Why is ongoing market research important

In order to market your products, you need market research. But why is market research important? Here are 10 reasons your global business should know. Why is market research important? Simple, it gives you access to the information you need to make better business decisions. Identify and analyze the market needs of your customers.

Your business will be in a better position to deliver customer satisfaction. Are you launching a new product, or trying to improve your existing services, or making strides to ensure you are ahead of your competitor?

Then you should leverage market research as the data will help you accurately accomplish these goals. There is a shift from product-based to customer-based campaigns. Customer experience is the new brand. Hence understanding customers has become an essential component of marketing research.

Answers to these questions will give you a better understanding of your audience. You can use this opportunity to win over new customers. Map out the full profile of your ideal customers. Use this information to figure out what triggers each customer to buy. Get valuable information about customers like their income, age and gender. Then position your business as an authority in the industry. Do this through tailored marketing and pricing campaigns. Aside from understanding the customers, you also need to understand your competitors.

Identify strategies that worked for your competitor. Then, incorporate them into your marketing strategy. Knowing the key players in the market gives you an idea of how best you should approach the market.

Ensure you do research ahead of your competitors to stay relevant to customers. Marketing research allows you to think creatively. It also helps model your new strategies and create a path to success. Hence, knowing as much as you can about competitors is a vital strategy. Whether you are launching a new product or service, you need to ensure you are certain of its success rate. Marketing research helps businesses know which launching strategy will work best.

Besides, every decision about your business should be tested before its implemented. This saves you the expenses of rectifying decisions made without keen interrogation.

Ideally, marketing research sheds light on the best approach to use when marketing a new product or service. Aside from increasing revenue streams and gaining new customers, you also need to build a future proof business.

The only way of surviving in a competitive marketplace is being flexible. Primary research is new research that is conducted specifically for your company. This can be time consuming and costly, but will uncover accurate information directly relating to your target market.

For example: If I was starting up a sushi restaurant in Vancouver, I would want to find out first if there was a desire for a sushi restaurant in my specific area of interest.

While the demographic information age, gender, income, etc. This will help me determine if I have chosen the right type of restaurant or the right area to start up in. Further down the road, I could complete new primary market research, or choose to use secondary research data for my updated business strategy.

Secondary research is readily available. This information has already been conducted and is in the form of statistics, surveys, charts, etc. One potential pitfall of secondary research is that the demographics may not transfer over to the exact target market you are researching. Using the same sushi restaurant example, I might wonder how often the average person in a certain area Vancouver eats out. Perhaps I can get a good estimate from existing data, but the information might not relate exactly to a different neighbourhood.

When you need to identify market trends, understand your core customer better, or achieve a long list of other important goals, market research is the answer. Market research is a broad category. In fact, there are many varieties of market research that you can use to meet the specific goals of your business. Market research can deliver valuable benefits to companies like yours. Market research is all about understanding your consumer base better, and that is an essential step to creating a customer-centric business.

Customer-centric companies keep the customer experience at the forefront of all they do. Market research is how you come to understand those needs and desires in the first place, along with other important aspects of your target customers.

One of the most effective ways to be customer-centric in your market research is by using a segmentation-targeting-positioning STP model. This marketing model involves:. There are two main elements of effectively connecting with your audience: the marketing channels you use and the content you share.

Using a one-size-fits-all approach, regardless of your audience, can be a costly mistake when it comes to marketing channels. The print publications your audience reads, the television shows they watch, and the websites they spend time on can dramatically differ from those of the target audience for your last product.

So advertising your farm equipment on Instagram is likely a poor choice. Choosing the right marketing channels is an important first step to reach your audience, but to truly connect with them, you also need to tailor the content of your marketing materials.

Everything from the features of your product you advertise to the tone and visuals you use should be crafted to speak to your target audience.

Conducting market research periodically can help you discover new opportunities to improve and grow. For example, you may discover:. Risk is a necessary part of any business venture. However, successful businesses tend to mitigate their risks in strategic ways. The way to avoid risk is not to avoid doing anything. Instead, businesses should use market research to minimize risks and maximize rewards. The reality is that many products fail.

While that estimate is likely too high, it remains true that many new products fail to connect with consumers and end up in clearance bins. Because of the high risk involved, you should never create a product based on a mere hunch. Use thorough market research to predict whether a product concept has real potential for success. Will your product meet a need or desire your customers have, and will it do so more effectively than your competitors are doing? When you have proof of concept, you can be more confident in your efforts and more effectively attract investors.

For example, you could give samples of a new food product to passersby in exchange for their feedback. You can also use market research to test reactions to a new logo, new packaging, or any number of other business decisions. Market research empowers companies to make more informed decisions that are backed by data.

Gut feelings are not reliable means of making decisions. For instance, you may think releasing a luxury version of your product at a higher price point is a great business idea, but consumers willing to pay that price may associate your brand with budget-friendly products and opt for luxury products from luxury brands instead. The only way to know for sure is to conduct market research. Market research data can serve as a compass, steering each choice a company makes to take them one step closer to their goal of successfully converting and retaining their target customers.

Here are some examples of decisions you can make more accurately with the help of market research:. Through market research, you can make these and other decisions based on data rather than guesses and, as a result, boost your chances of getting it right the first time. Solid market research can be the difference that gives you a competitive edge in the marketplace.

For one, by understanding your customers better, you may be able to engage them more effectively than your competitor is doing. Additionally, competitor research can give you direct insight into your competitors so you can understand how you fit into the marketplace. You can also use market research to help you discover underserved segments of the market. As consumers evolve, companies must also evolve to optimize the way they connect with customers.

Market research is a valuable means of staying up on relevant trends. Researching trends can often be done through secondary research. Industry reports or research from your competitors, for example, can reveal what new product features consumers are interested in. Trends are especially important and cycle more frequently in some industries, such as fashion and design. If your company sells light fixtures, for example, you need to conduct research frequently to see what styles appeal to modern interior designers and homeowners.

You also need to be aware of any new technology you can incorporate into your product to help you stay at the cutting edge and deliver the latest and greatest products to your consumers.

Companies can conduct market research through various means.