Market Research - True Essence of Business Journey

According to a recent study conducted by the MRSI, the market research industry is on course to grow 12-14 percent annually till FY26 to grow to the 4 billion mark. Market research provides statistically significant data to the company that leads to influencing its key business decisions. It helps them to outperform all the competitors and remain at the top of their industry. 

By having critical information on the actual market and business landscape, a company can gain three times higher chances for profitability. In the present market scenario, the companies that successfully leverage the data lead towards more significant business/sales opportunities. Different types of market research, such as data scanning, analysis, surveys, brand positioning, quantitative/qualitative data, swot analysis, pestle analysis, innovative analysis, forecasting models, benchmarking, and trade dynamics, assist in the annual growth of products and services. 

Application of Market Research  

The market constantly upgrades its preferences and trends, leading the brands to stay actively synchronized with what's ongoing. Different sectors are growing and evolving their market research methodologies and techniques to stay at the top of their game. Presently FMCG, ICT, BSFI, Manufacturing, and Media are the top sectors that contribute to India's highest market research. Market research usually begins with defining the problem, gathering data, analyzing it, and finally turning it into valuable insights for the brand.  

In a more profound sense, it observes and communicates the necessary information while examining customer patterns and behaviors. Today companies adapt multiple types of market research to identify and unfold any business challenges. Some of them are brand research, campaign effectiveness, competitive analysis, customer insights, customer satisfaction, market segmentation, B2B market research, product development, pricing and distribution research, and the real-time usability testing of the products or services provided by the brand. 

Business Outcomes: Parcel of research

Have you ever wondered how companies develop new ideas for products or services? Or how do they enter the new market? Usually, they often access prior information or industrial experience. But no matter how insightful the details may be, the chances can still be uncertain or wrong. These minor errors may be too expensive for the company's image and financial position. Therefore, professional market research is the ideal way to eliminate the possibility of the guessing approach to understanding market needs and customers' behavior. Without strategizing the research, the brand can't create the possible market scenarios, leading to customers' delight. Recently QDegrees consulted a brand to understand real-time market inputs before the launch of its online platform. The research benefited the brand by getting customer validation and their valuable feedback and expectations.

1. Promotes Customer-Centric Businesses - Market research depicts a total picture of the customer base promoting a customer-centric business. These businesses are generally 60% more profitable as they focus on fulfilling customers' needs and building better relationships. The research is usually done through segment, target, and positioning models, leading to better growth opportunities. 

• Reduction of risks - No business can prosper without a certain degree of risk. Yet, too much trouble may even lead to brand collapse, which is why brands use market research that is more accurate in quantitative and qualitative aspects to minimize risks and rewards. 

• Strategic Decision making - Market research empowers brands to make more informed decisions backed by accurate data from reliable sources. A solid market assessment gives a better competitive edge in the business world.

• Dominating the trends: Mimicking a successful competitor strategy is not a good play. Instead, use market research for the optimization of customer links. Research reports can even predict what consumers look for in the products, which offers the chance to deliver the best and latest technology to the customers and stand out from the other market players. 

• Brings large numbers of potential customers - The research (B2C) has a much larger body of potential survey respondents or panel members. These panels are sourced from large swaths of people who've agreed to participate in market research beforehand; hence, the results are more based on emotions and impulses.  

Role of Tools and Methodologies in Market Research

Market research may require time, effort, and investments, yet it will steer the company toward success and positive returns. Companies that lose customers from their competitor’s function without performing market research and directly land into unavoidable pitfalls. Normally brands move forward with dual modes of market research wherein one is the fieldwork and the secondary is based on documents and statistics.

Brands try on popular methods such as surveys, focused group discussions, interviews, real-time observation, and field trials to research the market landscape. Also, there are multiple tools and software for analyzing and integrating the data derived from market research like Tableau, SPSS, R, and more. Presently many companies opt for outsourcing market research to leverage the inputs from experts and execute them to drive the business forward. The research methodologies provide authenticity and accuracy of the findings. Every research methodology has its uniqueness and importance. 

• Digital Surveys: These are the easiest way to conduct research among a massive pool of people bringing immediate data with cost efficiency. Digital surveys are beneficial owing to their quick responses at the mass level.  

• Personal Interviews:  It is an apt method to derive qualitative research for gaining deeper insights. This method provides the advantage of capturing genuine emotions and end-user behaviors through overall body language and nonverbal communication. 

• Focus Group Discussions: A qualified panelist from the target market is excellent assistance in unraveling qualitative and accurate customer insights. The feedback received through this method is the most qualitative and effective for business growth.  

• Telephonic Interviews: Telephonic interviews are best to gain quick responses while dealing in specific markets. It is an ideal method to reach the global market through easy connectivity. 

Competitive benchmarking

Today, companies consistently improve business delivery for better reach, market response, customer experience, and overall revenue. Market research is a great technique that helps the brand strive beyond the average players in the market. It tracks the competitors' performance, strategies, and trends and assists in finding the top ways to approach the audience by giving a high-level view of the competitive landscape. Brands use multiple approaches to find and rise above the top leading competitors.

KPIs: KPIs are important to nudge the company in the right direction and even narrow down the research spectrum in the market. The companies can use the key takeaways from the research to advance their processes toward better effectiveness. 

Unique Strategy: During market research, companies study the steps to clarify precisely what should be done and how much. By assessing the closest competition, a company gets the strategy to move forward by outranking its methods. 

Accuracy Level: Market research helps deliver quantitative and qualitative results that provide efficacy in business practices. This is useful in checking data on previous entities' who penetrated the already-going market, canceling future threats and uncertainty. 

SEO performance: SEO allows a deep understanding of websites and domain authority, leading to hassle-free monitoring. 

Others: News, press releases, social media, CX matrices, sales reports, financial statements, and other important data add value to the company's benchmarking process.  

Conclusion

Market research plays a prominent role in developing a plan of action as it becomes a substantial base for obtaining useful insights for any business. Without market research, the brand can't clarify the authentic customer outlook. If the brand fails to research and adjust to the dynamic market trends, there are high chances for a business collapse. Today leading brands outsource market research to achieve a hassle-free flow into the business and stand out from competitors. With the help of upgraded innovations, tech, and tools, the efforts to gather data are greatly minimized and reach a higher level of accuracy, which automates business growth.   

Source: QDegrees, News articles, data spring