The global market is like a large archipelago and you have to find your particular island. Every businessman must identify his niche market first and then try to understand the social, economical and emotional characteristics of the customers that have formed this particular segment of market.
Let me explain this by giving you a simple example. Suppose you sell luxury cars like Audi. Now, the car market is really huge, but there are different niche markets within this large pool. For instance, people who buy luxury cars think differently from budget car owners. Their economical condition is different; priorities are not the same, and more importantly, the number of target customers is less than that of budget car buyers. So, how do you get proper understanding of your target audience? The answer is simple: market research. It’s essential for running a business successfully over years.
You need to understand why people are buying specific products, what else do they want and what you can do to emotionally connect your brand with the consumers. Remember that pricing and quality are not the only two things that increase the sales of a product. What makes the difference is how well you know the customers and how efficiently you are fulfilling their demands, even if they do not say it loudly. Market research gives you an insight into the customers’ psyche and helps you boost your business.
There are some major benefits of market research and that is why you will find plenty of market research firms in any country. These firms help you shape the present and make a plan for the future. Whether you own a small business or a multinational company, market research is always helpful for you and can improve your business.
Top 3 Reason : Why Market Research Is Important for Every Business?
1. Opens a bridge of communication between seller and buyer: The only way you can sustain in a competitive market is by improving the quality of your products or services and in order to know how you can provide better products or services to new and existing customers, you must take feedback of the present customers. Only the people used your products or services can tell what they liked and didn’t like.
However, people don’t like to say such things to the face of a company representative. Therefore, you should hire a market research company for the job. Their professionals will ask the right questions and collect impartial feedback from the consumers. Market research firms also utilize different techniques to increase participation in an online survey. For example, they offer small gifts to those who take part in the survey and elicit honest answers.
2. Helps validate your business idea: You may have decided to launch a completely new product or service in the market, but are you sure that customers will like it? You have to know whether there is a subconscious demand for such product/service or not before it hits the market. Market research firms help you understand the actual demand for your “yet to come” revolutionary product. The research data lets you decide whether you should invest money in the new venture or shelve it, and also if it has the potential to become a success, then which areas need to be fine tuned before the final release.
3. Helps you create a future road map: Praise and criticism can both prove to be beneficial if you accept them with an open heart. A market research company may acquire some positive and some negative feedback from the present customers. You have to use the appreciation as a motivational factor and negative feedback’s as the hurdles your company hasn’t crossed yet. The negative comments are more important than the positive ones because they help you identify and rectify the mistakes before they become a major issue.
Based on the feedback, you can set a progress benchmark and encourage your employees to achieve it. For example, if you have an e-commerce business and market research reveals that people are not happy with your customer care service, you can share the data with customer care executives and tell them that the primary goal of your business for the next quarter is to attend all incoming calls and provide solution to customers’ problems.
Market research is a continuous process and you must hire a professional market research company for the job. The service provider will take feedback from current customers and gather data from online forums, government agencies and social media to help you see the present condition of your business and plan the future accordingly.
