As a small business, thinking carefully about your goals will help you design a research project that gets accurate, useful results to support your business decisions. Try to be clear about your research objectives because these will influence the methods you use.
Clearly define your objectives and the outcomes you expect from your market research, as unclear objectives lead to conflicting expectations and irrelevant data. Carefully consider and list your objectives and keep referring back to them during your research.
You can develop a list of research questions such as:
- Is there a demand for my product or service?
- What sales can I expect?
- Who buys my products (e.g. age, gender, income, occupation, lifestyle)?
- What is the best price for my products or services?
- how should my products look, feel, taste, etc.?
- What is the best location for my business?
- Are other businesses offering similar products or services?
- Is there sufficient demand for my product to make the business viable?
Identify and understand market issues that could impact on your market research and enable you to set goals that are realistic and achievable. Consider the design of your market research process carefully so that it suits your needs and capacity. Considering these issues before you carry out your market research will help you get the information you need, when you need it, without stretching your budget or wasting your time
Once all the findings are organised you need to choose whether the information is going to be put into use, identify the areas where marketing techniques can be improved for future research projects. By knowing what your overall goals and objectives are before you begin a new project, you will help your company and yourself in making sure the research stays on track.
Interested in learning more about business intelligence to achieve your research goals? Reach out to Bickdrim and benefit from our free paper on how to use market research to launch your small business.
