A question to the Business/Marketing People ?

Society Business and Career
1

In order to start a business or even to market a new product you need to know

Target Market
Market Trends
Market Demographics
Market Needs
Market Forcast
Market Growth
How do you go about doing this. How do you get all this information.
Generally who does this study? Are consultats or some special organizations hired to conduct this study? If yes what are their means?
I am aware that market research is generally done through surveys but how accurate are these surveys? What are the other means of such research?

I have a lot of questions but for the time being lets start from here …

2

heya paindoo...

Well, for starters, you're on the right track by thinking about the various elements you've mentioned in your list.

Effective Marketing Research can help you in what I call the STPP of Marketing... Segment -> Target -> Position -> Program (4 Ps').

There are various types of market research methods including:

Primary Research; Secondary Research;
Qualitative Research; and Quantitative Research.

Conducting Secondary Research is perhaps the starting point for most people... you can use public information sources, libraries, chambers of commerce, government publications etc. to gather data on your target markets and evaluate the competition. This type of research usually aids in analyzing the external environment. There are various tools you can use to develop your deliverables such as PEST analysis and Porter's Five Forces etc.

Following that, firms usually conduct further research for a specific purpose. This is usually the Primary Research part where you engage in conducting surveys to create market data or using other research instruments such as questionnaires, focus groups, interviews, etc., noting first-hand observations, and conducting experiments. You can approach Primary research using either Qualitative research methods or Quantitative ones. Qualitative research provides you with definitive market information regarding the opinions and behaviors of the subjects in the market research study. Techniques used include personal interviews and focus groups. Quantitative research is then used to create statistically valid market information. You engage in such activities to say... minimize risk and obtain reliable samples for projecting trends. The tools at hand include personal, telephone, web or mail surveys to name a few.

There are companies that specialize in conducting marketing surveys. Gartner, Jupiter, Aberdeen, Forrester, Yankee Group are the leading ones.

Hope this helps you. If you have specific questions, please post them here. I'm sure there are others who can help.

Ciao.

3

Thank you Umair. You very informative indeed. Now you mentioned that

“. Quantitative research is then used to create statistically valid market information. You engage in such activities to say... minimize risk and obtain reliable samples for projecting trends. The tools at hand include personal, telephone, web or mail surveys to name a few.”

So my question here is how reliable are the web and tool surveys. Are personal and telephone the most reliable tool.

In addition the small companies of individuals starting their own business can not afford to pay some of the groups you mentioned above. So what can be done in that regards?

4

Re: A question to the Business/Marketing People ?

Assalam Aleekum
Let me know in which country you are than I can
better prepare a reply for you.

5

paindoo

you can get a lot done without going to jupiter, aberdeen etc.
if you are in US you can always look for help from SBA, many universities have small business help senters set up which are staffed by MBA students and they do great work. Hiring indpendent research folks is another option.

much depends on the nature of the business and reach of the business, from planning, research and survey purposes. especially for small businesses who will have a limited reach compared to a larger business.

you can extrapolate a lot from secondary data available, go to a major university library and check their resources. Some great data sources like one source etc may be accessible, often they are only for students, so if u know ppl in a business program, they can pull up the info for you.

finding data on trends, growth rates etc is one thing, converting them into intelligence and validating your hypothesis for the initiative is a tougher task

6

[QUOTE]
* Originally posted by the_paindoo: *
So my question here is how reliable are the web and tool surveys. Are personal and telephone the most reliable tool.
[/QUOTE]

That depends on the type of questions you intend to ask and the type of analysis you intend to perform on the collected data. Also, the ease of conducting and responding to the survey plays an important role. Also, don't forget about the demographics of the audience.

For example, I favour web surveys cuz
1) its easier to conduct,
2) itsconvenient for the respondent
3) it can incorporate visual elements
4) it provides faster turnaround
5) it offers real-time results
6) fielding costs remain almost constant as sample size increases (precluding the list development costs).

However everytime that I have recommended a web survey technique to a client, or used it in my own research, I make sure that we know the limitation which is that the online population is still somewhat younger and wealthier than average.

You have to be very careful about these factors because they affect the reliability of your results.

[QUOTE]
* Originally posted by the_paindoo: *
In addition the small companies of individuals starting their own business can not afford to pay some of the groups you mentioned above. So what can be done in that regards?
[/QUOTE]

I agree... the companies I mentioned are the leaders in marketing research, but you have the option of doing it yourself using simple tools. Here are some examples:

1) you can purchase email addresses from a marketing research company (in the range of $0.30-$1.00 per name on the list)
*beware of fraudulent companies, and spam issues if you do this*

2) engage in mall intercept interviews (easy technique)

3) use an online site like websurveys.com which has a reward based user list and provides an audience for such an undertaking

4) self-administer a survey online by developing your own interface or use something like websurveyor.com

5) Organize a kiosk at a trade show and administer a survey there

etc.

There's so much more you can do, these are just some random ideas at the top of my head.

7

Thank you Rehman, Pir Jee and UT I appreciate your effort.

I am in Bahrian. Well I asked the questions keeping in mind Pakistan and Bahrain. Where libraries and secondary source of information are scarce. Would you know of any Research groups in Pakistan? Or is this one business opportunity?

**
Pir Jee
"finding data on trends, growth rates etc is one thing, converting them into intelligence and validating your hypothesis for the initiative is a tougher task"**

Rightly validating hypothesis for the initiative is tough. How do you go about that. What tools and procedures are used ?

8

Paindoo

depending on the type of business opportunity, you can still find secondary data, in terms of trade flows, demographics, etc.

There are market research firms in Pakistan that can help you as well.

as far as validating the hypothesis, you have to come up with the right hypothesis and prove or disprove it by the research, data gathering, interviews etc etc. This way you are not stuck in an endless analysis paralysis type research activity. This would be youyr go-no go, target and rollout focused research, the "whether to" and "why" type of questions and just beginning to touch on the "how" ..

tools and procedures are simple...what are the critical questions that must be answered, what should be the answer to those questions for you to take on this initiative. e.g. if I have a certain IRR desired that will be on qualifier, or one hypothesis that iu can get a certain IRR, my financials..volumes, margins etc will prove or disprove it. same could be said for market trends, target demographic trends, competetive situation etc etc.

so basically- list the 4-5 questions that must be answered to get into this business, list what the answers should be at the most simple level, and then focus your research on those topics.

You can look on elance.com i believe and it has many independent ppl who moonlight to do these type of projects, another oen is bizmoonlighter where I did a few projects for clients on the side. This way you can get some good resources to help you without paying an arm and a leg for it.

9

Thank you pir jee...That was indeed useful.