Getting The Right Firm To Do Your Market Research

Posted on October 17, 2011 by Angela Wheaton

Without getting into using the right marketing research firms, a company is doomed to forever have substandard sales, and never to achieve full market penetration. So this begs the question, what is market research and why is it important to have the right firm do it for you?

The market research firms will often ask the customers detailed questions about what would make them want to buy the product more, and what about it they do not like. They are even asked to examine the packaging to see which looks more appealing, and which looks less so.

Of course, some of the modern market research firms use even more sophisticated methods for seeing how well a product should do. Some market research firms do not think that the traditional methods go far enough to see how right a product is for the area where it is being sold, and so they will do limited trial sales in different regions of the company, combined with different slogans.

The  market research firms can then compare the demographics of the areas, and see which methods worked well, and which did not work so well to sell the object in question. This method works quite well for gathering a bunch more data for the market research firms to help formulate a sales plan for the company in question.

That way, they will be able to do whatever they are doing with much more efficiency and success, and get the edge that they need to triumph over the competition. These marketing agencies will work for you much better than more traditional ones.

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Market Research Methods Should Include Focus Groups

Posted on October 17, 2011 by Angela Wheaton

The company I work for used to use many market research methods and  focus groups. The idea was simply that it was cheaper and the results would still be valuable. We would basically corral college students on their way to and from classes by a little kiosk.

We would give them cheap little knickknacks and doodads, t-shirts and binders and organizers, as a way to bribe them to take a few minutes to fill out a survey. We figure that we were saving thousands of dollars that we would have to pay for market research focus groups, and that we would get results that were comparable if not just as good.

In retrospect, we were being naive. Don’t get me wrong, in some circumstances a market research survey is a great way to go. If you need preliminary information or only have a short amount of time to gather data, surveys are the best. After all, you put them together in no time flat, administer them, and analyze the results by the next weekend if not the next day.  A market research focus group, on the other hand, is a much more involved thing. It takes a lot of time and effort to put together, and often requires the hiring of outside experts. You need to ensure that your participants are really qualified, and that they are willing to stay for the whole time. In short, it can be a hassle.

That hassle is entirely justified, however. Market research focus groups give you a much higher quality of data, and they do it consistently. You typical market research focus group takes anywhere from three days to two weeks, and involves as few as one or two products or as many as dozens.

Because you have the undivided attention of your participants, you can introduce them to small, trivial variations to see which ones they like the best. You can show them dozens of commercials to see which ones capture their interests and which ones leave them cold. In market research focus groups, you can really get inside your consumer base and understand the way their mindsets work in a way that market surveys don’t let you do.

Nowadays, we usually switch it off. We do most of our preliminary work with market surveys, but then we switched to market research focus groups for the final phases of product development, brand placement, and the like. It seems to be a good combination because it combines cheap, quick research with more in-depth studies.

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Get Valuable Information from Market Research Companies!

Posted on October 15, 2011 by Angela Wheaton

I’ve been running an online business for the past five years. In each of the first four years, I experienced steady growth that was pretty much in line with what I had projected. But in this past year, sales were down considerably. This decline was not at all expected, nor do I think the lower numbers can be wholly attributed to the weakened economy in general. I need to know the real reasons behind this dropoff so I can take steps to prevent a recurrence. I can handle an internal audit on my own to see if certain business practices are hurting the bottom line, but for a study of external factors, I better turn to market research companies. But how to do market research.

If you think only multi-million dollar corporations can afford or benefit from the services provided by market research companies, you’re completely wrong. Lots of small and mid-sized businesses take advantage of the data these types of outfits can provide. Market research companies specialize in studying various trends associated with different industries, and as a result, can help you make smart decisions about which direction your business should take. Any business owner who doesn’t think this kind of advice is useful probably isn’t going to last very long in the ever-changing marketplace.

One of the biggest reasons that data provided by market research companies is so valuable is that most of it comes directly from consumers themselves. Often, market research companies conduct surveys or discussion panels with regular people who use a particular product or service in order to get real, unbiased feedback about every aspect of the purchasing and usage experience. How did the customer hear about the product? What made her want to try it? Why did she buy this brand instead of the other one? How likely would she be to repeat the purchase?

This is very important information that a savvy entrepreneur would love to have access to, and fortunately there are several ways to get this kind of data. First, if your business is in a common industry, then there are likely lots of recent studies and survey results that you can purchase from market research companies across the country. Just make sure that you’re buying current, up-to-date information, not something that is too old to be of use. A second way to get your hands on the data you require is to hire one of these market research companies to conduct studies specifically related to your business. This is obviously the more expensive option, but the results you get can end up being worth many times the price you paid for them.

When running a business, one of the keys to success is staying ahead of the curve and having the foresight to anticipate different trends and shifts in the industry or marketplace. Luckily, you don’t need a crystal ball to figure this stuff out — that’s what market research companies are for!

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