For market insight or market research professionals, we understand
the value of research findings, how it gives insight, how it clarifies the
challenges ahead, how it helps our colleagues or clients with their decision-making.
We live, eat and breathe this stuff, we’ve been involved in hundreds of
research projects, for lots of different clients – it’s not rocket science but if
you know what you’re doing it can deliver fantastic insights that make a real
difference.
But it’s more than that… if a client is unclear on their
target audience or how they think; what motivates them to buy specific products
or services; or, what makes them buy from your competitors and not yourself –
then they probably need some research help.
Building a business
case for market research
And, the best justification to drive that expenditure on
market research is ROI... we call it “crossing
the chasm to better, informed decision-making”.
However, if you’re a senior business development professional
or marketeer then using market research might simply be off your radar; it
might be something you’ve considered but not known where to start, you might just
be out of your comfort zone. Indeed, you’re going to have to ask a few tough
questions of yourself and your market research agency before you start; you’re
going to have to believe in the process; and, critically, to convince others (including
your boss) that there’s real value to the process.
And, I bet, there’s lots of equally good reasons not to want
to take that initial leap of faith. It may seem like a lot of money to you, it’ll
likely burn a big hole in your marketing budget, could you use those monies
better elsewhere, it might not deliver the results you want… and hence, you
return to the question, “Do I really need to be doing any market research?”
I don’t know what I
don’t know…
Well, consider the fact that your go-to-market plan is
probably made up of a whole load of assumptions; well thought out assumptions but
still assumptions. If you really interrogated your marketing plan it might be
surprising how many such statements included the words “we think” as opposed to “we
have hard, marketplace facts”.
·
We have a product and we think there’s a “need”
for it
·
We think we understand what the critical product
features are
·
We think we understand customer barriers to
adoption
·
We think it’s better than competing products
·
We think we know who the target audience is
·
We think we understand who our primary segments
are and how the segments differ
·
We think we know what marketing messages will
work
·
We think we know which channels to market to
target
·
We think we know what pricing we should use
The bottom line is that it means there’s a significant
risk that you’ll be unable to optimize your marketing budget… now that’s scary!
If you want help or advice on addressing your marketing challenges then why not contact us
on:
+44 7710-573688
Insights & decisions made easy...
