In the present scenario of any business the customer is the king with full power. The customers are no more dependent entirely on your promotions, ads, sale drives. They do the complete market research on their own and decide what to buy and from whom. They have their networks to get referrals from the members. Online reviews are easily accessible to them.

To sell your products or services you have to adapt the marketing strategies that suit the ways of customers’ expectations. You should have a thorough understanding of who your buyers are, which is your specific market and what affects the purchase decisions and preferences of your target audience.

Market Research defined

Market Research is the process of gathering data about the personas of your prospective buyers, target audience, and customers to determine how viable and suitable your product or service would be among them.

Market research guides you to the platforms where your prospective buyers would be available. The digital as well as analog world have become very vocal and demands full attention of the sellers. You can easily understand your buyers’ demands, pain points, and desired solutions and design or modify your product or service accordingly. In such a way it will naturally appeal to them.

Market research also provides acumen into a wide variety of factors that impact your sales turnover including –

• Where your prospective customers and target audience conduct their research for the product or service they want to buy.
• Which of your competitors attracts your target audience for information, options or purchases.
• What are the trends in your industry and preferences of your buyers.
• Who are your strong competitors and what challenges they face
• Which factors influence purchases and conversions among your target audience.

There are two types of Market Research— Primary and Secondary.

Primary Research

It is the basic information about your market and customers. It is useful to classify your market and having a clear picture of the buyer personas.

Primary Research can be segmented in two categories – Exploratory and Specific.

Exploratory Primary Research

This kind of market research is more concerned about potential problems which are worth tackling as a team. It is less concerned with measurable customer trends. It is normally the first step before conducting any specific research. It involves open-ended interviews or surveys with small number of people.

Specific Primary Research 

Specific primary market research follows exploratory research.It deals with issues and opportunities already identified as important for the business. The specific research is of focused type. It attends more precise segment of the audience through interaction and asking questions. The specific doubts or anticipated problems are addressed to resolve.

Secondary Research

It involves the study of all the data and public records available and drawing conclusions that help in elevating the business. These data can be trend reports, market statistics, industry content and sales data on hand. Secondary research is of importance with connection to analyzing the competitors. It has three main categories—

Public Sources

These are your first and most accessible layer of data in conducting secondary market research. They are mostly free to find and review. Government sources are one of the most common types of public sources. If you visit the sites of the concerned departments you can get very useful and reliable information which includes nationwide industries.

Commercial Sources

These sources consist of market reports like industry insights compiled by reputed research agencies. It can be downloaded at a cost.

Internal Sources

Business persons or entrepreneurs often do not pay enough attention to these sources as they are already available in their own system. To study the demands and expectations of the buyers, trends in the market and other important information can be obtained from average revenue per sale, customer retention rates, and other past data on the status of old and new accounts.

More specifically The market Research can be classified as below-

Interviews

Interview can be in person or virtual through electronic media. Such discussions enable a smooth flow of conversation, both parties feel better connected and you can observe the interviewer’s body language which is much helpful in reading his mind and the impression of your product or service on him.

Specific Groups

A certain category of prospective customers and audience are selected to conduct a test survey, showing a demo, get feedback and answer specific questions of the audience. This is a more specific approach.

Research of Product or service

It is a process to gather important information like the pros and cons of your product or service experienced by your customers, the expectations of your target audience, the level of usability of your product or service.

Research-based on Observation

How the customers find your product or service, their pain points, the strong and weak points, what best steps you can take to upgrade your product, and finally how the conversion rates can be increased, these all vital information you can have from this type of research.

Research on Buyer Persona

It is a real process in which you can get a clear picture of your target audience, their challenges, why they prefer your product or service, what are their requirements from your business, and more.

Research-based on Market Segmentation

The target audience is divided into different segments or groups based on specific and defining characteristics. This enables you to act in a focused manner to understand the needs, pain points, expectations of your target audience.

Pricing Research

It gives an idea about the prevailing price of your product in the market, the place of your pricing, how much your audience is willing to pay. How your pricing can be more competitive, all these crucial information can be gathered.

Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty Research

This is very important not only to retain your present customers but also to motivate your past valuable customers to return to your platform. You can take effective steps to improve your customer service, introduce loyalty programmes and offer rewards. This can certainly prove vital to increasing your business turnover.

Campaign Research

It is meant for analyzing your past campaigns, their results, the strong and weak points, what best can you do to make your future campaigns the best. It gives you ideas for experimentation and enhances the image of your business as a whole.

Research on Brand Awareness

It tells you about the image of your brand in the market. What are the expectations of your customers, where you can improve, the level of popularity of your company, where do you stand as compared to your competitors?

Competitive Analysis

You can understand the current position of your business vis-a-vis your competitors. Where there is the scope of improvements, what are your lacunae, which similar products have an upper edge, where you can surpass your competitors, and so on.

To summarise Market Research is a process which is of utmost importance for any business. It has to be conducted by an experienced and dedicated team and it can change the future of your business. Market Your Biz can help you with all possible types of market research for your business and provide a complete and detailed report about it