The Value Of Market Research For B2B Brands. - Issue: 2004 Qtr 1
Market research for B2B brands is: (Choose one)
- A waste of time and money
- A must–have to build my brand
- It depends
Like any other marketing tactic (advertising, direct mail, pricing policies etc.) research is a waste of money if it is misguided or poorly executed. Even worse is when research is conducted when it really isn’t needed in the first place.
On the other hand, research can provide insights that help differentiate and position brands for success. It depends…
So, how does a B2B brand use research to become more meaningful to its market? Try this three–step exercise:
- Make a list of what you know about your customers, prospects and competitors. (Hint: if you “think” you know, you don’t know.)
- Make a list of what you DON’T know (but really want to know) about your customers, prospects and competitors.
- Then, working with the list of things you don’t know, divide the list into two columns: information that probably already exists someplace else, and information that doesn’t exist in any organized format or place.
Now, you’re ready to get serious about market research, because you’ve just separated your issues into Secondary and Primary research types.
Secondary research is finding data that probably already exists…industry sales data, trends, competitor insight and so forth. Secondary data is available on the Internet, from industry associations, publications, annual reports and a host of other places.
And many companies are pleasantly surprised about how much great information exists within their company in the form of sales data, product mix numbers and so forth. You may choose to have internal staff gather this data, or engage outside assistance. But the important thing is to have this information collected and organized for your strategic brand–building use.
Mention primary research and many marketers think of focus groups. But they are just one type of primary research that can be employed to investigate issues and discover insights to help build your brand.
Focus groups and one–on–one interviews are types of qualitative research techniques that provide marketers with insights, but not with hard and fast numbers (i.e. 75% said that they prefer a particular feature). Getting to meaningful percentages means contacting enough people, in the right way, to be able to project a result. For example, would you build a pricing strategy for your brand by asking 10 people in a focus group what they thought it should cost, or would you conduct a price elasticity study nationally with 1,000 buyers?
Bottom line: brands are built on great intelligence and in–depth knowledge of market, channel and customer needs. Make primary and secondary research a part of your strategy.
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