Market research is the process of collecting information to help you find out if there us a market for your product. The information gathered from market research helps entrepreneurs make the best decisions they can. For your product to be successful entrepreneurs need to understand what customers want.
When trying to find a place in the market for your product a lot of primary research is used to find out what the audience likes, dislikes, their age, social economic grouping and lifestyle. Questionnaires, focus groups and phone interviews are a great way to collect primary data. Secondary data it also used, looking online at companies such as BARB, Rajar and National Readership Survey (NRS) that already have data for people to use.
If you don't look into what the audience want your product will fail in the market, for example if you was to make a magazine about music, you would have to find out information about what your audience want, what magazines cover what type of music then choose a genre of music there isn't a lot of in the market. Another example is when little mix won the X Factor, Simon Cowell (knowing the music industry) was pushing little mix to do the best they could to win the competition. He did this because he knew there was a gap in the market for a girl group, so they would be really successful and do well, which they have done.
It is extremely important within the media industry to use do this kind of research, know what your audience want means there are less competitors, so you would attract a larger audience than if you was to bring out a genre of music that is already big in the market.