How Market Research Can Improve Your Business Strategy

Businesses often hire market research consulting firms for strategic research. This deals with consumer, product and branding strategies.

No business can succeed without a strategy in place. Whether it is a small family-run concern or a multi-national conglomerate, a sound strategy is the very foundation on which a business is built. The more comprehensive the plan, the more likely is the business to optimise its performance and deal with challenges.

The most important element in devising a strategy is information. To be comprehensive, a business plan needs information on every aspect of its field. While some businesses have in-house teams to do this job, it is often just too wide in scope. Most businesses hire a market research consulting firm to carry out strategic research as a more efficient alternative.

Strategic research addresses three main areas –– consumers, product and brand. These are the three core areas around which a business is run.

Consumer strategy

The main purpose here is to understand your market. The people who make your market are the most important commodity for any business. It is important to understand the motivations of not just your consumers, but also your target market. This information is vital for a whole range of decisions, from marketing to branding. 

A core sample of consumers is studied in detail to find various elements that affect your business. Some of these are:

Understanding attitudes: Consumer attitude is a consumer’s perception of your product formed over time. This includes people’s beliefs, feeling and their behaviour when it comes to your product. How do they see it? Do they associate positive or negative feelings to it?

Triggers: These are the barriers that people associate with your product. What stops them from using it? What are the faults? How is a competitor’s product better?

Consumer segmentation: Consumers are split into different categories according to sex, age, region etc. Detailed segmentation may take into account other background information.

Improving product

The other important aspect is your product. You cannot succeed if your product is not up to the mark. Luckily, this is a constant process and strategic research is just what you need to do it. A market research consulting firm will study various facets of the product and its usage to determine a better strategy. How has it evolved? How have improvements affected its acceptance in the past?

Researchers study product usage in test groups as well as in a consumer’s natural environment. Apart from questionnaires, researchers also study how consumers actually use it. This exposes their unconscious attitude towards the product. Which features do they find attractive? Where do they fumble? Are the instructions easy to understand?

Better branding

Although not given as much importance, brand evaluation is just as important. With the many avenues for brand exposure today, even smaller businesses are now focusing on building their brand. Some of the important areas that a researcher focuses on are:

Brand image: This relates to the brands perception in the market. Do people recognise it? Is it associated with quality? Does it have equity value? Can the brand alone act as a selling point?

Brand positioning: This deals with the position of the brand in the market vis-a-vis the competition.

Market research consulting firms focus on all these areas to formulate a better picture of the business and its position. Armed with this knowledge, a business can further plan better strategy.

Ref: - http://www.articlesbase.com/marketing-tips-articles/how-market-research-can-improve-your-business-strategy-7403916.html