The Role of Marketing Research

Now it is impossible to imagine any business that could be started or conducted without the use of marketing tools. Opening your own business requires not only a large amount of money, but also an idea that would be successful. And how to check whether your idea will be in demand? For which sections of the population will it matter?

Relying on marketing research companies can vary their activities. Such studies are conducted with the purpose of gathering information and analyzing consumer interests, characteristics, ideas for improving and promoting products on the market. You can order a marketing study to find out competitors in person and their success in the market. The tasks here are completely different.

The results of these procedures help managers to make decisions about the choice of the market, the target audience, the region, the business strategy, and the development of measures to monitor their implementation.

There are only two kinds of such studies, but they, in turn, are divided into other subspecies. The desk study is conducted on the basis of secondary data, which can be found in official sources, publications of state statistics, trade companies and associations, etc. Thus, you can get an idea of the general trends of the market, the actions of competitors. But this can only be the first stage and requires clarification by other methods.

For more in-depth analysis, field methods are recommended. They are divided into qualitative and quantitative, but all of them are related to direct communication with potential consumers. This can be a survey, an interview, a telephone survey, a questionnaire by mail.

These methods have their advantages and disadvantages, and the choice depends on many factors. Most often, such surveys take a little time for respondents and do not reveal the reasons and nuances.

There is such a special kind as focus group interviews (FGI), which involve a long in-depth discussion with a specially selected group of respondents who disclose the consumer's reasoning on this issue, which allows to look at the root of the process and seriously approach the planning of launching the novelty.

Each company can order research according to its capabilities and goals, but it is impossible at all. Customers in this market are banks, Internet providers and companies of other communications, trading companies, restaurants and all kinds of businesses that are related to the sphere of consumption. Therefore, one should not try to develop business "blindly", the cost of such materials will pay off many times.