Planning and conducting market and customer research
Clarke Ricks
School of Business, Liberty University
BUSI 690: Policy and Strategy in Global Competition
Dr. Hicks
April 6, 2021
Planning and conducting market and customer research
Conducting market and customer research gives you insight and data on local and
global market trends that will help you make decisions when starting or growing a business.
Market research is a broad term covering:
past and current market conditions
customer demographics
demand for products and services.
Customer research will help you develop profiles of specific target customer groups and
forms part of your market research.
On this page
When you should do market or customer research
Understanding market research and customer research
The value of market research
The value of customer research
Set your objectives, collect data and analyse
When you should do market or customer research
When developing and changing aspects of your business, including offerings to
customers, it's important to do thorough research to have confidence in the actions you're
taking, including research into:
pricing
branding
product names
new retail outlets
advertising campaigns
new products or services.
There are several methods you can use to do research, including:
conducting your own research using customer surveys, feedback and interviews
conducting analysis of your own business using your past performance in sales,
goods returned and repeat business
researching industry and market trend information
reviewing reports, industry journals and government information.
Understanding market research and customer research
Market research is a methodology used to gain reliable data about specific markets and
target customers. Market research organisations and industry associations provide data and
statistical reports on markets and future trends.
Data and statistics can also be taken from the Australian Census and by using search
engines and social media to explore trends in the market and discover what customers are
searching for.
A subset of market research is customer research. Customer research tools help you
target and understand your buyer's behaviour and demographics.
The differences between market research and customer research are:
market research involves data and statistics for
ooverall industry
omarket attributes
oeconomic and population fluctuations
otechnology innovations
ointernet and mobile phone usage
ocompetitor activities
customer research involves data and insights into
owhat, when and how often customers want to buy (quantitative data)
owhy they make their decisions (qualitative insights).
By exploring customer profiles and motivations, you can gain insight into demographics
such as geographical populations, buying habits, preferences and the projected growth or
decline of targeted groups.
Using a combination of market and customer research helps you to keep up to date
with market trends and build reliable customer profiles to target. It is important to build
more than 1 customer profile to prevent marketing too broadly.
The value of market research
Market research is valuable at the start-up stage of your business, and you should
conduct research regularly to ensure you adapt your business to changes in the market.
Planning and conducting your market research involves using methods and tools to
ensure your marketing activities will be:
profitable and cost effective
linked to the needs and trends of the market
in line or ahead of competitors.
Market research tools
Read about the tools to use when planning your market research and their benefits
below.
Research can be undertaken yourself or outsourced to professional market research
organisations
