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The usefulness of market research... [Gulf Daily News (Bahrain)](Gulf Daily News (Bahrain) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Those of you that have regularly used data, insight and feedback from customers to improve your products and services probably can't even imagine how you could be effective without it. Those of you that have not will be amazed at how much easier collecting and using feedback regularly makes it for you to make effective decisions, obtain approvals, and generate and report results. Using customer feedback on a regular basis can help you stay on top of what your customers want and are expecting from what you offer. It can help you determine the features your product or service should offer, how much customers are willing to pay for it, where and when they want to buy and use it, and determine the most effective ways and channels to use to promote your offering. When you understand your customers better, you minimise the chance of launching a product or service that won't be successful. By assessing customers' satisfaction with your product or service and what messages and campaigns are most effective, you can significantly improve the rollout of a new and improved phase of what you offer. Here are some things to think about when considering market research as a tool: Research costs money. All market research projects need resources like time and money. Many organisations debate whether it is better to use that money to improve the product rather than generating data. However, without fully understanding what to improve, investing the 'savings' of not doing research directly into enhancing a product may be completely futile. I recommend setting aside a portion of the funds, say two-five per cent for larger organisations, on market research. Think about how you will use the data. Many organisations hire an independent agency that a few months later comes back with two-inch thick reports with tables, dozens of pages of explanations, and large findings summaries. Collecting feedback on even some of the most complex products or services does not need to be so complicated. Wherever possible, focus should be put on assessing the few main elements that make up the most critical need for assessment. Acting on time. Many market research efforts are 'point in time' studies, with feedback collected at a specific period in the year. The downside to that is that the research has a diminishing value as time goes by. Once that research is collected or assessed, organisations should review, decide, and act on the findings as soon as possible. Steps in the research process. Here are some steps that any market research project should go through, both internally and with an independent agency. To understand how to use each step, we have listed questions that should be asked. Determine the purpose. Remember, the whole point of any market research effort is to make better decisions than you would without the information. 'What decisions need to be made?', and 'Why are we doing this?' are questions that should be asked right at the start. Identify informational objectives. Here you determine what you need to know - this helps in setting the stage to develop the right questions to ask, and who to ask them to. 'What we don't know?' or 'What do we wish we knew?' are questions to ask. Determine the audience. This is about determining who you want to collect data from. If you want to increase uptake of a particular service, you may want to ask current and potential customers. 'Who do we want to ask?' is the right question here. Select the research technique. There are a variety of different ways to collect data - from 'conventional' (face-to-face, telephone, mail to 'modern' online, email, etc). The best thing to look for here is what techniques will satisfy your informational objectives at the lowest possible cost. 'What is the most effective way to gather this information?' is the question to ask here and make sure the independent agency you are using helps you answer this question. Field the research. From this point on (and perhaps even earlier), your agency is probably leading on the project. You would want to ensure they give you regular updates on how the project is going, along with ensuring you have provided them with whatever information they need - such as your customer database or other information they have requested. Depending on the size and scope of the project, you should expect communication on project updates and troubleshoot any problems along the way. Analyse the data, and report and present recommendations. Once the analysis is done, you want to ensure that the results are presented to management as quickly as possible to get the recommendations discussed and approved. Remember, the whole point of conducting research is to assist in making decisions on taking action - whether it's to improve your current products or services or to launch a new product. Ideally, communicate the main findings of the research to employees, who are directly involved in auctioning the recommendations, so they fully understand why they are doing them. Mr Al Akber is the managing director of ACK Solutions (c) 2014 Al Hilal Publishing and Marketing Group Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. (Syndigate.info). |