Market Research

Several times a day we are invited to participate in consumer market research, but few b-2-b companies think market research is important.

The results of research and trials are taken far more seriously in consumer markets than in business to business where many companies believe they know their market already and hardly any seem to budget for any serious in-depth research. Despite this they readily invest significantly in display advertising for example based on belief rather than evidence from research. It is true market research can be a significant investment but not compared with R&D expenditure in developing a product unsuited to user needs or a big launch campaign that has the wrong message or aimed at the wrong audience.

But just because funds are not available to conduct formal market research by experienced professionals is no reason to do nothing. An appraisal of a small group while not statistically valid can often quickly show up important issues. For example are they the right people, do they understand what you are talking about? What are their views of your client, their competitors - in fact have they even heard of them? While conducting such small scale research prior to a campaign to launch a new product for a client we quickly became aware that because they had a serious supply problem, distributors simply would not order any new product from them until the delivery issues were resolved. Another company had moved to a new location and not thought to tell anyone, so we discovered a perception that they had closed down. But usually this type of appraisal helps validate the market rather than uncover serious issues, identify the important issues and provide input that is useful for developing the marketing communications campaign.

 But it is not just for new product development and launch campaigns, but also checking how the market and attitudes are changing. Online surveys can be useful for this, even very simple single question polls can yield useful knowledge.