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McBride's View of Market Research

Decent Essays

Market research is defined as "the gathering of information about a market's size and trends" (QuickMBA, 2010). For McBride, the point of conducting market research is to identify good markets to pursue that the bank is not already pursuing. This research should also help McBride to determine how these markets compare to the market it already has. The company may find through the course of this research that its current target market is the best one to target going forward, a strategy that implies further penetration of the existing market as opposed to opening up new markets.
McBride should therefore conduct market research using the available demographic information from the US Census Bureau, and information from its own customer bases. Ideally, the company would be able to formulate customer profiles of competitors, but this information may be difficult to obtain. McBride should aim to create a demographic and psychographic profile of its current customer base, and the same for other potential customer bases. Differences between McBride's existing customers and the general population of the area in which McBride operates can highlight some potential markets, in terms of demographics, income levels, education, banking behavior and other key variables. The more variables that McBride studies the better, bearing in mind the cost of acquiring additional information.
The choice of media used in the implementation of McBride's marketing plan should be guided by the results of

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