Market Research Agencies

Market Research

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Market Research Agencies

Article by Vijay K Shetty

Market research is an important activity conducted by firms that helps them to stay updated on needs and preferences of its customers as well as potential customers. Now, the pertinent question here is why is research needed in the first place? It has acquired importance owing to the flimsy nature of customer buying behavior. It is highly unpredictable and difficult to fathom. So, if a firm remains ignorant about the needs, preferences, interests of its customers it will lose out on its market share. This is because the firm will come out with a product that is not suited to the needs and preferences of its customers.

Research is an important tool to understand and explore the buying behavior of customers. Studying and analyzing these patterns enables the company to form a unique marketing strategy that is suited to its target customers. To gauge the market trends, firms outsource their research to various agencies. This is often resorted to when the marketing department falls short of staff as well as the required expertise of conducting research.

Different kinds of market research agencies exist for conducting research, some even are specialized for a particular industry. Both the stakeholders, i.e. the marketer and the market research agency have to work in tandem to produce tangible results. They have to work in co-operation so that the market research is reliable and so it is two-way interactive process. An effective market research agency will seek all the crucial information that is needed from the marketer such as the product for which research is conducted, goals of the marketer, market share, strengths and weaknesses of the product being marketed. This enables it to have an effective research project that delivers what is expected out of it.

After the market data is collected by the market research agencies comes the important and crucial task of gathering relevant information from it. Research agencies make use of different research tools such as surveys, checklists, questionnaire, focus group, interviewing consumers and so on for gathering relevant information. The research results are tabulated and the information undergoes a statistical analysis. Statistical analysis enables to study the relationship that exists between the various variables assumed in the research study. It also brings forth the margin of error in the final findings.

Some of the most common information that market research agencies provide include information about specific needs, likes or dislikes of current and potential consumers, demographic information about customers, purchasing history and buying patterns of customers, willingness to pay for the product in question and such other information relevant to the marketer.

Thus, market research agencies perform the important task of collecting and presenting research findings and interpret the information so collected to the marketer. A reliable and effective market research study fulfills all the goals of the marketer who has set them to launch his product successfully in the market.

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Market Research question by dbahabaha: What is the best way to conduct market research for a computer repair business?
Me and a friend are considering starting our own computer repair business, however we’d like to carry out some market research before deciding to invest any money. The only strategy we have thought of so far is to stand in a crowded shopping mall and ask people to complete a survey but we doubt this will be effective.

I would appreciate any suggestions on other types of market research or confirmation that surveying is a good method and also how many people we should survey to make our data credible.

Market Research best answer:

Answer by Serge M
You are right, your approach would not be effective. You can hire a market research firm to do the research and they should provide you with good results. There are many things to consider: the competition, the type of service you offer, the price you plan to charge, the population in the area you can serve, etc.

You would have to decide whether you expect customers to bring their equipment to you or do you go to them to make repairs. Is there a market for computer repairs? Computers become obsolete so fast, and prices have declines so far, that many people simply buy a new computer when their old one breaks down. There is a difference between computer repair and computer servicing. You may do better servicing working computers. This involves setting them up, networking them, installing software, installing additional hardware, etc. Repairing broken computers may not be a good business. A market research firm should be able to find out.