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Step One

Market research, like other components of marketing such as advertising, can be quite simple or very complex. You might conduct simple market research such as including a questionnaire in your customer bills to gather demographic information about your customers. On the more complex side, you might engage a professional market research firm to conduct primary research to aid you in developing a marketing strategy to launch a new product.

Regardless of the simplicity or complexity of your marketing research project, you'll benefit by reviewing the following seven steps in the market research process.

Step One: Define Marketing Problems and Opportunities

The market research process begins with identifying and defining the problems and opportunities that exist for your business, such as:

• Launching a new product or service.
• Low awareness of your company and its products or services.
• Low utilization of your company's products or services. (The market is familiar with your company, but still is not doing business with you.)
• A poor company image and reputation.
• Problems with distribution, your goods and services are not reaching the buying public in a timely manner.

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