Tips For Carrying Out Effective Market Research

by Startacus Admin

The lowdown on why market research is so important for your startup and some basic tips on what to do to get it right

One of the key stages that every startup must go through is market research. This is an incredibly important process and one which could have an enormous impact on your immediate and long-term success, yet often it is an aspect that is rushed through which could prove to be costly.

Benefits of Detailed Research

When thorough market research is conducted, it will provide you with the knowledge that is needed to create a successful business. Market research will help you to create a clear USP, to identify the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors and have a clear understanding of your target customer. This information can then be used to build a brand that can hit the ground running and start competing immediately.

Information to Conclude

There is a lot of information that you will want to conclude from market research. This will include if there is in fact a market for your business idea, how competitive it is, what the state of the market is, what do customers like or dislike about products and services and what the current trends and challenges are.

Types of Research

It is clear that there is a lot of information that needs to be obtained if you want to carry out thorough market research. This should include a combination of qualitative research, which will include focus groups, interviews and help to determine attitudes, emotions and behaviours, along with quantitative research. Quantitive research consists of interviews and surveys with a large number of people - research agencies are often used for this and is helpful for market sizing, product refinement and market segmentation. You can also use secondary research, which involves analysing existing data and reports (market reports and the Census).

Experience

Experience and understanding of markets can also be useful, particularly if you are opening a business in a different region or nation. If you are opening a business in London, for example, then it would be worth spending a week in one of London's many serviced apartments, so that you could spend some time getting a sense of the culture, meeting with suppliers and familiarising yourself with the area.

Regular Research

One of the biggest mistakes that businesses make when it comes to research is only carrying it out in the startup process. Markets change and frequently, so you can benefit greatly from carrying out regular market research to stay current and find ways to meet constantly changing consumer needs and expectations.

 

Market research is a critical stage that will have a huge impact on the success of your business and hopefully this post will help you to conduct thorough research.

 

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Published on: 11th December 2020