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Marketing Research Role in AI Domain

5/18/2020

At Elm's monthly Diwaniyya, we host experts on relevant and mind-enriching topics. Our guests share their experiences and give us a glimpse of their career and practice. We were thrilled to host Professor Dr. Siva Muthaly. A top tier expert in marketing and the dean of Business School in Melbourne Institute of Technology. Dr. Muthaly has well-rounded expertise in social media studies and digital marketing.

On Marketing Research

Marketing research is understanding the complex market needs and behaviors of groups of consumers through research and studies. It comprises quantitative and qualitative research, and accordingly, marketers conduct their marketing services and products. Qualitative research encompasses interviews, focus groups, and surveys, which requires the researcher to possess a prior comprehensive understanding of the company's services.

Why is marketing research so significant?

Marketing research is the cornerstone of understanding consumer behavior and their actual needs. Without marketing research, consumers' needs will remain inexplicit and vague to companies, which will in return, cause services or products to fail in driving returns.

Marketing research's role in designing products and services

Most of the mysteries we encounter when trying to understand why a product fails could be elucidated through qualitative research, such as interviews and surveys. Companies should always tailor their marketing research to remain impact-driven and adjust their surveys to subserve that purpose.

Challenges facing companies in marketing research

Companies encounter many challenges when planning for interviews or employing researchers. One of them is failing to properly follow up with their researchers during research. While researchers often struggle to utilize and apply their research results.

Credibility and impartiality in marketing research

Impartiality is pivotal to any marketing research's success, especially in quantitative research that provides specific statistics. There are questions that any company can employ to ensure the impartiality of their researches, such as: What is the rationale behind selecting survey questions? What are their objectives, and who is the audience we are targeting?

Marketing Research and AI

AI can play a vital role in integrating questions and analysis in the form of solutions. AI can also capture consumers' facial expressions through cameras and observe their reactions to the services provided or detect consumers' behavior when shopping.

AI is proven to work in capturing and analyzing data from marketing research, but can AI substitute marketing research? I do not think so. Human intervention will always be essential in reviewing the data to ensure the validity of the research.