Market Research
Top Reasons Why Businesses Should Prioritize Market Research in 2023
This article will discuss:
- Why should businesses Prioritize Market Research?
- How Businesses should approach Market Research.
- Types of Market Research that should be utilized.
Why should businesses Prioritize Market Research?
- Marketing research is essential to making good business decisions.
- Unbiased Data Can Help You Solve Marketing Problems
Good business relies on good market research. This is because marketing research companies inform your business' direction. Marketing research being collecting unbiased data and interpreting that data into information that can help solve marketing problems. Business decisions without good research is like building a house without a foundation. It won’t be strong enough to stand. Also, certain issues should be considered before proceeding with research.
How would market research benefit my company?
- Learning what works and what doesn’t.
- Making advertising and media buying decisions.
- Finding out what your customers perceive about your business offerings and services.
How Businesses should approach Market Research.
Marketing research consists of both informal and formal research. Informal research is listening, looking, interpreting, and asking questions; there's nothing wrong with informal research. Formal marketing research is collecting data in an unbiased manner and translating that data into information that can help solve marketing problems. There's nothing wrong with formal research either. Marketing research includes experiments, surveys, product tests, advertising tests, promotion tests, motivational research, strategy research, customer-satisfaction monitoring, and many other techniques. Purpose, target, differentiation, and strategic positioning are crucial. Market research will help you answer more specific questions such as, what's the best package(s) or how should the e-store be designed? Answers to those fundamental questions are essential to long-term success.
Types of Research to be Utilized
Strategy research is crucial. Your business’ purpose. Where are you going? What's the best marketing for your concept? How will you differentiate your concept or product from others? What's the best solutions for your market? Market research can help answer these questions.
Media evaluation and Testing advertising are essential. A great deal media advertising is wasted because the commercials simply are ineffective. Advertising is simply too important to trust decisions to the opinions of a few and the most reliable panel is the consumers who make up the target audience.
Top Media & Audience Research Companies
Top Advertising Research Companies
Operations research is very important in industry. Not "operations research" in the typical sense, but research that evaluates and improves service levels, as recognized by your customers. What are the key components of perceived "service"? How can perceived service be improved? How can you employ better personnel?
Product testing. When you develop new products, test them to make sure they are good. You can even use product testing as a technique to monitor quality over time. Product testing is a never-ending quest for continuous improvement of your business.
Top Product Testing Research Companies
Customer surveys. Surveys conducted in-store or online are relatively inexpensive and can provide good information about who your medium-to-heavy users are, which can help in target-market identification, site selection and, sometimes, media planning.
Top Customer Satisfaction Research Companies
Other Tips
- Set forth clear objectives.
- Be sure the researcher understands your objectives.
- Monitor some of the surveys and observe the focus group interviews.
Market Research
Consumer Marketing Research: An Overview
Market research is a way of getting an overview of consumers' wants, needs and beliefs. It can also involve discovering how they act. The research can be used to determine how a product could be marketed. Market research is a way that producers and the marketplace study the consumer and gather information about the consumers' needs. There are two major types of market research: primary research, which is sub-divided into quantitative and qualitative research, and secondary research. Secondary includes social and opinion research and is the systematic gathering and interpretation of information about individuals, groups, or organizations using statistical and analytical methods and techniques of social sciences to gain insight or inform business decision making.
Factors that can be investigated through market research include:
Market information: Through market information one can know the prices of different commodities in the market, as well as the supply and demand situation. Market researchers have a wider role than previously recognized by helping their clients to understand social, technical, and even legal aspects of markets.
Market segmentation: Market segmentation is the division of the market or population into subgroups with similar motivations. It is widely used for segmenting on geographic differences, demographic differences (age, gender, ethnicity, etc.), technographic differences, psychographic differences, and differences in product use. Market trends: Market trends are the upward or downward measure of a market, during a period. Determining the market size may be harder if one is starting with an innovation. In this case, you will have to obtain the figures from the number of potential customers, or customer segments.
SWOT analysis: SWOT is a written analysis of the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats to a business entity. A SWOT may also be written up for the competition to understand how to develop the marketing and product mixes. The SWOT method aids in determining and reassess strategies and analyze a business' processes.
PEST analysis: PEST is an analysis about external factors to a market that includes Political, Economic, Social and Technological external factors, which may impact a company’s objectives or profitability. They may be either beneficial for the firm or harm its productivity.
Brand health tracking: Brand tracking is way of continuously measuring the health of a brand, both in terms of consumers’ usage of it and what they think about it. Brand health can be measured in several ways, such as brand awareness, brand equity, brand usage and brand loyalty. Managers, planners, and market researchers use acquired information for the following activities:
- Sizing markets and segments – You can estimate the size of the regional markets you sell in and your company’s market penetration into that market. You can do the same with the market segments in which you participate.
- Sales territory potential – You can estimate your market penetration and the market potential in any regional area or market segment.
- Sales forecasting – With the estimates on the size of the industry, market researchers supporting a sales force can then estimate and forecast the future size of the industry.
- Advertising strategies – You can use this information for forecasting and estimating sales potential and target advertising campaigns.
- Competitive analysis – You will use the information to locate your possible competitors (if it is not already known), to estimate their size, growth and strengths and weaknesses and to see what market segments in which they participate.
Recognizing that many managers today are asked to provide detailed analysis of their markets, sales territories, distribution channels, and product placements. Market research companies organize these reports in a logical format making market analysis and research tasks easy to manage.
Some Market Research Companies of Note
The Barnes Report
The Barnes Reports are the leading publications on U.S. industries and estimates and forecasts on sales and employment demographics. Headquartered in Bonita Springs Florida, they publish annual reports on global industries, manufactured equipment, product lines, and business services are an essential part of any business forecasting plan, competitive analysis or market sizing need.
First Research
First Research, a Dunn & Bradstreet company, is the leading provider of industry intelligence tools that aid sales and marketing teams perform faster and smarter, open doors and close more deals. First Research performs substantial contributions by analyzing hundreds of sources to create insightful and easy to digest industry intelligence that can be utilized very quickly to better understand a client’s business issues. Customers include leading companies in banking, insurance, technology, telecommunications, business process outsourcing and professional services. Used by more than 60,000 sales professionals, First Research is beneficial for any organization which has prospects in varied industries.