Why market research and market research are very different disciplines – and how to best use them

Market research and market research are not the same, but many marketers use the terms interchangeably. The two are important parts of marketing efforts and seem similar, but they are inherently different.

The distinction between these types of research is when each one occurs. Business owners and marketing leaders conduct market research during the early stages of product or business model development. Marketing research, on the other hand, is done later.

To tell them apart, think about the question you are asking. The first asks, “Is there a place in the market for a suggested solution?” The latter asks, “How do we reach this place and its associated audience with our marketing efforts?” In other words, market research is only undertaken if market research has revealed that there is, in fact, a demand for your product or service.

Let’s take a look at these two efforts and explore how and when to get the most out of each of them.

Market research: understanding your audience

In marketing departments and advertising agencies across the country, you’ll hear people mistakenly confuse terms like qualitative research with quantitative research despite significant semantic differences. Market research and market research are similarly confused, but distinguishing between them will help clarify the marketing process.

Market research is about identifying who your audience is (and if that audience even exists). If you discover a segment of people who could benefit from your product or service, you will need to determine if it is large enough to make your business viable. People may like the idea behind your business or the concept plan for your product, but if enough people aren’t willing to pay, it might not be worth launching it.

On the other hand, if there is a large addressable market, you will need to collect as much relevant demographic, psychographic, and behavioral data as possible. What are their most common pain points? How much money do they usually make? Where do they live and work?

In this step, you will also collect information about the industry as a whole. By evaluating your competition and understanding the business environment, you can assess the potential success of your product or service. Ask: “Is there a need in the market? “

Without an affirmative answer, you risk failing. Imagine, for example, that you opened a hamburger restaurant in a place where there aren’t any miles away. Sounds like a slam dunk, right? Except maybe the reason there’s no competition is that the locals – your target market – just don’t want burgers.

With market research, you can create business concepts with a solid foundation and increase your chances of success. However, a business opening or a product launch does not mean the

end of the market research phase. Industries and markets are constantly changing, so ongoing research will help you navigate these changes; frequent research can lead to profitability gains of nearly 9 percentage points. In short, the more you know about your market, the greater your chances of success.

Marketing studies: Reaching your audience

When it’s time to conduct marketing research, you should already know who your audience is because you’ll be focusing on the best ways to reach them. Understanding how you are going to interact with the audience has an impact on everything, which is why marketing research should be done before spending a dime on marketing.

You can be sure iconic campaigns like Nike’s “Just Do It” wouldn’t exist today without a comprehensive marketing research process. The tagline – a statement of intent – resonates deeply with the brand’s target audience, athletes and runners. This is the goal of all marketing campaigns: Finding the message that will resonate with the audience.

Many organizations use customer avatars or personas to guide the marketing research process, while others use historical empirical data, delving into what worked and what didn’t in previous campaigns targeting customers. similar audiences. With the incredible advancements in marketing technology, you can gain an abundance of transformative information during this process to help you understand how to communicate with those you are trying to reach. This information will guide you as you develop messages that reach your target audience.

Testing a variety of posts with certain segments is the key to finding out which ones resonate the best. Trying to reach an audience with a singular marketing message is risky, especially without any supporting data. Instead, you should develop at least two or three messaging angles and test them on an equal footing. For example, you can run three slightly different Facebook ads targeting the same audience and see which one works best.

Testing messages can be effective for one channel, but if you plan to launch a campaign through multiple channels, you should use data to back up your plans. You can collect this through channel testing: by serving a similar message to similar audiences through two or more channels, then using metrics like clicks and conversions to identify the most effective channel for your specific strategy.

No matter what stage of marketing you find yourself in, it’s critical that your key decisions are guided by data from diligent research. Without data, your strategy will be based only on assumptions and opinions (which is not very strategic). Do your research, test your hypotheses, and use the data you collect to make your marketing more effective.

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