Why Brand Owners Do Market Research - Persuadable Research Corporation

Brand owners do market research for 1 of 3 reasons:

  1. They want it: this is the brand owner who comes from a big company where research was expected and they feel “naked” without it.
  2. Someone told them they need it: this is the “Inventor” brand owner who has found “the next big thing” through their own brilliance and can’t understand why the retail buyer is asking to see their market research.
  3. They’re looking for a spark: this is the brand owner who heard about market research in business school, but they’re not sure spending money on research vs. spending money on advertising/promotions will give them the spark their brand needs.

Why ALL of the above should conduct market research…

Market research helps brands make informed decisions. The decisions may vary, but asking the right questions of the right audience will give you the insights you need. Whether it’s choosing the right name for your product or determining when to expand your product line, market research will give you the information you need to make informed decisions, avoid disaster, and gain a marketing advantage over your competitors.

Market research can…

  • Identify Problems – You don’t know what you don’t know, so discovering underlying reasons for business problems is the key to changing your outcome. Good research can mean the difference between success and failure.
  • Identify Opportunities – Discovering new trends. Identifying “need gaps” in your category. Recognizing demand shifts.
  • Identify Potential Customers – Market research helps to identify the demographics of your ideal consumers: the people who are likely to use your brand. With this information in hand, your marketing efforts can be targeted directly to your consumers. No guessing.
  • Understand Existing Customer Interests – It’s important to understand why consumers choose your brand over your competitors. Recognizing current trends, attitudes, behaviors, and values will help you stay in step with your customers, and potentially identify areas where your competitors are falling short.
  • Inform Decisions – Market research can show you if there is room in a category for your new product/service. It will also help you determine how to price, distribute, and promote your product/service.
  • Help Set Realistic Goals – It’s great to dream big but identifying attainable goals for sales, growth, revenue, etc. is critical to the success of your endeavor.
  • Competitive Analysis – Market research can identify and inform you about your competitors: those you are aware of, as well as those you aren’t.  Discovering how customers view you in comparison to your competitors is essential to success in the marketplace.
  • Test Marketing Material – Going in blind can be dangerous. Advertising pre-testing or creative testing can help you find the right ad messages, as well as the wrong ones, before you make a colossal mistake.

Types of Market Research

Market research can usually be broken down into two types: Quantitative Research and Qualitative Research.

Quantitative casts a wide net:  Quantitative research focuses on numbers, such as frequencies, percentages, and ratios. Quantitative studies can survey large numbers of respondents, who are all asked the same set of questions. The most common types of questions are those which ask respondents to provide a rating either numerically (on a scale of 1-10) or verbally (satisfied/not-satisfied, excellent/poor).

Qualitative digs deep:  While quantitative research can survey large numbers of respondents, qualitative studies involve much smaller samples, but dig deeper to discover attitudes and the motivations behind those attitudes. Qualitative research can be done face-to-face or online, using focus groups or interviews. Conversation, whether online or in person, is guided by a moderator.  Unlike quantitative studies, there isn’t a pre-determined set of questions. Instead, the conversation is propelled by a discussion guide and the moderator, who may ask follow-up or clarifying questions driven by the respondent’s answers.  This allows for a more in-depth discussion and analysis of the topic than a quantitative study can provide.

Why YOU need Persuadable Research:

If you’re like the majority of brands, there’s at least one area of your business which could benefit from market research. Persuadable Research has been helping brands grow and solve business problems for over 20 years. We’ve worked with clients in a variety of categories: from health and beauty products, to “over the counter” brands, to the food category.

Check out our services page to see how we can help your market research needs today!