Abstract:
The starting point in marketing is research. This is meant to ensure
marketing decisions, be it about market strategy, launching a new product or
service, or penetrating an external market, opening a service network, or
promoting sales over certain market segments. The research process in the
field of marketing varies depending on one of the following: nature of the
issue studied, financial resources, working instruments, and quality of
expected results. Investigation success depends on several factors, i.e.
rigorously defining objectives, properly using investigation means and
techniques, existence of a proper informational system, etc. In order to obtain
superior performance, any firm needs a marketing strategy firmly oriented
towards the consumer. As a result, it is important to monitor and study the
consumer behaviour from every point of view: type of consumer, age, sex,
occupation, affiliation groups, personality, culture, etc. Who? When? How?
How much? Where from? How many times? etc. are questions whose
answers are studied by marketing operators with a view to modelling the
purchasing and consumption behaviour of the individuals, making decisions
on how a firm should respond. At present, consumers are sovereigns of their
incomes. Social stratification differentiates incomes ad determines significant
variations in the structure of consumption. Knowing the attitudinal structure
of the consumer is a good occasion for investigating the causes that
determine acceptance or rejection of a product. The most important way is to
research consumer desires.
