Let’s talk about some of the things you need to do when conducting market research to grow your business. First of all, you need to know what your goals are before you start your market research. You must ask yourself if there is a niche for your product or service.
If you plan to bring a new product or service to market, the first question to answer is whether or not it is necessary. If there is a need for the product or service, does it meet those needs? You may have uniquely approached a product or service that seeks to distinguish itself from the competition.
Market Research Methods
While market research is a solid tactic to grow your business, you need to be careful that your product still meets customer needs. For example, a person who opens a restaurant should keep in mind that in modern times there are low-carb, vegetarian, and various other types of diets, and the restaurant must meet those needs as well.
You want to know if your price is competitive. If you set a price too high, then everyone will go to your competitors. Market research can tell you exactly what to price to be competitive.
Now let’s go over some of the actual market research methods you can use. These are not the only methods that exist, but they are the main ones, and 99.9% of companies use one of these methods to conduct research.
Personal Market Research
Personal market research is often done by small businesses that don’t have a large budget to conduct telephone surveys or hire a large market research firm. Personal market research means that you spend time trying to find out more about your market. You can do this in some way.
- First, you can simply talk to people you know and perhaps ask them to get opinions from people they know.
- You can also use the Internet. The Internet is an incredible resource for almost any type of information you are looking for, and market research is no exception.
- Online surveys can give you almost as much information as a telephone survey would, and in many cases the surveys are free.
- You can also visit forums within your industry and find out what people are saying, and try to find the information you need by posting on those forums.
Market Research Interviews
You can also conduct individual interviews for market research if you wish. One of the ways this is often done is by hiring a group to go door-to-door in an area where you think those in your market might live.
However, you can also conduct informal interviews with your current clients and you can even poll your employees and get their opinions. The benefit of doing personal interviews is that people have much more freedom to say what they think than in an online survey or a predesigned telephone survey.
They can tell you things you may not have thought to ask, and since this is a personal interview, they often feel much more comfortable talking about their needs and expressing opinions, especially if your interviewer is good at their job.
Internet Market Research
The use of the Internet for market research has replaced telephone surveys as the new norm. This is different from the methods discussed in the personal market research section. Using the Internet can be quite complicated, and some companies have experience doing market research using advertising, Internet surveys, email campaigns, and a host of other methods.
Internet market research can be more effective than other methods, such as focus groups or telephone surveys because many people are more comfortable expressing their options in writing than verbally.
In conclusion
The bottom line is that you need to do market research if you want to survive in today’s business world. Guessing about the market is not enough, and if you are investing money in a company that offers a particular product or service, it only makes sense that you research beforehand if there is a need for that product or service.
You can choose the method you want, depending on your budget and your particular needs. But market research needs to be done regularly and you need to analyse the use of the collected information to base your business decisions.
