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With this in mind, it is imperative that you spend time and energy uncovering what your customer thinks about your product or service (as opposed to what you believe they think).
There are two separate elements that exist in your product or service. The tangible product features (positives, negatives, benefits etc) and
intangibles such as standard of customer service and after-sales care.
Ensuring that your product and service exceed your customers’ expectations for both these elements is imperative for success of your offering.
Customers can be a tough lot to please. The modern consumer is demanding and makes purchase choice not just on product benefits, but also on level of service. Providing best product in marketplace will not guarantee you success if your service is poor.
If you are not in regular contact with your clients, market research is essential in evaluating your customer perceptions, expectations and satisfaction with both your product and service because these factors are heartbeat of your business.
In fact, most crucial time to undertake this research is during an economic downturn when competition for customers’ dollar is high. If you want to stay ahead of competition, conduct some valuable market research. Your competitor will no doubt be curtailing their market research effort, so more you know about what your customers (and your competitors’ customers) think, better off you will be.
The most appropriate research to understand your customer is a customer satisfaction study that uncovers attitudes to both your product and service.
2. Know Thy Competition
It sounds obvious, but it is vital to know what your competition is doing or planning to do.
Competitive analysis is only way to gather competitor intelligence. Yet, few businesses undertake competitive analysis on a regular basis. Competitive data is usually collected during business and marketing plan development or before launch of a new product or service.
To be competitive, you must focus on what you do better than your competitors (such as better product quality, better price, better distribution). By sharpening your competitive advantage, you can exploit your most marketable advantage.
Competitive analysis should be continually monitored and it does not necessarily need big dollars. The Internet can provide a wealth of information such as Australia Stock Exchange website (www.asx.com.au) which provides a company research search engine for listed Australian companies. The Dun & Bradstreet website also has company information both fee-based and free (www.dnb.com.au).
If you need more detailed intelligence such as what your customer likes or dislikes about your competitor’s products or services, you will need to implement a market research study.
3. Database Management
As a market researcher, most surprising thing to learn when working with companies, no matter how big or small, is what little emphasis is placed on maintenance of customer databases.
Databases are a goldmine of customer information.
The collection of customer data is vital to understanding your customer profile. By using your customer data more effectively, new products can be developed more efficiently and a more cost-effective direct marketing campaign can be achieved.
A thorough database will even end up saving you money as you will not have to commission a market research agency to unearth information for you.
If market research is needed, by having up-to-date contact details of your customers, recruiting participants for focus groups or interviews will be far cheaper than having to find your customers by randomly ringing phone numbers from phone book.
Concluding Thoughts
Many young, and even established businesses, avoid undertaking market research because of perceived difficulty and expense.
Research does not have to be expensive. There are many ways you can research your market in-house, while leaving major projects to research companies or consultants.
Market research is a worthwhile venture that, if done properly, brings financial rewards and reduces unnecessary costs. The cost of research is often surpassed many times over by increased revenue from sales.
So what are you waiting for? Get those databases working, research your competition, define your market and understand your customer. Remember: "What gets measured, gets managed."
But be warned. There is one main downside to consider - accepting harsh market feedback. While this is an unpleasant outcome, by welcoming and addressing criticism, success will be found.
Marie-Claire Ross is the Principal Consultant of Astute Research, a market research consultancy dedicated to providing strategic, cost effective, quality and innovative market research services. She can be contacted on 0500 800 234 (Australia wide) or at mc@astuteresearch.com.au. Her website is at www.astuteresearch.com.au.
