Exploring Technology's Role in Marketing Research and Data Analytics

This report examines the integration of technology into marketing research, focusing on the role of data analytics and social media. It discusses how technology, particularly social media platforms, enables real-time data collection and analysis, allowing businesses to gather unfiltered customer feedback and conduct competitor analysis. The report highlights the case of Brisbane-based marketing research consultancy MRC (pty) Ltd, emphasizing the benefits of social media-based data analytics for understanding consumer behavior, improving data collection methods, and enhancing customer retention. It also addresses the potential risks associated with data privacy and security. Furthermore, the report explores the potential of social media metrics and intelligence in analyzing brand performance and optimizing marketing strategies, concluding that technology significantly enhances the effectiveness and efficiency of market research.

Running head: MARKETING RESEARCH
Marketing Research
Name of the student
University name
Author’s note

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MARKETING RESEARCH
Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Background of the case..............................................................................................................3
Impact of technology on marketing research.............................................................................4
Potential role of data analytics based on social media...............................................................6
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................7
Bibliography...............................................................................................................................9

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Executive summary
The current study focuses upon the impact of integrating technology in marketing
research. The technological aspects such as social media based data analytics have been
highlighted over here and the manner in which they are used for conducting market research
by organizations. The use of technology helps the business organizations in reaching out to a
wide section of audience in much real time. It also helps in collating a large amount of
unfiltered data where the customer feedbacks are used for designing effective sales pitch for
products. The online platform provides much scope to the target customer segments to
express their views freely which can be used by the market researchers to design effective
promotion plans for the client companies.

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Introduction
The current assignment focuses on the aspect of marketing research in today’s
business world and the impact of technology in facilitating the market research. Thus,
conducting market research using widespread technologies helps in collection of required
amount of data in much real time. It also helps in expanding the scope of the data which
would help in conducting a comparative study. Some of these data are used for doing
competitor analysis, which helps in determining the strategic positioning of the company. The
data analytics have been a powerful tool in determining the brand positioning of the
company. It also helps in analysing the surrounding the market situation and the effect of the
different marketing determinants on the growth and survival of the company. In the current
study, the power of social media has been analysed which can serve as a marketing research
tool. Therefore, integrating technology with marketing research can yield much better and
positive results.
In the current assignment, the Brisbane based marketing research consultancy firm
MRC (pty) Ltd has been taken into consideration. The assignment discusses the benefits and
limitations of technology in meeting with the market research objectives of a company. The
importance of introducing data analytics within the business operations has also been
discussed over here. The implementation of data analytics within the day to day functioning
of an organization also requires huge amount of skill set within the employees. It also places
huge amount of dependence upon sophisticated systems and technologies which results in
additional cost burden to the company or organization.
Background of the case
In the current assignment, Brisbane based marketing research company MRC (pty)
Ltd . has been taken into consideration. The work of a marketing research consultant is to
analyse the local, regional or national market to gather data as well as estimate potential of
sale for a product or services. Therefore, for doing an effective data analysis much wide
spread and real time data is required. As mentioned by Vahlne and Jan Johanson, without the
help of internet technologies the process of data collection often becomes cumbersome1.
1 Vahlne, Jan-Erik, and Jan Johanson. "The internationalization process of the firm—a model
of knowledge development and increasing foreign market commitments." International
Business. Abingdon:Routledge, 2017. 145-154

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MRC does market research analysis for medium sized FMCG companies such as IGA and
7Elevene franchisor. However, the organization lacks sufficient knowledge regarding the
benefits of social media based data analytics technology. Hence, the report has been prepared
with a view to promote as well as educate the management as well as employees of the MRC.
Pty ltd. regarding the benefits of social media marketing. Some of the social media sites
which could be used over here are facebook, twitter etc. It has been seen that the online
surveys conducted using some of these social media platforms can give sufficient idea
regarding a product or services.
Impact of technology on marketing research
The emergence of technology has changed the scope of market research to a great
extent. As mentioned by Sekaran et al. customer loyalty for a brand or product could be built
through social media2. The data mining program optimally utilizes the information made
available though social media 3. Therefore, the technology helps in analysing the consumer
choices in much real time. There are a number of ways in which technology has enhanced
market research. The technology serves as resource for obtaining sufficient business
intelligence. The joining of technology with social media helps the companies or
organizations in receiving the unfiltered feedback. As mentioned by Gandomi et al. some of
these feedbacks are used by the market researchers in gaining knowledge regarding the target
market4. The technological dependence helps in the improvement of data collection methods.
For example, the mood sensing retail device is a powerful tool which could be used to learn
2 Sekaran, Uma, and Roger Bougie. Research methods for business: A skill building
approach. New Jersey:John Wiley & Sons, 2016.
3 Lamberton, Cait, and Andrew T. Stephen. "A thematic exploration of digital, social media,
and mobile marketing: Research evolution from 2000 to 2015 and an agenda for future
inquiry." Journal of Marketing 80.6 (2016): 146-172.
4 Gandomi, Amir, and Murtaza Haider. "Beyond the hype: Big data concepts, methods, and
analytics." International Journal of Information Management 35.2 (2015): 137-144.

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regarding the customer choices and preferences. As supported by Kumar et al.
implementation of such tools and technologies can help in increasing the market share5.
The use of technology by the MRC (Pty.) Ltd can make data analysis easier by using
advanced data management settings. The advanced data analysis tools also help in customer
retention by improving long term loyalty. Additionally, the data driven approach to taking
particular business decisions can help MRC in avoiding the market risks. The large pool of
data helps to formulate business strategies with accuracy. In the words of the market
researcher, technology allows one to access respondents globally. There is always safety or
privacy concerns to technology, which needs to be taken care of by the organizations before
implementing social media based data analytics6. Inappropriate use of client data can result in
leakage of much vital or important information. The multiple data sources provide a holistic
view of the person or situation. It helps in building a better business insight by integrating the
qualitative and the quantitative data. The behavioural and attitude data of the customers can
help in planning effective marketing gimmicks.
Some of the present day companies have been using their social media pages for
collection of customer feedback and responses regarding certain products and services. The
likeability of the customers regarding certain products and services are estimate based upon
the number of clicks7. The data is further gathered using online survey forms which are
pasted onto the facebook or twitter page of the companies or brand. The responses collected
are used for significant statistical analysis.
5 Kumar, Ashish, et al. "From social to sale: The effects of firm-generated content in social
media on customer behavior." Journal of Marketing 80.1 (2016): 7-25.
6 Lamberton, Cait, and Andrew T. Stephen. "A thematic exploration of digital, social media,
and mobile marketing: Research evolution from 2000 to 2015 and an agenda for future
inquiry." Journal of Marketing 80.6 (2016): 146-172.
7 Stieglitz, Stefan, et al. "Social media analytics." Business & Information Systems
Engineering 6.2 (2014): 89-96.

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Potential role of data analytics based on social media
The social media can be effectively used as a data analytics tool by market researchers
to analyse the brand positioning of products or services. The kind of products preferred by the
target customer segment can be analysed through their social media pages. Some of the
concepts such as social media metrics and social media intelligence have been described over
here. The social media metrics helps in keeping track of the changing customer demands
which can help in renewal of the marketing plans and strategies of the company. As
mentioned by Bello-Orgaz et al. analysing the online following activities of the target
customer segment can give a better idea regarding the customer choices, which can help in
making the business more customer friendly8. The analytics can also help MRC to identify
which social media platform works better for them. An efficient data analytics can help in
saving time by reducing the creation of unnecessary web contents. As commented by Fan et
al. the business organizations spend a huge amount of money after advertisements and
promotions9. Hence, the data analytics can help in the identification of which ideas are
working best to fetch or attract the target market customer segment. This could be used to
best describe the idea of social media intelligence where every hit or like are used for brand
promotions of the products or services. The social media intelligence helps the organizations
to concentrate their time and resources towards a proper channel and reduce unnecessary
expenditures10. Though, initial investments after social media based data analytics are high
they could be turned into profitable return of investments (ROI) in the long run. As
mentioned by Riff et al. the number of online leads generated could be effectively turned
into potential new clients11. The customer interests could be tapped further by MRC for
8 Bello-Orgaz, Gema, Jason J. Jung, and David Camacho. "Social big data: Recent
achievements and new challenges." Information Fusion 28 (2016): 45-59.
9 Fan, Weiguo, and Michael D. Gordon. "The power of social media
analytics." Communications of the ACM 57.6 (2014): 74-81.
10 He, Wu, et al. "A novel social media competitive analytics framework with sentiment
benchmarks." Information & Management 52.7 (2015): 801-812.
11 Riff, Daniel, Stephen Lacy, and Frederick Fico. Analyzing media messages: Using
quantitative content analysis in research. Abingdon: Routledge, 2014.

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reaching out to them on a personal level and d directly selling them the services. These
customers further act as the pullers of new target customer base, which is mainly done by
word of mouth promotions.
The data analytics using social media metrics can further give an overview regarding
brand performance and positioning of the brand. Some of these are measured in the form of
page view, page likes and page followers. The page like is expressed in the form of the
number of unique people who visited and liked the page of a particular brand or company
over a period of seven days. Some other factors such as post reach helps in calculating the
number of unique people who have visit the contents of the page including ads over the last
seven days. The engagement is measured by the amount of clicks, likes, comments and shares
during the last seven days12. Hence, some of these social media based data analytics tool
could be used by MRC to improve their market research techniques and strategies.
Conclusion
The current assignment discusses the impact of technology on market research. In this
respect, social media technology is used for effective data analytics. Some of the features of
such as social media intelligence and social media metrics are used for analysis of the
customer preference. The customer preferences are further used for planning of marketing
strategies. Additionally, the social media platforms provide much large pool of information in
much real time. One of the most important features of using social media as data analytics
tool is that it helps in analysis of the competitor strategies in a hassle free manner. This is
because being at an arms distance can make market research difficult. The online platform
allows the researchers to have a much precise view at the larger picture. Additionally, the
collated data also saves a lot of time which is otherwise wasted in finding additional
distributor channels and marketing resources.
12 Chae, Bongsug Kevin. "Insights from hashtag# supplychain and Twitter Analytics:
Considering Twitter and Twitter data for supply chain practice and research." International
Journal of Production Economics 165 (2015): 247-259.

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Bibliography
Bello-Orgaz, Gema, Jason J. Jung, and David Camacho. "Social big data: Recent
achievements and new challenges." Information Fusion 28 (2016): 45-59.
Chae, Bongsug Kevin. "Insights from hashtag# supplychain and Twitter Analytics:
Considering Twitter and Twitter data for supply chain practice and research." International
Journal of Production Economics 165 (2015): 247-259.
Fan, Weiguo, and Michael D. Gordon. "The power of social media
analytics." Communications of the ACM 57.6 (2014): 74-81.
Gandomi, Amir, and Murtaza Haider. "Beyond the hype: Big data concepts, methods, and
analytics." International Journal of Information Management 35.2 (2015): 137-144.
Habibi, Mohammad Reza, Michel Laroche, and Marie-Odile Richard. "Brand communities
based in social media: How unique are they? Evidence from two exemplary brand
communities." International Journal of Information Management 34.2 (2014): 123-132.
He, Wu, et al. "A novel social media competitive analytics framework with sentiment
benchmarks." Information & Management 52.7 (2015): 801-812.
Khan, Aamera ZH, Mohammad Atique, and V. M. Thakare. "Combining lexicon-based and
learning-based methods for Twitter sentiment analysis." International Journal of Electronics,
Communication and Soft Computing Science & Engineering (IJECSCSE) (2015): 89.
Kumar, Ashish, et al. "From social to sale: The effects of firm-generated content in social
media on customer behavior." Journal of Marketing 80.1 (2016): 7-25.
Lamberton, Cait, and Andrew T. Stephen. "A thematic exploration of digital, social media,
and mobile marketing: Research evolution from 2000 to 2015 and an agenda for future
inquiry." Journal of Marketing 80.6 (2016): 146-172.
Riff, Daniel, Stephen Lacy, and Frederick Fico. Analyzing media messages: Using
quantitative content analysis in research. Abingdon: Routledge, 2014.
Sekaran, Uma, and Roger Bougie. Research methods for business: A skill building approach.
New Jersey:John Wiley & Sons, 2016.

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Stieglitz, Stefan, et al. "Social media analytics." Business & Information Systems
Engineering 6.2 (2014): 89-96.
Trainor, Kevin J., et al. "Social media technology usage and customer relationship
performance: A capabilities-based examination of social CRM." Journal of Business
Research67.6 (2014): 1201-1208.
Vahlne, Jan-Erik, and Jan Johanson. "The internationalization process of the firm—a model
of knowledge development and increasing foreign market commitments." International
Business. Abingdon:Routledge, 2017. 145-154.
Vayena, Effy, et al. "Ethical challenges of big data in public health." PLoS computational
biology 11.2 (2015): e1003904.