Market Research Can Be Done on Your Own?

A market research, in the broadest sense, is strategic process primarily conducted to gather information about the response of a target market to the existing or new products or services provided by a specific business. Aside from that, a market research also serves to observe the strengths and weaknesses of different competitors around the same market area, and analyze such information to develop new plans to improve the existing marketing strategies.

In most cases, researchers distribute marketing questionnaires to the general public around the market area of the business in order to gather the information needed for the research.

Benefits of a Market Research to a Business

A market research, as mentioned, is a business strategy commonly used by small businesses or big . It is an effective strategy of gathering the necessary information a business needs to know regarding its current market area. Here are a few benefits of conducting a market research to a business:

• Identifies business opportunities. A market research lets you discover the the vast opportunities around you.
• Reduce business risks. A market research identifies risks, thus your business can create a plan on how to reduce the effect or such risks to your business (or market).
• Points out competitors. Doing a market research will inform you what other businesses provide the same products and services inside the same market area.
• Bridges communication. A market research lets you communicate with your customers—ask for their preferences, opinions, and suggestions on how to improve your product or service.
• Provides an overview of the market area in general. A market research helps you observe your external surroundings and the different business operations taking part in the same market area.

How to Conduct a Market Research

If you’re planning on conducting a market research to know how your target market responded to your new product (or new innovations on your product), you’re going to need to know about the basics of conducting a market research. Here are some basic tips you need to keep in mind.

• Keep a goal in mind. Ask yourself several questions before you conduct your market research. This includes questions like: What is the purpose of your research? Why are you conducting the research? What do you want to know? Try to answer these questions using your research results.
• Plan an effective way of gathering data. Research questionnaire, interview sources, or do a survey questionnaire. Do not limit yourself to one source only. Find different reliable sources around you. The more sources you have, the more information you’ll gather, and you’ll have a wide range of information to compare.
• Interpret the information you gathered. There are different way of interpreting the information you have gathered. Try to find out if you’ve accomplished the main goal in mind.
• Analyze the results of your research. For this one, you may conduct a SWOT analysis to determine the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats surrounding your business.
• Find other goals for future market researches. You can refer to the results of your current research in order to find other questions you can try answering in your future market researches.