Successful entrepreneurs use market research to track trends, make better business decisions and maintain their competitive edge. Whether you are starting your business or looking to expand, these studies are vital to understanding your target markets and increasing your sales.
Here are some areas where market research can help you build a stronger business.
1. Enhance your brand image
Many entrepreneurs do not have a clear idea of their brand. How does our brand compare to those of our competitors? ”
You can use market research to improve your branding image by exploring the following topics:
- Knowledge of your brand – Do customers know it well?
- Comparisons with Your Competitors – How Do Customers See Ohio Business search Compared to Your Competitors?
- Personification – What are the characteristics and qualities that customers associate with your business?
Trademark studies are usually conducted through interviews with customers or by holding focus groups. This allows you to explore different topics in-depth and get feedback from participants.
2. Better understand your customers
Entrepreneurs sometimes need more specific information about the size of their market, their target customers and the best ways to reach them. We recently carried out a study for a client who had designed a new product for the kitchen, and who wanted to know more about his target market. Here is some information we wanted to get on the potential consumers of this new product.
- Age
- Sex
- Family situation
- Children
- Place of residence
- Level of education
- Social networks used
We designed an online questionnaire that was sent to 1,000 consumers across Canada. This type of consumer study helps us identify the profile of the target audience, to position the brand strategically. By focusing your efforts on the right target market, you’ll get results faster, increase your efficiency, and your marketing campaigns will deliver better results overall.
3. Evaluate the effectiveness of your marketing
Market research can help you by providing you with information on the effectiveness of your marketing efforts. We may create studies aimed at obtaining customer feedback on the format of your marketing messages. We can also measure the visibility of certain marketing campaigns and activities and the reactions they generate among your customers.
Using this type of data can help maximize the impact of your marketing budget, by allowing you to design marketing strategies that reach and engage your audience.
4. Find new opportunities
Market research can help you identify new opportunities for your business. They can allow you to identify the geographic regions favourable to growth and/or to determine if the market is ready to welcome your products or services.
For example, you want to open a new store and need to find the perfect location. Or, you are considering changing your distribution channel and need to assess the impact of this decision on your customers.
To help you, we can analyze data from government publications, Statistics Canada and / or some sector reports. These sources provide various information:
- Market size
- Demographic data
- Market share statistics
- Industry dynamics
- Main suppliers in the sector
- Main competitors
General sectoral data such as the number of companies and their geographic distribution
Obtaining this type of data is a necessary first step to evaluate a new market and thus determine the ohio business search strategy and the activities to be favoured.
5. Get a better understanding of the characteristics of your product
If you are developing a new product or looking to improve an existing product, you need to know if you have selected the right features and packaging.
When we do a study on a new product, we collect customer feedback on a particular concept and / or prototype. We also compile data on consumers’ reaction to the product and its characteristics: presentation, design, ease of use, colours, packaging, etc.
We can also seek to determine how consumers might purchase this product, to design an appropriate distribution plan. We can also survey them on their reactions to marketing messages, creative content and promotional ideas planned for the product launch. We normally start with qualitative research (interviews or focus groups), because this dialogue-oriented formula allows us to gather very useful and more detailed comments from consumers. Whenever possible, we provide them with a prototype or sample of the product, so that they can see it up close and use it. We then validate the information from our research by conducting an in-depth survey of a similar but larger audience (for example, over 100 consumers). We thus obtain relevant data to make informed decisions on improvements to be made to the concept and / or design of the product.
