Why Should Your Business Conduct Market Research Now?

Failure to do so can be VERY expensive!

Contrary to what you may think, market research is not something that only big companies do. Keeping your company aware of positive or negative trends in your industry and in the market that interacts with your industry can mean the difference between prospering—and something far less desirable.

Knowledge is power, and the more power you have, the stronger your business will be. What can market research do for your company?

• Keep you informed about what your competition is doing and how they’re doing it.

• It can teach you successful strategies that are being used by others in your industry. This is especially important in retail if you’re competing with popular brand stores and multi-location competitors.

• Market research can help you adapt your product or service offerings to correspond to new opportunities that help distinguish you from the competition.

• It can help you reengineer your company to stay on the leading edge of those organizations that are competing effectively and growing revenue on a profitable level.

So what do you need to get started with market research?

1. Define what information you want to gather.

If you want to know more about your competition, you need to quantify the specific information. Start with what you know about them, then add to the list questions that will help you compete. Some examples of these might include demographics, pricing strategies, product or service offerings, what their price matrix looks like compared to your own and their marketing process.

2. Learn as much as possible about industry trends in products, services and marketing.

Where can you get this information? Start with the industry trade press, eNewsletters that deal with your industry or profession and online articles. Also try your city’s public library. The Boston Public Library, for example, has a specialty business-only area called the Kirstein Business Library. This has five reference librarians on hand most of the time, and it has one of the best hard-copy information resources available in the metro area.  Most major markets have at least one library that specializes in this area.  Find out where yours is – and go visit.

Specifically the Boston Kirstein Business Library has copies of business plans from successful companies that you can review, photocopy and use to help form your own business model based on similar business to your.  To see what they have, visit their website at: www.bpl.org/kirstein.

Naturally, there are other libraries where you might find similar information, including most public and many private colleges and universities that offer business degrees.

3. Purchase subscriptions.

Subscribe and read as many of your industries trade publications as you can afford. Many of these are freebies and only require you to go to their website to sign up. If you’re qualified, you should be able to receive the publication.

Also subscribe to as many if your industry’s e-newsletters as you can. Most of the time, there are no fees involved. Many of these newsletters also maintain an online library of reports that provide valuable information about your industry, such as financial trends.

4. Learn from sales people.

If you’re a company that buys products for resale or for internal use, ask the sales people questions about what they’re seeing in the marketplace about firms that are succeeding. They might have some tips that they can share with you.

The bottom line: keep yourself at the leading edge of those in the know and you’ll position yourself to avoid major surprises—the kind that can compromise even the most successful company.

Would you like more information on conducting market research? Contact SPIA Inc.. Check out our website to see what we can do for you, reach us at info@spiainc.com or by calling (978) 640-0803.

You can also follow us on Twitter: @CraigStimmel or “Like” us on Facebook.