Making strategic decisions?
Market research is the eyes and ears of the company in shaping strategic plans and reducing the risks in the decision-making process.
by Greg Sheppard, Hassan Zaheer
Identifying good from bad market research
Trustworthy and dependable market research can help your company resolve inscrutable issues that keep management teams awake at night, and ultimately, it can be used to benchmark the performance of those decisions in markets.
Market research is the eyes and ears of a company’s strategic and tactical development and operational processes whose main purpose is reducing the risks in the decision-making process
Eyes and ears of your company
Market research is the eyes and ears of a company’s strategic and tactical development and operational processes. Sometimes it is informal, using unplanned feedback channels from customers, procurement, and sales teams. Sometimes it is formal using sophisticated studies and data gathering. In either case, the core purpose of market research is to inform and to reduce the risks of decision making.
The classic definition of market research is the process of obtaining market information to support the 4 “Ps” of marketing: product (which ones), place (how to be successful in chosen sales channels), promotion (marketing), and pricing (how much to charge). Great market research supports decisions by truly understanding customer wants and needs so that subsequent products address real value propositions in a world where competing solutions will not be far behind.
Not all market research companies do the same work
Market research comes in two general types: one concerning the markets between businesses and the other between businesses and consumers. Consumer research is often based on large data-gathering methodologies about actions, behaviors, and preferences. Focus groups are a popular method for deeper dive into the market or market tests. Metrics like click-throughs and sell-through statistics drive consumer market decision making.
Great market research supports decisions by truly understanding customer wants and needs so that subsequent products address real value propositions in a world where competing solutions will not be far behind
Business-to-business (B2B) or industrial market research can use modified forms of consumer research methodology. Industrial markets can be measured from hundreds to low thousands of customers (e.g., for businesses in manufacturing) whereas consumer markets (or segments) start in the millions and go to the hundreds of millions. The fragmented and proprietary nature of industrial market research requires additional skills and techniques to be applied to get meaningful results.
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