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Marketing research is the systematic collection and analysis of data to find the answers you need about your customers, competitors and industry. We're not saying you can't succeed without market research, but in today's competitive marketplace, it is difficult to do without knowing who your most valuable customers and prospects are, what products and services they need and how best to reach them.
"Yes, but can't I get this information at the library?"
Yes, you can — to a degree. It is called secondary research, and it can tell you a lot about market size, demographic data, and give you some competitive intelligence. Secondary research is useful, even vital, to understanding your market and it is usually less expensive than custom research. But because it is several steps removed from the customer's point of view, it does not tell you directly about your customer's unique and current perspective.
"What is custom research?"
Custom research is qualitative and quantitative information collected directly from the "horse's mouth" — the market you want to reach. It is proprietary, conducted for your company alone, and is specific to your product line or service. Sooner or later, most companies turn to custom research to improve their competitive position.
"What kind of information can custom research give me?"
The short answer is: nearly anything you want to know - about:
- your customers and prospects, their characteristics and behavior
- market segmentation
- pricing and volume estimation
- perception of your product, service or company
- attitudes of opinion leaders
- most effective promotions, sales and media placement
- product names and packaging
- acceptance of new product or service
- trends that may impact an existing market
The more you know about your customers' attitudes and opinions toward your product, service or image, the closer you can come to "making them an offer they can't refuse."
"Why should a company choose custom research?"
Here are only a few of the reasons companies do custom marketing research:
- to identify and characterize their target markets
- to understand market receptivity to a product or service
- to determine or validate value proposition
- to increase market share
- to explore why market share is slipping
- to launch a new product or service
Some skeptics say research "only tells you what you already know," or "is an unnecessary expense, not an investment." Other people report that research "was essential in creating this winning product line," or "saved us from a $5 million mistake" or "projected our sales within a hundred units of actual shipments." We know from more than 20 years of experience with our worldwide clients that marketing research works.
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