To develop even a rudimentary marketing plan or business strategy, it is essential that you conduct some market research.
It is only through this process that you can develop products or services that will meet the needs of your customers, establish distribution channels and create awareness of what you have to offer.
Research does not have to be complicated for most businesses.
All research projects can be broken down into four basic components. The sample size — who will you ask. The method — how will you ask your questions. The questions — how many and what will you ask. The results — what will you do once you have the answers.
In essence, research is all about asking questions, getting answers and taking action based on those answers.
However, the key to conducting proper research is to ensure you ask the right questions, how you interpret the answers and incorporate those actions into you business plans.
There are two basic types of research questions that you can ask — quantitative and qualitative.
Quantitative questions gather hard numbers like how many people would buy and how much competition is out there. Qualitative questions, on the other hand, are focused on finding out why people buy or, more pointedly, what would get them to buy from you.
How you gather information can be done in a variety of ways. Printed or online surveys utilizing questionnaires, personal interviews, and focus groups are the three most basic ways of gathering information. This is called primary research because it is you making direct contact with consumers.
Another way of gathering research is to seek out information that is in the public domain or that can be purchased from research organizations such as Statistics Canada (Statscan). This is called secondary research.
To get a really good overview of the who, what and why of your customers, the bottom line is that you will need to use a variety of techniques and collection methods to make an educated business decision.
Before you begin your research, there are some fairly basic questions that you need to ask yourself so that you can formulate questions that will give you the information you need. These questions revolve around the four Ps of marketing — Product, Price, Position and Promotion.
Here’s a few questions that will help you get started. They have been grouped under each of the four Ps.
Product
What are your product or service’s key features? What need does it fulfill? How does your product compare to the competition? What technological or other innovations will impact the value of your product or service?
Price
How sensitive are your prices? How much control do you have over the costs involved in bringing your products or service to market? How do your prices compare to the competition?
Position
What makes your product or service unique? How do your competitors position their products or services in the marketplace?
Promotion
What image are you trying to convey? Where do your current customers get information about you?
Answering these very basic questions will help you decide what you need to learn. If you have not established a goal, then the chances are that the results of your research will be fragmented and not very helpful.
When getting down to composing the actual questions, remember to the keep them short and simple. We live in an age where a 24-page questionnaire will end up in the proverbial “round file.” Even online surveys or face-to-face interviews need to be kept simple.
Each question you ask should provide you with some direction for taking further action. If what you learn from the response is not going to be useful, then leave out the question.
Research, like other business disciplines, should be an essential component of your business. Knowing who your customers are and what they want is critical to your success. The purpose of this column is to highlight the need for research and to give some insight as to what you need to do to make it a part of your strategy.
Joe Smith is a communications consultant and an accomplished fine artist. He can be reached via email at joesmith@shaw.ca
