THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.
INPRACTICE
Marketingresearchisascientific
and controlledprocess, butulti-
mately, decisions arebased ona
blendoffactsandintuition.U nder-
standingmarketingresearchallows
managerstointelligently evaluate
findings and recommendations.
D eterminingthepurposeand
scopeoftheresearchisthefirst
criticalactivityin any marketing
research project.Allsubsequent
decisionsareresultsofthis process.
Creating theresearchdesign,con-
ductingtheinvestigation,andpro-
cessingthedataarethere maining
criticalactivities.Bothprimaryand
secondarydataareaccumulated
whenconductionresearch.U sing
thisinformation toproducegood
researchallowsmanagers to inte-
gratemarketingwithother areasof
thebusiness.
Secondarysourcesofdata
onlineincludeas sociationsand
businessinformationsites. C heck
outtheAmericanMarketingAsso-
ciation's websiteat
http://www.ama.org/resourcefora listof
resourcesandguides. Forlinks to
businessdirectories, media sites,
andmarketing-relatedresource",
checkoutABusinessResearchers
Interestsat http://www.brint.com.
YoursubscriptiontotheIn ter-
activeJournalallowsyou toaccess
articlesinvariousD owJones publi-
cations.UnderMoreDowJones
Sitesintheleft menu,clickonDow
Jones&Co.Fromhereyouwillbe
abletoaccessDowJonesWebLinks
whichoffers you linkstodozens of
businessandnewswebsites. Clickon
severaloftheselinksnow.
ReturntotheIn teractivejour-
nal'sFrontSection.UnderToolsin
theleftmenu, selectWSJYogi.The
WSJYogiisa freesoftwareapplica-
tionthatworkslikea personal
assistant, automaticallysuggesting
relevantcontenttoyouasyou
browsetheweb.TheWSJYogiwill
gatherlinkstorelatedstoriesasyou
read. D ownloadtheWSJYoginow.
R eturnagaintothe Interactive
Jo urnal'sFrontSection.U nder
Resourcesintheleftmenu,select
SpecialReports.Thissectionoffers
linkstospecialreportsthathave
appearedassupplementstoThe
Wall~treetJournalprintedition.
Thesereports providea thorough
analysisandreviewofvariouslOP-
icssuch ase-commerce,SmallBusi-
ness, andWorldBusiness.Rev;ew
recentSpecialReportsnow.D E LIVERABLE
Withtheinformationprovidedin
this sectionaboutwebresources,
usethe Interactivejournalandrel-
evant weblinkstoconductmarket
resea rchonrecenttrendsin
e-commerce.Findatleastfive
sources ofsecondarydataonline
thatwillhelp youidentifyrelevant
trendsine- commerceadvertising,
marketing,andbusinessstrategies.DISCUSSIONQU ESTIONS
1.Howcanmar1<etingresearch
helpmanagerscreatesuccessful
pr oductlinesandcustomerrela-
tionships?
2.Mostpeopleconductresearch
whenbuyingcertain" bigticket"
itemslikecarsorcomputers.How
doyouGonductmarketing
researchforthesetypesofitems?
3.H owhas theInternetimpacted
consumersandtheirpurchase
decision~,?Whatabouttneimpact
oncompanies?