What is marketing research?

Market research consists of information collection regarding the prevalent market situation, and its analysis. "We define marketing research as the systematic design, collection, analysis, and reporting of data and findings relevant to a specific marketing situation facing the company" (Kotler & Keller,2009,). Most of the big players in the market have separate market research departments and certain percentage of profit is specified for it.

How has the Internet affected marketing research? As a part of your answer, address time, cost, approaches, and validity.

The internet has greatly enhanced the possibilities regarding information collection. Official websites can have questionnaires and visitors can fill them. Companies can place ads on popular...