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Importance of Marketing Research in Small Business
- By Stephen Hruza
- Published 31 December 2008
- Marketing tips
- Unrated
It is seen that marketing is the most neglected area in small business management and independent businesses. They do not pay attention to marketing research because of the complexity attached to it. But, this is just a misconception, as small firms can make a straightforward attempt to marketing research easily.
What is a Marketing Research?
It is a planning to help and determine a particular marketing strategy meant for a particular business. All the members of the company should design a marketing strategy that satisfies and meets the complete needs of clients as well as provide essential guidelines to the employees.
There is no doubt that a business depends on the market it caters to. There are mainly four types of retail markets:
• Exclusive shop
• Specialty store
• Regular shop
• Discount store
To frame a sound marketing strategy, the manager must have a thorough knowledge of particular market segments in which his company provides its products and services. He should also be aware of the competitive position in comparison to other companies, know the advantages and disadvantages that would posses a market place for the company. A marketing research project can be of great help in this regard.
It consists of four steps:
• Developing a questionnaire
• Designing samples
• Collecting and tabulating the data
• Preparing an analysis or a forecast
All these basic steps reveal the present market share of the company and predict its future growth. All the information gathered through these projects should either be used to reduce cost through efficient expenditure or increase the revenue by improving upon sales.
I have seen many small businessmen disturbed about the acquisition of marketing information, which is actually not a difficult thing. To make the entire research process easy, the questionnaire should be developed in order to get answers to the following questions:
Where – Where do most of the buyers go to make purchase?
Why – What are the factors that make them go there?
What – What is the market potential for this particular business?
How – How can we compare ourselves with competitors?
Advertising – How effective present advertising is and how can it be made more productive?
Services – What services should a business provide?
What is a Marketing Research?
It is a planning to help and determine a particular marketing strategy meant for a particular business. All the members of the company should design a marketing strategy that satisfies and meets the complete needs of clients as well as provide essential guidelines to the employees.
There is no doubt that a business depends on the market it caters to. There are mainly four types of retail markets:
• Exclusive shop
• Specialty store
• Regular shop
• Discount store
To frame a sound marketing strategy, the manager must have a thorough knowledge of particular market segments in which his company provides its products and services. He should also be aware of the competitive position in comparison to other companies, know the advantages and disadvantages that would posses a market place for the company. A marketing research project can be of great help in this regard.
• Developing a questionnaire
• Designing samples
• Collecting and tabulating the data
• Preparing an analysis or a forecast
All these basic steps reveal the present market share of the company and predict its future growth. All the information gathered through these projects should either be used to reduce cost through efficient expenditure or increase the revenue by improving upon sales.
I have seen many small businessmen disturbed about the acquisition of marketing information, which is actually not a difficult thing. To make the entire research process easy, the questionnaire should be developed in order to get answers to the following questions:
Where – Where do most of the buyers go to make purchase?
Why – What are the factors that make them go there?
What – What is the market potential for this particular business?
How – How can we compare ourselves with competitors?
Advertising – How effective present advertising is and how can it be made more productive?
Services – What services should a business provide?