The marketing research process is a vital element of any marketing strategy, and involves gathering information in order to determine the potential success of your product or service. A typical marketing research process involves establishing objectives, developing a program, choosing a sample, gathering, organizing, and analyzing data, making research-based decisions and taking action based on insights. Doing this can help accurately define your buyer persona and target audience, improve your website and generate conversions, understand what's working and what's not, strengthen your market position and identify potential threats and opportunities. Keep reading to find more about the process, the most commonly used tools and the potential applications.
Market research is the process of gathering information to help you better understand your target market. Techniques such as surveys, interviews, focus groups, and observations are used to determine the needs and preferences of consumers. Data can then be used to design better products, increase brand awareness, improve the user experience and, ultimately, create a marketing strategy that attracts leads and improves overall conversion rates.
The market research process is based on four essential key factors, known as the Four Ps of Marketing:
Product (good or service)
Price (how much the customer pays)
Place (where the product is marketed)
Promotion (advertising, PR, etc.)
By researching these four key elements you can gain a better understanding of who your target consumer is, what they look for in a product, what marketing techniques will resonate with them, and how much they are willing to pay for your product. You can also build a picture of what your typical buyer persona is so that you can design a marketing strategy that will help convert as many leads into sales as possible.
A typical marketing research process involves:
Before you can start researching and collecting data, you need to understand the purpose behind the activity. What information do you want to collect? What do you hope to learn from the market research process?
This stage is about defining how you will collect your data and what tools will work best to gather the information you need. Should you use surveys, interviews, or focus groups? What about running user tests?
This is where you collect the information that you will use to form your conclusions and design your marketing strategy. You should aim to collect a mixture of quantitative (numbers) and qualitative (opinions and observations) data.
Make sure you focus on identifying trends as opposed to analyzing specific pieces of information. Be as objective as possible – don’t look for patterns based on your assumptions.
Finally, use your findings to create marketing strategies that resonate with your audience. Don’t stop there, though. Trends are constantly evolving so make sure you follow all steps of the marketing research process on a regular basis and adapt your campaigns accordingly.
There are a number of benefits to undertaking a marketing research process. These are centered on the three key areas of strategy, marketing, and operations.
Let’s take a look at some of the biggest benefits:
We’re now going to take a look at the four most common techniques used in the market research process. Aim to use a combination of all market research tools so that you have the right balance of qualitative and quantitative data to base your conclusions on.
Surveys are a form of qualitative research that use both open and closed-ended questions to gather data. You can deliver surveys as on-screen questionnaires or via email. They are easy to put together and inexpensive to conduct. Plus, the data is easy to analyze.
In-depth interviews can help you gain a much deeper understanding of your target market. They can help you understand their needs, desires, and pain points. You can also find out what they expect from the buyer experience. You gain a lot of insight, and they can help you build empathy for your target audience.
Holding a focus group involves selecting a group of individuals from your target audience in order to have a discussion and find out their opinions on your product, service, user experience, etc. Focus groups can be a great way to gain a deeper understanding of your typical consumer, although they tend to be more expensive and time-consuming than other techniques used in the marketing research process.
Another alternative is holding an observation session, where you watch a target consumer as they engage with your product. This method is much more cost-effective, plus you get to see individuals interacting with your product in a more organic setting.
Marketing research is a valuable tool for businesses and organizations across various industries. It serves a variety of purposes, helping them make informed decisions and gain a competitive edge. Below are some key applications of marketing research: