Marketing
is important in business. ”
Marketing research
” is important in conducting such marketing. There are many people who would like to know more about marketing research.
However, many people may have a vague idea of what it means, but are wondering what it actually does and what benefits there are from implementing it.
In conclusion, marketing research is useful when considering measures to further grow a new business or existing business by investigating whether it is effective or what risks there are when starting something. On the other hand, it is extremely dangerous to try to advance new measures or businesses without conducting marketing research.
Therefore, this time we will explain the following topics regarding marketing research.
In this article, we will explain what marketing research is, how it is useful, and what it specifically does. If you want to know more about marketing research or if you want to deepen your marketing knowledge, please refer to this article.
What is marketing research?
Marketing research refers to activities such as investigation and analysis conducted to aid in marketing decision-making. By conducting specific market research, you will be able to understand the thoughts of your customers (market) and conduct marketing activities that are appropriate for them.
Purpose of marketing research
The purpose of marketing research is to learn about the market’s thoughts, feelings, and dissatisfaction in order to carry out the most effective marketing.
If you implement marketing measures without doing research, you may not get the results you expected. To prevent such situations, we conduct marketing research in advance to increase the probability of success and reduce the probability of failure.
It is important to conduct marketing research, implement marketing measures that theoretically have the greatest effect, and repeat modifications to further increase the effect.
Difference from market research
There is a word called “market research” that is similar to marketing research. These two terms are often cited as similar, and both mean researching the market, but the difference is in the “time axis.”
Market research is performed by gathering current and historical data to determine the current state of the market. On the other hand, marketing research is a method of predicting how the data obtained through market research will be used in the future.
The major role of marketing research
Marketing research has three main roles, all of which are important for companies engaged in marketing. By understanding the role, you can better understand the importance of marketing research, so let’s check it carefully.
Understand customer needs
Marketing research helps you understand customer
needs
.
Marketing research utilizes the power of the web and direct interviews to collect various data on thousands or tens of thousands of people. Therefore, the data obtained through research is considered to represent the true voice of customers. Furthermore, understanding needs has the great effect of being able to utilize this information for new products, new services, renewals, etc.
It is extremely dangerous to think only about “product-out” thinking that “this is the way it should be done” when developing a product or service, which many business owners do. There are many cases where businesses go bankrupt because they change products or services based on their own personal tastes.
The probability of success will be higher if you listen to the voice of the market and do things that are in demand, rather than “product-out.” Marketing research plays a very important role because it allows us to know the market necessary for “market in”.
Increase the probability of success of marketing measures
Marketing research overwhelmingly increases the probability of success of marketing measures.
For example, when trying to promote a product and have it seen by many people, if the strengths of the product as considered by the company and the strengths of the product as perceived by the customer are different, no matter how much you promote the product, it will not be attractive. No.
In addition, by knowing what kind of people your customers are and what kind of impression they have of you through research, you can implement marketing measures that take advantage of that information, which will change your probability of success.
In this way, by understanding the actual customer situation through marketing research, you can increase the probability of success of your marketing measures.
Able to develop products from the customer’s perspective
Marketing research not only helps you understand customer needs, but also helps you obtain information from the customer’s perspective, such as how customers feel about your products and how they can be further satisfied.
By obtaining information from the customer’s perspective, it becomes much easier to develop products from the customer’s perspective. By understanding what customers want that will bring profits to the company, we can further improve our products and services and develop new products, leading to further increases in sales.
Since it is the customer who purchases the product, marketing research that clearly understands the customer’s perspective will be a very powerful weapon.
Two methods of marketing research
There are two methods of marketing research: quantitative research and qualitative research. Unless you collect two types of data, you will not be able to understand the essential market (customer).
From here, we will explain the methods of “quantitative research” and “qualitative research.”
Quantitative survey
Quantitative research is a research method that collects data that can be expressed as numbers, such as the number of people, amount of money, increase rate, percentage, etc. The data is persuasive because it can be understood in numbers.
In addition, by performing numerical analysis over a wide range, overall trends can be seen, which can be used to judge market conditions calmly. Specific research methods include web questionnaires and mail surveys.
qualitative research
Qualitative research is a research method that collects and analyzes information that is difficult to express quantitatively.
For example, factors that are largely influenced by people’s feelings, such as satisfaction with products and services and impressions of a company, would be subject to qualitative research. Methods for investigating this information include depth interviews, which involve one-on-one interviews, and group interviews, which involve interviewing a large number of people.
Marketing research flow
We will explain the specific flow of marketing research. Please use this as a reference when actually conducting your own marketing research.
Clarify the purpose of your research
The most important point in marketing research is to clarify the purpose of the research. When conducting research, there are many cases where you end up collecting non-essential data that deviates from your purpose.
In addition, the appropriate research method will vary depending on the purpose, so it is necessary to clarify the goal and purpose before conducting marketing research. Clarifying your purpose will help you organize what information you need, so be sure to do this to increase the efficiency of your investigation.
Decide on a research plan
You need to decide on a research plan.
What you need to decide on in a specific research plan are the “conditions of the research subject,” “the research items,” “the research method,” “the number of people to be surveyed,” and the “overall schedule.” In particular, research is basically never-ending because the more information you collect, the more accurate information you will find.
Therefore, if you do not decide on the various elements of the investigation, you may end up conducting a meaningless investigation, so decide on a plan and proceed as planned.
Keep your research on schedule
Once you have a plan, proceed with your research according to your schedule.
Research can lead to problems, such as not being able to gather information or taking time to find the target. If your research is not progressing as planned, consider revising your plan.
Confirmation and analysis of research results
Be sure to carefully check and analyze your research results.
If you neglect confirmation and analysis, all the time, money, and effort you put into research will be wasted. Analysis is the most important process in marketing research, and what you discover from the information you obtain will determine your future direction and actions.
Additionally, through analysis, you may be able to obtain customer perspectives that your company had not considered, as well as unexpected information that can be used to improve your own products and services. This is your chance to calmly obtain information about the company’s image and product impressions, so we recommend that you analyze it thoroughly.
Decide on actions based on research results
Once you know the results of your research, decide what specific actions to take based on those results.
Furthermore, it is important to decide on a course of action with as much clarity as possible, not only what to do, but also when to act and how to achieve the goal. You may end up proceeding vaguely, taking action without a clear result or hypothesis, and not achieving any results.
To avoid such a situation, be sure to carefully decide your next action at this stage, even if it means starting over again from research and analysis.
summary
Many people underestimate the importance of marketing research because they want to take action quickly and produce results. By conducting marketing research, there are various benefits such as being able to prevent losses and gain more profits than you currently have.
In this article, we have explained the specific steps, flow, and purpose of doing so, so let’s use this article to conduct marketing research at your own company.