There are two types of research: exploratory and descriptive.
Exploratory helps you understand market shifts and trends (although no research has yet adequately explained the trend of men wearing capri pants). Descriptive research builds on the exploratory research, as it attempts to understand the specifics of your target market’s preferences, desires and sensibilities. As its name suggests, descriptive research provides the color, the nuances…it fills in any gray space.
Both research types are indispensable—but remember, exploratory is the horse, descriptive is the cart. Doing them in reverse order would be a disaster.
Conduct exploratory research every three months. One relatively simple way is to sign up for Google Alerts. You type in keywords associated with your business, and this program will alert you whenever that term is Googled. Before long, trends will emerge, which should be shared internally. Get feedback, and decide if a descriptive study is warranted.
But, if you’re going to conduct exploratory research on a larger scale, or your circumstances call for descriptive research of any scale, make darn sure you seek out respected marketing research firm, and then meet with their principals before making your choice. You need researchers who have objectivity, who know where to source data, and who have sophisticated analytical techniques to amplify the color.
But in the meantime, start small with exploratory research, identify the trends that emerge and then conduct descriptive research to unearth insights.
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Anyone who has spent a decent amount of time in the field of market research has plenty of anecdotes about companies that either didn’t see the value of research, or claimed they couldn’t afford it, only to find themselves with a financial calamity that properly conducted research would have circumvented.
A fairly recent study conducted by AcuPOLL Research showed that 80-95% of new product introductions fail. It’s been estimated that one out of every five thousand inventions progress to successful product launches. One third of all new businesses fail within their first six months.
Heaven only knows what percentage of business initiatives fail, or, perhaps more commonly, drain enormous amounts of company time and resources before being shelved for what could be any one of countless reasons.
The fact is, people make mistakes. All the time. Smart people, experienced people, successful people all make mistakes. They thought they were right, as they’ve been many times before; but they were wrong. Heck, ex-Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan admitted he had put too much faith in the self-correcting power of free markets. The Rolling Stones’ Keith Richards didn’t think “Satisfaction” would be a hit. There are a million stories like these. There are a million books about stories like these.
So “What’s the cost” isn’t the important question about market research. The important question is “What will it cost me not to conduct market research”?
In a perfect world, all market research would be free from the personal biases of the researcher. However, research is always influenced by the researcher’s personal biases. The only question is the degree of influence.
If you pay very close attention, you’ll notice that most conversations contain misinterpretations, and presumptions that pass for understanding. For example, someone might say that they find a breath mint’s flavor to be “interesting”, which, if they’re someone who doesn’t like to say anything negative, is a way of saying they didn’t like it.
But unless one knows that person well, or is extremely perceptive, or ideally, probes deeper to see what they really meant, their use of “interesting” could easily be taken to be a positive appraisal.
A marketing research and advertising veteran of over 20 years tells of how he has observed over 100 focus groups in his career, and in virtually every case, he felt that some or much of the true meaning of the participants’ communications were not fully and/or accurately understood.
Every research firm will sell you on their superior listening abilities, their superb analytical knowhow, their people skills. But the only truly effective market researchers are those who are able to discern, moment by moment, whether the data they’re receiving is open to interpretation, and therefore requires more analysis.
Which really comes down to getting your ego out of the way.
Toll Free:
