How?! How you’ll find the right information about your: – Targetsegment – Market trends – Customer interests – Competitors – Customer feedback – Customer needs – Markets’ current state ? After discussing the customer centricity topic in our previous article: we found that we have to select our target customer sharply and select the Angels not demons. That’s fine but how we’ll decide that this customer is Angel and the other one is demon! It’s not an easy thing! We have to find systematic and objective search for, and analysis of, information relevant to the
identification and solution of any problem in the field of marketing. Or simply we need to know more about the MarketingResearch! What is the Marketing research? And how can we perform the process itself? What types of research are available to use? Marketing Research is: The process of gathering, analyzing and interpreting information about a market, about a product or service to be offered for sale in that market, and about the past, present and potential customers for the product or service; research into the characteristics, spending habits, location and needs of your business’s target market, the industry as a whole, and the particular competitors you face. As defined by: Entrepreneur Before starting the marketing research you have to know well: • the purpose of the research • the objectives stated in a clear, concise, attainable, measurable and quantifiable way • a time horizon • a resource allocation, including the budget and facilities • a reporting period O.K, Now I know why I’m doing this research and what’s my mission but what is the process or work flow or step by step methodology I’ve to follow while making that market research ? In the 1st comment you’ll find the cycle you should use while making the market research: 1st Step: As we said you have to know the purpose, “What do you need to know”. 2nd Step: What are we going to do to find this information or to achieve that purpose “Plan”. 3rd Step: Let’s break down this plan into precisely defined actions “Design” 4th Step: In this step we have to answer 4 questions: How, Who, Where & When – How will we do these actions? – Who is the assigned team member to do this particular action? – Where & when will he do this action? Also it’s preferably to illustrate the answers of these questions in a big chart to be clear for you & your team. And to help them to know all the logistics work information. 5th Step: Now let’s do it and perform these actions and do the field works! 6th Step: This step is too important as you have to collect all data “Every little information” you gathered in the previous step, and to analyze it deeply. 7th Step: After analyzing the data we’ve to write a report about what we’ve got from this information and what are the Dos & Don’ts we have to make while we are working in this market and dealing with these customers. 8th Step: Don’t keep it secret, but try to develop the market itself by making an open research center includes all information you gather. This action will motivate all competitors, partners & Customers themselves to share all information with you and that thing will help you to take decisions quickly! Now we know well the process we’ll work with, but we still don’t know what are the options, ways or channels to gather these information! O.K, Here are the market research types: 1- A group survey. Used mostly by big business, group interviews or focus groups are useful brainstorming tools for getting information on product ideas, buying preferences, and purchasing decisions among certain populations, It can be made through the internet as an Online survey. You can try SurveyMonkey 2- The in-depth interview. These one-on-one interviews are either focused or nondirective. Focused interviews are based on questions selected ahead of time, while nondirective interviews encourage respondents to address certain topics with minimal questioning. 3- Public sources. These are usually free, often offer a lot of good information, and include government departments, business departments of public libraries, and so on. 4- Commercial sources. These are valuable, but usually involve cost factors such as subscription and association fees. Commercial sources include research and trade associations, such as Dun & Bradstreet and Robert Morris & Associates, banks and other financial institutions, and publicly traded corporations. 5- Educational institutions. These are frequently overlooked as valuable information sources even though more research is conducted in colleges, universities, and technical institutes than virtually any sector of the business community. 6- Online Sources: Nowadays there are lots of marketing research sources; Websites have their own library that includes huge data (Reports, Researches, Plans, etc.). Some of them are free and the others are paid. And you can outsource the all task to a marketing research agency; you can find them only or through YP At this point we know how to make it and what the available options and what is the process to follow while working. Now let’s take a look about some great facts: – The iPod wasn’t the first digital music player, but Apple was the first to get it right. Apple’s research uncovered a key insight about how people want to consume digital music—they want to take all their music with them, but they want personal music players to be unobtrusive. This insight led to two key design goals: make it as small as a deck of cards and build it to hold 1,000 songs! – IPhone & IPad were not the 1st touch screen devices, but Nokia & Microsoft did it before Apple, But as usual Apple found what are the customers’ needs and gave them the devices in a right time & suitable place! Yes, it’s very important to make a market research before taking any decision in your marketing plan. In our next article we’ll talk about Advertising & Ad messages! So, wait for it
