Market Research

Assembled by Carter McNamara, MBA, PhD

Various methods of market research are used to find out information about markets, target markets and their needs, competitors, market trends, customer satisfaction with products and services, etc. Businesses can learn a great deal about customers, their needs, how to meet those needs and how the business is doing to meet those needs. Businesses need not to be experts at methods of research either.

Sections of This Topic Include:

Basics
Additional Perspectives


Basics

Basic Methods to Get Feedback From Customers
Some Major Sources of Market Research Information
Small Business Market Research

Once you've designed your research needs, the following research resources may be helpful

Appreciative Inquiry
Case Study Design
Focus Groups
Interview Design
Listening
Questioning (face to face)
Questionnaire Design

Survey Design

Additional Perspectives

Business Research on the Internet An Online Tutorial
Market Research Portal
The Association for Operations Management


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For the Category of Marketing:

Related Library Topics

Recommended Books

Basics, Planning and General Information

Market Research and Trends

Competitive Intelligence

Nonprofit



Basics, Planning and General Information

The following books are recommended because of their highly practical nature and often because they include a wide range of information about this Library topic. To get more information about each book, just hover your cursor over the image of the book. A "bubble" of information will be displayed. You can click on the title of the book in that bubble to get more information, too.


Market Research and Trends

The following books are recommended because of their highly practical nature and often because they include a wide range of information about this Library topic. To get more information about each book, just hover your cursor over the image of the book. A "bubble" of information will be displayed. You can click on the title of the book in that bubble to get more information, too.


Competitive Intelligence

The following books are recommended because of their highly practical nature and often because they include a wide range of information about this Library topic. To get more information about each book, just hover your cursor over the image of the book. A "bubble" of information will be displayed. You can click on the title of the book in that bubble to get more information, too.

Note to nonprofits: Nonprofits "compete" with other nonprofits, too. They compete for funding, attention from their communities and for staff. Also, funders often want to see if their grantees have closely considered whether other nonprofits are already offering the same services in the same areas. So nonprofits should use competitive intelligence, too.


Nonprofit

Book Cover Field Guide to Nonprofit Program Design, Marketing and Evaluation
by Carter McNamara, published by Authenticity Consulting, LLC. There are few books, if any, that explain how to carefully plan, organize, develop and market a nonprofit program. Also, too many books completely separate the highly integrated activities of planning, marketing and evaluating programs. This book integrates all three into a comprehensive, straightforward approach that anyone can follow in order to provide high-quality programs with strong appeal to funders. Includes many online forms that can be downloaded. Many materials in this Library topic are adapted from this book.

The following books are recommended because of their highly practical nature and often because they include a wide range of information about this Library topic. To get more information about each book, just hover your cursor over the image of the book. A "bubble" of information will be displayed. You can click on the title of the book in that bubble to get more information, too.


Also See

Public Relations -- Recommended Books

Sales -- Recommended Books