Marketing research refers to the investigation of user trends and market
needs
in order for organizations such as companies to appropriately utilize management resources and provide products and services effectively and efficiently.
By conducting marketing research, you can provide products and services that are preferred by users, and reduce waste and risk in corporate activities. In recent years, marketing research has been actively conducted not only by companies developing BtoC businesses but also by
BtoB
companies.
Marketing research methods and flow
The main marketing research methods include literature research, questionnaires, interviews, and hearings. Marketing research is specifically conducted in the following manner.
1. Extracting marketing issues and organizing research objectives
First, we clarify the current marketing issues in detail, such as “I want to increase sales,” “I want to improve products,” and “I want to prepare for risks,” and formulate a hypothesis about where the solution to the problem lies. Then, we organize the purpose of marketing research in light of that hypothesis. For example, in response to the problem of “wanting to increase sales of an existing product,” the hypothesis is “we need to improve the functionality to match the usage situation.” From that hypothesis, you can organize the purpose of your research: “Investigating the usage status and satisfaction level of existing products among clients.”
2. Research design
Set up a research method that matches the purpose of step 1, and decide on research items and research targets. For the above purpose of “investigating the usage status and satisfaction level of existing products among clients”, methods such as internet surveys that utilize your company’s customer data are suitable. On the other hand, if your goal is to understand the latent needs of existing customers and utilize them in the development of new products and services, you can expand the range of targets and outsource the survey to a research company, or collect statistical data. The way you use it is also effective. Regarding survey items, it is necessary to break down elements such as “usage status,” “satisfaction,” and “latent needs” into more detailed items. For example, “satisfaction” can be divided into items such as “satisfaction with cost,” “satisfaction with quality,” “satisfaction with functionality,” “satisfaction with specifications,” and “satisfaction with after-sales service.” It is important to note that the survey targets vary depending on the survey item. Particularly in the case of BtoB products and services, research targets should be set keeping in mind that the people who have the authority to make purchasing decisions are generally different from the users.
3. Information collection/analysis
We actually do research. It is important to conduct surveys and interviews in such a way that the questions are not leading and do not interfere with respondents’ thinking. Once the data is collected, it is analyzed using simple aggregation and cross tabulation. It is also effective to focus on keywords and summarize the free-text responses as data.
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