Blogging Heros
Market research involves gathering data and interpreting information that provides insight into the customers’ needs and preferences, location, buying patterns, and monitoring market trends. This activity enables companies and organizations to develop a competitor profile. Market research requires a systematic approach. Long-term planning and short-term execution are crucial to coming up with results that can kickstart or improve a business progressively.
NetBase Quid is an intelligence platform that offers access to resources that provide accurate Social Media Analytics solutions to discover consumer and market insights. It has an advanced Natural Language Processing Technology capable of decoding complex language, integrating data, and analyzing it to ensure businesses make well-thought decisions. NetBase Quid is at the frontline of market probing, and with it, we see the following advantages of carrying out the practice.
Importance of Market Research
- It is a vital process in decision making. Based on the resultant reports, one can decide on whether to reach out to more customers, know the target market, and if you are likely to meet their preferences.
- A business that knows its target market tends to sell out more. It is even more successful if one gets to beat its competitors. Research helps in keeping an eye on the competitors and reach out to dissatisfied customers.
- It enables a company to know when and how to advertise using the right channels while keeping a lower cost.
- Getting more investors is a sure way to keep a business running. Research enables one to know how to spot business opportunities by creating partnerships and finding new locations to sell.
- This process enables a business to lower its risks. It helps make well-informed decisions in determining feasibility in launching new products, finding problem areas, and addressing them.
- It is a crucial way of setting better goals for a business. Business run on numbers, and numbers go hand in hand with client sales. It formulates quarterly and annual targets, following up on double sales, growing a customer base, or maintaining the current segment.
How Can an Organization Get Started on Market Examination?
Market Research involves two main types of research; primary and secondary research. Primary research can be referred to as field research as it involves gathering first-hand data. Ways to go about it is through conducting interviews, administering questionnaires, doing surveys, and polls.
Secondary research involves analyzing the gathered data and processing it into useful information that will eventually determine the resultant decisions. It includes drafting reports, statistical analysis, and using historical documents. Companies and organizations can go about market fact-finding by;
- Drafting goals and setting up objectives for the resultant features. Ensuring a well-thought sample size that will be representative of the target audience in different locations.
- Choose the most appropriate data collection and data collection methodologies to be used.
- Draft the questions to be used in either interviews, questionnaires, surveys, etc., as neutral and transparent. If it is a qualitative form, ensure the questions are open-ended.
- Once the data has been collected, employ quality statistical data analysis and decode the results.
- When the results are determined, analyze the macro environment [language, political situations, economic status, and cultural standings] to validate the results.
- Formulating the reports and presenting the findings is the last step in market scrutiny. The factual findings should be communicated, technically accurate, and useful.
Market research should be an ongoing process as market trends change daily and the target market is shifting. As all these changes are organic, there should be no excuse for carrying out this exercise as it greatly influences one’s business plans, and the results are highly dependent on this.
