Summary: Market research is the process of collecting data about people, target customer persona or a market and then analysing and interpreting it in the form of reports to deduce insights. A detailed market research helps start-up entrepreneurs, make informed decisions about their business viability, operations, product/service offerings and their financing and marketing strategy. Understanding industry trends, changing consumer preferences and evolving marketing landscape helps to create a sound business plan. GlobalLinker member Ms Shruti Aggarwal shares her insights on the value of market research.

Research is a combination of four things – brains (to help you think), eyes (to help you discern), tools (to help you measure) and finances (to fund process). 

Market research is the answer to your question of whether your idea will become a viable product in the market or not. An effective market research will help in analysing the unseen potential of your business idea and give a proper insight into your target audience’s dynamic and ever changing demands.This way you can develop a Minimum Viable Product (MVP). Market research is an imperative tool for the sustained success of every start-up. Backing up your idea with realistic data also comes in handy when you are approaching investors to raise funds.

With an ocean of data flooding the internet, fishing the right set of information is very tricky and challenging, especially for start-ups. To help you get started with market research for your business, there are two types of research you should know about:

1. Primary research

Primary research is a methodology in which companies collect all the first-hand data themselves. It is a specific and tailored research which helps them interact directly with a sample of potential customers. The collected data could be both qualitative and quantitative in nature.

Ways of collecting data:

• Quantitative primary research tool - Here a company can tailor the questions as per their own product and try to understand customer preferences.
  
  
• Focus groups - A qualitative tool in which a group of people have been chosen to represent the target audience, to elicit consumer perception and draw conclusions.
  
  
• Experiment - Conducting an experiment is like an alpha test as it is designed to get insights on a hypothesis and validate it.  Have an idea, research, learn and grow with your prospects.  
  
  
• Market segmentation - Segmenting your target market based on demographics, geography and lifestyle. This is exploratory research.

2. Secondary research

Secondary research is an already existing data that was originally conducted by someone else. It could be a census, information collected by different organisations and customer studies, publications of a technical or trade journals, public records, consumer study research papers or any other reliable statistical data. As secondary data is outsourced, the companies must make sure that the data they pick up for reference is scanned properly, as it must be reliable, applicable, adequate and accurate. It is like picking out the perfect tea leaves from a tea garden.The process is difficult and time consuming but totally worth it by the end of the day.

Though easily accessible and handy, secondary data is not always the best option for a start-up as it doesn’t give viable information. Having both qualitative and quantitative data in primary research helps startups know about their idea and develop a minimum viable product.

It is always wise to check the opportunity cost. If the end result of the research study is not going to help in generating revenues or bring in an intrinsic value to the product, conducting a study will not be beneficial in the first place. Market research for every startup is very essential because as beginners they are in a proverbial black box. Market research will enlighten them on certain key aspects of their product that will help them retain a firm ground for their business idea.  

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Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views, official policy or position of GlobalLinker.