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Guide to market research and analysis

This guide is intended to help business owners better understand market research and its importance. It provides information on how to conduct a market research project, specifying several options that are available to businesses regardless of their market research budget.

What is market research?

Successful businesses have extensive knowledge of their customers and their competitors. Market research is the process of gathering information which will make you more aware of how the people you hope to sell to will react to your current or potential products or services.

Whether you are aware of it or not, as a business owner you conduct market research all the time. When you talk to customers about your business or check out the prices of your competitors you are conducting market research. Formalizing the process can produce a wealth of information about your products and services, your customers and the marketplace you operate in.

The level of complexity used in your market research campaign is up to you, as market research can cover a broad spectrum of activities. You can undertake simple activities that can be done on your own, such as creating a short customer satisfaction questionnaire or studying demographic data for your area, or undertake complex ones that require assistance from a professional market research firm. Regardless of the size of your market research budget, the time you have available or your level of experience, some form of market research is possible and it can help you to improve your business decisions.

Why conduct market research?

At the heart of all market research is the desire to learn what customers want and how to best present your products and services to them. Market research can provide you with data that can help you to make informed decisions to put your business in the best position to succeed.

Market research should be the primary driver of changes to your company's marketing mix — the combination of product, price, place and promotion, commonly referred to as 'the 4 Ps'. Using these four components, you can put your business in the best possible position to reach your target market (the people or businesses you want to sell to).

• Product: the kinds of goods and services your customers need or want
  • Function
  • Appearance
  • Customer service and warranty
• Price: setting the right price while considering what customers are willing to pay
  • Profit margins
  • Competitors' prices
  • Discounts
  • Financing options
• Placement: how the product gets to the customer
  • Business location (particular locations and concentration within markets)
  • Point of sale (retail locations, wholesale, online)
  • Segment targeted (such as families, students, business people)
• Promotion: communicating with potential customers
  • Advertising and publicity
  • Sales promotion
  • Personal selling
  • Branding

Some business owners rely solely on their intuition or their years of experience in a given industry when making decisions that affect the marketing mix. While experience as a business owner is invaluable, experience alone should not be relied upon to guide your business decisions. The environment that your business operates within can be very dynamic, and assumptions made today can be dashed tomorrow by shifts in economic conditions, demographic changes, new regulations and technological breakthroughs.

Market research can help you to:

• Better understand the characteristics and preferences of your customers
  • Learn the profile of your customers (location, age, gender, income level, etc.)
  • Create more effective marketing campaigns
  • Establish optimal geographic business locations
• Identify opportunities to increase sales and grow your business
  • Recognize changes in the demand for your goods and services
  • Offer new products or services that consumers desire
  • Find markets for your business in other Canadian centres or in foreign countries
• Recognize and plan for problems in your industry and in the economy at large
  • Establish appropriate inventory, price and staff levels based upon the economic outlook
• Monitor the level of competition in your market
  • Identify competitors in your industry and target market
  • Obtain information on how your competitors operate
  • Learn how customers view your offerings and service levels compared to those of your competitors
• Mitigate risk in your business decisions
  • Use information to drive your business decisions, not just intuition

When to conduct market research

Market research is widely viewed as a component of the planning stage of a business. Indeed, market research is critical for new start-ups and should be a key element of any entrepreneur's business plan. Market research data feeds into a number of areas of the business plan, contributing to sections on:

• Determining the sales potential of your products and services
  • Identifying the demographic characteristics of your customers
  • Selecting the appropriate business location
  • Setting the price for your products and services
• Attracting customers to your business
  • Establishing your company image
  • Setting prices for your products and services
  • Ensuring advertising is on target
• Selling to customers and earning repeat business

Business plans and market research are not solely for new businesses. Accurate assessment of the market and development of an effective plan is critical to the success of both new and existing businesses.

Businesses contemplating significant changes, such as business expansion and relocation, are also wise to use market research to support their decisions. Examples of situations that might call for market research include:

• New advertising campaigns
• Opening a new location or changing business locations
• Increasing production levels
• Introducing new lines of products or services

The kind of information gathered through marketing research during the planning and growth stages of your business can also be very useful in its day-to-day operation. A regular flow of market research information can help you to maximize the potential of your current business activities and help you to create a roadmap for future growth.

How to conduct market research

First, it is important to establish clear goals for the market research activity you will undertake. You need to make sure you have defined what you need to know and why.

Once you have established your goals, it is important develop a strategy and select techniques you will use to gather data. The two broad types of research you can use are primary and secondary research.

Primary research

Primary research is original information gathered through your own efforts (or on your behalf by a hired research firm) to respond to a specific question or set of questions. This information is normally gathered through surveys, observation, or experimentation.

The following are examples of questions that can be addressed through primary research:

• Who are my customers and how can I reach them?
  • Customer profiles
  • Prospective business locations
  • Marketing strategies
• Which products and services do buyers need or want?
• What factors influence the buying decisions of my customers?
  • Price, service, convenience, branding, etc.
• What prices should I set for my products and services?
  • Customer expectations
• Who are my competitors, how do they operate and what are their strengths and weaknesses?

Some drawbacks of primary research are that it can be time consuming and expensive if not performed yourself, and the results are not available immediately.

The benefits of this type of research are that you can specifically target desired groups (such as your customers or the geographic market for your business) and can tailor your research instrument to answer specific questions. In addition to keeping the costs down, an added benefit of doing the research on your own is that you will get to know the market for your business better.

Surveys are the most common way to gather primary research. Surveys can be conducted:

• Through direct mail
  • Hand out at the place of business or mail out with survey returned in person or via mail
  • Questionable effectiveness; follow-up reminders necessary
• Over the telephone
  • Cost-effective
  • Can be difficult to reach participants
  • Little appetite in the public for telephone interruptions
• On the web or via email
  • Allows participants to complete the survey on their own time with little effort
  • Cost-effective
• In person
  • Personal interviews or focus groups
  • Can introduce follow-up questions or change the focus of the survey on the spot
  • Can be difficult to recruit participants

When designing your own research questionnaire, be sure to:

• Keep it as short and simple as possible
• Make sure it is visually appealing and easy to read
• Move from general questions to more specific questions
• Make sure questions are brief and easily understood
• Avoid leading questions, questions with ambiguous words, questions that are too difficult to answer (due to recall problems, etc.)
• Make sure any response scales used are logical with categories that are mutually exclusive
• Always pre-test your questionnaire to identify potential problems

The web is a good resource for sample questionnaire questions that can be adapted to answer your suit your particular research needs. There are also a number of companies that allow you to create and conduct surveys online.

Some business owners are reluctant to ask their customers to complete a questionnaire for fear that their customers will be made to feel uncomfortable or annoyed at the inconvenience. A good way to reduce any awkwardness is to offer your customers an incentive to fill out a questionnaire. You might reward them with coupons or hold a prize drawing for customers that turn in a completed questionnaire.

Good information on your customers can often be obtained without engaging them directly. Interviewing your employees can provide excellent insight, as they are in constant contact with your customers and can provide information on:

• Customer profiles
• Goods and services that customers demand
• Satisfaction with price levels and quality of service
• Experiences with your competitors

Secondary research

Secondary research exploits existing resources like company records, surveys, research studies and books and applies the information to answer the question at hand. It is normally less time consuming than primary research, and can be less expensive as well.

While secondary research is less targeted than primary research, it can yield valuable information and answer some questions that are not practical to address through primary research (such as assessing macro-economic conditions) or questions that may make customers uncomfortable if asked directly (such as questions on age and income levels).

The following are examples of questions that can be addressed through secondary research:

• What are the current economic conditions that my business is operating in and are these conditions changing?
  • International, national, provincial and local economic conditions
• What trends are influencing the industry my business operates in?
  • Consumer preferences
  • Technological shifts
  • Prices for goods and services
• Are there international markets for my products or services that could help me to grow my business?
• What are the demographic characteristics of my customers or where do they live?
  • Populations, age groups, income levels, etc.
• What is the state of the labour market?
  • How many people have the skills I require?
  • How much should I expect to pay my employees?

Existing company records such sales invoices, receipts and formal complaints are important secondary resources that businesses can utilize. Often times these records shed light on the same issues businesses seek to address through primary research, and therefore an examination of company records should be done before considering a customer survey or other form of primary research. Some specific examples of using existing company data in market research include:

• Examining sales receipts to find trends in the demand for particular goods and services
• Cross referencing sales receipts with customer addresses or products and services to determine the effectiveness of advertising
• Compiling complaints to determine areas for improvement in customer service, prices or products and services offered

Another key secondary resource is statistical data from official statistics providers and other organizations. These statistics in turn can feed into analytical papers and market profiles that can help to put the numbers in context.

Identifying statistics and analysis that can help you with your business decisions can be difficult, and some datasets are expensive to purchase. There are, however, a number of quality statistics and analytical resources available to you, as well as guidance to help you make sense of all the materials available.

The Research and Statistics section of the Canada Business website offers a number of categorized links to data and analytical resources, many of which are free to access. Canada Business Service Centres are found in each province and offer research materials that you can access free of charge, as well as expertise to help you with your research. Other sources of secondary research materials include libraries, universities, industry associations and government departments at various levels.

• General research and statistics
  
  http://www.canadabusiness.ca/eng/88/904/
  Discover resources available through your local Canada Business Service Centres, Statistics Canada, Canada's government libraries and the United Nations.
• Demographics
  
  http://www.canadabusiness.ca/eng/88/191/
  Get data that sheds light on population characteristics such as location, age, income, education level, and more.
• Importing and exporting
  
  http://www.canadabusiness.ca/eng/88/195/
  Find Canadian and foreign trade statistics and other information that can help you to grow your business, both abroad and in Canada.