Just as obvious is the fact that nothing could be simpler than selling people what they do want. Big business has to do market research to find that out. The same reason holds for small business. Experience can be a two-edged sword, though, since it comprises a tremendous mass of facts acquired at random over a number of years. Information about markets gained from long experience may no longer be timely enough to base selling decisions on.
Marketing research focuses and organized marketing information.
It ensures that such information is timely. You probably do some market research every day in the course of your routine management activities without being aware of it. You check returned items to see if there's some pattern. You ask one of your old customers, who has stopped coming to your shop, why he hasn't been in lately when you run into him on the street. You look at a competitor's ad to see what that store is charging for the same products you're selling.