Market research may be full of dry figures, but it is far from dull. There is competitive gold buried in marketing research and market analysis. This data can lead you to revolutionary marketing ideas, ideas that can push your company to the top.
Enterprise level companies understand the value of market research, and invest heavily in it. Small businesses often believe they already know everything they need. They consider marketing research a needless expenditure of funds. If one word characterizes our world today, it would be “Change.” Very little is the same as it once was.
This constant change means that market research is even more imperative, not just to keep up with the change, but more importantly, to discover how to take advantage of it.
Understanding Marketing Research
There are two kinds of marketing research: primary and secondary. Primary research is gathering information from the source. For instance, conducting a survey of your customers, or asking questions of your competition at a trade show, would be primary research. Secondary research is using information gathered by others. There are many organizations that collect information, and would be happy to do paid research for you, or sell you reports on research they have already done.
Secondary research (sometimes called third party research for some reason) is more important if you are raising money, and investors will insist upon it. Primary research is more timely. With it, you can identify trends long before they appear in research companies’ reports.
There are many areas which can be researched, but they can all be roughly grouped into three categories: environment, competition, and customer. A few examples of areas of interest within environment would be: economic, political, cultural, technological, meteorological, and physical. There are more. All of them affect your ability to do business, and you should understand HOW they affect it.
Similar research should be assembled regarding the competition. You may think you know who they are and what they are doing, but your information is usually where they have BEEN, not where they are going. Think of all the changes your company has made or considered. Very little of it is known outside your doors. Primary and secondary research may keep you alert for their moves.
Some of the most important information to be gathered relates to the customer. How you perceive the customer, and how they perceive you may be widely different. Their perceptions and actions are constantly on the move. Whatever idea you may have regarding their perceptions and actions is like a single frame of a motion picture. What association do they make between their needs and your offerings? How has that changed since the last time you checked? Are customers changing how they buy, or where?
Marketing research should be the only constant in a changing world.
Market Analysis Makes Sense of It All
Once you have collected all of the market research, you must work to make sense of it. Your market analysis tells you what the changing numbers in your market might mean. It should also tell you why a competitor acts as it does. It may also give some predictive ability (Or sometimes only the illusion of prediction).
At this stage, when comparing data sources, you will find discrepancies in the data. Source A says one thing, and Source B almost contradicts it. Which is right? Or, are both right, but the explanation lies elsewhere? Faulty data must be discarded, and the rest given appropriate credibility ratings.
Building a theory of how environment, competition, and customer interact is important if you are to create a strategy to deal with all of them. Testing your strategy against the data collected will help eliminate major errors in the theory. The true test comes when you bring your market analysis based strategy to the market.
Marketing Ideas Emerge
This is where all your previous hard work assembling market data and analyzing it can pay off. This is also where you can separate your self from the competition in the mind of the buyer.
The two most important words to be used at this stage are, “What if?” For instance, what if your company were to offer a service that the competition isn’t? You may find that customers like the change, or that they don’t. Most importantly, you must explore better ways to deliver what your prospects and customer tell you they want.
Until you do research and analyze the results, you will not know where opportunities exist. At that point, you must explore what capabilities you have, or can develop, and bring it to the marketplace. This is the wellspring of marketing ideas that most companies would do anything to have for themselves. In a simple 1-2-3 process, it can be yours.
Marketing Research Conclusion
Market research can uncover opportunities which exist, just waiting for a company to find. Primary marketing research can be done directly and combined with secondary research to bring the favorable information to light, where it can be subjected to market analysis. From this work, competitive advantages can be identified and turned into marketing ideas with which you can propel your company past competitors, to great success.
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