|
Why Do I Need Market Research?
When properly done, market research provides you with valuable information
to help drive the strategic direction of your company.
Key Benefits of Good Market Research:
- Helps you uncover opportunities in the marketplace. For example, added sales or new markets.
- Identify potential problems with your business model, products, or services.
- Reduce your risk.
- Measure your marketing progress over a span of time.
- Highlight your product or service differentiation over your competitors.
- Helps you understand whom your customer views as your competition.
- Tailor offers to your customers and increase how much they buy from you.
- Plan for future buying/commitments for inventory.
Good Market Research provides the foundation for understanding
who your customers are, what they like or dislike, and how best
to communicate with them.
Types of Market Research
There are two main types of Market Research: Primary and Secondary.
Primary Research involves collecting new data such as a survey of
your customers. Secondary research involves information already
collected such as census data, or industry studies.
Examples of Primary Research Types:
Surveys
Focus Groups
One-on-one interviews
Examples of Secondary Research Types:
Demographic information
Prior surveys completed by others
Industry trade information
Planning Your Market Research Project
Key considerations before you start your Market Research project:
Objective:
What is your objective for conducting the research? This fixes the
type and quantity of research you will need to conduct. Make sure
you have a well-defined objective before beginning your project.
Research Method:
Do you want Primary or Secondary Research? How would you like to
see the information collected and analyzed?
Audience:
Who is the target audience for whom you will be gathering research?
Timeline:
How soon do you need this research?
Budget:
How much do you want to spend? Primary research is more complex,
time-consuming and more expensive than using secondary research.
Information:
Gather any information that you might currently have on your target
audience or on the topics that you would like researched. This will
help you define your research project.
Cost of Completing a Market Research Project
Typical costs for conducting a Market Research project start at
$500 for a simple research project using secondary research data,
to several thousand dollars for more complex projects needing primary
research gathering techniques.
How to Use Management-101.com to Complete Your
Market Research Project
Follow these steps to get your Market Research Project completed
using management-101.
1. Complete a project description with the following:
A detailed description of what you need researched and how you intend
to use it.
2. Choose the research method you would like, or you can have Management-101.com
recommend the best approach.
How you want the research results delivered, electronic or hard
copy.
3. Begin working on the project.
The typical Market Research project needs
the following steps.
- Information gathering by management-101.
- First draft of the questionnaire or a plan describing
how the research will be conducted.
- Information gathering.
- Compiling and analysis of the data.
- Final report on the results.
Contact us to learn more
about Management-101.com Marketing and Sales Communication Services available
to you. |
 |
Active Buyer: Customer who has made
a purchase in the last year.
Ad Hoc Survey: Survey of a particular
audience with no prior contact.
Applied Research: Research used
to answer a specific question or address a particular problem.
Awareness: The level at which people
are familiar with your product or brand.
Baby Boom: Large segment of the
US population born between 1946-1964.
Benchmark: A point used to gauge
where you are at a given moment in time.
Bias: Misrepresentation of a target
audience due to some flaw in the implementation of the research.
Buying Intent: The likelihood that
a respondent will purchase your product or service.
Demographics: Descriptor of a target
audience including age, income level, family size, occupation etc.
Generation X: Generation born between
1965 and 1976.
Marketing Mix: A blend of a company's
product, price, promotion and place of distribution.
Methodology: The procedures used
to conduct the research including recruiting, question format, etc.
Panel: A type of research in which
a group of people are interviewed over an extended period.
Positioning: How a customer views
a given product or service compared to its competitors.
Primary Research: New data collected
for a specific need.
Concept Testing: The testing of
new products, services or ideas before moving forward.
Psychographics: Research that analyzes
people's personality traits and values.
Qualitative Research: Focused on
subjective evaluation of a particular product, service or problem.
Quantitative Research: Focused
on gathering data to be used in compiling numerical projections.
Representative Sample: A sample
that truly represents a subset of a specific target market.
Secondary Research: Information
obtained from previously compiled information or research studies.
SIC Codes: Standard Industrial
classification codes- four digit codes used by the US Dept. of Commerce
to classify a business into a specific category. |
