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Market Research – What’s That Then?
Written by: Lee ListerArticle Overview: A definition first: A market is a group of customers (people or businesses) who may be interested in buying your product (goods or services.)
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Market Research – What’s That Then?
People research for the following reasons:
1. Researching a market in order to produce a product to meet a perceived need.
2. Discovering the size of the potential market for a product.
3. Discovering what people want.
4. Deciding how much people would be willing to pay.
5. Understanding what encourages people to buy.
6. Understanding why a product you have is not selling.
7. Discovering who your potential competitors are.
8. Understanding what your competitors are doing in the market.
9. Deciding the best way to launch your product on the market.
10. Finding a niche – or hole in the market – that you can satisfy with one of your products.
Once you have decided on what questions you want answering – there are two main market research methods – the direct and the indirect methods.
• Direct: You go directly to your potential customers and ask them a series of questions. This is expensive and you need a standard set of questions plus some work afterwards in order to review the results. Usually potential customers are contacted via questionnaires or surveys. This can be done face to face, by telephone or via your web site. This kind of research is better for qualitative research such as what reactions to a product are, would you buy if…. etc?
• Indirect: This is research on a topic – or question via the internet or via researching a particular database – such as the National Statistics etc. This kind of research is best for quantitative research – such as how many? Where they are? Etc.
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Article Tags: indirect methods, market research methods, national statistics, niche, potential market, qualitative research, quantitative research, questionnaires, surveys, what your competitors
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About the Author: Lee Lister RSS for Lee's articles - Visit Lee's website  From an early age she began an unparalleled journey through business consulting that continues to span across the UK, USA, Europe and Asia. She has consulted for a considerable number of companies all over the world. Specialising in business change management, start up consultancy and trouble shooting. Lee's experience in marketing and internet marketing is also keenly sought after. She is a prolific published writer of books, ebooks and articles and can easily be found on major search engine and Amazon. Her books include: FastTrack Bid Management, Proposal Writing For Smaller Businesses, How Much Does It Cost To Start A Business, Entrepreneur's Apprentice and a series of Start My New Business books that do as they say in the title! Her major web sites are: Click here to visit Lee's website   Investors in your Business 10 Things They Look for in a Business Plan Entrepreneurs Youve Got That Eureka Moment How Do You Capitalize On Your New Idea Venture Capitalists Are They A Good Idea For A New Company Entrepreneurs Getting Your Plumbing And Heating Business Better Known Entrepreneurs Writing Your First Quotation And Not Sure What Goes Into It |
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