect. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn are some websites which get lots of attractions from users and allows the companies to gather the market data easily and with feasible cost. ResMarket can use this medium to gather the data of customers and proposed target market segment for their clients from millions of people in very less span of time. In the recent years, communication has helped many businesses to grow by creating a more convenient relation between them and consumers. Technologies like the internet and mobile-phones have affected the ways in which companies communicate with people. Social media is considered to be one of the key sources of the collection of data as audiences on these systems update their information through respective profiles. Websites like Facebook makes it cost effective source for the collection of data, and for ResMarket it is a most viable tool. It also allows t he companies to gather the data of even from niche consumers which are required for some special products (McQuarrie, 2015). However, Spiekermann, (2012) argued that keeping track of the data collected from these sources is unpredictable as a large number of population is available. People provide good data over these websites with the help of online surveys, but data gathering becomes burdensome. With the use of effective systems, analytics can target some specific areas of social media like the special forum to get more insight about a particular topic. There have also been the discoveries of various online tools which can be accessed online by ResMarket in order to collect data. Websites such as Quia.com can be used to create the online surveys, and same can be shared with millions of people via email, message, etc. The data filled by these people get recorded and reaches to the company in real time. Besides all these online tools there are some other advances in the technology which has made the field of market research advanced. The futuristic tool in virtual reality is trending in the market where companies can link up the subjects that are being observed to their operational strategies (Teal, 2016). The use of this tool not only allows the companies to evaluate and collect the data in the real scenario but also allows them to record emotions, reactions, etc. The Internet has completely changed the life of people and also their approach towards products and services consumed by them. This tool allows the companies to develop the new products as per the needs and demands of consumers by integrating different services. All the information that can help the company to understand the needs and preference of consumers can be gathered by this platform in terms of online surveys and polls which provide a large amount of data about people perception in very less cost. Analytical data that is collected from the people is getting more and more accurate, and market research is getting great benefits (Shugan, 2014). It is defining the new ways that are helping businesses to measure the data accurately which is again evolving very quickly. Market research data can be collected faster in an efficient and accurate manner by making use information technologies. Market research companies with the help of internet are using open end data in terms of their surveys and primarily researchers. All the results that are gathered are sent for automatic processing in order to identify important keywords from surveys. Technology allows the company to sort the data usage guide to use it in the best way possible. It is also helping to gather the knowledge about the market trends and statistics of competitors while keeping in view the bigger picture. Market research gets more relevant results, as this micro research is combined with the macro research, to develop effec tive business strategies. The foremost purpose of market research is to improve the quality of product distribution and to develop better decision making strategy (Von and Gassmann, 2012). It helps to solve the existing issues in product marketing and provide the different opportunities in order to recognize collect and analyze the information systematically and objectively. The trend now days is to do the market research online because it has become quick and efficient method which is used by lots of companies. Online research makes the complete use of the freedom of the internet in terms of its flexibility and universality. With the use of technology, ResMarket can reach the consumers at a global location without any limitation of time. It helps to get the direct response by giving power to consumers to provide appropriate responses. The Internet has also helped to improve the level of research performances and has allowed the businesses to reduce their investment in humans and material resources (Trott, 20 11). Many people voluntarily accept these online surveys and answer questions seriously. It increases the accuracy levels in the investigation analysis. Advancement of technology is not just limited to the internet as some emerging technologies like biometrics; GPS tracking has also been proved very effective. Biometric is the automated identification which is made in terms of physical, physiological, etc., to store digital templates (Deshpande and Zaltman, 2015). The biggest advantage that researcher gets through biometric is that it allows them to analyze the emotional and subconscious response of respondents. Mobile phone market research has also evolved from sending the simple messages to sending online surveys via applications like Whatsapp, Hike, etc. Other than this, different wearable technologies like smart watches, band, etc. are also helping the researchers to collect the market research data in real time (ATTIH, 2014). All these technologies have improved the performance of market research with optimal pricing that will allow ResMarket to collect the data and analyze it in most advanced manner. Conclusion From the report, it can be analyzed that technology has completely changed the game in terms of market research. It has made this field fast, accurate, reliable and more informative which can be used to predict the behaviour of consumers. ResMarket can use these technologies to provide better results to their clients, and most of these technologies are cheap and affordable. References Books and Journals Blackman, I. (2010). Conducting market research using the Internet: the case of Xenon Laboratories. Journal of Business Industrial Marketing. 19(3). pp.178-187. Deshpande, R., Zaltman, G. (2015). Factors affecting the use of market research information: A path analysis.Journal of marketing research, 14-31. Krishnan, R. (2011). Marketing Research. Cengage Learning. McQuarrie, E. (2015). The Market Research Toolbox: A Concise Guide for Beginners. SAGE Publications. Shugan, S. (2014). The Impact of Advancing Technology On Marketing and Academic Research. Marketing Science. 23(4). 69-75. Spiekermann, U. (2012). The Rise of Marketing and Market Research. Springer. Teal, R. (2016). Technology Changing Market Feasibility. Emerald Group Publishing Limited. 8. 333 356. Trott, P. (2011). The role of market research in the development of discontinuous new products.European Journal of Innovation Management.4(3). 117-126. Von Zedtwitz, M., Gassmann, O. (2012). Market versus technology drive in RD internationalization: four different patterns of managing research and development.Research policy.31(4). 569-588. Online ATTIH, O., (2014). THE ROLE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY IN MARKETING RESEARCH. [Pdf]. Available through: https://www.scirj.org/papers-0714/scirj-P0714159.pdf. [Accessed on 23 August].