Market research is an essential ingredient in any marketing mix. Market researchers should at least constantly scan their environment, analyze market structures, profile consumers, and evaluate tactics and promotional strategies. The internet offers researchers the opportunity to accomplish these tasks fast and effectively. The 21st century will challenge market researcher to continue to upgrade their research skill and information-processing expertise. A thorough understanding of the structure and substance of internet will be a certain prerequisite for the complete market researcher. This book provides students and practitioners the means to understand todayÂ’s technology and specifically, the know how to employ this technology as valuable research tools.
Related with research tasks, this book documents how the internet can be used for:
- Personal, environmental, consumer and competitor intelligence
- Survey , focus group, product and copy testing
- Related with research tools, this book overviews the nature and application of :
- Email, newsgroup and discussion lists
- Search and meta-search engines, metadexes, searchbots, knowbots and agents
- Cookies, server log files and analysers
Also addressed are the critical concerns of every market researcher regarding :
- Data source and web site reliability and validity
- The issues and legalities of user privacy, consumer protection, data security, intellectual property, fair use, trademarking and copyright.