Knowing your consumer is key for any business endeavor and will be a profitable advantage. Consumers are the ones making the business continues growing. Some of the biggest brands in the world have made costly missteps because they didn’t know their consumers well enough. So, have you put enough effort to know and understand your consumers? How to know and understand them? Market research will help you on this.
Market research is an organized effort to gather information about target markets or consumers. It is a very important component of business strategy. The purpose of market research is to provide information that will assist you as a self-employed in refining the business strategy and making better decisions.
These are 7 essential consumers information you may generate from a market research study:
- Consumers’ profile: who are they?
- Consumption habit: what (products/services) do they use now? Where they use/ consume them?
- Purchasing habit: What (products/services) do they buy? Where they buy them?
- Lifestyle: What they do daily, weekday, weekend?
- Media consumption: What media do they consume? Where they consume the media?
- Competitor benchmarking: How consumers perceived a (product/service)? How is it compared to the competition?
- Emotional and rational importance: What is important for consumers when they consider, buy, use a (product/service)?
Most of the time, one market research study could not be able to gather all consumers information you want. This is very normal as the first step in conducting market research is to decide what you really need to find out and answer your goals. The kind of information you are seeking should determine the type of research you will do.
Market research takes a variety of forms. However, generally, market research breaks down into the following categories:
- Primary. Primary data are first-hand information you gather yourself, or with the help of a market research firm. The most common primary research tools are:
- Surveys. Surveys consist of a list of questions that can be shared with an individual by phone, in person, on a card or paper, or online using a survey software.
- Focus groups. Bringing together groups of people with a common characteristic, such as age, hobby, or buying habits, to better understanding their likes and dislikes is a focus group. Focus groups typically consist of 6-8 people with a moderator who asks questions for the group to discuss.
- Observation. When the researcher gathers information simply by watching how a subject interacts with a product, the technique is observation.
- In- depth interviews. Another market research technique is the one-on-one interview with an individual, during which probing questions are posed to better understand that person’s preferences.
- Secondary. Secondary data are pre-existing public information, such as the data shared in magazines and newspapers, government or industry reports. You can analyze the data in new ways, but the information is available to large number of people.
As consumers changes rapidly, effective market research should be ongoing. Therefore, you need to keep track on understanding your consumers to stay ahead of competition, as well as to satisfy your consumers. The best businesses integrate new and updated information into their strategies all the time.
