Conduct Market Research

What are the Advantages of Market Research?

The advantages of conducting market research are as follow:

• Helps a company to strengthen its position
• Minimize risks
• Help a business to identify potential threats and maximize the opportunities
• Facilitate strategic planning for your business activities
• Aid in identifying and implementing emerging business trends.

What are the significant roles of conducting a market research?

Businesses face many difficulties developing and providing a high-quality product or service without going through basic market research. Many assume that research is a sophisticated set of techniques that can be master by only highly trained people. People also assume that research can only generate useless data that cannot be implemented in the real world.

The truth is market research can help you to have a better understanding of market trends, customers’ needs and wants if it is being conducted correctly. Market research is a crucial guideline for a company’s short-term and long-term strategy.

Steps of conducting market research

1. Find a way to serve a diverse group of customers
   The step of research is to identify and understand the unmet needs of customers in a market. You should focus on customers’ concerns or what they should say they are searching for regarding services? What do they say they are looking forward to? A much beneficial data collection method might be like interviewing targeted customers, investors, or conducting focus groups, reading the newspaper and critical publications, and listening to clients’ requirements, and observing what they follow. Later on, you might even introduce a more modified version of the product that you test the market or pilot to test if the product would sell best or not.
2. Observe the unmet demands and size of the market
   After identifying opportunities, identify various market segments or subgroups in the market with a set of unique features and preferences. Beneficial data collection might be, like reading about social trends and demographics in library publications. You might even notice or observe each group for a while what they focus on, do, and discuss. Consider interviewing members of each group. After that, go for conducting one or two focus groups among each group.
3. Find the best way to meet the unmet demands of the targeted market
   Consider how you can meet the unmet needs of target markets by the features and benefits of your product? How can you ensure that you have the potential to meet customer demand? Here’s you must come across a focus group. You should go to conduct some focus groups, including questions about their unmet needs, preferences, and asking for ideas about how needs can be met. Also, run your ideas to them. At the same time, approach them to ask what they would like to pay for your services and why they require to use services.
4. Examine the competition in market
   The next step should be examining or investigating products, techniques, services, location, pricing, etc. To understand the strategy and quality provided by the competitor is to use their services. Visit their services and products by looking at some of their literature. Make a notice of their ads in newspapers and the newsletter. You also visit their website.
5. Clarify “Why Us/Me”
   You should have to clarify your value proposition to customers that describes why others should consider using your services or organization and not competitors. The use of a focus group is also a beneficial data collection method. Go and search for some potential client’s group and discuss your idea with them. Make them notice how your idea is unique and tell them how you want them to see your program (it’s positioning). Ask them what’s their thoughts regarding services.
6. Evaluate if the Product has fulfilled the Demands in the targeted market
   To check if the product meets customer customers’ needs, you should go for an evaluation. Evaluation refers to the use of various data collection methods, for example, targeting clients, observing, interviewing them, running a session of questionnaires, developing case studies, and conducting a pilot or product field test.
7. Evaluate the effectiveness of Advertising Strategies
   To conclude this, you should have evaluated the result of advertising. It refers to the use of any data collection methods among your clients, for example, targeting clients, observing and interviewing them, and administrating questionnaires, and developing case studies.

Proper ways of getting feedback from customers

Businesses require consistent efforts to be successful. Never assume that you know all about your customer’s needs, thoughts, and priorities. If you can’t meet the needs of customers end to end, your business is risked failing. To have a better understanding of what customers want from products and services, be proactive to get feedback from their customers.

• Workers
  Who interacts with clients most of the time? Employees. Employees are no doubt the ones who are exposed and interacted with clients the most. Always check with employees about customer experience, complaints, and preferences.
• Comment cards
  Another way to gain customer feedback is to make use of comment cards. Provide comment cards to your customers with open-ended questions. Encourage them to provide their feedback. Some examples of the open-ended questions can be:
  • Are you happy with our service?
  • How pleased are you with our service/ product?
  • What do you think we can improve to enhance your dining/shopping experience?
• Competitors
• Always observe and pay attention to competitors! What are their latest products? Why do customers prefer their products/services? What do they do well? What can be learned? Always learn from your competitors, it can be a rewarding journey.
• Record of Consumers
  Always keep a record of customers’ interests. What are the best-selling products? Which products are not selling well? In this way, you can easily analyze customers’ preferences by tracking this data.
• Focal Groups
• Conduct a focus group interview also a good idea. Gather 8-10 people to share their ideas, impressions, and thoughts on the products.
• Conduct Surveys via Email
  Conducting surveys via email is also another effective way to conduct market research. Many people are willing to participate in the surveys if they get some sort of benefits (discounts/vouchers) after completing the survey.

Key sources for conducting market research

Some of the key sources of conducting market research are as follow:

• Local Offices
  Offices are the hub of networking, localities, and community resources. Interact with your local office personals is one of the best ways to gain valuable insight into market research.
• Commerce Department
  Department of Commerce has offices spread in various regions across the country and focuses on publishing a vast amount of useful analytical information about industries, services, and products.
• Survey/Census Bureau
  Census Bureau is one of the online and offline services with a vast amount of useful information you can access and use for analysis.
• Trade and certified Publications
  Trade and professional publications have become much more useful as trades become more specialized, and their expectations are increasing day by day.
• Trade and certified Organizations
  Organizations are also the best source as they produce a beneficial newsletter for members, services for answering questions, networking, etc.