Researching the Market: How to Conduct Market Research
In business strategy, market research plays a vital role. Market research can be defined as collective information on a particular product or service to identify market size, share, growth, and competition. This process allows businesses to discover or examine their target market. The data gathered through market research is used to tailor marketing to determine the priorities of consumers.
Market research includes both qualitative and quantitative techniques such as in-depth interviews, ethnography, focus groups, secondary data analysis, and customer surveys.
Market research gathers information through primary and secondary research.
- Primary Information: Primary research is a combination of qualitative and quantitative research. It is a process where a business employs a third party to collect the data. The information under primary research falls into two types i.e., exploratory and specific.
Exploratory research is open-ended, while specific research is pinpointed and solves the problems detected by exploratory research. - Secondary Research: Secondary research uses data or information provided by outside sources like media, government agencies, etc. This information is published in magazines, company websites, books, newspapers, government & non-government agencies, and others
Objectives of Market Research
- Social: the service should comply with the requirements of the customer.
- Administrative: help a business development to reach its specific needs through required services.
- Economical: Introduction of products or services, by understanding the economic status of the market regarding that service
Importance of Market Research
Market research plays a vital role in elevating business and achieving customer satisfaction.
- Competitive advantage: to stay ahead of competitors market research plays a vital role in comparative studies.
- Customer-centric: marketing of any business is customer-centric which helps to understand the needs of a customer and then design the product or define the strategy.
- Valuable information: scrutinized information about a product helps a business to plan and strategize.
- Forecast: market research helps businesses to determine inventory and also helps businesses to forecast their sales & production.
Types of Market Research
- Online market research: As people spend more time online the data collection is done in a survey-style form. People can do this process at their convenience.
- Phone research: Data collection is shifted to a telephone conversation to avoid face-to-face contact. The operator collects information in an organized manner.
- Survey research: They are a form of qualitative research; they are inexpensive to conduct. All the information regarding a particular product can be gathered easily and quickly.
- Focus groups: It is a group of selected people who are selected to check and give feedback on the product or service.
- Face-to-face interviews: Interviews are one-to-one conversations, which yield in-depth knowledge or information to understand target customers.
Benefits of Market Research:
- Develops brand loyalty
- Identify the market segments
- Expands the company’s advertising efforts
- Make well-informed decisions
- Accurate information
- Determines the market size
- Analyze customer communication and preferences
- Productive business investment