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 What  are  the  types  of  marketing 
 research those can be undertaken by 
 a marketer?
 The  ESOMAR  definition  that  we 
 discussed in the previous lecture tells 
 us  that  there  are  basically  two 
 reasons  for  conducting  marketing 
 research  and  using  its  results  for 
 decision making. 
 The  first  reason  is  that  marketing 
 research  helps  marketers  identify 
 threats and opportunities. 
 Secondly,  marketing  research  results 
 contribute  a  lot  for  generating  and 
 refining  marketing  actions.  Based  on 
 this  only,  we  can  classify  marketing 
 research.
 Marketing  research  can  be  classified 
 into  problem-identification  research 
 and problem-solving research. 
 If   a  marketing  research  study  is 
 undertaken  to  identify  problems 
 related  to  marketing  management 
 that are perhaps even if not apparent 
 on the ground but either yet exists or 
 there is a probability of it to crop up 
 in  future,  then  it  is  called  problem 
 identification research. 
 Market share, market potential, brand 
 or  company  image,  sales  analysis, 
 market  characteristics,   long-range 
 forecasting,  short-range  forecasting 
 and  business  trends  research  are 
 actually   examples     of    problem 
 identification research. 
 Problem identification research helps 
 diagnose  a  marketing  problem  by 
 providing   information   about    the 
 marketing environment.
 Let us take for an example; if there is 
 a declining trend in market potential 
 then  it  strictly  indicates  that  the 
 company will definitely has a chance 
 of  facing  problem  in  achieving  the 
 sales targets. 
 In  the  same  line  of  thought,  if  the 
 market  potential  has  growing  trend 
 but  the  company  is  losing  market 
 share  then  also  there  is  a  problem 
 that exists. 
 Social or cultural and economic trends 
 recognized     through     marketing 
 research may result in either threats 
 or opportunities for the firm.