Marketing research specifies the information required to address the vital issues in decision making, designs methods for collecting information, manages and implements the data collection process, analyzes and communicates the findings and their implications. In simple marketing research is about researching the whole company’s marketing process.

The Role of Internet in Marketing Research:
Internet became the part and parcel of the businesses to make and convey decisions. The decision-making is done based on the information generated by the marketing research. Increasingly Internet is becoming a major source for the marketing research. The reason is Internet contains vast resource of information available for market research.

•    Access to Multiple Resources
Accessing information through the Internet is an efficient alternative to hours spent with traditional sources like libraries. The Internet connects businesses, academic institutions, trade associations, government agencies and private individuals. Using browsers, it is possible to access the sites or user groups who are linked through the Net.

•    Information at Finger Tips
Any kind of information that is available in Internet is just a few clicks away. For marketing research, the Internet has two important sources of information. One is the websites, which represent companies, organizations and individuals to promote their products, services or communicate their views. The other source is user groups. The information given in the websites rather than the user groups is more reliable for a researcher. The companies and organizations generally give genuine information about their businesses in their official portals. The user groups can give some useful leads by giving key words and URLs.

•    Exchange Information Globally in Less Time
Through Internet it is possible to send and receive information from far distant countries. For example, you can send and receive market reports to and from China as easy as Canada. All this will happen in few minutes with less effort and cost. The effortless transmission of information across the boundaries made the job of the marketing research easier, to process both globalized and localized information for the marketing research.

It is undisputed to state that Internet has a vital role to play in the marketing research. The information base in Internet is expanding by the online versions of the other sources of information such as libraries, press, books etc. This will give a new exposure to the marketing research to become more effective and efficient in delivering better results.