Scenario: Select a Fortune 500 company of your choice, and look for ways to increase customer flow and revenue for the business. The company leaders have hired you to be the company's market research

Running head: THE IMPORTANCE OF MARKET RESEARCH

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The Importance of Market Research

In the most general and vague definition market research is the collection of consumerism data that is analyze and interpret for making educated decisions. Market research can be conducted by using exploratory or confirmatory methods . Both start-up and seasoned businesses are able to benefit from gathering information about their customers choices. However, there are some companies and or entrepreneurs that market research is not going to be cost-effective nor the best use of money for their budget.

Ulta Beauty

In the beauty industry market, research is essential for a new entrepreneur with a startup nonetheless, for Fortune 500 Company like Ulta Beauty / ULTA. Ulta Beauty was recently added to the list of Fortune 500 Companies this year , ranking # 471. ("Ulta Beauty | Fortune 500 (2018). “2018). Ulta Beauty’s corporate is currently hiring for marketing research positions; “Marketing Analytics Analyst” and “Associate Manager, Social & Integrated Marketing” per their website (" Job Posting - Ulta Beauty Careers - 22218", 2018). The position of Marketing Analytics Analyst is specific on job duties that include confirmatory type of market research, quantitative marketing and market research. Compared to the position of Associate Manger, Social & Integrated Marketing, where much of the marketing required is a mixture of quantitative, with slight qualitative. See figure 1a. I do feel some of the social media marketing, brand/product launching, and integrated campaigns are more qualitative because the goal is not to measure a quantity but to measure customer satisfaction, feelings, and opinions.

As a customer of Ulta Beauty, I personally see what Mr. Dave Kimball is relating to when he mentions about personalized messaging Leininger, E. (2017).  I am not only a current Ulta Beauty customer, and I also have the Ulta Beauty applications, and I am a member of their loyalty rewards program. I currently receive emails for sales on products I purchase, and products I’ve never purchased. I have opted to receive pop-up notifications and receive flash sales and coupons too. At times, I feel the more I buy the more coupons and offers that are sent to me. It now seems as if Ulta Beauty is performing experimental marketing research on me.

As of now, I gather, Ulta Beauty is headed in the right direction with the marketing research techniques they are currently using, as well as, market research the company is conducting. Ulta Beauty jumped from ranking #524, to now #471 on the Fortune 500 Company’s and incremented their profit by 35% ("Ulta Beauty | Fortune 500(2018). Their Chief of Merchandising and Marketing officer David Kimbell has stated how with all of the new types of market research the company implemented “… between 2009-2016, Ulta Beauty has grown 250 percent …” Leininger, E. (2017). 

Market Research

Ulta Beauty has many types of marketing going on a daily basis. The most common and prominent market research confirmatory marketing which provides quantitative results. Results that are able to be analyzed to aid marketing directors in making conscious decisions to keep for the success of Ulta Beauty. It is because of this data mining and confirmatory results that Ulta Beauty is successful and will continue to do so.

Types of Research – ULTA Beauty
Fig 1a.	Purposes
	Exploratory (Qualitative) {Investigations of specific qualities that customers response can take on}	Confirmatory (Quantitative) {Investigations designed to count or qualify the qualities discovered later}
Search	Descriptive Survey - Customers are sent satisfaction surveys. Big Data - Customers are sent satisfaction surveys. Secondary Search – information from satisfaction surveys and market basket data.
Ask	n.a.	Customer Satisfaction Surveys
Observe	n.a.	Customer Visits Customer purchases Demographics Behavioral Data Segmentation
Arrange Stimuli	n.a.	Experiments

References

Job Posting - Ulta Beauty Careers - 22218(2018). Retrieved from http://careers.ulta.com/ posting/marketing-analytics-analyst/22218

Job Posting - Ulta Beauty Careers - 24168(2018). Retrieved from http://careers.ulta.com/ posting/associate-manager-social-integrated-marketing/24168

Leininger, E. (2017). The Secret to Ulta Beauty’s™ Success: Joy. Retrieved from https://insight. kellogg.northwestern.edu/article/the-secret-to-ulta-beautys-success-joy

McQuarrie, E. F. (n.d.). The Market Research Toolbox (4th ed.). Retrieved from The University of Phoenix eBook Collection database.

Ulta Beauty | Fortune 500(2018). Retrieved from http://fortune.com/fortune500/ulta-beauty/