Market research should be bumped to the top of your priority list for the following five key
reasons.
- Market research centres your business on your consumers
We all get tripped up by internal politics, agendas, and internal brand priorities. However, some of
the best advice that I can give marketers and researchers is to remember that your customer is
always your boss (even above your company’s CEO). You need to keep the lines of
communication open with your “boss” through research. Work hard at understanding and
7 Source: Marketing Profs, as at http://www.marketingprofs.com/opinions/2013/23874/fivereasons-
why-market-research-matters-and-five-tips-for-using-it, as on 4th September, 2017.
continuously meeting and/or exceeding consumer and customer needs. Even if you purchase your
company’s products, you are not your consumer, and therefore, focusing on your consumers and
their perspective is critical. - It keeps you focused
All marketers and marketing researchers today have a tough job multitasking and rightfully so.
They are managing multiple projects, running businesses, and often playing many roles within their
organization. However, when used properly, marketing research should tell you what’s most
important to your consumers and help you to prioritize and maximize your time effectively. It can
inform both your short-term and long-term marketing playbook, helping you feel less frazzled and
overwhelmed in the long run. - It allows you to pursue the most lucrative growth opportunities
Marketers want to grow their business, but we are not always clear on which is the right path to
do so. Marketing research can help you weigh and quantify opportunities to prioritize those with
the highest revenue potential for your brand. - It keeps you relevant and future-oriented
We have all heard of the phrase “Adapt or Perish,” and that is true for our businesses and brands.
Conducting regular research with consumers and customers enables us to make sure we are
constantly adapting and evolving our brands to meet long-term needs. While focusing on
maximizing short-term results is easy, focusing too much on the short-run limits your brand’s
longevity and relevancy in the future. If you aren’t keeping up with consumer, and product and
category disruptions, someone else will. - It improves your decision-making capabilities and reduces your risk.
Market research can provide insightful information about your market, product, audience,
competition, and more. When you use a comprehensive research library, you can make decisions
with greater clarity and confidence. By having research to backup your marketing decisions, you
can optimize your brand strategy choices and minimize your risk for failure.
So now that we have established why marketing research should be a top priority, let’s discuss for
the best ways to use it! After all, a research study’s results are only as good as its ability to
accomplish its key objectives.
The Best Ways to Use Marketing Research
The uses for market research are vast. However, at Insights In Marketing, we have found that most
marketing research projects we encounter have the following five critical marketing objectives. - Optimize brand strategy and positioning
Every marketer’s objective is to position themselves uniquely in the marketplace ahead of their
competition. Quantitative (numbers-based) and qualitative (conversation-based) marketing
research can be used to identify where your brand stands compared to the competition, what
metrics you should be tracking over time, and what brand benefits matter most to your target
market. - Identify or better understand your target market
Market research is an excellent way to find the best market or target demographic for a product or
service. By focusing your efforts to the right markets, you can see faster results, improved
efficiency, and greater overall performance from your marketing campaigns. In addition, if your
target is already defined, you can use marketing research to better understand your target
consumer and to uncover critical behavior drivers and attitudes that inform their purchase
decisions. - Elevate your messaging and communication
Marketers often find ourselves talking at consumers rather than with them to determine how we
may fit into their lives. Our messaging must resonate with our audience, whether through our
advertising, package design, or website. Marketing research is a great way to test concepts and
key messages to evaluate which ones our target customers can relate to. - Innovate with impact
Innovation is a key part of any brand’s growth. However, conducting marketing research enables
you to focus your innovation efforts on the highest growth opportunities for you and your brand,
design a product or service with the optimal benefits and features, and zero in on the ideas or
concepts that address your consumers’ desires, needs, and interests - Assess your category and competition
Whether you are a small local business or a multinational corporation, understanding your competition and category is a
crucial part of dominating the market. Market research can help to reveal key aspects of the competitors’ products,
services, marketing strategies, and target audience. Using this information within your own campaigns can help to lead in
the market over your competition and add value to your business or brand. In addition, regularly monitoring your
category and potential major industry changes will enable you to stay ahead of the game and prepare your brand to
adapt and innovate.
In the modern global market, marketing research is not just helpful; it is essential to success. Put it on the top of your
marketing to-do list and don’t forget to set your research objectives to get the best results for your business!
Analyse enterprise planning and performance documentation to determine
research needs
Planning and performance documentation refers to organisation plans, correspondence, financial reports, sales
information, and other internal reports. What information do we have that can be used to determine our market
research needs? What does your organisation aim to achieve through their operations? If the business has an overall aim
to achieve a particular level of profitability your market research needs to reflect how it will be consistent with that aim. If
another aim is to increase the social impact of the organisation by sponsoring a charity or providing medical research in
the name of another cause, this will need to be considered in the planning for research needs. Use this information when
determining your research needs.
Market research methodologies
The type of information you wish to gather or, indeed, the reasons for the gathering of the information will influence the
research methods you use. Budget can also have a large influence on where you gather information and may limit you
to more fundamental processes to remain within budget. For example your budget may limit your ability to outsource
you data mining processes. There are two types of data sources, Primary and Secondary and two different types of
information (data) that can be gathered; Quantitative or Qualitative.
When accessing information you will have to make judgements about whether particular information is relevant to your
research task. Does this source tell me more about my topic? Have similar considerations been made when conducting
previous research? There are two broad types of information, primary and secondary.
Primary information Provides factual reporting or accounts of the issue you are researching. It comes from first- hand
experience and has not yet been analysed or changed. Examples: Records of conversation, Invoices, statements, signed
contracts etc., Census data, Minutes from meetings, Emails, faxes or letters, Diaries or diary notes. Primary data refers to
information gathered for a specific purpose. It consists of information collected for a specific purpose and is collected via
three main methods:
Surveys – gathering information by interviewing a number of people by using a
questionnaire by the researcher in person, by telephone, by mail, fax or online
Observation – collecting data by observing respondents’ actions
Experimentation – gathering information by simulating the real market situation for
example focus groups – unstructured open ended questions or field trials – trialling
samples and following up with a questionnaire/survey
Secondary data information gathered previously for some other purpose. The information already exists for example
internal records and statistical analysis conducted by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) at the time of the census.
This gathers information about every household in Australia. The next census is scheduled to be run in 2016. Other
statistical sources and research information are available from a variety of sources depending on the information your
organisation needs, there are dozens of commercial research houses that sell data to subscribers for example.
Secondary information provide reflection, review and interpretation of information after the events.
Textbooks and biographies
Correspondence – faxes, memos and emails that report on events or actions
Databases – library catalogues/reports using information from these
Sales records – monthly forecasts and targets achieved
Forms – insurance and membership forms
Invoices – from suppliers to debtors
Personnel records – personal details, salary rates and training needs
Correspondence – what do we already know from letters of support, of complaint? Emails with information which is
helpful to and provide support for your initiative or reasons to not continue as originally planned.
Internal records – information gathered from sources within the company. The benefit of using internal records is that
they can usually be obtained quickly and can help understand the historic, current and future direction of the business.
Consider:
Financial statements, records of sales and orders, costs and cash flows
Reports on production schedules, stock movements and inventories including storage and
issues with logistics
Capabilities to do with production and supply
How does the new concept fit with the risk management of the organisation?
Reseller/customer reactions and competitor activities
Service quality levels and reported service difficulties
A database of customer demographics, psychographics and buying behaviour
Large organisations produce large amounts of information, keeping track of it all is difficult. The information must be
sorted and analysed well if it is to be of benefit.
How do we determine the research needs for an organisation? We have identified the importance of being aware of
changes that can impact on the business. What information will help? What specific information and intelligence can
inform our research needs?
Competitor’s performance is an important factor in research – understand:
Customer attitudes in relation to the competition, what are they?
Patterns of use of competitors products, are the competition selling more than we are?
Why?
The importance of identification of strengths and weaknesses of your competition. This
allows you to consider the direction we need to take to safeguard our business
How aware are your customers of the market, innovation and changes?
Consumer research can help you as a business to:
Understand the profile of your customers
Identify changes in behaviour and buying patterns?
Understand the status of your customer, are they current, past or potential
Work with the marketing mix to understand attitudes to location, price
Developing detailed customer profiles (understanding and knowing the consumer)
Identify changes in customer’s behaviours and attitudes
Identify customers who have not used products/services for some time
Identifying demand for products/services at other geographical locations
The marketing mix is referred to as the four Ps. These four areas impact on your business and need for market research:
Marketing information systems consist of people, equipment and procedures to gather, sort, analyse, evaluate and
distribute needed, timely and accurate information to marketing decision-makers.
Legal Aspects
Anti-Discrimination Legislation
Over the past 30 years Commonwealth, state and territory governments have introduced anti-discrimination law to
protect people from discrimination and harassment. The following laws operate at a federal level and the Australian
Human Rights Commission has statutory responsibilities under them:
Age Discrimination Act 2004
Australian Human Rights Commission Act 1986
Disability Discrimination Act 1992
Racial Discrimination Act 1975
Sex Discrimination Act 1984
Commonwealth laws and the state/territory laws generally cover the same grounds and areas of discrimination.
However, there are some ‘gaps’ in the protection that is offered between different states and territories and at a
Commonwealth level.
Privacy legislation Privacy Act 1988
The Privacy Act regulates ‘information privacy’. The Information Privacy Principles (IPPs) are the base line privacy
standards which the Australian and ACT government agencies need to comply with in relation to personal information
kept in their records. The National Privacy Principles (NPPs) are base line privacy standards which some private sector
organisations need to comply with in relation to personal information they hold. All health service providers in the
private sector need to comply with these principles. 10 NPPs regulate how private sector organisations manage personal
information. They cover the collection, use and disclosure, and secure management of personal information. They also
allow individuals to access that information and have it corrected if it is wrong.
Australian Consumer Law (ACL)
Superseded the Trade Practices Act when it commenced in January 2011.
Since then, Australia has one national law for fair trading and consumer protection the Australian Consumer Law. This
means Australian consumers and businesses have the same rights and obligations wherever they are in Australia. The
ACL fulfils key reforms in the Council of Australian Government’s National Partnership Agreement to Deliver a Seamless
National Economy, and will help to reduce regulatory complexity and duplication for businesses and consumers.
http://www.consumerlaw.gov.au/content/Content.aspx?doc=home.htm The ACL includes a national:
Unfair contract terms law covering standard form consumer contracts
Law guaranteeing consumer rights when buying goods and services
Product safety law and enforcement system
Law for unsolicited consumer agreements covering door-to-door sales and telephone
sales
Simple national rules for lay-by agreements
New penalties, enforcement powers and consumer redress
Fair trading is covered by the main federal law, Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (CCA). It makes sure that trading is
fair for your business and your customers. The CCA covers most aspects of the marketplace: dealings with suppliers,
wholesalers, retailers, competitors and customers. It deals with unfair market practices, industry codes of practice,
mergers and acquisitions of companies, product safety, collective bargaining, product labelling, price monitoring, and
the regulation of industries such as telecommunications, gas, electricity and airports. The Australian Competition and
Consumer Commission (ACCC) administers the CCA. It promotes good business practices for a fair and efficient
marketplace. Go to the ACCC External Site website for information about federal competition, fair trading and consumer
protection laws: http://www.business.gov.au/business-topics/selling-products-and-services/fairtrading/Pages/fairtrading-
laws.aspx
Consumer protection is governed by state and territory laws (in the form of a Fair Trading Act in most cases). Familiarise
yourself with the laws in your region. See your state or territory fair trading offices for advice on business rights and
obligations under fair trading laws. If you’re unsure how fair trading laws apply to your situation, think about seeking
independent legal advice. Codes of
Conduct and Ethics
ACMA Australian eMarketing Code of Practice
The eMarketing Code of Practice has been developed to establish comprehensive industry rules and guidelines for the
sending of commercial electronic messages with an Australian link in compliance with the Spam Act 2003. The Code’s
rules and guidelines provide practical and specific guidance in relation to the sending of messages in the context of
current eMarketing practices. The Code also provides a framework by which industry can handle complaints about spam
as well as monitoring industry compliance.
ADMA Direct Marketing Code of Practice
Was developed to set standards of conduct for direct marketers, minimise the risk of breaching legislation, promote a
culture of best practice, serve as a benchmark in settling disputes and increase business and consumer confidence in
doing business with ADMA members who are bound by the provisions of the Code.
The future expansion of direct marketing depends on the players conducting their business in a fair, honest and ethical
manner, both in dealings with other businesses and consumers. Only by doing so can the reputation of the industry be
enhanced so that consumer demand continues to grow.
Research ethical considerations
Harm – will proposed research harm participants -physically, mentally, socially
Free choice – do participants have free choice to participate or stop participating?
Informed consent – have participants been fully informed of their requirements before
agreeing to participate?
Plagiarism – have the researchers properly acknowledged their sources?
Privacy – have the researchers properly protected the privacy of participants?
Honesty – have the researchers been honest with participants of the research?
In market research, ethical danger points include:
Invasion of privacy
Stereotyping
Stereotyping occurs because any analysis of real populations needs to make approximations and place individuals into
certain groups. If conducted irresponsibly, stereotyping can lead to a variety of ethically undesirable results. In the
American
Marketing Association Statement of Ethics, stereotyping is countered by the obligation to show respect (‘acknowledge
the basic human dignity of all stakeholders’).
But in today’s society, is this enough?
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