What is Market Research?
Market Research is a method to collect customer insights to understand whether a new product will work well with a target market or what type of changes can be done to a feature to make it more adaptable to a market. Assuming all these factors, may lead to business losses for an organization. Due to this, it is preferable to have a market research in place before launching a new product/service or adding a new feature in existing products. A market research plan will be rewarding only when accurate questions are asked to the target customers.
Market Research is one of the best forms of interaction with the right target audience and it can be implemented to improve customer experiences and in turn, boost profits.
Market Research Examples with Types and Methods:
Quantitative and Qualitative market research types and methods such as surveys, focus groups, online interviews and phone surveys have become extremely popular and the latest addition to this category is social media market research. Here are 5 market research examples of the most used methodologies:
- Online Polls and Surveys: Conducting online polls and surveys have become the most widely used type of market research technique to gauge opinions from a target audience. They are an extremely cost-effective medium of connecting with an audience and getting opinions or feedback about critical topics. Understanding whether a particular market is suitable for a target audience or whether a feature update will succeed and opinions about other such topics can be collected. Include the right poll questions or survey questions to create effective polls/surveys that will be instrumental in getting desired results.
- Social Media Research: This market research example has become exponentially popular as a convenient alternative to focus groups or online interviews. Marketers now prefer posting on Facebook, LinkedIn or even Instagram to get quick opinions about product launches or feature updates. Conducting an online poll on Facebook or Instagram will be a prompt medium to get valuable insights from the right target audience.
- Focus Groups: It is one of the most traditional mediums of conducting market research and have been implemented since the Second World War. Focus groups are extremely filtered groups of 6-10 individuals, usually 8, who belong to diverse demographics and whose opinions and feedbacks are collected for market research. It is a qualitative market research category where this extremely diverse group will be asked a few questions in the presence of a moderator about new concepts, product launches or updates, new services, marketing ideas etc.
- One-to-one Interviews: This market research example is one of the oldest and popular forms of conducting market research. They are systematic, with questions prepared much before the day of one-to-one interviews that will be effective in gaining the desired feedback from all the participants. They are usually considered to be focus groups but with a single person at a time. These interviews can be conducted anytime, anywhere and are recorded for analyzing content in the future. One-to-one interviews are sources for receiving unfiltered and impartial information from each of the respondents. As the interview can see the respondents, he/she can observe body language, confidence levels, and other such factors before drawing conclusions.
- Phone Surveys: Phone surveys are traditionally used as an extension to focus groups and one-to-one interviews. They are conducted when the feedback received from the other two sources needs to be verified. This is done by calling a considerable amount of customers/consumers and by collecting opinions and reviews about a product/service. This data will influential in accommodating improvements in products or services.
