We already discussed how important marketing is for any business. 

Marketing is the art and science of drawing attention to a company’s products and services and it incorporates researching, advertising, sales, branding, public relations, product design and distribution, and more.

t’s about interacting and engaging with the marketplace, nurturing prospects, converting them into paying customers by providing solutions to their problems, needs, and wants, and turning them into repeated buyers, advocates, and promoters of a brand.

And we also discussed that everything in marketing starts with research.

Every marketing approach, methodology, and strategy that brings results starts with research. Whether you want to start a new business, scale an existing one, expand upon new audiences, create new products or improve your current product line, research is the ultimate weapon.

We also analyzed why keyword research is so important for brands of all sizes in any industry. 

And lately, we referred to what happens when we develop products without performing thorough market research and we gave an example.

Unfortunately, the vast majority of business owners do not invest time in conducting market research. Many of them believe that market research is a luxury that only giant companies enjoy. Of course, many of them believe that market research is also a very expensive process.

It’s not always expensive and any brand can benefit from it. There are many things you can do on your own as well.

So, let’s dive right in!

The Importance Of Market Research – 9 Reasons

Illustration by pch.vector/freepik

Why Market Research – Overview

Market research is a multi-dimensional process that helps brands get a deeper understanding of people’s needs, wants, frustrations, problems, and aspirations.

It helps us identify gaps and hidden opportunities in the marketplace, analyze the competition, and improve our current product line.

It’s also about exploring our own business’ assets in order to define room for improvements and lay the ground for growth.

We research:

• The market: groups of people, demographics and psychographics, keywords, trends, social behavior, and more
• The competition and the industry as a whole
• The business itself

Market research helps brands make well-informed decisions in order to develop and design products that the market needs, improve their current product line, validate business ideas, reduce production costs, gain insights into the competition, and so much more.

More importantly, research helps us craft a unique selling proposition that caters to our target audience and so we gain a competitive advantage.

Don’t focus on your business needs. Focus on the end consumers. Focus on what the market needs. Listen carefully and monitor people’s behavior.

If you don’t listen to the market and what people have to say, you might not be able to launch a successful product.

Market research helps us develop products that solve people’s problems, add value to their lives, and meet their needs.

People don’t really need beautiful products that can’t solve their problems or frustrations. They don’t need shiny objects. They need products that fulfill their promises. They need services that can make their lives better and help them save money, time, and resources.

Don’t be the business owner that develops products based only on intuition. Your ideas are great and as we mentioned countless times, successful entrepreneurs are innovators. without innovation, we can’t make the world a better place.

But we also discussed that successful entrepreneurs take calculated risks. They check things out.

Evaluate your business idea. Your soon-to-be-developed product might only seem revolutionary to you and your team members.

Test the market and people’s reactions. Collect valuable feedback before you invest heavily in product development and design.

It’s crucial to perform thorough market research before we develop new products, otherwise, we run the risk of developing something that is great and beautiful but people don’t really want and need it.

What The Market Needs

We are not in the business of developing products to satisfy our ego, ambitions, or family and friends.

We are in the business of developing products that people need.

We have to meet their needs with our products and exceed their expectations.

We are in the business of filling gaps in the market.

People are looking to solve specific problems and searching for information on products and services. They want to improve their lives and their current situation. They want to overcome challenges and obstacles. They want to learn new things, educate, and entertain themselves.

Market research helps us get a deeper understanding of people’s needs, wants, problems, aspirations, and goals.

We might discover new and unmet needs and untapped opportunities we can capitalize on.

People’s needs always change over time. When we study keywords and research the market frequently, we stay updated and we are aware of those changes.

We might discover unsatisfied groups of people. I can’t stretch its importance.

When we are able to define an unsatisfied group of people and meet their needs with our product and our messaging, we become an authority brand, a leader that people follow.

An unsatisfied group of people is a unique chance to build a community of raving fans that will praise our brand forever.

Product Development/Improvement

Product development should always start with market research. When we know what people want and need, it’s way easier to design and develop products tailored to their specific needs.

We are also in a position to improve our current product line and enhance our product features according to the market needs. We may discontinue some features or make other quality adjustments to better meet people’s needs.

By knowing what is missing and what needs of people have not yet met, we create quality products and services everyone loves.

The Competition

We gain insights into the competition, analyze competitive products and how they are different from ours, how they position themselves in the market and how people respond.

When we are analyzing our competitors’ messaging, we are able to determine key factors that influence people’s decisions and ways to differentiate our brand.

We are able to distill our messaging and approach groups of people using a variety of angles.

This gives us a competitive advantage.

If we don’t know how our competitors produce content or create advertisements we may sound like a copycat.

But we want our brand to be perceived differently in order to get heard in this noisy world.

Specific Groups Of People/Hot Sub-Markets

When we perform market research and examine the trends we may spot hot sub-niches and sub-markets that we may enter dynamically.

In a previous article, I gave an example of how a luxury hotel owner in Beverly Hills would discover that only people from New York want to visit California for their vacation.

We can target specific groups of people and refine our messaging by region, geographical location, age, status, gender, interests and hobbies, and so many other variables and parameters.

We can present our products and services differently to certain groups and we can test and measure the results in order to improve our messaging even further.

We are also able to pick the language people use so we can create ad campaigns and marketing collateral that gets people’s attention and responses.

With tools like Google Ads, Bing Ads, Facebook Ads, and so on, where targeting people is a science, I can target only “athletic men between 23-24 living in Hungary with kids watching football” to promote my product and service.

Or I can target people who viewed products on my Facebook page, people who viewed shops collection on my Instagram, and people who added products to their cart on my Facebook page. 

Then I can start targeting different groups of people using different messaging and ads according to the new audience’s needs.

Ideal Location

Market research plays also a big role in deciding the location for our business in the case we run a traditional one.

There had been so many examples of companies that failed just because there was not enough foot traffic in their area.

Some businesses are doing great no matter where they are placed but others rely heavily on foot traffic.

Some businesses are doing great while operating next to competing companies, other businesses don’t.

This is a tough decision but it’s a very important one.

If we proceed with extreme caution and examine as many variables as we can, we increase the chances of picking up a place that both inspires us and attracts customers non-stop.

Constant Monitoring

Not only do people’s needs change, but there are other external factors that affect buying decisions.

For example, a bad economic downturn, a pandemic crisis, a global event, changes in society’s culture, new competitors entering the market, new laws and restrictions, and so many other reasons.

The coronavirus pandemic caused a series of problems, restrictions, and lockdowns. As a result, people’s needs changed and they use the internet more than ever before to stay updated with the news.

When you conduct market research frequently, you’ll be able to discover new needs and changes in the market, you might also be in a position to forecast changes and other reasons that affect buying decisions.

Just like in life learning never stops, in marketing, monitoring never stops.

Leverage/Growth

It’s not enough to research the market and the competition.

We need to examine and investigate thoroughly our business’ assets as well.

Is our business doing well right now?

What can we do to improve in all areas? What are we missing?

Do we have a list of all our current and past customers?

Current customers can bring us new customers and referrals, and we can communicate with past customers to announce the launch of a new product or a solution that better meets their needs.

What about our past marketing campaigns and their results?

We can learn a ton by researching what happened in the past and improve our current marketing strategy.

When we know our business’ assets we can easier approach other companies and form partnerships and joint ventures to maximize our reach.

When we take advantage of our assets and of other companies’ assets (our partners) we get leverage and we lay the ground for growth.

Marketing Strategy

With market research, we set the basis for every other marketing channel we use: content marketing, SEO, direct response marketing, copywriting, lead generation, email marketing, paid advertising, sales funnels, video marketing, social media, influencer outreach, local marketing, outbound marketing, partnerships, and so on.

To attract traffic online and get people’s attention we use a variety of marketing and sales channels.

We won’t be able to move forward with confidence if we are not aware of the market needs and what the competition is doing.

Increased Conversions

When we have a solid understanding of the market’s needs, we are able to develop a great marketing strategy that will affect our conversion rates.

By targeting specific groups of people that are very interested in our products and services and by creating content to answer certain questions and to address product issues, we are increasing the chances of conversions. 

By using a language people can relate to, we get traction and visibility in the market and our conversion rates increase. More eyes on our offerings, more people clicking on our ads, more sales, more revenue.

A brand that knows its customers inside out is a brand that no one can stop.

Final Words

There you have it. A multitude of reasons why your brand should invest in marketing research not today, but yesterday.

If you need help with your marketing schedule a free consulting call or request a free demo of our “7 Ideals” methodology.

That’s it, another article has finished, here on Web Market Support. I am waiting for your comments and thoughts. What’s your point of view on marketing?