Market research is the systematic approach to gather data about potential customers and target markets: identify them, beginning with what they are. It is a key factor in maintaining a competitive advantage and an indispensable element of organizational strategy. Market research helps organizations define their customer needs and choose appropriately the strategies that will serve them best. While a market research company may not be able to create strategies from scratch, it can provide the tools necessary for the organization to conduct a thorough study of its current market position and suggest viable alternatives.
Companies today are allocating more resources to marketing and are employing various methods to promote their brands. However, they all run into the same wall: getting more leads, closing more deals and turning more prospects into new customers. A successful marketing campaign requires more than just buying a commercial, putting out a message and hoping the public notices and buys the product or service. It takes the right mix of creative innovation, measurement and insights that market research provides.
With a lean approach, organizations are able to measure the effectiveness of their marketing efforts. Market research allows a company to get a better understanding of which channels are contributing the most to sales revenue. Through this comprehensive method, marketers have a better idea of what their target users need and at what point they are ready to buy. The data gathered from market research studies can help marketing departments come up with a better idea on how to increase sales and turn those sales into profits. With this information, companies can take the appropriate steps to make their new product popular among prospective consumers.
Proper market research must begin with the establishment of a framework that evaluates different segments of consumers and determines what their buying needs are. This framework will then help prioritize which channels will be best able to meet those needs and build inroads within those segments. Data collection is crucial for determining which marketing strategies to adopt. Proper data collection will also help identify where marketing strategies are not working or if they are being ignored by potential consumers. Once the framework has been established, marketers will move onto segmentation.
Market research companies may conduct market research through either surveys or focus groups. In surveys, representatives from the organization go to consumer outlets and collect demographic information about the purchasers. From this data, companies can determine where they’re most likely to be purchase gaps and areas in which they should focus their marketing campaigns. More specifically, surveys will help determine what types of advertisements and promotions target the demographic and identify areas of weakness. The use of focus groups, on the other hand, will help flesh out the data collected from surveys and identify strengths and weakness areas that can be used to further improve the market reach of a given campaign.
There are many advantages to using focus groups over surveys. First, focus groups provide the ability to observe human interaction at a specific point in time and to formulate specific suggestions for improvement. Second, it is much more cost effective to observe the interaction rather than purchasing expensive market research products. Lastly, focus groups provide an accurate snapshot of the sentiments of the target market.
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Ryan Myers is a business blog author and writer. He graduated from the University of California, Berkeley in 2009 with a degree in Political Science. His favorite topics to write about are blogging for small businesses and becoming an entrepreneur.
