Is Marketing Research Still Necessary in the Digital World?

Traditional methodology of marketing research evolved in the first part of the twentieth century. It was perfectly adjusted to current market conditions and to market information systems. Later on, an era of computer technology meant big support for market researchers. However, there were no still reasons to change general research logic in the light of evolving data-gathering opportunities. Evolving at the end of the twentieth century and the beginning of the twenty-first century, new digital media have solved a lot of problems that market research methodology used to solve before. First of all, the link between a company and its consumers started to be shorter and more direct. It started to seem that decision-making can be supported by data available within easy reach. However, the use of new decision-supporting software has led to take-it-easy approach to consumers’ problems in the market. The purpose of an article is to show to what extent new media objectively necessitate changes in marketing research logic and what risk can be associated with total use of new digital information. First part of an article shows the nature of traditional data-gathering methodology. In the next part, directions of an influence of digital media on marketing research methodology are identified. The article is a conceptual framework supported by long-run research experience of the author.