Market research is important to understand your competitors and your customers.
Well, I know that’s why you are here.
Good research provides you with better intelligence and data that would help your business planning and marketing strategy.
Over the years I have witnessed many errors made by many of them during their market research, or even when commissioning it.
However, let’s not waste anymore time discussing how’s market research good for you, or what is it, and what does it do?
Let’s get right at a few common market research mistakes that you can and should avoid, before it comes up with negative impact on your efforts.
I know market research takes place when you are all excited about starting up a business or when you are in the turmoil (happens when things are at a bad pause).
And that’s why we have gathered up with some of the market research mistakes that you must avoid when navigating through the world of research.
Let me tell you, there are some questions that you must answer to yourself, before starting up with the research.
Before to look up the data you have collected, you have to make sure that you’re sure of what answers do you need for your problems, or rather “where to start?”.
Never begin with your research on a random note or something that loosely relates to your business or industry.
Such research in general hope just to find something or anything about your customers or competitors- it could be an effort in futility.
Data is useful, only if it’s relevant. So one of the best factors that you can establish from your research is the target demographic- I mean, the right target demographics.
However, with this you can later use the data to further research your business in the mentioned or collected parameters, and understand the target group’s requirements and needs.
Targeting the right audience and demographics will only get you well with the researches and the right data that you have collected.
Having the best parameters to run the business gets you to understand the needs of your customers and your target audience group.
Starting out with a competitive audit will save a lot of money and time, if viewed in a long run, or at a long term.
Focusing exactly on what your competitors are actually doing, and not what they say they are doing, yes, there’s a difference.
Of course, no business wants to discuss or put out their strategies over to the mass- if they do, they might be out of business soon.
Try assessing their strategic actions, and how better are they doing than you, will give you a clear point to begin.
Your market research covers everything that you want to learn out, and your brand’s reputation and position in the market.
Whether it’s your quantitative research or qualitative research, you can give no excuse for not making use of billions of data that’s
available about your brand.
The current research trends show more and more blend of both quantitative and qualitative methods to get and analyze a bigger picture.
However, putting these two research methods together will give you better idea about highly valid data.
You need not have all data big and broad, even the smallest of data is ideal to get you a rich, exploratory and higher value.
Nope. We are not just talking about the finances here. We literally mean everything about your business, and the process in every department.
If you knew, there’s an evolution in companies where businesses should know the numbers of every departments with finite details.
And that goes for marketing departments as well! With which there comes a dozens of questions that you must examine
Just quantify everything that you need to, that surrounds your business!
One of the major mistakes that people in the product industry are too concerned about is the sample sizes.
Unless you are a big brand or an government entity, you can’t be worrying too much about the 2000 or 5000 sample survey or maybe it’s just not economically viable for small business and startups as well.
Or maybe you could use your own startups and gain online feedbacks from them, yeah, that could be simpler.
However, if you are a small business, a 150-sample or maximum 200-sample survey should do the guesswork for you.
A primary research primarily
requires a better method of interaction with the target respondents- but this has proven to be one of the basic challenges for many organizations.
Of course, you might be having a good idea about collecting the right data from the right audience group.
Let me tell you, this research isn’t is as difficult as you think. All you have to do is work out the best and easiest way of interacting with your target group.
Well, it could be any type, a door-to-door, or a phone-based, or even a web/internet based research. You have to think what suits the best for you, and then work it out!
Never use consumer research to sell, it’s not a selling strategy!
Consumer research is only a way to understand what your consumers are looking for, their needs and their demands.
I still remember the last call from the cold callers saying, “Hi, I am doing some research…” and then they indirectly pitch you their products/ services.
That’s not how selling works, and research is not promotion or selling. Research is research!
Make sure that you don’t get confused with these tasks, as these might sound similar, but are different, and don’t try to multitask either.
It’s my advice!
Well, I didn’t mean, YOU
are trying to fix the results, but there are a few people who just prefer to fix the final results as according to them, and not as per the real results.
Fixing the results will not help you with the reality in the market, rather it could wrongly guide you in the market (and you might mess up the research, literally).
This could mean the researcher is just building an evidence or probably just developing a story or planting the results.
It’s better not to kid ourselves with the real results! Just go with the real research results or the evidence, if you are investing your time and money behind the scenes.
DIY research is okay, and there’s nothing wrong with the DIY research, only if you know what you are doing, or ready to park your day job!
Just as installing a design software doesn’t make you an graphic designer, at least not overnight!
Just know to stick with what you know, and be prepared to call in the experts when it’s required, and when you need them.
While there’s nothing worse than doing all that work, and then archiving all those research in the cardboard boxes, for the next 8 months of your office.
There are a few techniques and ideas that will just assist you to conduct all your research with minimal time and budget.
It’s crucial to opt for the right method of quantitative and qualitative research! But, remember, there are no shortcuts when it comes to quality.
Market research comes in with tons of mistakes and errors, the most common ones are mentioned above, try to avoid these mistakes!
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