Market research, or marketing research, is nothing more than a simple market study to facilitate the collection of information on marketing strategy updates and optimize decision-making for a perfect strategy.
We can qualify market research by:
The common categorization:
- Qualitative research: where information that describes a subject, such as impressions, opinions, or viewpoints, is collected.
- Quantitative research: where statistical data generated by the research are collected, with the aim of quantifying the problem and understanding how relevant that particular study is.
With the scientific categorization:
- Exploratory: which clarifies the nature of the problem and provides guidance to ensure that the problem does not recur in future investigations.
- Descriptive: it deals with describing the competitive structure of a market.
- Causal: it experiments with research among multiple variables to decide which is the best.
And categorization based on the objective:
- Potential surveys of a product or service.
- Customer satisfaction surveys.
- Price analysis.
- Demand segmentation: meaning the choice of customer you want to serve.
How to conduct market research?
Conducting market research is very important to keep up with current trends and always have a competitive edge over the competition.
Indeed, it can help you understand consumer preferences and whether your product could be a good fit for that particular market or clientele.
To start conducting market research, you need to ask yourself some questions and provide answers, starting with:
- Who is your target? Identify who could use your product or service so as to direct it specifically to your type of customer.
- Where can I find them on the web? Determine where your typical customers regularly connect: Facebook, Google, Instagram.
- Who influences them? Find out what greatly influences your customer, where they read news about your industry, whom they want to resemble.
Once you have asked yourself these questions, you will need to know where and how to get answers; you might try with:
- Surveys.
- Creating groups to let people know what you are working on and asking for public opinion.
- Proposing questionnaires among customers to analyze their needs and meet them.
- Conducting telephone interviews.
- Conducting online interviews.
Once you have also answered the questions you have asked yourself, you will be ready to conduct a good market research.
Case study:
Research on retail market demand:
A regional retailer conducted research on market demand.
The retailer wanted to better understand consumer perception of their brand, understand the consumer and customer profile, identify brand perceptions, and evaluate the market demand for furniture.
So he created two online surveys: one for community members in the retailer's market area and one for their customer base.
Each survey was segmented to target two geographic areas.
This allowed to determine how customers in "position 1" compared with those in "position 2”.
The results of the study were:
- Difference in household income. Population trends were identified between the type of audience (customers and community members) and the reference geography.
- Brand recognition was high among customers and moderately high among the general community members in both geographic areas.
- The amount spent on the total furnishings and equipment for the home should not change between 2017 and 2022 in both geographical locations.
You can do it too, you just need a lot of commitment and an excellent marketing and sales platform.
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