Beyond the themed boards and funny images, Pinterest is becoming a powerful market research tool with capabilities that can provide a great deal of useful intelligence to a market researcher. They say a picture can say 1000 words.  If that's the case, then your customers are telling you their life stories through their pins.

From checking e-mails, to editing a business presentation, technology has changed how we go about our day.  Additionally, technology has changed market research.  Advancements are helping us become more efficient and agile. In terms of market research, technology has carved out new opportunities as well as pitfalls for obtaining useful business intelligence. 

A lot of market research material will jump straight to the usual topics: competitors, customer segments, cost, and so on. However, for many modern entrepreneurs, their exact market simply doesn't exist. Like the DVR, mp3 player, and tablet, some markets are invented to disrupt older, existing ones. It can be tempting to move forward without doing comprehensive market research: after all, what is there to research if the product is entirely new?

Everyone knows the Big Five emerging markets. Referred to as BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa), this quintet represents the largest players. However, they are far from the only ones. The International Monetary Fund estimates that emerging markets will grow two to three times faster than those of developed nations in the coming decade. By examining the latest market research, we’ve identified five more emerging markets around the globe that represent rich opportunities for expanding specialty retail businesses – if they’re targeted correctly. 

There’s no denying the enduring appeal and profit potential of markets in the developed world. However, in order to continue increasing revenues and building consumer bases, companies must look towards emerging markets. To successfully transition from domestic to international success in these markets, companies must take a carefully considered, well-researched approach. Here are seven tactics to help make that transition smoothly. 

You've done your initial market research and you've rubber-stamped your company business plan. All that's left is execution. Your superstar team turns your idea into a business, as you acquire new users, close your first few sales, and build great new features for your website. Revenue grows a bit, then stalls, then falls, but perhaps it's just a typical hiccup for a young company trying to get things going. A large tech company then makes a product similar to yours, but you reassure your employees by stressing the features that make your version unique. A few customers drop off. User counts decrease. Your crack squad of talented developers launches three new features, but by now, you're feeling desperate.

Colleges and universities present a unique marketing environment. Students are a large-scale, captive audience whose financial requirements have a generally uniform and narrow scope. Enticing them to enroll for credit cards is relatively easy for marketers. According to Sallie Mae, approximately half of all college students hold four or more credit cards.

Market research articles often focus on very specific customer types. "Suppose you're a restaurant serving mid-to-high-end Italian food," a post might begin, or else, "imagine you just built an iOS game for boys 7-12 years old." The reality, however, is that many of today's new businesses must serve multiple customer segments, and each customer segment requires new market research. Let's take a look at a few of the more common customer segment splits and discuss strategies for researching each separate market. 

Google Plus is a rapidly growing social network thanks to its giant online parent company.  According to Business Insider, there are 359 million active users on Google Plus, which is a 33% increase from June 2012. New users are entering the fray and Google Plus has forced its way into the discussion of social networks that corporations must add to their integrated marketing strategy.  The life of a social media brand manager is hectic and exciting.  The evolution of the well-known names (Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn) has raised the standard for which corporations enter the arena and at what volume their branded messaging is delivered to prospects and customers.  

In 2009, Kevin O'Connor (former DoubleClick CEO) was fed up. He would try to research the best college for his son, or the best ski resort for a family vacation, but all the information was disorganized, misleading, or sugar-coated by a marketing team. He wanted a place where he could indicate his specific preferences, review the facts, and make a smart, personalized decision. That summer, he and Scott Leonard set out to fix the problem, building out the basic structure for FindTheBest.com, and hiring a small team (including me) to help perform the proper market research.