Blogging
How Can Market Research Help Me?
STUDYING your market is probably the most important first step to becoming a successful entrepreneur and
it continues to be critical to stay in touch with
your customers and emerging market trends.
Defined as the collection and analysis of information
about consumers, market niches and the effectiveness
of marketing programmes, market research will help
you to answer important questions. Is there a market
for your product? What will prospective customers be
willing to pay? How are customer preferences
changing? Are your products popular with customers?
Are competitors’ products loved or hated? Are today’s
customers demanding better service levels? How is
technology actually changing the market? Will there
still be a market for your product in five years’
time?
In business, long-term survival and growth result
from the successful exploitation of new market
opportunities, opportunities that are discovered by
listening and learning, which is essentially what
market research is.
One of the most important ways of conducting market
research is communicating with your customers,
competitors, the media and other industry players
continually.
Perhaps the best and worst thing about the technology
sector is the pace of innovation. Even established
companies often find that their research is out of
date almost as soon as it has been collected and
analysed.
Nonetheless, the biggest threat to small technology
companies is not the market position of their
competition but what the industry gorillas and
unknown Silicon Valley start-ups have under wraps in
their research labs. We have witnessed more than one
clever technology company go under as a result of
surprise launches by competitors.
If you don’t have a market research budget you are
not alone. Research suggests that as many as 59% of
firms do not have a budget. Yet research does not
need to be expensive or complex.
You can do much of your market research with a
broadband connection. The opposition’s websites are
there in full view. You can read industry
publications online.
You can pick up industry trends just by using Google.
Moreover, the big market
research houses and consultancies often offer free
research to those who register with them online.
It remains true that, once you understand your
customers and market properly, the rest of your
marketing will follow.
Gregory Serandos is MD of public relations and
digital marketing agency Pure Communications. |
