6 Types of Market Research & How to Utilize Them to Your Benefit

Market research is about gathering specific details about the consumers, current and emerging trends, and competitors that can help companies make strategic decisions about marketing their products/services. Market research services and analysis benefit entrepreneurs by keeping up with the latest trends, making better business decisions, and maintaining the competitive edge of their business. You can be a start-up owner or a businessman wishing to expand; market research is vital to understanding your target markets and boosting sales.

The global market research services business is predicted to rise from $76.42 billion in 2021 to $82.62 billion in 2022 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8.1% The market will reach $108.61 billion in 2026 at a CAGR of 7.1%. The numbers describing outsource market research are proving profitable for businesses across the globe.

Market research provides insight into:

• Consumer needs & preferences
• Buying behavior
• Price sensitivities
• Competitor strengths and weaknesses
• Market share of the competitor
• Current and emerging trends

There’s a saying- “Failing to prepare means preparing to fail.” A business can only thrive with critical research to understand new trends, new product/service advancements, and, most importantly, consumer needs. 9% of firms lose their clients to competitors when they don’t conduct market research to gain customer loyalty and retention. Most products plummet as they don’t outsource market research services. It helps any business personalized products as per the consumer needs, stay relevant, and stay ahead of others.

Why is Market Research so Important?

Quoting Henry Ford, ”If you do what you’ve always done, you will get what you’ve always got.” In terms of market research or web research and analysis, if we keep doing what we’ve always done, there’s a good chance that we might fall behind and become outdated — stating an example here for better understanding.

Kodak, for instance. Kodak held a dominant position in photographic film for almost a hundred years. However, when digital photography was introduced, Kodak didn’t adapt to it and kept doing what it did. Eventually, the company didn’t just plummet but trimmed down examples like this. While Kodak sank, Fujifilm, its biggest rival, reinvented itself and unexpectedly rose to meet the digital challenge. Fujifilm sailed successfully ahead of what it is today.

Similarly, if you keep doing the market research the old way, the firm might end up much like Kodak did. So, how to choose the methods of market research services? Let us list down the types of market research you can use to get the desired success in your business.

6 Types of Market Research

Many market research services can be utilized to meet the business goals.

Brand Research

What is it?

Brand research creates & manages the brand/identity of a company. It can be a logo, image, narrative, or attributes people can relate to.

When to use it?

It can be used at the beginning, during the brand makeover, or at any stage in a company’s lifecycle. It can be used for product launches and re-branding. Look at the following types of brand research-

• Brand advocacy: How many shoppers suggest your brand to others?
• Brand awareness: Does your target audience know who you are and consider you a good option?
• Brand loyalty: Do you retain clients?
• Brand insight: How much of your target audience uses your product/service?
• Brand impression: What do people think of your firm’s identity or products/services?
• Brand positioning: How do you differentiate your brand from others, and how do you communicate it in a way that resonates with the audience?
• Brand value: How much are people willing to pay for your brand over another?

Campaign Effectiveness Research

What is it?

This assesses whether advertising campaigns reach the right audience and give the expected results. This research can help you sell better, get better insights into the current market, and reduce client acquisition expenses.

When to use it?

On average, people see nearly 5000 advertising messages daily, so holding the attention is challenging. Campaign effectiveness research can be used to advertise the product/service effectively.

How will the research be done?

Campaign effectiveness research should be utilized for all the stages of the campaign. Experts perform the research to know how the target market views the promotion while identifying its loopholes.

Competitive Analysis Research

What is it?

Competitive analysis empowers the business to evaluate its competitor’s strengths and shortcomings in the domain, giving it the power to gain a competitive advantage and thrive among the same audience.

When to use it?

Irrespective of the field and its businesses, competitive analysis forms the core of any business and market plan. You might have just entered the field, moved to another one, or conducted a business health check; a competitive analysis will help majorly.

How will the research be done?

A competitive analysis expert will select your main competitors and study factors such as their marketing plan, client perceptions, revenue, sales volume, and more factors you would need insights on. Articles and references are also ideal sources of competitive data. A general market visit and discussion with focus groups can offer helpful knowledge on client service and current customer sentiments.

Consumer Insights Research

What is it?

Consumer insights market research services tell about who your clients are and what they do. It shows buyers’ buying patterns, often usage and buying behavior change in case of the product alternative. This research also gives you a peek into the purchase habits of the shoppers.

When to use it?

While developing a strategic marketing plan, in-depth knowledge of the consumers is essential. This helps you predict buyer needs, innovate, customize the marketing plan, remove obstacles, and more.

How will the research be done?

The experts utilize several market research methods like interviews, consumer psychology, surveys, social monitoring, and consumer journeys to help your business.

Customer Segmentation Research

What is it?

Consumer segmentation separates markets or consumers into smaller clusters or personalities with identical attributes to facilitate targeted marketing. When you learn how people in each cluster behave, you also know how it impacts the business revenue.

When to use it?

Research is useful when you want to provide personalized experiences to your clients. When you know better about each particular persona, you can easily focus on delivering customized marketing, building loyal relations, pricing products smartly, and predicting how new products/services will perform in each segment.

How will the research be done?

Experts conduct the research using four characteristics:

• Demographics (age, gender, family status, education, household income, occupation)
• Geography (where people live)
• Psychographics (class, lifestyle, personality traits)
• Behavior (Brand affinity, consumption, and shopping habits)

Product Development Research

What is it?

In product development market research, client knowledge is utilized to design the process of creating or improving the product/service.

When to use it?

Inventing a completely new, original product is a challenging task. Due to the lack of innovation, a lot of products fail. What market research services do here is that they minimize the risk or save the product from failing before it enters the market. Product research can be used before conceptualizing, building, strategizing, and introducing the product.

How will the research be done?

The experts will provide product concepts to the targeted audience, listen to their views, and conduct interviews to know more about what makes them satisfied or is lacking in the product.

To Wrap Up

Outsourcing market research and analysis can help avoid common blunders and boost businesses in the changing market scenario. Without this, one might fail to connect with consumers, miss out on better opportunities and trends, be open to risks, make flawed business decisions, and eventually lose the client base of your competitors. Outsource web research and market research services to eDataMine professionals. Being well-versed in diverse domains, we provide research solutions tailored to your business.