Overview of Market Research Online Communities

The use of social media marketing has become a standard way in which organizations advertise their products or services. Social media marketing allows consumers to have immediate access to other consumers reviews or to post a review about a product or service. There is engagement between the company and the consumer (Evans, Dave 2010). Social Media emerged in the late 1980’s when websites such as Prodigy, Compuserve and America Online. Prodigy was first of it’s kind and was known as a ”consumer online service”. Half of the page is devoted to advertising. Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, Hi5, Bebo and Orkut are all social media platforms that are utilized as platforms today.

One of the key roles of social media from a marketing perspective is the development of a client based platform. It is becoming an increasingly important part of any business’s marketing. Businesses can utilize existing online platforms to build networks of current and potential clients. By being active online allows businesses to connect with their customers in innovative ways to become a trusted source of information and convey the passion they have for their industry.

| The biggest opportunity for marketers is the emergence of new media, such as Facebook and Twitter, and the increased screen space they can capture with the current dual screeners. Marketers are only beginning to understand that the data generated from these sources can be used to the effect of the brand in many ways. They are beginning to apply this knowledge to their IMC strategies to integrate usage of IMC tools – both existing and new – as seamlessly as possible.

Before launching or expanding a business venture, there needs to be an understanding of the industry, its competitors, and its customers. Market research is vital in assisting companies in the decision-making process and their marketing direction. Data from marketing research is important because it provides companies with ways to identify opportunities, identify market potential, minimize chances of loss, devise effective marketing strategies, gauge customer satisfaction, and serve as an evaluation tool.

This web assignment will review two research firms and the type of tools they use in their firms as well as determining if those tools are effective as well as does the firm provide a valuable service to its customers. The two firms being reviewed include The NPD Group and Kantar TNS Global, each company was ranked in the top ten market research companies in the AMA Gold Report for 2016 as noted by Bowers & Brereton (2016). These two research firms are globally accomplished, have collectively helped thousands of clients succeed using their innovative techniques in a tailored program for each company they serve as well as being able to evolve in an ever changing research environment.

Participants were sourced from online panel (managed by marketing research company) and originally recruited by using different methods (computer-assisted telephone interviews, face-to-face and online market research databases)

In today's society, social media rules the world and is one of the easiest marketing strategies for younger customers. As stated in The Shallows, when people are interrupted from social media communication they feel out of the loop. "We want to be interrupted, because each interruption brings us a valuable piece of information. To turn off these alerts is to risk feeling out of touch, or even socially isolated," (Carr). I will utilize the societies weakness to my advantage. By using marketing strategies like offering free items from a company if they follow a link through a social media application like Instagram or Facebook. Customers will feel socially isolated if all of their friends received a free item because they were on social media. This marketing strategy would be one of the least expensive types and reaches one of the largest networks of people. Using my skills in statistics I can analyze which social media application gets the most feedback and tell a company which application to put more money into advertising. This not only makes the customers maintain their feeling of being in the loop but increases the company's sales and potentially lowering their advertisement

The data that is sourced from outside the company is typically not used for any important applications. The sole use that was discussed was concerning misinformation and public opinion. The customer relations team attempts to sway with public opinion by simply correcting the information that is shared concerning the company on various websites, including social media. This approach is used to provide the correct information rather than attempt to tell the public what their opinions should be.

Devise and document measures and procedures for measuring the impact of the research information on the marketing decisions

Social media marketing is relatively new to the ?integrated marketing communications systems of several public and private businesses.? (Mercadal, 2013, para. 2) Social media is used by almost sixty-six percent of American adults. (Lanham, 2016) Integrated marketing communications try to connect companies and other organizations with their target audience. (Mercadal, 2013) Therefore, social media marketing strategically looks at demographics of the audiences in each social media platform and use the platforms that match the audience who would be interested in products or services sold. (Smith,

Social media has become essential as a marketing tool for CU's, which is why 74% of marketers are incorporating social media into their marketing budgets. The CMO Survey released in August 2014, indicates that “marketing budgets are expected to increase by 7.2% in the next year.” With 1.65 billion social accounts that are active globally, social media has become an effective

The marketing industry is an elaborate network that links companies to their consumers, primarily through written communication. The main objective of marketing is to identify trends and patterns in consumer behavior, and utilize the data to influence consumers to purchase more goods. From a macroenviroment standpoint, the general conditions of a market are heavily dependent on global environmental factors. The most significant factor that influences the markets today is technological advancements. Since the release of Facebook, Linked-in, Twitter, and Myspace in the early 2000s, the number of people using social media has increased to over sixty-five percent. The ever-growing dependency on social media platforms, has given marketers the tremendous opportunity to further market potential consumers. Social media marketing is a specific form of marketing that focuses on producing ad content that social media users will post on their own networks. This particular marketing technique is effective because ads and content are created, based on what personal information users post on social media. Firms and organizations that advertise their brands on social media are more likely to increase their customer base and annual revenue. By doing so, companies are able to increase exposure of their brand and widen previous hidden, customer bases. As a marketer, the fine line between right and wrong is often blurred. The amount and

In today’s business world, social media is being discussed on a daily basis. This phenomenon has taken over the marketing and advertising industries and has changed the way they handle their efforts to attract customers. There is a big misunderstanding that social media are only popular networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, but as defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary, social media are “forms of electronic communication (as Web sites for social networking and micro blogging) through which users create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages, and other content (as videos).” The rise of these online communities has given companies an opportunity to engage in conversations with their customers. This in

In recent years, social media has become the best available option for brands to communicate with prospective consumers. In other words, social media is an opportunity for brands to transcend the traditional middleman (Neti, 2011). One of the many positives is that companies can build their own brand communities easily on the social media. There are some obvious benefits of brand communities which are facilitating information sharing, spread the history and the culture of brands, providing help to customers, and positively influencing brand loyalty (Laroche, Habibi and Richard, 2013).

Figuring out how to market your business online is an ongoing challenge these days. The landscape of the Internet seems to change on an almost daily basis. One thing is certain, though, social media has brought forth some influencers in nearly every industry and the impact they have on marketing is measurable.