Entrepreneurs spend endless time making strategies and constantly modifying them to get distinguished in the market and earn a niche among their customers. The building of strategies requires a considerable amount of information to be studied by the concerned departments of your organization.
This draws our attention to an important aspect that is one of the key factors in building up the reputation and driving up revenue for your business. It is what we know as the market research.
Market research is as important to your organization as is your product. It is also one of the best ways to gather information about your competitors, market, and invaluable customers. When running a business, you employ various tools that not only assist you in several tasks but also give you an overview of your target customers.
But when we talk about market research, it turns out to be one of the easiest tools that will provide you complete information about your market and help your business grow. It is the best way to dig deeper and uncover the powerful source of information that is solely responsible for driving your marketing strategy.
In spite of having numerous benefits for businesses across the world, market research is still being used less by small and medium enterprises.
If you are wondering what market research is all about and how does it help you to drive business growth, you are at the right place.
Market research basically accomplishes the overall task of establishing questions about your intended market, customers and finding respective answers to them. The market research can be of various forms and formats and can be categorized based on your needs and the requirements of your business.
Broadly these can be quantitative and qualitative market research methods. On one hand, quantitative research relates to numbers and trends and includes surveys, polls and social media.
On the other hand, qualitative market research is employed to obtain insight to various questions and includes face to face interviews, observational studies etc.
Image source: Hinge Marketing
In the words of Albert Szent Gyorgyi, “Market research is to see what everybody else has seen and to think what nobody else has though”
So, many times it is easy to come across people who have been surprisingly successful in building up their brand and revenues in the market with all their hard work and efforts but are now facing serious challenges to take their business to the next level. Their sales seem slowing down as their competitors have upped the game.
This is the reason why companies are advised to use and integrate market research for their businesses and capitalize on the market opportunities.
Here are a few ways by which using market research can help you build a stronger business
Significantly improved efficiency |
The simple answer to why companies focus on marketing is the return on investment. Market research basically backs up your strategies and makes sure that you are not simply throwing away money in the name of marketing.
By integrating market research you can know more about the ongoing trends of the market, or the changing likes and dislikes of the customer. This can help you achieve a higher return on every dollar that you spend. Also, using market research makes your product more focused to the likes and dislikes of the customer, ultimately driving growth for your business.
Improved branding and business on the customer |
Many companies that we come across in the market are not so sure about their position among the customers. They keep on wondering about what customers think of their brand or products and services. In cases of ambiguity like this businesses can integrate market research to improve their branding efforts in the market.
Image Source: B2B International
One way to do this is to create brand awareness among your customers. You can ask your customers if they are aware and familiar with your brand or not. Or how do they perceive your products in comparison to those of your competitors?
In order to accomplish things with the help of market research, you can survey customers to gather their feedbacks on your brand logo, products, and services, websites, brochures etc.
This will help you improve your position in the market and drive growth for your business.
As Peter Drucker said, “Marketing and innovation produce results, the rest are all costs”
Implementing innovation |
While making their move in the market, most businesses forget to implement an underlying factor that is responsible for making a brand stand out in the complex market scenario.
We are referring to innovation in the product and services of a business. It is all about your brand reputation when it comes to establishing yourself as a leader in the market. By implementing innovation in your business you can easily look into the concerns of your market and place your organization in a position to fill these vital needs. Innovation also brings increased exposure and authority.
Market research helps you innovate by letting you know all the information that your business needs in order to grow and stand out. According to Milken Kundera, “A business has only two functions- marketing and innovation”.
Image Source: Slideshare
Always an eye for opportunity |
Market research opens many new areas of opportunity for businesses, that could otherwise have been missed easily. It can help you identify new opportunities and chances that might be available and relevant to your business.
Consider, for example, if you need to open a new retail store in the market, you need to find the right location to do so. Market research can help you look for suitable places and answer many questions at the same time. It can dig deep into the market infographics to provide you information regarding the market size, demographics, market share statistics, industry dynamics, major industry suppliers, key competitors etc.
Thus, market research can be much helpful in doing business especially when you want to leave your competitors behind in the market and achieve an edge over the others. Market research has all the necessary tools that will ease your task in the market and also drive a significant growth to your business.