The Impact Of Technology On The Marketing Research Essay.

JWS Research is an independent, privately owned Sydney-based marketing research consultancy. The company is considering new technologies in order to enhance their marketing research capability and provide a more efficient and accurate service for their clients. The client base of JWS currently includes ACT Government, Cancer Institute NSW, Government of South Australia, and Gold Coast Airport. JWS intends to join the early- adopters of data analytics technology users with the major source of data being social media.

The Impact of Technology on Market Research

The purpose of this report is to enlighten the executive management of the marketing research consultancy about the use and impact of innovative technology in the business of JWS. The company JWS is involved in the business of marketing research and providing the research services to many companies as well. Further, the company aims to adopt the technology of data analytics along with the use of social media as well. Furthermore, the report discusses the impact of the use of technology in marketing research business and the benefits derived to the company using the technology in the business (Bozeman, Rimes, & Youtie, 2015). Technology is a resource that helps the businesses in becoming competitive in the target market. Technology can also help the companies present in the research industry to initiate their activities in such a way so as to earn optimum profits for the business. More details about the report are discussed below:

From checking e-mails to editing a presentation of business, technology has changed the way in which people perform a particular job. With the help of technology, companies have become more competitive in the market as now they can effectively attain information and manage them as well. So, it can be said that technology has changed the face of market research by making it more advanced. This advancement is helping companies in becoming more efficient and agile. Further, in terms of market research, technology has carved out new opportunities for companies to obtain useful business intelligence. It can also be said that the use of technology in the research field has made the job of researchers little easier (Geum, Jeon, & Lee, 2016). Further, below mentioned are the impact of technology in the field of market research:

The entrance of Social Media: Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and Google+ are some of the fields from which information is taken in the current environment. The use of social media transforming the market research in new and exciting ways. The use digital media has also increased the job role for people that increase the employees of the organization as well. Social media is a place where researcher can easily occupy adequate information for the business. This place is good for the purpose of brand awareness and reputation management as the market researchers can easily take advantage of the advanced capabilities that are inherited in social media. Nowadays, every person posts things on social media and frequently uses such platforms to express their opinion. Resulting in which, use of technology in the research helps the researchers to easily attain information from social media and use it for their customers as well (McQuarrie, 2015).

Benefits of Technology in Marketing Research

Improvements in Data Collection: There is a presence of much new software in the environment that helps the business in collecting the data. Preceding the traditional methods such as paper surveys, interviews and focus groups, technology helps the researchers to specifically aim for the information that is actually useful for them. Use of technology in research provides much more diversified and at the same time specific information to the researchers (Trainor, Andzulis, Rapp, & Agnihotri, 2014). Also, it should be noted that technology helps in attaining feedback at a greater pace that increases the efficiency of the business. For instance, an organization wants to know the reaction of the customers on the launching of a new product line in the market. So, the researcher can easily find out the answer using the tools made for the online survey. Social media is a huge platform from which information can be easily extracted (Jin, Jeong, & Yoon, 2015).

Enhancement of Data Analysis: With the increasing streams for the data to collect, it is important for the business to develop the ability to analyze such information. Technology helps in extracting the information and it also helps in making the data analytics easier and more sophisticated. With better information received from analytics, researcher can easily attain the optimum information required by the client and strengthen the customer relationship management as well (Brace, 2018). The researchers of many giant organizations make use of data analytics facilities to attract the right type of customers in the market and retain them as well. Data analytics has become very important for the business as it helps them in easily attaining the right type of information and using them to help the client as well. By attaining adequate information from the data analytics, the researchers can easily align KPI’s with the objectives of the client’s company and help the organization to determine the next best step for the organization (Jussila, Kärkkäinen, & Aramo-Immonen, 2014).

Use of Big Data in Research: A large amount of data coming from online as well as offline sources helps the market researchers with an optimum amount of information to analyze and formulate strategies in an accurate manner. However, the researcher would get some irrelevant information using this process, but all information used in this process would be authentic (Hair Wolfinbarger, Money, Samouel, & Page, 2015). Further, it should also be noted that big data and marketing research combination helps the business in initiating the right decision at a faster pace as well. This process also eliminates the use of traditional methods of researching. Technology research increases the pace of the research by introducing new and different ways to attain information. Thus, in this way use of technology impacts the marketing research process of companies (Greenland, Combe, & Farrell, 2016).

Case Study - JWS Research

Below mentioned are the benefits of technology in the marketing research industry:

Shift from data collection to data analysis: earlier collection of data acted as a major hurdle in the process of market research. Contacting the right type of people, asking them to fill forms, and working on the field in bad weather was not appreciated by most of the people. However, using the online collection of information tool to analyze the preference of the bulk of the population has become a cakewalk for the researchers. With the introduction of web analytics, tons of information about visitor to website, review, and demographics etc. can be easily gathered. Such information can be used to attract the right type of customers for the company (Bryman, & Bell, 2015).

Massive Reach out via social media with less time: The fact should be noted that the growth of social media from blogs, Twitter and Facebook to LinkedIn and YouTube has started offering a chance to the organizations to join the conversation with trillions of customers around the globe. Apart from this, the research gets to attain low-cost research as well because offline research cost heavy amount to the researchers whereas online research is income friendly as everything is open can be accessible by all. This aspect benefits the researchers as well as their clients with accurate information, accurate information and easy use and access of such information by the researchers (Norman, & Verganti, 2014).

Accurate Target Research: The best part of the use of research through technology is that it targets the exact people in the society. As discussed above that the researchers can take quick survey via emails or SMS, resulting in which it becomes easy for research to get information from the market. Such information helps in increasing the accuracy of the companies. Analytical reports help the researchers in attaining information about the past as well future changes that can occur in the environment. Resulting in which, a positive outcome is received by the companies. Also, the customers get a live response online as every person is available on social media (Burns, Bush, & Sinha, 2014).

Conclusion

Thus, in the limelight of above mentioned events, the fact should be noted that if the company JWS Research will make use of technology in their business then they will definitely achieve competence in the target market. Use of technology in the business of research helps the researchers to attain accurate information from the target market and satisfy the clients as well. The above mentioned report explained the impact of the use of technology in the field of market research and benefits derived out of it as well. Thus, it should be noted that the marketing research company should make use of the technology in their business so as to effectively satisfy the clients by providing them adequate information about the business. The report adequately satisfies the requirements of the assessment.

References

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Brace, I. (2018). Questionnaire design: How to plan, structure and write survey material for effective market research. UK: Kogan Page Publishers.

Bryman, A., & Bell, E. (2015). Business research methods. Oxford University Press, USA.

Burns, A. C., Bush, R. F., & Sinha, N. (2014). Marketing research (Vol. 7). Harlow: Pearson.

Geum, Y., Jeon, H., & Lee, H. (2016). Developing new smart services using integrated morphological analysis: integration of the market-pull and technology-push approach. Service Business, 10(3), 531-555.

Greenland, S. J., Combe, I. A., & Farrell, A. M. (2016). Stakeholder preference and stated vs derived importance satisfaction research. International Journal of Market Research, 58(1), 35-55.

Hair Jr, J. F., Wolfinbarger, M., Money, A. H., Samouel, P., & Page, M. J. (2015). Essentials of business research methods. UK: Routledge.

Jin, G., Jeong, Y., & Yoon, B. (2015). Technology-driven roadmaps for identifying new product/market opportunities: Use of text mining and quality function deployment. Advanced Engineering Informatics, 29(1), 126-138.

Jussila, J. J., Kärkkäinen, H., & Aramo-Immonen, H. (2014). Social media utilization in business-to-business relationships of technology industry firms. Computers in Human Behavior, 30, 606-613.

McQuarrie, E. F. (2015). The market research toolbox: a concise guide for beginners. UK: Sage Publications.

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Trainor, K. J., Andzulis, J. M., Rapp, A., & Agnihotri, R. (2014). Social media technology usage and customer relationship performance: A capabilities-based examination of social CRM. Journal of Business Research, 67(6), 1201-1208.