Market Research

Every business is established with the clear purpose of making profits. However not all are able to do it. While there are many reasons for this negative outcome, one is inability to know the consumers well. Alternatively, companies invest in marketing, but they ignore the important marketing research part.

Marketing research is a logical process, which aims at identifying the purchasing / consumption habits of consumers. Consumers could be individuals or other businesses, depending upon the final product. Herein, data is collected from different sources, interpreted, analysed and finally used for decision making. Marketing research solves a number of purposes and there are various tools to undertake marketing research like public polling, concept testing, mystery shopping, etc.

The benefits

Market research is a vital exercise for any company as it can:

·        Save the enormous costs spent on account of a wrong decision

·        Make you understand the market constraints & consumer needs

·        Help identify opportunities

·        Enable better understanding of the competition

·        Assist with product innovation & improvisation

·        Quantify success

Types of Market Research

Market research could be primary or secondary, depending upon the source of information. If information is obtained from already published sources, it is covered under secondary research. On the other hand if data is obtained first hand, directly form the target audiences, it is primary research. As evident from the distinction, primary research is more expensive than secondary research. However it is not only cost which will govern your decision. It is possible that the information available through secondary sources could be redundant. And thus you will have to invest in primary research.

About public polling

Public polling is kind of a survey, where opinions of a selected sample are generated, generally through a series of questions. This could happen through personal interviews or via email / telephone / phone / snail mail. Thus as a marketing research tool, public polling is a four step process:

1.     identifying the target audience

2.     preparing survey questions

3.     undertaking the survey

4.     interpreting the data collected 

Keep in mind…

When conducting a market research exercise, it is important to understand how much data is required for your results to be statistically relevant and valid so you can draw the right conclusions. There is a chance that many questions from the survey may not be answered. Also it is possible that for ethical or personal reasons, respondents might knowingly give wrong answers. It might also be a case that respondents incorrectly decipher the question, so be careful with the wording.

Also be very cautious with the sample you pick. A mistake here, and the entire exercise goes futile. Make sure the selected sample is representative of the target audiences.   

In-house versus outsourcing

You could undertake market research yourself i.e. in-house, but there’s also the option of outsourcing the task to a marketing research company. The scope for inaccuracy in this case would be lower. Also because these companies specialize in market research, they should be able to pull through, at a lower price tag. Compare price quotes from  multiple market research companies before you select the right vendor.

But then doing it in-house doesn’t always have to be expensive. You could use email instead of snail mail and that’ll save the printing and postage charges. Also the existent customer details or registered website users could be selected as sample population.