Marketing research is essential to running a profitable business. You cannot assume who your customers and competitors are and expect to succeed.
Marketing research is a tool for businesses to use data to identify market strategies and evaluate business decisions.
All business decisions should be made using research and data to show their effectiveness and success rate. Market research firms worldwide assist with data collection and analysis.
If you want to know more about the marketing research process, keep reading this article.
Market vs. Marketing Research
Before discussing the marketing research process, let’s identify the differences between the market research definition and the marketing research definition.
Market research studies a specific market. This includes competitors, consumers, and products.
Marketing research includes everything in market research plus much more. It includes advertising, consumer behavior, product development, public relations, and sales.
Marketing research is much more comprehensive than market research.
The Marketing Research Process Explained
As you can see, marketing research can study almost any aspect of your business. Therefore, it can require a lot of work and different strategies to achieve a successful result.
For now, let’s break down the marketing research process into five easy steps.
First, define the problem. In the initial step, you need to clarify the problem and research objectives.
You should collect background information, talk with decision-makers, and interview experts.
Second, develop an approach to the problem and research plan. For example, you can conduct surveys or run user tests to help build your plan.
Third, start collecting data. You want to make sure you collect both quantitative and qualitative data in your research. Data must be valid and unbiased.
Therefore, it is important to structure questions that don’t influence responders. It would be best if you used a mix of closed-ended and open-ended questions too.
Fourth, analyze the findings. Once you collect all the data, you can begin to study it. Look for trends and patterns from the entire data set.
Last, take action. You can finally present the data findings and get to work implementing the ideas that came about.
As mentioned above, marketing research analyzes many different aspects of your business. These five steps have simplified the process for ease of understanding.
The Harris Poll’s Will Johnson
Will Johnson of The Harris Poll has excellent insights on marketing research. The Harris Poll is one of the leading market research companies in the world.
Johnson is a veteran strategist with a background in analytics and brand marketing. In fact, Johnson is one of the top experts in the field with immeasurable experience.
Get to Business
Now you understand the basics of the marketing research process. It is clear how important marketing research is to the success of any business.
If you’re ready to begin marketing research for your business, seek out market research companies in your areas for assistance.
For more helpful business tips like this, visit the Business section above.
