As you will know, if you have been following our journey for some time, we love what we do and an incredibly important step in our process is evaluating market research.

Our four step strategy includes market research, and we show our clients examples of what to do, when, and how, thinking about their marketing.

However, we do also offer to carry out market research on behalf of clients who cannot see the wood from the trees when it comes to their external market and its impact on their business. (And sometimes they’re just too busy to carry it out themselves!)

We know every business, and business owner, benefits from comprehensive market research.

Why evaluating market research is important?

We feel strongly about the importance of market research but, more importantly, we want to discuss the importance of evaluating market research in this article.

Simply put, if you do not understand the results or findings of your research, you will not see the key benefits it can bring or know how to implement the findings.

The definition of market research is: ‘the action or activity to gather information about market needs or preferences’.

Every business needs to know if their service or product requires improvement… or gain confirmation of its success.

So, how do you evaluate market research?

This ultimately comes down to what type of research you have conducted, whether this be competitive analysis, SWOT analysis, consumer analysis, pricing, company review, or marketplace overview.

Which method you use, depends on what you wish to find out or improve – would you like to innovate, or grow, based on the results you will receive?

Back in the 1940’s when market research was first used, everything was done by hand.

Now we have many resources that can help us, whether it be primary or secondary research we conduct.

Innovative tools that are now available include:

  • online surveys
  • questionnaires
  • focus groups
  • publications
  • interviews
  • online research
  • mystery shops

Market research will allow you to make informed decisions in your business that are driven by data.

Once you know your purpose for market research, you can select the best tool to return the most appropriate and accurate data for your use.

For example, to gain feedback on a particular product or service you offer and understand if you should keep it as it is or improve it in some way.

The best option to provide you with findings in these circumstances would be to issue an online questionnaire to existing customers.

This would help to identify if there is still an external demand and to see if the product or service could be improved in any way.

This is why evaluating market research is so important.

No matter what primary or secondary method of market research is used, you may well need to seek both internal (customer) and external feedback to gain opinion and information from both.

When evaluating market research keep these two questions in mind:

  1. What does the market research tell us?
  2. How can these findings help to innovate and grow our business?

If you would like support in evaluating market research  for your business get in touch to book a free call or you can find out more here: Market Research – Ask Zoe

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