You may have a great idea for a product or service but before you go any further, first make sure there’s a market for it. You need to ascertain that every part of a business plan is tested. Quite simply, you must conduct market research. In order to provide valuable recommendations, you have to ask yourself a series of questions. What will be the company providing? What will be the demographics of customers and how will they be reached? How will be company perceived by the audience? The list of questions goes on and on. If you want to learn how to do marketing research like a boss, following 5 ways will guide your path to successful product or service:
1. Think about market research as a business investment
Often marketers bypass market research because they fear that it will cost their company a fortune. With all costs company is facing, it’s really hard to make an investment on research that will prove that their product or service is a winner. It’s a standard model of marketers behavior but a wrong one. But the more information you have to help you plan, the less likely you are to waste money in future.
Market research should be seen as a business investment because failing to do market research can amount to a death sentence of your product or service. Also, some companies skim important background information, data or facts because they're so interested in getting their product or service to market.
2. Don’t be afraid to get feedback from your customers
Many marketers avoid getting feedback from their customers because they do not want to receive negative feedback about their company or product. Also, they neglect this crucial step in product development for the sole reason that they don't want to hear any negative feedback. This is an inefficient approach. Why feedback matters? The secret of creating great products or services lies in encouraging regular constructive feedback. Feedback shared in the right way promotes an environment of continuous improvement. It motivates people, companies and drives them to succeed. A lack of regular feedback, whether negative or positive, has the opposite effect. It lets small issues develop in bigger problems. ‘Ask for feedback from people with diverse backgrounds. Each one will tell you one useful thing’, Steve Jobs once said.
3. See a product through the eyes of your customers
It’s very important to see your product through the eyes of your customers. Right now, when the excess of information is huge and customer behavior patterns are ever-changing, intuition doesn’t work even in most recognized marketers and visioners. That’s why you should demonstrate a serious approach to market research. The perfect way to do that is to use eye tracking. Eye tracking is a powerful tool to objectively measure consumers' attention to a product or service. Knowing what people actually see helps entrepreneurs deliver better products and services. With the ability to take a lot of guesswork out of conversion rate optimization, eye-tracking can reveal some startling insights into increasing conversions (and avoiding sales killers) that can benefit every business. It can be used before product launch and in a process of rebranding.
4. Conduct market research surveys
Market research surveys tap into consumer opinions and perspectives. The feedback obtained allows companies to more accurately identify the probability of failure. To understand your target market, you have to ask them questions. You’ll want to know what their thinking process is, what their daily lives are like, and why they may be interested in your product or service. Surveys can be online and done through specialized survey platforms or offline with focus-groups and interviews. It’s important to correctly organize a group of people for surveys and interviews. You can’t simply recruit people from streets. Each product has its own target audience and it’s necessary to choose right people for right product or service.
5. Pay close attention to an accuracy of market research
Accurate, up-to-date information obtained by marketing research can be of enormous value to a business in gaining and/or maintaining its competitive edge. The value of any research findings depend critically on the accuracy of the data collected. Efforts to ensure that data is accurate, samples are representative and interviewers are objective will all add to the costs of the research but such costs are necessary if poor decisions and expensive mistakes are to be avoided. If you have a unique product that has potential to become a game-changer in your market, double check marketing research.