What makes market research so important?

 

Before exploring further into this topic, let’s first state what market research is. Market research allows a marketer to collect valuable information regarding where there is a market opportunity, who the target market is for a specific product or service, and who the competitors are.

When conducting market research, ask yourself these few basic, but important questions:

• Who is my target market?
• How much is my target market willing to pay?
• What does my target market enjoy purchasing?
• What do they need?
• Is there a market opportunity or a problem that needs solving?
• Who is my competition?
• What are the current market trends?

Now that we have reviewed what market research is and a few questions that you should ask yourself when conducting research, let’s go back to our first question.

What makes market research so important in the marketing world?

To start, conducting market research is vital to success. Businesses, who don’t do proper research, often fail because they skip this important step. When a person conducts market research, he is gathering information about a particular market and determining what that market’s purchasing behaviors are. If you don’t know who your target market is, what their buying habits are, and how to reach them, then you will have a difficult time increasing your sales and having a successful business.

Target Market

Defining your target market is very important, and it is essential to being successful. Just think, how else would you be able to sell a product or service if you don’t know who you are trying to sell it to?

When you are researching who your target market is, think about the people who would want to purchase your product or service.

Once a target market has been selected, consider researching the spending patterns and behaviors of your target customer. Think about all of the factors that contribute to the decisions that they make when they are shopping. Do they go shopping once a week, or do they go once a month? Are they impulse shoppers? Or, do they plan out everything that they are going to purchase before they go to the store?

Also, you should take into consideration how much these customers would be willing to spend, and set your price accordingly. For example, if your target market is college-aged students, then you aren’t going to want to set your price extremely high.

If you can figure out who your target market is and how they think and operate, then you will be able to communicate more effectively with them.

Market Opportunity

Market research is important because it can help you determine if your product or service is something that people actually want or need. Also, it can help you learn if it has potential to be successful and profitable.

Once you do research, you will have a better chance at accomplishing your goal of selling your product. Plus, it will decrease your chances of failing because no one is purchasing what you are trying to sell.

So, always research ahead of time and be on the lookout for a market opportunity that will enable you to create value for the customer and fulfill their needs and desires.

Competition

Once you have an idea for a market opportunity or a problem that needs to be solved for your target market, it would be in your best interest to research your competitors.

This is important because if you research who your competitors are, it will help you become more aware of what you need to do to stand out. It will also help you learn more about what your competitors offer that you don’t.

If you research about your current and potential competitors, then you can be more prepared when you compete against them. Knowing who your competitors are can help you gain insight on what you may need to improve on. The research may also make you realize that you need to come up with something to help you have more of a competitive advantage and become more desirable to the target market.

Profitability

Market research is very beneficial because it often leads to an increase in sales.

Research is conducted in order to figure out if the product that marketers are promoting creates enough value for the target market. If a marketer doesn’t research what their target customer is interested in, then it will be hard for them to increase their sales because the target market won’t purchase the product or service.

Also, market research helps determine who the competitors are. Knowing how to stand out against the competition and making customers purchase from you instead of competitors will help sales rise.

Market Trends

It’s important to research market trends because they are always changing, and you want to make sure that you are keeping up with the latest ones.

If you don’t, you’ll end up being blindsided  like this guy:

Long story short, if you don’t do research, it will be very difficult to survive in the marketing field. So, be prepared! Always do your research to obtain a competitive advantage, and make sure to meet the needs of your target market.

This blog was written for Triangle Marketing Club.