Market research is a process of collecting data and information that provides useful insight into your customer’s thinking and demographics. It is a vital tool which helps a business to grow by giving them the ability to understand and learn more about its customer base and adapt to their needs. According to research, it is found that customer-centric companies are about 60% more profitable than the companies that were not focused on their customers. It helps you to build a better relationship with your customers, whether a business is B2B or B2C, it plays a significant role in developing any business strategy.
There are two types of market research-
- Quantitative Research
- Qualitative Research
Quantitative research focuses on numerical and measurable data, for example, what percentage of the population buys a certain product. This type of research can be used while launching a new product in the market.
In contrast, Qualitative research relies on facts and figures which illustrate the details of how people respond, feel and think about a certain product. This type of research can help you understand what are the factors which affect their purchasing decisions.
Market Research is a very important tool for any business and here are few ways how it can also help your business.
Understand Your Audience
Market research focuses on understanding your customer base better in order to create a more customer-centric business. It gives you deeper information about your customer demographics like age, location, gender etc. which will help to learn more about them. It will allow you to target the right audience and the right market thereby achieving faster results.
Connect Better with Your Customer Base
Market research not only helps you to understand the customer demographic but also allows you to reach your audience more effectively by letting you know where your existing or potential audience is. There are two main elements when it comes to connecting with your audience more effectively: the right channel and the right message. It will help you to reach the right audience, at the right place and time, with the right message. When the customer feels you are speaking their language they are likely to pay more attention to what you have to say. Instead of hit and trial methods, it gives you a researched backed data which will save your time and give you faster results.
Identify Opportunities for Growth
Market research helps to grow and strengthen your business by identifying the unreached opportunities, partnerships, audience, filling the market gap etc. It provides you with a solid metric on which to base your decision.
It keeps a track of the current and possible upcoming market trends, Identifies the area of expansion, sets realistic targets for your business, and discovers new business opportunities thereby enabling business expansion and growth with the help of the research metrics and findings. You can use it to know the areas of potential growth.
Reducing Risks
Risk is a part of any business venture but the way to avoid risk doesn’t mean avoiding doing anything and restricting your potential. Instead, businesses use market research to minimise risk and maximise rewards. A major way to minimise risk is by ensuring the demand for the product in the market. Market research gives you the opportunity to test your product before going all force thereby giving you the confidence by predicting the real potential success. With the help of it, you can also test how the audience feels about different logos, price ranges, and marketing strategies before the launch of your new product.
Understanding Your Competitors
As much as market research is important to identify your weakness, it is vitally important in understanding your competitor’s weaknesses and capitalising on them. Staying ahead of the game is often about being the best in doing what you do. You can ensure your success by leveraging the findings you have extracted from market research, audience research, and competitor analysis and help fill in the market gap which will not only help you get ahead but stay the
