Executives need market research to make informed strategic business decisions on product planning, target markets, customer requirements, communications strategies, pricing, distribution channels and many other factors. From high tech case studies where the feature set of a product and its competitors is the most important thing to research, to high volume internet and consumer businesses where user trends need to be statistically analyzed and forecasted, this course will show the market power you can gain from key knowledge points.

Topics range from basic survey techniques in both primary and secondary research to an understanding of the power of statistical fact-gathering and analysis including

• Sources of secondary research
• Primary research process and costs
• Developing a survey for in-person and online usage
• Translating, assessing and defining market trends
• Customer profiling and typical product persona development
• Competitive market segment and customer analysis
• Integrating results into business planning

Learning Outcomes

At the conclusion of the course, you should be able to

• Select the appropriate types of research to meet a specific business need/question.
• Develop a research plan.
• Create a survey script to collect primary data to achieve research objectives.
• Analyze primary and secondary data to extract pertinent information.
• Make recommendations based on data collected.

Through lectures, projects, reading, analysis of case studies and class discussions, you will learn to identify the strengths and limitations of market research, as well as the proper ways to gather and present information.