Any marketer will tell you that market research plays a critical role in their work. At least they should do. Whether you are launching a new product, sending out a direct mail or implementing a digital marketing campaign, validation and evaluation are needed if you are ever to prove or disprove success, popularity or failure.
Building in budget and resources for evaluation is a given. We’ll leave it to another day to bang that perennial drum. However, there are plenty of other instances where market or customer research can save you time and money or help shape your strategy in a positive, meaningful way.
Before spending your entire budget on activity that is based on internal perceptions, ideas and motivations, take a moment to seriously consider obtaining market feedback first.
Here are some tips on how market research can help you:
- Customer satisfaction / feedback – find out directly how you compare to your competitors and obtain specific feedback on what you can do to improve
- Brand awareness – if you spend any time or money at all on developing, building and protecting your brand, seek regular feedback from the market on whether perceptions match reality. Small changes that are evidence-based could reap rich rewards
- Consumer research – by finding out what your customers’ customers want, you can enhance your credibility, show how your products match their needs and prove to them why you should be their preferred supplier
- Before going to market with an innovative, impactful marketing campaign, seek honest, objective feedback first. You may find that your idea does not resonate with your market or that it does – in which case, you can be confident in your spending commitment
We regularly undertake market research projects for our clients and could never overplay the importance – at all stages of a marketing plan – of validation.
Next time you find yourself running with the next big idea, think about how more successful it might be if it’s checked by the people who count first.
Contact us to find out more about how market research could help your comms strategy.
