Market research supplies information that assists in marketing-related decision making. Through market research you can understand the business environment, assess competitive advantages, recognize threats and opportunities, measure performance, and develop an action plan for your product, advertising or distribution channels.
Searching For the Right Information.
In many cases market researches is an effective tool in getting information that supports decision making. Should you perform market research for every business call? Well, the answer is no. There are some situations that don’t require market research. To help you determine when you need market research, you should examine the following questions:
Is the research relevant to the marketing decision that we have to make? You probably should not perform market research just to satisfy your curiosity. You should only perform market research when it’s relevant to questions about your current strategic planning. Market research should supply all the information you need currently, depending on the types of decisions you have to make, and the current circumstances.
Is there any available information that can assist in the decision-making process? Occasionally you can find a lot of valuable information about the decision your about to make inside your organization. This information can be found in different kind of forms. This information can be from different market research done for other purposes, past experience of different persons, or different databases or software such as ERP, CMS and other organizational systems. You should try avoiding performing market research when it’s not really needed.
What are your time constraints? Performing market research requires time. You need time to gather relevant information from the field or even insert it into your systems. Performing the market research should be done under the consideration that it should be done before the relevant decision has to be made. Performing market research under too tight a schedule might cause inconsistent data and mistakes.
What is the Cost vs. Benefit ratio? It’s important that you first assess the value of the information that will be provided from the market research. It’s important to weigh the value of the information versus the relevant expense to see if it pays off or not.
In the CEO Game marketing research is one of the main tools in your marketing arsenal. Using it wisely can help you gain a strategic advantage over your competitors. Waiting your time on non-relevant market research will leave you behind.
The CEO Game.
