Have you ever wondered why some companies just get you? You can know what you want before you do? It’s not magic. It’s marketing research. It’s how companies know what people want, what’s hot and what their competitors are up to. Without it, companies can only guess, and guesswork is bad for business.
You don’t have to be a big corporation to benefit from marketing research. If you’re starting a business, how to run a small shop, or working in marketing, you need this information. It’s what allows you to make intelligent decisions, avoid enormous blunders, and move closer to your end users. It gives you an edge and helps you predict the trends.
Want to know how it works? This hand guide will walk you through the process step by step. As well as what you need to do some good research and to street out the competition.
Step 1: Problem Statement and Research Goals
Step one is super crucial. You have to have a specific issue in mind. You will either waste time or money…or both, if the problem isn’t clear. So, what exactly are you trying to figure out?
Problem Identification Management Problem
This is the most importantly issues, we should distinguish that management from research problems. A management problem is, “Our sales are down. A research challenge is going deeper and finding out why.
For example, dwindling sales numbers may be a management issue. But perhaps customers are dissatisfied with something. That itself becomes a question of research: “What are people frustrated about?” You may want to think if there is more competition now. It could be a research question: “How are we different from competitors?
IDENTIFY AND FORMULATE YOUR RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
Research objectives should be SMART. This stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. Be clear and realistic about what you can do.
So instead of saying, “Gauge customer satisfaction,” you would say “Increase customer satisfaction scores by 10% within the next quarter.” Now that is specific and measurable. Different types of objectives exist. Exploratory objectives are about exploring a problem. Descriptive objectives state what is a state of affairs. Cause-and-effect relationships are found by causal objectives.
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You have to determine how much research you can do. Don’t try to do too much. Limit its scope to not go over budget.
Consider how much money and time you have. What resources are available? You will need to think about these things to determine exactly how much research you can feasibly take on. Set boundaries.
Step 2: Designing the Study Plan
Now you need a plan. This is your blueprint for the entire project. It states what you’re going to do and how you’re going to do it.
Selecting the Research Approach
You can do research in a multitude of ways. Observational research observes people. Survey research it asks questions. Experimental research tries things out. Qualitative research understands emotions. Numbers are used in quantitative research.
There are pros and cons to each approach. Observation works best to figure out what people actually do, as opposed to what they claim they do. That is easy to do with surveys that roach so many people. Experiments can tell you what causes what. Qualitative research provides rich insights. Quantitative research provides concrete data.
Identifying Data Sources
You can work on either primary or secondary data. Primary data is data that you generate yourself as part of
