The Role of Marketing Research for Entrepreneurship

Abstract

Marketing research is defined as "the systematic and objective process of gathering, recording, and analyzing data for aid in making marketing decision." The essence of marketing research is to provide information used in decision making, and for the entrepreneur; there are fundamental differences between market information needed prior to start up and after a firm is established. Prior to opening for business, the entrepreneur wants to know whether a market exist for a new product or service, who is likely to be a primary customer, how to position the enterprise in a market, and how the product or service will be priced, promoted and distributed. Addressing these issues become part of the pre start up planning process. Once a firm has become established, much of this information is authenticated through actual experience, and market research expands to include a continuous competitive analysis.An effort has been made to demonstrate the above mentioned characteristics of marketing research undertaken by the entrepreneurs. The first half of the article portrays an effective framework of the methodology for marketing research. Entrepreneurial marketing research differs from its normal counterpart. These exclusive features are expressed and discussed in details. In the second part of the article, an effort has been made to narrate the nature of marketing research that can be ideally applied to all the different stages of successful venture life cycle. The functioning of all the different stage of the life cycle are discussed with the corresponding marketing research techniques that can be ideally applied, being expressed.