Market research is the process of studying the many different elements of business to improve productivity and use determined trends to predict future events.  Market research is crucial for a business in better understanding how their products and services compare in the market and how they can be improved.  Market research also examines factors outside of the business, such as economic trends and government regulations that also have an affect on performance.

                Market research takes on many specified forms to better target an exact area of business.  Consumer market research is a widely used form of market research.  This analysis is able to determine buyer habits and behaviors using sociology based studies.  With this information businesses can determine which products and services will have a better chance at prevailing in the market place.  Consumer market research is also useful in understanding the effects and success of marketing campaigns which assists businesses in targeting markets.  Market research can also be focused on financial analysis, product or advertising research, and business to business market research as well.  Of course, market research can be employed in even more specified terms within these categories.

                Market research is applied through numerous methods to best suit the subject being researched based on questions and observations.  Methods can be directed towards qualitative market research which is more investigative, such as using a focus group.  They can also be used in quantitative market research which focuses on drawing conclusions accomplished through methods such as surveys and questionnaires.  Statistics are widely utilized when determining consumer preference.  Multidimensional preference analysis, conjoint analysis, and discrete choice analysis all use statistics of consumer’s preferences to product attributes, combination of attributes, and ranking of the attributes.  The choice of method lies in the question that’s being answered.