“Research is formalized curiosity; it is poking and prying with a purpose.” – Zora Neale Hurston
Market research is the way to accumulating valuable information which can help a company to find out customers perspective towards their product or service. Market research process also helps budding entrepreneurs to take profitable business decisions. The key factor of a business is to understand what their customers want and giving this to them with an effective way which can make lucrative for the company also. Some times company thinks they are aware of their customers’ need without ever asking them and it can be the very costly affair for them. Market research is essential; it will provide a basic understanding and guidance on how a company can go ahead with a product launch or start new services. The company can design their own research questionnaire and survey process according to their need.
Significance of Market Research
Marketing research is needed on a continual basis if a company wants to keep up with the latest market trends and gain a competitive advantage in the business market. Understanding market research and using it in their business, then they can easily reach out the target audience and increase their sales.
Why a company should conduct business market research:
- Identify the problem areas in the business
- Understand the expectations of existing customers and why they prefer a particular company’s service over competitors
- Recognize new business strategies and opportunities of market trends
- Identify new areas for expansion, and increase the customer strength
- Discover enduring customers and their needs
- Set some targets for business growth, sales, and latest product developments
- Be aware of competitors approaches
- It will help to understand previous and present profit margin structure of the company
Not only has the above but also company set their future plans and strategies according to the result of the market research.
Research not only helps a company to identify the new opportunities in business but also helps to design market campaigning which directly makes an impact on potential consumers and it helps to increase sales also. The research process delivers valuable information about the market segment, specific survey time and particular age group.
Marketing research is a good evaluation tool that can be very useful in comparative studies. A company can track their own progress as well as they can find out the growth of their competitors. The company can devise business strategies that would keep theirs ahead from their business rivals.
Market research can reduce the chance of loss to a large extent. When a company decides to launch a product, they basically face some usual problems and they start to find out solutions through market research. The research result can provide a transparency between product and the company. According to the resulting company easily fix out the loopholes and devise plans to control the loss and increase the profit.
How to do Market Research
The company can easily set up their research plan according to the need. Some of the basic research tools are mentioned below.
Interview – Customer’s interview technic is the most effective form of research. The company gets the best feedback by using this format of research.
Survey – Conduct the indoor and outdoor survey.
Run testing – The Company can absorb a lot from simple testing and reviewing their analytics such as Google or HubSpot analytics. Simple A/B tests can go a long way depending on the problem they are trying to solve.
Research online – Now a day’s online research is the most popular method of research method. It is very cost effective and can be reached to many in a very short time.
Social Media – Like online, social media is becoming very effective way to do research. People now spend lots of time in social media and they don’t hesitate to share their opinion.
Current scenario of Market Research
Market research industry has shown its growth stability since the time of its start in the 20th century. The last decade has seen consistency in its growth and performance. But there is scope for more growth and potential to increase the revenue in future with newer innovations The broad organization ranges from consumer satisfaction, competitor analysis, market study, and product and surveys analysis to name a few.
According to the survey report, “The global annual revenue of the market research Industry is estimated around 45 billion dollars. Though the United States of America and Europe continue to lead till now, other countries of the world including India, China, Brazil, and Russia are showing greater promises as the demand in these countries for the market research related services are increasing consistently.”
The year 2017 a very favorable scenario for the market research industry in spite of the uncertainties prevailing at varied levels of micro-macro, political, economic and monetary. The market research industry as per the industry overview studies can expect some dynamic changes in their business.
Things in the market research industry are likely to get standardized, cheaper and even obtainable faster. It is likely that superior significant on demand for research that can produce faster results for business would be seen in the year 2017 in the market research industry.
Marketing research is the pillar of any successful company, it always helps a company to understand the expectations of the customer and it also provides knowledge about product or service betterment. Research is a process it should never be over. Companies should always be analyzing their valuable data on a regular basis to see where they can improve. Trends can change over time, just because you found an outline doesn’t mean it’ll stay in the same way forever. The more a company knows about their buyer personas, industry, and company, the more successful your marketing efforts will be.
