Planning to venture out on a business? Looking for the right kinds of customers for your product? Worried that the launched product in the market is not bringing in desirable results? Well, if you are answering in affirmative to all the above mentioned questions, then a common solution to them will be doing a market research.
Importance of Market Research for Any Kinds of Business
Doing a market research can give you a clear picture as what kinds of products or services will be accepted by the people and bring profit to the business. With the help of effective market research you will be able to find out the exact cause for which a product is not becoming popular. To bring in desired results, you might need to change the way a product looks or alter the packaging of the same.
Commencing a business without right market research is like walking a trail without a route or map. Therefore it is very difficult to reach the desired destination in this manner. A market research guides you as how the business should be. Locating your target audience is easier and you will also have an estimate as when the results will start coming from the business with an accurate market research.
Common Kinds of Market Research Plans
- Primary levels of research – In this kind of research various kinds of data and information is collected by understanding and then analyzing the current trends in the market. It is also important to take competitors’ plans into consideration while collecting data as it gives a clear understanding of your own business position. There are different ways in which such data is collected:
ü Carrying out face to face or telephonic interviews
ü Joining discussions of focus groups and gathering direct feedback from them
ü From survey reports either via mail or from online sources
ü Sending out questionnaires to be filled by customers via mail or online
The questions asked can be of various kinds like why the customer is buying a particular product or what more does the customer expect from the product or if the customer is satisfied with the price of the product and so on. Getting answers to these questions will help the companies to understand their consumers better.
- Secondary levels of research – This mainly deals with analyzing data which is already published. It is possible to locate specific target segments, identify the other competing companies in the market and establish a yardstick for the business. The targeted segments can be based on age, lifestyles, behavioral patterns, geographical location and so on.
Collection of Data for Market Research
Whether the company is a small one or a large one, the importance of market research cannot be ignored. It gives information on all aspects of business in a great manner.
Data is mainly collected in two ways: qualitative and quantitative. Quantitative procedures will include mathematical analysis of date on a large scale. The statistically important differences are brought out in this procedure.
On the contrary, in the qualitative procedures, the quantitative methods are just fine-tuned. Customers are directly interviewed for the same to know their feedback and review. Here the data level is not as large as quantitative process.
Marketing Mistakes that should be Avoided for Best Results
Many businesses try and follow shortcuts for getting best marketing results. They should be avoided as they can do more harm that doing good for your business.
- Avoid depending on web resources solely.
- Contacting real consumers for knowing their needs best. Restricting surveys to friends and family will not help in getting the real and perfect picture.
- Using the secondary research process directly without carrying out the primary research.
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