Market research definition
Market research is a process that targets the collection of data to help link consumers, customers, employees, investors, and the public to the marketer. Companies, institutions, or investors use market research to collect data that can guide in identification and definition of marketing opportunities; problems; creation, refining, and assessment of marketing actions; monitoring of marketing performance; and improvement of a general marketing process.
Clients and research professionals use a research brief to inform their market research project. Before the commencement of a field study, one must specify the data that will help address the research problems. In addition, the process designs a specific method that will be used to collect, analyze, present, and present findings.
Importance of Market research in Business models
Any business, organization, or company owner understands that business models and frameworks are bedrocks of business operations. For example, for a model to function well, it must be supported with quality data. A project to collect data from the participants is a vehicle that supports different marketing scenario. Market research plays major roles in products and service markets. The roles span beyond new or existing markets.
Eight major roles include;
- Indicate the probability for customers to adopt new products
- Indicate unmet needs
- Help understand unfamiliar markets
- Estimate demand
- Set pricing strategy
- Identify preferred product specifications
- Evaluate customer satisfaction
- Identify new markets for a product/ service
Understanding B2C Market research
Markets occur at two extremes. The first involves the entire population in a country or beyond the borders. The second extreme involves the market where people buy on behalf of another or for the purpose of further transformation. The first case normally has many customers ranging from hundreds of thousands to millions.
The functions of market research in these markets cover either quantitative or qualitative research methods. Besides, because of the complexity of the market, market researchers must think about a sampling approach to come up with a representative sample.
Two divisions of consumer markets –
- Consumer Packaged goods (CPG)
- Service markets
The consumer-packaged-goods
The consumer-packaged-goods cover fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG). CPG is most convenience goods that customers buy frequently and at a lower cost. Most of the merchandise is sold through the retail supply chain. Because of its extensiveness and complexity, the history of the industry this makes it possible for most of the commercial market research to draw its focus.
Hence, the focus should be to use the final product at the point of consumption or purchase. Our experience in consumer market research draws from an understanding of consumer sentiments in beverages, cleaning products, cosmetics, and food, among others.
Market research in the service supply chain covers seeks to collect data on intangible products. Key markets include consumer durables, financial, travel and leisure, media, chemicals, agriculture, forest products, medical products, or technology products.
Understanding B2B market research
You should not worry about major differences that occur between the B2C and B2B markets. While the two markets use similar techniques, they only differ in the manner in which they are put into practice. In reality, the B2B markets experience a smaller number of populations that buy from products for the purpose of transformation or on behalf of others.
Unlike B2C markets that rely on hundreds of thousands of customers, B2B, on the other hand, might rely on a few customers/ clients that ran into tens or hundreds. The use of a smaller sample size guides the research design to be used.
Conclusion
Market research functions help collect data that links consumers, customers, and the public. Business owners and investors collect data to identify and solve problems.