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Market Research
Here are some simple methods which can be used to do quick and meaningful market research:
- Talk to your current buyers about changing buying patterns and products which are needed to fill gaps in the market
- Use the Internet and/or directories to research market profiles, culture, economic conditions, pricing of competing products, similar products manufactured locally in target market and potential trading partners in new target markets
- Define your company’s industry (e.g. giftware, furniture, fashion or accessories) and refer to industry publications (including free/on-line publications available by signing up) for trends, cultural, legal, technology and global issues
- Contact Chambers of Commerce and Business Associations in the target market for information on local enterprises who could be buyers/importers and partner organizations.
It is an organized effort to gather information about target markets and customers: know about them, starting with who they are. It is a very important component of business strategy and a major factor in maintaining competitiveness. Market research helps to identify and analyze the needs of the market, the market size and the competition. Its techniques encompass both qualitative techniques such as focus groups, in-depth interviews, and ethnography, as well as quantitative techniques such as customer surveys, and analysis of secondary data.
It includes social and opinion research, and is the systematic gathering and interpretation of information about individuals or organizations using statistical and analytical methods and techniques of the applied social sciences to gain insight or support decision making.
It is a way of getting an overview of consumers’ wants, needs and beliefs. It can also involve discovering how they act. The research can be used to determine how a product could be marketed. Peter Drucker believed, market research to be the quintessence of marketing. Market research is a way that producers and the marketplace study the consumer and gather information about the consumers’ needs. There are two major types of market research: primary research, which is sub-divided into quantitative and qualitative research, and secondary research.
