What Is Market Research?
Simply defined, market research is the practice of systematically gathering, recording, and analyzing qualitative and quantitative data about a business’s marketing, product or service. The goal of conducting market research is to identify and assess how the changes in the marketing mix (product, place, promotion, and price) affect customer behavior.
Market research can be conducted by the business itself or by a third-party company with expertise in this process. Market research is often done by deploying surveys, conducting interviews, or interacting with a specific group of people known as the “sample”.
By conducting market research, you can determine your target market and collect information that will allow you to make better business decisions.
Why Market Research?
Aside from making it easier for you to create a robust marketing strategy, marketing research can provide several other benefits that can increase your chances of success.
Here are some benefits of investing in market research.
Improve or Strengthen Market Position
Through market research, you can determine your position in the market and create strategies that can help you stay ahead of the competition. Market research can give you a better understanding of the niche you’re operating in and the needs of your target audience.
Improve Communication Strategies with Target Audience
The data you can gather from your market research will allow you to formulate an effective communication method that appeals to your existing and potential customers. Through market research, you can determine what your target audience likes and doesn’t like to see or hear and then customize your strategies to ensure that you catch their attention.
Identify Opportunities
Conducting market research will help you determine whether the product you’re about to introduce to the market is something that your target audience needs or wants. With this information, you can make improvements or modifications to your products so you can offer something that best suits the demands of your target audience.
Minimize Risk
Taking risks is important in business, but going through them blindly can lead to profit and customer loss. Conducting market research is a solid way to determine whether a risk is worth taking, preventing you from losing your position in the market.
For example, if you’re having a hard time deciding whether to open a shop in a new location, market research can help you determine if that area is already saturated with your competitors.
Identify Problems
When running a business, it is expected that you’ll experience a problem every now and then. But did you know that conducting market research will allow you to identify problems ahead of time?
Market research makes it easier for you to mitigate problems because you can gather information from your target audience about your product or service while it’s still being developed. Their reaction will help you identify issues with your products or services and solve them before their introduction to the market. Identifying problems ahead of time, allows you to find solutions earlier in the process, thus saving time and money.
Conducting market research is a solid way to determine whether a risk is worth taking, preventing you from losing your position in the market.
How Do You Conduct Market Research?
Market research is a process that involves several steps. Going through these might cost time and energy, but the results will be worth it.
Step 1: Define the Problem/Develop the Approach
First, you’ll need to define the problem and consider the purpose of the study, gather relevant background information, and figure out how this information will be leveraged to make decisions. You’ll formulate research questions, analytical methods, and theoretical frameworks that can affect the research design. This stage is often accomplished with industry experts and decision-makers in the business.
Step 2: Determine Your Sources
In this phase, you’ll identify what sources you’ll use for your research. The problem that you defined in the first step will help determine the necessary procedures for obtaining information and the best sources and me gather the information you need.
Step 3: Data Collection or Field Work
As the name suggests, this process will require you or your staff to collect data from the field. Depending on the scope of the market study, you can accomplish this step by doing personal interviews, focus groups or email surveys of your sample group, or even by doing research on your competitors.
Step 4: Data Preparation and Analysis
Next, you’ll need to compile and analyze the data you collected to put it into a format that clearly highlights the useful information. The data you’ve collected from the previous steps should be organized and presented as results and findings. This process is crucial to market research because the data you’ve gathered helps determine conclusions and affects your decision-making.
Through market research, you can determine your position in the market and create strategies that can help you stay ahead of the competition.
Leverage Your Results
Market research can greatly impact your success because it helps determine how your customers view your business. It is also an ideal tool to identify gaps in customer expectations and desires.
Keep in mind that market research is an ongoing process that you’ll use each time you need to analyze an aspect of your business. It is an important tool in building a robust marketing strategy that should be prioritized.
If you’d like to learn more about market research please contact us. We’re happy to provide a wealth of information to make it easier for you to understand and complete this process.