Market Research Doesn’t Have to be a Huge Undertaking
The role of market research in any business is invaluable. In fact, most companies will allocate between 25% and 50% of their marketing budget to research activities. In good faith, organizations will undertake market research to discover what the core problem is, who they should be targeting, and to determine the type of information needed in order to address the problem.
So why then do 95% of new products introduced each year fail? While the failure of any market research project can be attributed to various factors, one of those is inherently tied to effort. There may not have been enough time to target the right respondents. Old research could have been recycled and applied to current projects for the sake of saving money and again, effort. Fortunately, market research doesn’t have to feel like a huge undertaking. With the right focus, your efforts can result in huge wins and most importantly, successful product launches.
Here are 3 ways that you can make market research an attainable part of your organizational strategy:
1. Communicate goals to stakeholders
If you don’t have stakeholder buy-in for market research, the success of the project will be in jeopardy from the onset. To proactively overcome this, schedule frequent meetings with key stakeholders to inform, educate, and provide transparency about the goals of the market research project. Help answer the questions that will further invest stakeholders in the process such as:
- How will the research help the overarching goals of the organization?
- How will the research improve each department and processes?
- When should stakeholders expect an update on the market research findings?
- What will happen after the market research is complete?
As Dashe & Thomson framed it, obtaining stakeholder buy-in should tug at the Head, Heart, and Hands. Communicating efforts to help stakeholders understand why (Head), invoking a change in heart about the process (Heart), and providing education through hands-on training (Hands) are all great tools for tackling a market research effort.
2. Develop an actionable plan
The thought of embarking on a market research project might initially elicit a pounding headache, but you’re definitely not alone. Creating a well-defined roadmap can help alleviate concerns and make all the difference in having stakeholders see the bigger picture. In fact, we’ve recently written about this topic in our blog, 5 Things You Need to Know to Plan Your Marketing Research in 2020. Take a peek to get tips on what your market research roadmap should entail.
3. Follow-through and optimize
A great roadmap is only as great as its follow-through. Throughout the actual market research, you’ll need to ensure that your team understands the end goal at the primary and secondary stages of the research process. At the end of the research, optimizing certain outcomes might be necessary. For example, if focus groups were part of your market research, was enough data collected to draw conclusions? Do you need to increase your sample size? These are the types of questions an experienced market research team can help answer.
