Market Research can be quite a valuable tool for a business. It helps a business make decisions based on actuality rather than hunches. When going through the process of conducting research, it is important to get the most value out of it as possible. We came up with a few tips (resolutions!) to help you get the most out of your Market Research.
- Understand the goal of your Market Research. It is important to consider the end goal of your market research – what exactly do you hope to get out of it? The question is something that needs to be frequently revisited (especially in the early stages of research). Reminding yourself of the goals will help keep a direction to your project.
- Utilize the flexibility of Market Research. In Market Research, there is a seemingly endless combination of methodologies and options available. You may soon come to realize that one option is better than another for a certain component of your research. There are many tools in a Market Researcher’s toolbox you may not be aware of, and it is a good idea to evaluate your options before deciding if something is feasible or not.
- Provide as much information as possible to your Market Research team. Making available relevant data and documents to your market research team is a great way to increase the overall value of your research. Unrealized findings may appear out of a company’s own data when analyzed from a variety of angles. Companies oftentimes have years of records and feedback that can be used to identify trends. Findings in the data may provide realizations that the scope of the research needs to be altered in order to provide a greater benefit or to answer a significant question.
- Explore the problem that exists before attempting to break it down. If you don’t fully understand your problem, you should direct your effort into exploring the problem before attempting to solve it. Conducting exploratory research through qualitative methods (such as in-depth interviews or focus groups) is one example of a way to gain insight on a problem, while at the same time developing a foundation for which to answer the problem.
- Follow up on your research (when necessary). You have conducted a few focus groups, and you now realize where your problem stands and have a few ideas on how to fix it. You know change needs to be instituted, but you would like to expand on what type of change your target audience would prefer. Conducting a study, in this case, to gather statically reliable information on your audience as a whole is one way to follow up your research and provide a solid solution.
- Develop a strategy/set of plans to utilize the results of your market research and carry out your recommendations. Even if the research did not come to the conclusion that you had expected, a market research report is a valuable collection of information. Develop a plan to follow through with changes that are based on your market research results. Having an understanding of your audience/customer is something that should be acted on without delay – make use of the information gathered while it is still valuable and fresh.
