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How to Carry Out Effective Market Research
08 de June de 2022
Learn and move forwards. Ask questions, have doubts and keep moving. Ultimately, act like an entrepreneur. The path of the entrepreneur is hard and shaky. But, all throughout the ups and downs in the life of an entrepreneur, there’s a tool that brings some certainty to the business.
Yes, it is possible, and it’s closer to you than you’d imagine. Market research is the preliminary step for any new business venture. Understanding what you will face will lower the risks, help you avoid taking wrong paths and, even if researching the market won’t guarantee success, it’s the start of a path that will get you there.
What’s Market Research?
Far from being something obvious, I think it’s in everyone’s best interest to read what some Marketing and Market Research specialists have to say about it. Philip Kotler describes it as “the design, collection, analysis and presentation of findings that are relevant for a specific marketing situation”. Once you know what it’s all about, how do you get started? How do you carry out efficient market research?
There are numerous formulas, some of which are more complex and costly, which can lead to the misconception that only big companies can do it, backed by powerful consulting companies. But, actually, it’s only an exploration, so it can be done in a simple, useful and affordable way. How can we do it?
Here are some tips and must-haves for market research — those steps that you can’t avoid even if you’re on a budget!
5 Essential Steps
Raise the Question– First of all, ask the main question you want to answer through your research.
Set Goals – Now it’s time to set the goals you want to achieve. They must be measurable and realistic. How can you tell if they actually are measurable and realistic? Here are some examples: improve your product/service, get to know your clients better, surpass your competitors…
Gather Information from Secondary Sources – This step is inherent to any market research and the one you can allocate the most resources in. However, you don’t need to invest huge amounts of money in order to collect valuable information. There are data banks and public sources that offer useful information that is easily accessible. There are also free tools that can give you qualitative data such as Google Trends and Google Analytics.
Collect data yourself from fieldwork – This is the time for you to leave your mark on your research. Fieldwork is all about primary sources and two of them are fundamental:
In-depth interviews to experts will provide you with very valuable information on how the market works and you may even discover, through their knowledge, what’s in store for the short and medium term.
Surveys are the summum of market research, since they uncover opportunities and specific problems. It’s important to take a representative sample of the population that is reliable and taking into account that questionnaires must be thought out to the smallest detail.
Once you’re past this point, and if your budget allows it, you can broaden the ground of the research with more complex techniques, such as group dynamics, surveys by big consulting companies such as Nielsen, or mystery shopper, that measures the quality of a service on location.
However, you must know that you will already have enough information to draw solid conclusions.
And Now… What Do I Do With All This Information?
Analyse it, work it and come up with a report in which you make sure you include the answer to that question you asked yourself in the beginning.