A blended approach to marketing research

Marketing Research and other Academic Disciplines: A Blended Approach to Marketing Research

Marketing is in fact a blended industry. It relies heavily on other genres of business and academics to provide the tools necessary to reach out to target consumers and effectively make an impact in tailored marketing campaigns. Thus, there are a number of academic disciplines that contribute to marketing research. For example, psychology helps contribute information on consumer behavior, statistics provide empirical data and statistical testing tools for marketers to make assumptions, and information technology (IT) provides new technological platforms to create innovative marketing campaigns.

First, the discipline of psychology contributes significantly to marketing research. Psychology aims to understand human behavior and thinking processes. Thus, research in psychology can dramatically improve marketing research and its goal in understanding consumer behavior. By using the information gathered by psychology and the theories within it, marketers get a much better understanding of their target consumers. Ultimately, "this will help determine where to spend time and money" (Ogden 277).

For example, when a company us trying to launch a social media or digital campaign, psychology comes in to play because it is important for that company to understand the online behavior of their target market. If their target market is adolescents, it is important to use information and research from psychology in order to best pinpoint teen online behavior, predominately what sites they use and how often they use them. Modern psychology is uncovering more and more about human behavior online and marketing can use this emerging research to generate models for targeting consumers based on their online activity. From this perspective, "it is necessary to understand these customers and their behaviors, as they are different in cyberspace than in physical location" (294). Therefore, psychology research helps illustrate the differences people show between their behavior online and offline. Marketers can then capitalize on this information and tailor online and offline marketing campaigns differently to reach the same target consumers.

Statistics is another academic genre that is incredibly useful regarding its contributions to marketing research. Gathering empirical data is the first major contribution statistics has for marketing research. There are already organizations that collect demographic data for other purposes that can be used by marketers in marketing research. The U.S. Census is an excellent source for free demographic data, and the Simmons Market Research Bureau can also provide a wealth of statistical data (Ogden 250). The discipline of statistics also provides models for collecting more in-depth data. There are models for collecting research through survey methods, which often include the use of a Likert Scale, which is a rating system that easily allows the researcher to quantify the results so that it can be later used in statistical testing and analysis. Then, the discipline of statistic provides analytic tools like statistical tests in order to test data in various contexts. For example, data gathered on social media use by age and gender can help give a very accurate portrayal of what consumer is using what platform. Statistics allows the marketer to go one step further by providing tools that can help analyze and forecast future behavior. Data concerning what type of consumer clicks certain ads on a social media site can then be analyzed using various statistical tools in order to show how successful that ad is running. Regression is also a very useful testing method for marketers because it can help forecast future results if consumer and environmental conditions remain similar. This can help marketers plan for long-term goals based on the unique elements within the target market. Therefore, statistics are useful because they provide methods for collecting data, as well as analyzing it in order to ensure that marketers get a full in-depth view of what is currently going on within their market segment.