Research is much like the Mount Everest expedition of 1953. In the words of Sir Hunt, You can only “get there fastest with the mostest.” All the climbers were chosen summiters, trained for the intricately planned assault.
For Edmund Hillary, it was his fourth expedition in two years, and he was far too familiar with the glaciated mountainscapes of his home New Zealand. When he partnered with Tenzing Norgay, it would only seal the victory. Tenzing was a local sherpa. At home in the Himalayan terrain.
Positioning and branding is like the setting of your customer terrain. And research determines how well you set it up for success. You answer questions like who you are, what the market is looking like, what is your context, who is your audience and what do they require of you. Just as Sir Hunt staged their victory paying attention to subtle but relevant details. Even logistical snafus like the failure of oxygen sets and other stalwarts didn’t stop them.
What market research can do for your brand
Understanding the market climate and customer terrain helps you make the necessary progress to create a market. It’s no accident that AI is aiding productivity or that chat bots are changing the dynamics of qualitative research or that you like Hershey’s so much. Just as the fall of Icarus was careless and the Blockbuster was caught unawares. Real-world consumer insights give brands the ability to take good ideas home. The lack of them, accounts for missed opportunities.
Here’s why
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You understand consumer behavior
Target dissatisfied customers or make the happy ones happier. Market research helps identify unaddressed customer psychology. Apart from the market fit, it pervades advertising design and planning, package design, pricing, marketing strategy development, merchandising and e-commerce.
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You craft your brand message better
Don’t launch your product without validating if the product is a market fit first. Then, after you get all the data that you need, the next step is to form your brand message. Your brand message is best when it is simple, clear, and direct. The critical thing that you need comes from your market research data and insights.
Groupe SEB wanted to establish the voice of customers. Their recent project with market research experts helped reduce friction in communications and improved the overall customer experience.
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You know your weaknesses
What’s appealing to your consumers is a humanized image of your brand. A deep awareness of your weaknesses helps iron out gaps and tread upon complex terrain of market demand. This territory includes responsibility toward your customer and their values, the precarious nature of market cycles, and other issues of cash flows, compliance, and operations. Good leadership and management should enable and inspire your company to transform weaknesses into opportunities.
When they found room for improvement, Thomson Reuters accelerated their M&A discussions to re-route.
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You grab opportunities when you find them
Market research clarifies your target customers and which channels you can find them, and what their interests are. Finding synergistic partnerships to create profitable upgrades and more compelling campaigns can address the needs of your target community.
When Alec was aimed at exploring adjacent construction markets in modular built units, they wanted to test the idea’s feasibility and scope.
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You minimize risk
A great market research firm need not be perfect to a fault. But it is one that is committed to understanding the inadequacies of data and its misinterpretation and one that is capable of managing crises in good time and with ease.
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You make meaningful partnerships
Dubai Holding wanted to join hands with an operations partner to improve their processes. Simply consulting the right market research expert helped them create a better RFP (request for proposal), negotiate, and finalize a channel partner within three months.
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You know how to advertise
Nobody has enough resources at all times. Unless it’s the big tech guys. Knowing when, where, and how to advertise with a limited budget, needs good market research as well. Not being able to market and advertise is the bane of many firms with dynamic insights.
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You’re better equipped for competition
You need to find out who your competitors are. Accordingly, you need to find out who the big players in the market are and what they do that makes them rule the market as a result. The aim is not just to outdo them. But to heckle with their views, evoking informed customers to think for themselves.
In today’s decentralized world, everyone has access to information real-time. If you allowed your customers to hold onto their perspective while validating your unique selling point, you’ve won your audience from your competitor.
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You set doable goals
The viability of your goal and action objectives needs a subtle evaluation of your position. You may be sailing through a red ocean. When you set milestones for your market research, what are some things that can take you off course? Where do you struggle? Which geographies need better analytics? How can you make it through?
Or it may be a combination of a red and blue ocean strategy that you’ve reformulated in the aftermath of the pandemic. Online and offline partnerships to bring real-world magic to your market segments. M-Brain is always onto new projects. Their execution is timely and fresh each time because of the well-honed goals they set with experts.
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You make good decisions
Instead of arbitrary criteria or using market creation as siloed priority, the decisions you make need not rest on guesswork and fragmented information. Reading between the lines of your solid facts will help you make more informed decisions.
Frog Capital’s inquiry into whether European Software Tech Startups focused on Digital Infrastructure and Smart Data helped them make an informed decision in 72 hours.
Like Sir Hunt said, “You get there fastest with the mostest.” You understand how to show up for your customer while you’re keeping an eye out for competition. You’re sure of the partnerships that will help you get to the summit faster and you invest in them well.
