Before conducting marketing research, it is important to establish in advance exactly what problem needs to be solved

Prior to conducting market research, it is necessary to have a question in mind that the market research will seek to answer. For example, a coffee company may want to understand how best to raise their sales, but first must understand who their target demographic is. This will tell them who is primarily interested in their product, and which demographic they need to focus their marketing on. The market research will seek to find which genders, ages, nationalities, etc, are most interested in that particular coffee.