The Importance of Market Research to the Valley Yellow Pages Whenever a company has a new product or service it would like to offer to the public, there are always questions that must be answered and analyzed first. For example, what is the target market or markets we want to address? Is the market receptive to a new entry or are the products or services already sufficiently entrenched to prevent any successful new market entry? How well will our product or service meet the wants and needs of our customers? The answer to each of these questions requires the company to conduct research, especially market research, to gain the sought-after knowledge. Using the Valley Yellow Pages Company as an example, this document will define marketing research, identify the different types of marketing research used, and describe the importance of this research to the organization. Marketing has been defined as "the process of planning and executing the conception, pricing, promotion, and distribution of ideas, goods, and services to create exchanges that satisfy individual (customer) and organizational objectives." One of the key aspects of any strategy marketing is research. Research is how a company gathers information so they can make intelligent business decisions. One company that uses market research is the publisher of the local paper telephone directory, the Valley Yellow Pages build customer loyalty while making a profit. Additionally, they need to know what their key demographics are and what the public's perception of the printed yellow pages is ("Morebusiness.com," 1998-2011). What is Market Research.... .. middle of paper...... and marketing plan. It provides a company with the data needed to make the critical business decisions needed to make proactive changes to its operations. In these weak economic times, Valley Yellow Pages is relying on its investments in market research to not only guide its marketing decisions, but also to provide sales training tools to help them withstand competition and other external threats to their continuous operations. After all, information is power. Works Cited Talebzadeh, S. (2011). Brain buddies. Retrieved from http://www.brainmates.com.au/contributions/the-importance-of-market-research?cat=5Morebusiness.com. (1998-2011). Retrieved from http://www.morebusiness.com/running_your_business/management/Market-Research.brcSuttle, R. (2012). chron.com. Retrieved from http://smallbusiness.chron.com/companies-marketing-research-643.html