Good market research can help any business to make the right decision at the right moment.
Whether it is starting a new company offering a new product or service, deciding to build or remodel a real estate property, or even deciding what advertising campaign you need to implement to increase sales, asking the right questions and conducting a study to gather the information and analyzing the data can provide the tools any business can need to proceed or stop. Market Research is not something you can underestimate in any business process.
Before answering the why, let me quickly answer the question, what is market research?
Market research can be described as gathering, analyzing, and interpreting information to help make a business decision.
Whether you have a business or work for a company and are trying to start selling a new product or offering a unique service, sales have gone down, a procedure is not performing as expected, etc., it is always important to research first.
Imagine you sell sports nutritional supplements to other businesses, and now you think is a good idea to start offering your products to the general public by opening an online store; how will you start the business? will you just open an online store and add all the products you sell to the online catalog.? This could be risky even though you know your products; you have the resources, etc. If you are planning to start a new business, the first thing you need to do is market research. Then a business plan that includes a financial plan, a marketing plan, an operational plan, etc.
As I mentioned in this blog, starting a business without knowing your target audience or marker, or in this case, the feasibility of a new project, is a like a blind person driving a car, a recipe for disaster.
Can Market research help you to make a decision?
The short answer is yes. Following the sports nutritional supplement business example, you can take the risk and open an online store. Still, before spending some money, time and effort, it is better to dig a little more into the implications of an online business and do some research before making any decision.
Per market research industry expert. Jaclyn Tanenbaum, there are five steps for marketing research.
- Identify a Research Need
- Design the Research Study
- Conduct the Study
- Analyze the Results
- Share the Research Insights
- Today I will be focusing on the first step. Identify the Research Need.
Continuing the sports nutritional online store example, you already identify a need. You want to expand your business and offer your products online to final consumers. Based on this need and to start market research, you will need to ask yourself: Should we open an online store and start offering products online?
This question will lead you to more questions like:
- What are you going to accomplish by opening the online store?
- Do you know your competitors?
- Do you have first data or third-party data about sports nutritional supplements online sales?
- When are you planning to start the online business?
- What will be the criteria to decide if you will be opening or not an online store?
- Does the benefit of market research outweigh the cost of the project?
These questions must be answered by the persons involved in the decision-making process in the organization, and you will need to interview experts in the area and analyze your internal and secondary data. Answering these questions might help you to design the research study or not proceed with the market research or even discard the idea of opening the online store you have planned.
The most important part of market research is identifying the need or problem, and once you figure out this part, you either stop the process or move to the next step of market research: designing the research study.
As I mentioned before, never underestimate the power of market research. Even if you think the answers are too obvious, it’s worth it to stop, dig a little, ask the questions, and do some preliminary research to determine if market research is worth it.
