Impact of Technology on Marketing Research in Today’s Business Environment

This article discusses the impact of technology on marketing research in today’s business environment. It covers the role of social media technology, improvements in data collection methods and techniques, techniques of enhanced data analysis, and big data inform research. The article concludes by stating that technology has not only impacted marketing research in positive ways, but it has also expedited the entire process of marketing research.

Running Head: Marketing
Marketing
Impact of Technology on Marketing
Research in Today’s Business
environment

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Table of Content
Impact of Technology on Market Research in the Business Environment.............................................2
Social Media Technology......................................................................................................................2
Improvements in Data collection Methods and Techniques..............................................................3
Techniques of Enhanced Data Analysis.............................................................................................3
Big Data Inform Research.................................................................................................................4
References.............................................................................................................................................5

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Impact of Technology on Market Research in the Business
Environment
Introduction
Technology has transformed the way business organization functions, from checking emails
to editing a business presentation; technology has penetrated all aspects of business
environment. Technology has even transformed Marketing research and has helped it to
become more robust and efficient. Social media technology, data analytics, improvements in
data collection methods, mobility and mobile computing has made marketing research to be
extremely beneficial to all the possible beneficiaries of the report. The section will entail the
role of Social media technology and how big data analytics are being the game changer for
the industry (Bryman & Bell, 2015).
Social Media Technology
Social media is one platform which has seen the maximum transformation, development and
adoption in the last couple of years. The platform which was invented by Mark Zuckerberg in
the early 2000s have transformed from just being a communication platform to a facilitator of
in depth customer insight. The platform has been created in such a manner that customer
organically drop their data on these platforms. The data from the customers is then used to
increase the customer experience and help them in making the right purchase decisions.
Facebook is the largest social media platform which has over 1.2 billion people on it;
Facebook collects the data by engaging with the customer audience and by tracing their
journey on the web. The data is of big help to the marketing agency, and in turn to the
business organization who can then use the data to create products, idea, services or any other
thing which has a value for the consumers (Hair et. al., 2015).
Social media has also evolved as a great platform for collecting unfiltered feedback from the
customers; this feedback is then utilized by the marketing research organization for devising
ways for service recovery. The beauty here lies that customers organically share their details,

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even they are aware that their data will be used for marketing promotion activities,
remarketing and retargeting and also to create personalized shopping lists for them. The
objective of the market research is to collect as much information as possible for the target
audience, this information can be used for creating brand awareness, managing the online
reputation for the brand and also to curate the ideas the customers have for the brand, product
or service. Accumulating the information collected through the use of social media helps in
giving marketers some great insights about customers and other relevant information (Kurnia
et. al., 2015).
Improvements in Data collection Methods and Techniques
There has been a consistent improvement in data collection techniques, thanks to the
technology. The traditional ways of data collection by using surveys, interviews and focus
group have been replaced by software and technology which expedite the data collection
method and provision for transmission of data for analytics. For instance, retail sector has
created a tool which is useful for collecting data on the consumer shopping experience and
experience with the staff of the retail organization. Such technologies are creating a
significant impact on marketing research (Sekaran & Bougie, 2016).
Techniques of Enhanced Data Analysis
Collecting of data is the primary thing, which has already been leveraged by the growth and
prevalence of technology in marketing research. The next logical step here is to analyse the
collected data by using various software’s and data analysis technologies. The advancement
in the present day technology is making the data analysis process easier as well as
sophisticated. Easier in the way that the software can easily break the data into qualitative and
quantitative form which is ready to be presented to the management. At the same time, it is
sophisticated in the manner that it gives various alternatives to analyse the data. However,
holistically, enhanced data analysis gives a better understanding of the consumer data, their
purchase behaviour and other such details. Better data analytics also helps in establishing
stronger relationship with the clients which helps in retaining the customers and save some
additional cost incurred towards acquiring a new customer. The enhanced data analysis also
finds acceptability in setting up the Key performance indicators for the business organization.
The process of regression analysis, usage of SPSS, Factor analysis and many more can help

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in creating KPI in tandem to the goals of the business organization (Wilden & Gudergan,
2015).
Big Data Inform Research
Market researchers analyse a lot of data coming from plenty of online and offline tools which
gives marketers a large pool of data to analyse and formulate business strategy for the
organization. Big data informs research will help in cutting down on the irrelevant data and
gives an assurance that the research is based on substantial data. Thus, big data research helps
in coming up with the strategies which are directly derived and synthesized from the
consumer data and to be used for their own good being(Xiang, Magnini & Fesenmair, 2015).
Conclusion
Towards the end, the topic can be concluded by saying that technology has not only impacted
the marketing research inn positive ways, but it has also expedited the entire process of
marketing research. The cumbersome task of personal data collection method is replaced by
the use of software and technology to read the data and draw analysis on it. The drawn
analysis from various sections of society, industry, individuals and community can be of
great help to the public as well the private organization (Botha, Kourie & Snyman, 2014).
The techniques of data analysis helps the researchers to view and extrapolate the data for
creating future projections, estimates, creation of a product or service and many other
reasons. Social media platforms by the virtue of high engagement of its platform are able to
draw and collect data from plethora of sources. This data is shared by the consumers in full
consent, based on the accumulated data, the content can be analysed by different lenses to
draw the best conclusion out of the data. The technologically curated data analytics draw
some amazing insights for the business organization (Parveen, Jaafar & Ainin, 2015).

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References
Botha, A., Kourie, D. and Snyman, R., 2014. Coping with continuous change in the business
environment: Knowledge management and knowledge management technology. Elsevier.
Bryman, A. and Bell, E., 2015. Business research methods. Oxford University Press, USA.
Hair Jr, J.F., Wolfinbarger, M., Money, A.H., Samouel, P. and Page, M.J., 2015. Essentials of
business research methods. Routledge.
Kurnia, S., Choudrie, J., Mahbubur, R.M. and Alzougool, B., 2015. E-commerce technology
adoption: A Malaysian grocery SME retail sector study. Journal of Business Research, 68(9),
pp.1906-1918.
Parveen, F., Jaafar, N.I. and Ainin, S., 2015. Social media usage and organizational
performance: Reflections of Malaysian social media managers. Telematics and
Informatics, 32(1), pp.67-78.
Sekaran, U. and Bougie, R., 2016. Research methods for business: A skill building approach.
John Wiley & Sons.
Wilden, R. and Gudergan, S.P., 2015. The impact of dynamic capabilities on operational
marketing and technological capabilities: investigating the role of environmental
turbulence. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 43(2), pp.181-199.
Xiang, Z., Magnini, V.P. and Fesenmaier, D.R., 2015. Information technology and consumer
behavior in travel and tourism: Insights from travel planning using the internet. Journal of
Retailing and Consumer Services, 22, pp.244-249.

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