Differences Between Web Browsing and Research

Today Internet is one of the major sources of information. You can find information on almost any topic you desire on Internet. It is a huge database of useful information. It is a major repository of scholarly journals, news, books, magazines and other general information.

Two common user approaches for information access on the Internet are browsing and research. Though both are used to get the information they are very different. Specifically, the purpose, quality, time taken, strategies involved, and skill required to get the required information are very different for browsing and research.

Purpose and focus
Browsing through Internet is usually more for the purposes of entertainment and general interest. Browsing is for time pass. You stop when you get bored. Browsers work without any intent to get credible information. Browsers have tendency to get off track by the information presented on the Internet. With browsing you start somewhere and end at a totally different place. Where as, research is more for professional uses. Researchers are intent-driven and will be looking for some specific information by setting objectives. They define their objectives clearly. The objectives will be like bulls eye, which help them to stay focused on their goal.

Strategy
Browsing is generally unstructured form of searching for information. It involves navigation through information collection. It does not have any specific task to get the required information. Where as, research uses a series of queries to retrieve credible information from the Internet. Research follows a series of instructions to search, find and obtain the data.

Skill
Web research is not easy and requires considerable skills such as active mindset, vigorous hard work and patience, which are not necessary for browsing. Apart from these, a good knowledge of how the search engine works, different kinds of search operators and using the right keywords are very much essential to find and capture the relevant, latest and credible information. Search operators act as commands to the search engine to gain more specific outputs. The most commonly used search operators are the Boolean operators such as ‘AND’ ‘OR’ and ‘-‘ functions.

Time taken
Browsing doesn’t have any time limits. Due to its unstructured form, browsing the web may take more time or sometimes may not provide the desired information, even if it is readily available. Where as research is time bounded, where timelines are set clearly. Researchers usually work heads down and focus on what they are looking for, where to find the credible information and how to find the information. They know what is found till now and what exactly is to be found. They regularly narrow down their choices to get the desired information quickly.

Documentation
One of the main differences between the two is unlike net surfers, researchers save the data they have collected for further analysis. Later, when they are offline they analyze the collected data, draw the conclusions and document or present the information in simple terms, which is easy to understand.

Casually surfing for information on the Internet is not efficient in finding useful information. Where as research is more thorough and involves a lot of hard work and skill, for the same reasons, information will be of good quality.

Role of Web Research in Recession

Recession hit consumers are buying less, looking for better deals, and switching to different brands or stores. There is a drastic change in their attitude towards consumption. As the degree of uncertainty in businesses has raised, it is very important for business owners to consider the current economic condition while planning their marketing strategies.

In these tough times, a good insight into current state of market and consumer behaviors is invaluable for business owners. Web research plays an important role in recession to help the businesses make right choices. It not only provides valuable information on the industry, product and competitors, but also helps to find a solution to evolve and survive.

Monitors current state of industry or product
In order to survive and succeed in tough times, a good knowledge on the current state of the industry or product is very important for a business. For some brands, detailed information on the market provides a good chance to grab the market share in recession.

Web research helps them to know about their brand’s position in the current market. It also provides vital information such as the market size, share and structure for the businesses. It monitors the current state of the product and helps in pricing, positioning and branding.

Insight into consumers’ behavior
Studying consumers’ behavior is very essential in recession. Consumers don’t stop spending, but they spend in different ways than earlier. Focusing and communicating with the potential, existing, and loyal customers of brand are helpful during the critical period to survive. Web research helps you to identify them in a quick and effective manner. It also provides insights into customers’ new expectations.

Explores potential markets
Despite the recession, consumption levels and brand preferences in some markets are good. Web research plays a critical role in identifying the markets that are growing. It also helps to set up and cement the brand in new markets by providing vital information on market trends, opportunities and key success factors in recession.

Monitors competitors
Monitoring the competitors is as important as monitoring your own business in recession. Awareness on how your competitors are working, branding and particularly pricing is the key to success.

Web research provides many useful insights into your competitors such as their promotional strategies, news and developments. This level of awareness on competitors will be helpful in making right tactical choices.

Inexpensive
One of the main reasons why web research is preferred over other methods in recession is due to its cost effectiveness. Web research is inexpensive, fast, and very useful for small, medium and even for big businesses during recession. A professional web research firm provides solid direction and insights at a relatively low cost compared to other methods of market research.

People have different assumptions of the market’s condition and consumer behaviors during recession. Don’t get carried away by old paradigms. Act smartly in recession. Invest in inexpensive and effective web research to get correct and analyzed report of the market.

How Online Desk Research Is Better Than Traditional Research?

The marketing activity is changing more dynamically than ever due to the economic realignment in the recent times. The vital part of any marketing initiative is market research. Comprehensive market research provides insights to marketers on target markets and customer segments. It provides information that facilitates strategic and informative business decisions to target the most profitable market.

The label ‘desk research’ is more appropriate to online secondary research, as a market researcher collects data to the most extent without moving from his desk from Web. With the change in business environment, the market research requirements became more demanding that made online desk research appropriate and viable to most of the businesses.

Variety of Sources
Internet has around 238 million websites as of June, 2009, according to Netcraft. These websites represents many kinds of sources such as competitor companies, trade bodies, research organizations, industry experts etc. They give the required diversity of the resources to market research to evaluate the data from various angles and perceptions.

Latest Information
Internet provides the latest insights into an issue from various sources instantly. The researcher doesn’t have to wait for the data to be physically published and shipped to him. Latest information is available online and is accessible from any corner of the world within no time.

Time Effective
Online desk research can provide a quick glance of the already existing information without much effort. In examining information like social, economic or demographic trends often, it is a better method than primary research. When a business needs to have a quick view of a market situation, online desk research is a better option rather than opting for traditional research.

Cost Effective
Online desk research can be done efficiently with less cost than traditional research as it takes less time and effort of the researchers. One more advantage of online desk research is, businesses can outsource the research to specialists that saves more expenditure while maintaining the quality.

The revolution of information access on the Internet continues to affect both market and societal environments, which is very important for businesses to keep a tap on. The changing business scenarios stress more on this opportunity and should not be overlooked.

Why online desk research is recommended before primary research?

Online desk research is a systematic examination of the available online sources and data in the context of a research objective. In many research assignments, initial desk research is strongly recommended before primary research to gain background knowledge of a subject as well as get useful leads that will help to get the maximum from a research budget.

Directs primary research
Online desk research directs primary research with a quick analysis of research focus and gives initial feedback with less effort. With this initial information, the researcher can clearly know which information is more important or less important, readily available or not available and can make changes to the direction of the primary research if necessary. Based on this, the research process can also be modified according to the requirements of the research.

Gauges the scope of the primary research
The researcher can have a panoramic and clear view of the primary research based on the information he got from the desk research. Researcher understands the required information, and which information to through more light upon, and what is not needed i.e. enough information is readily available from a reliable source. Based on this researcher can suggest changes to the scope of the research.

Reduces cost and time span of primary research
Online desk research identifies the topics of primary research, where enough information is readily available and avoids duplication of work. If enough information is readily available online from a reliable primary research resource, then it helps to fasten on that specific topic in the research. This saves a considerable amount of resources like research cost and time that can be refocused on the necessary areas of research and get high quality results.

If a primary research needs to find the population census, seldom people will start with a population survey; instead they get demographic information from www.census.org, which is reliable secondary resource. Therefore, even pure primary research needs some help from secondary data, otherwise the research topic is completely new and innovative. A good researcher knows how to use both primary and online desk research to integrate various information sources into a comprehensible and reliable market picture. This combination is effective in giving out reliable output that can be used to make good decisions.

Exploring Business Opportunities with Internet Marketing Research

The information collected and leveraged from Internet is invaluable from the marketing research point of view. Imagine gathering impartial information from literally millions of sources each day and deciding the marketing campaigns on this data. Internet marketing research provides a better vision to the business, which helps in delivering better products and better results. There are many advantages of applying Internet to the marketing research.

• Market Know How
  Online market research can give the comprehensive information about the various factors and aspects of the market such as market profile, trends, size, segmentation, competition, SWOT and demand prospects. This exclusive and extensive online marketing research report certainly gives a big picture of the market scenario.
• New Domains of Use
  Not only online research can be used for the market intelligence, but it can also be put into great use for many areas such as advertising, public relations, and interactive communication activities. Internet marketing research is also useful in numerous other business functions such as Branding, Competitive analysis, Consumer Behavior and Customer Relationship Management and Investor Relationship Management.
• New Opportunities
  Internet marketing research can provide insight into new market opportunities that may be never discovered. And also, research can identify new business ventures, and offer the possibility to streamline the existing business processes, which results in more efficient execution of the process. New business opportunities and ventures result in the competitive advantage in the market by delivering better products at less value.
• Competitive Advantage
  Competitive advantage enables the firm to create superior value for its customers and superior profits for itself. There are many areas of competitive advantages including the firm’s cost structure, product offerings, marketing research, distribution network and customer support. Internet marketing research allows to gain advantage from the competitors by delivering accurate results at affordable costs.

The main task after getting the market research report is to implement the findings. The ultimate goal of the report is to make the research work for the enhancement of the business. While Internet market research is an integral step in improving the visibility online, its quality and flexibility of use allow it to be effortlessly applied to all aspects of marketing activities.

Outsourcing Internet Marketing Research

The integral part of any marketing initiative is market research. Comprehensive market research identifies the wants and requirements of the potential target market. It provides information that helps to make operational business decisions. It is good to outsource Internet marketing research, as it is advantageous for businesses in many ways.

Features of Outsourcing Internet Marketing Research

• Specialized Expertise
  The online marketing research firms offers specialist services to almost all kinds of businesses. Because major operational business decisions can be taken based upon the marketing research reports, it should be carried out by the research professionals. Professional online marketing research firms do have professionals with expertise in online search techniques. Online marketing research professionals are familiar with reliable data sources and with the techniques to the reliable information.
• Less Time
  The professional marketing research firms operate according to a timetable and schedule. They will give timely updates and status reports to the client to make sure that the research project is going in the right direction. This will make the report delivered on time according to the client’s requirement. And also the in-house research reports may be delayed as all the resources may not be employed on the research project.
• Limited to Specific Businesses
  Online research reports are limited to some specific business. It is well known that online research projects are entirely dependent on the information available on the Internet. That means, if the information about a particular industry or the topic is not available on the Internet, the objective of the research may not be fulfilled.
• Cost Effective
  The main reason for the outsourcing is to get quality services in a cost effective manner. The research firms will have all the built-in infrastructure and resources to do the research project. As they are exclusively focused on the research they know how to reduce the cost of the project. At the same time by assigning the research project to a research firm, the company can reduce the operational costs and concentrate more on their core business.
• Unbiased Report
  In some cases of in-house research, there is a chance of the report may be influenced by the internal environment of the company. At the same time the professional online marketing research firms can deliver the impartial research report with an objective perspective.

The research done by an external source will have credibility because it is done by a professional agency. However, to deliver a good online research project there should be good knowledge about the local market of the client. Globalization with the aid of the Internet is bridging this gap.