Mistakes to Avoid when Doing Market Research

by | Last updated Oct 13, 2022 | Published on Feb 9, 2021 | Business Transcription

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Market Research

Market research helps businesses understand their customers better and offer them the goods and services they want. Research is essential to evaluate competition, market size, predict trends, and implement the right strategies to grow the business. In market research, data is collected using two methods – primary and secondary. Primary research involves gathering information directly from the target audience, customers or potential customers using interviews, focus groups, questionnaires and surveys. Getting the material documented accurately by an audio transcription service provider helps companies evaluate the information. In secondary research, the investigator relies on existing sources of information, such as industry-specific published reports and studies. Both methods are often combined to obtain accurate results.

Succeeding with market research depends on having a proper strategy and good plan. The first step is identifying marketing symptoms and/or marketing opportunities. Symptoms are issues that an organization faces such as falling market share, rising number of complaints, and new products that customers do not accept. Marketing opportunities include potential benefits that new products or channels offer, emerging prospects that need to be explored, etc. To begin conducting market research, Hubspot explains that the business needs to

  • Define its buyer persona
  • Identify a persona group to engage
  • Prepare questions for the market research participants
  • Conduct the survey using an appropriate tool
  • Identify and list its primary competitors
  • Summarize the findings

However, experts say that success with these steps also depends on avoiding certain market research mistakes:

  • Not having a Clear Idea about what you are Looking for: When you begin, you need to know the questions to which you need answers to, notes a SSBC article. It’s not enough to just have a general idea about the information you want – list specific questions and formulate a plan to find the answers to them.
  • Relying on Only Secondary Research or on only Primary Research: Secondary research saves time and money, by relying on only this method will restrict the study. In other words, primary research is crucial to get an original perspective. Likewise, don’t make the mistake of doing only primary market research. Previous research in the field can provide a lot of useful information like statistics and data that would be valuable for your project. Collecting this information on your own can prove challenging and expensive. The bottom line: a combination of both primary and secondary data can provide you with an objective view of your market.
  • Not Verifying Sources of Information: Any reference material you use has to come from a reliable source. Even though the Internet offers a vast amount of data, you need to validate anything you reference, and double check the information and dates. Importantly, don’t make the mistake of ignoring authentic sources of data like government reports, studies conducted by top organizations, and other credible sources, including reference material in local libraries.
  • Not Correctly Identifying your Target Demographic: Have a clear idea about the group you are targeting and get as many details as possible about them, including demographic data and their specific interests and habits. The reason why many businesses fail with their products or services is that they did not focus on the needs of their audience. Once you identify your target demographic, using tools such as YouGov, DemograpicsPro and social listening can help you identify trends in your audience’s concerns and interests. Note: if you are using a focus group, make sure that your respondents represent the right target audience.
  • Not using Incentives to Increase Participation in Research: Incentives are a standard practice in market research as they encourage participation Incentives can maximize response rates and save time and money spent on recruiting and follow up. With the right incentives, those recruited will show up and help you complete the study. As different groups of people will expect different incentives to get them interested, take participants’ preferences into account when choosing market research incentives.

Market research will play a vital role across different industries in 2021 and beyond. Marcello Antonioni, Managing Partner, StudiaBo srl, in charge of ExportPlanning summed it as follows on www.marketresearch.com:

Strategic planning has always represented a key driver of growth for companies. Now more than ever, in the extraordinary circumstances we are living due to the current pandemic, taking corporate decisions based on reliable data is and will be essential to bring about recovery and success for any business“.

Conducting market research requires the proper use of tools like focus groups, interviews and surveys. Business transcription services can help you capture these important interactions and help you identify various market opportunities and make the most of them. It will also allow you to understand your target audience’s personality, their habits, preferences, dislikes, etc. and make it easier to communicate with them, which will go a long way in meeting their needs.

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