Factoring market research into business activity
Directing businesses to their maturity stages entail a lot of research, planning, forecasting and implementation exercises to succeed.
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Consumer research, market segmentation, advert research and market surveys are just but a few steps that have to be undertaken under a whole spectrum of a market research activities for a particular industry, its products and services.
The demand for products and services certainly constitute the opportunity and markets and hence the creation of the enterprise to satisfy those needs, while the venture earns profit thereon.
There is no need to produce or sell particular items when there is indeed little or no demand for them. It is, therefore, imperative to look before you leap.
Management’s role in ensuring that outputs are adequate and are of the best standards, must be assured of the profit targets to be met. Basically, they need to be aware of their operating environments and strategically evaluate their steps in new markets, products and services and in their expansions to maintain or increase their market shares.
The Research Process
Having identified which path to tread, management needs to identify the methods to use and execute them to gather the data required under the research. Data collected should be well evaluated in line with the objectives identified, while effective analysis and examination of the data gathered should be pruned to arrive at conclusions and interpretations by management.
Sources such as government statistical agencies and trade ministries, the field survey itself for a particular market with regard to customers and producers or sellers, business magazines and newspapers should all form an adequate and reliable input for the research process.
Management must then play its critical role in making sure that those responsible for the task are adequately resourced and well-motivated.
Benefits of a well-planned market research
Achieving results out of a well-structured market research, therefore, follows certain synergies and core competencies that should reflect in overall output, economies of scale and in the normal or super-normal profits envisaged.
What management should expect from this then includes these benefits:
Risk and Cost Reductions
A well-tailored market research to identify consumer behaviour, tastes and preferences research and/or market segmentation should help management deploy its marketing inputs into specific segments of the market, hence cut cost by producing goods that may not command demand and may not be preferred by customers.
This will also help channel resources to productive areas that will generate the needed revenue and maintain a market share for the growth of the company.
Intriguingly, an efficient consumer research helps to outline the habits, attitudes, actions and the needs and preferences of potential customers so as to provide what they exactly need.
Likewise, a market segmentation process under the whole market research process provides adequate data for management to create unique products for a specified group of people or customers within the wider market for particular goods and services.
This invariably equips management to better meet the specified needs and requirements of the customers. The end result puts the enterprise in a competitive position over its rivals, thereby reducing the risk of a dwindling market share.
Increased Market Share and Opportunities
An evaluation of the buying and selling potential of a particular product or service in a specific market, through a market survey method in a whole market research itinerary, indicates the structure of the market, its size and the strength of competitors with their positions and or shares.
This should tell management how to strategise to take advantage of their distinctive competencies and scale pass competitors to earn the lion’s share in the market.
The field survey should also serve as a platform for management to take advantage of both products being sold currently and the new ones that are to be launched soon unto the that specific market. By taking advantage of the situation through the research, the enterprise’s portfolio and profits would be increased.
Enhanced Goodwill and Niche
By conducting an advertising research, which is a subset of larger market research, a systematic examination of the way consumers react to particular adverts of certain products reveal to management how such projections have created demand for the enterprise and the products of others.
The information gathered from such a research should help management create the stimulus from a particular advert to prick on the minds of customers to demand for a particular product.
This is viewed to carve a reputation for a particular enterprise and its products and services.
The brand so created becomes the market niche and this prevents stiff competition, resulting in premium prices to be charged for customers who are thus accustomed to the brand.
A critical look at the benefits should, therefore, make captains of enterprises factor in this aspect of sales and marketing into their business’s activities. To conclude, the exigencies of a market research are innumerable and, must, therefore not to be toyed with. The benefits are extremely stupendous and managers should take proper note of this. GB
Article by J.E. Crentsil Jnr / Graphic Business / Ghana
The writer is a Business and Financial Analyst
Email:[email protected]
