Indeed, while there are many ways to make it to the top of the marketing executive ladder, there is one thing that they all have in common: for years, they have understood, applied and taken advantage of market research. Here is what these people know about market research and what you should know too:
In a way, the term market research can be a little misleading, because there are some types of research – like those in certain academic and scientific fields – that are designed to explore and uncover new possibilities. Obviously, this kind of research is vital, and has led to some startling insights and breakthroughs.
However, market research is not always exploratory in nature: most times it is about finding answers to practical business questions. That makes the approach as down-to-earth as it gets. To put this differently: there are answers and insights that businesses can only get through market research.
When you have a complicated business question to ask about launching a new product or focusing your marketing on a different target audience, you don’t want to make the wrong choice. With market research, your up-front investment in the right answer can save you precious time and money when making decisions.
One of the most powerful aspects of market research -- and in some cases, the most powerful -- is that the insights and intelligence gleaned through the process can have many more applications than initially anticipated.
For example, let’s say your employer / client in the tourism space asks you to conduct market research on the viability of launching a new concierge service. As you move forward through the project, in addition to validating that the service would be welcomed by your target market, the research also unexpectedly brings to light that many customers would like the opportunity to connect with fellow travelers, in order to share experiences, tips and so on. You route this feedback to your team/client, and they seize on it to create a new layer to their concierge service and make it even more of a profitable winner.
This is just one example of how a single market research project can, and typically does, generate multiple valuable insights. This makes market research extremely powerful and very well received by leaders and executives who may have been a little skeptical at first, but quickly become market research evangelists when they see the ROI on multiple levels.
The term market research – just like the term marketing itself – is not meant to describe a single function. Rather, it is a catch-all concept that embraces multiple strategies, tactics, tools, approaches, use cases, and more.
The reason this matters, is because the inherent ability to customize market research is one of the key things that make it extremely useful and powerful. Marketers can drill deep to get granular-level insights on specific product features (which is very insightful for businesses that, for example, create highly technical scientific equipment and have a very educated customer base). Or they can take a broader approach, and generate insights to support everything from product development, messaging, pricing, promotions, packages, customer service, and so on.
All of this rich, reliable data can be fed back to bosses/clients. They do not have to wrap their needs around market research. On the contrary, market research wraps around them and fills specific gaps.
At Communications for Research, we help marketing professionals -- whether they are part of a corporate marketing team, or consultants who serve clients -- tap into the power of market research. Our reputation for field data collection integrity, efficiency and expertise is unsurpassed, and we never lose sight that market research is fundamentally a business investment that must drive measurable ROI.
To learn more, contact us today to speak with our co-CEO Colson Steber. After learning more about your company and your goals, Colson can give you market research advice, a quote and more insight from his many years of experience.