Market Research
Why is Market Research important for your business?
Understanding your customers, the industry you are in and the demand for your products or services are all essential aspects for running a successful small business. Market research can be used to not only obtain this information, but it can also provide valuable insights that can help you to see areas where you can differentiate your business, grow your business, or target new customers.
Market research is also great at helping small businesses or business owners with a new idea, gather the information required to understand if there is a demand.
You might also conduct market research to determine things like the size of a target market or the demand for your service in a particular demographic or region.
At Oasis Business Support we can support you with your research project. We have experience in market research for small businesses and start-ups.
The market research activities we undertake will always be tailored to your business’ specific needs and can be customized to suit.
There are five ways primary market research can be conducted – all with their benefits for your business or idea.
Types of primary market research:
1. Secondary Market Research
Secondary research is simply the act of seeking out existing research and data. It is sometimes called “desk research” because you can do it from your desk. This is a good starting point and would normally be advisable for any situation. Conducting this research will then help you understand what furthermore detailed research you would like to undertake to get specific results, feedback, evidence, and understandings.
3. Focus Groups
Focus group market research means assembling a small group of people normally 7 to 12 potential customers to gather information and opinions about your product or service. These groups are led by an objective discussion moderator, which Oasis Business Supports will provide. Focus groups are a great way to get feedback on a product or service. They can be conducted in person, or virtually via an online focus group. With the online option, you can reach a wider audience.
2. Observation
Just as it sounds, observation market research involves watching your potential customers and their behaviours in action. This means – without interacting with them–you watch customers buying products or services similar to yours, listening to what they say as they shop, notice what they buy and how much they paid. This type of market research works best if your business caters to customers, not to other businesses. Examples of this are Mystery Shopping.
4. Interview
Interviews are like focus groups, but only one participant is speaking to one researcher, who leads the discussion. Interviews are well-suited for product or service ideas that could be too personal or private for group discussions, like personal hygiene products or financial services. You can conduct interviews via multiple ways from face to face, to email one to one, instant messenger, or by phone. At Oasis Business Support we will not only organise but will conduct and consolidate the findings.
5. Surveys
This method of market research allows you to get the widest possible reach to the largest data group. It involves getting feedback from potential customers through a structured, multi-question survey. Market research surveys can be done by email, in person or online surveys. You may need to conduct several surveys to several groups to get feedback from all possible types of customers. One note about surveys – if you don’t have the resources to conduct a large amount of them, small sample groups are okay, Oasis Business Support will be able to coordinate, send out and collate the findings of the results.
In addition to the above-structured approaches. We always suggest our clients consider other informal approaches such as reading reviews and comments online of competitors, or those supplying or providing the type of products or services similar to what you are considering. This often highlights common complaints and problems that your new idea or concept could solve.
You may ask how do you receive the results of the research?
At Oasis we can provide the information in several formats, such as a traditional report, graphical representation, or a presentation for you to use as you see fit.
We will ensure all the data and information we record is shared with our client.
We pride ourselves by establishing open and honest working relationships.
Sometimes the results of the research may not be what a client was expecting but we will always share our findings.
What is our pricing?
Every client will have different needs, expectations and research requirements which will mean that the size of the data pool will vary, and the duration a client will want to conduct it over will differ, therefore we are not able to provide standard pricing.
What we do promise is that upon understanding our Clients’ needs and type of research approach you would like to undertake. We will put a proposal together including pricing and our terms of business for your consideration.
We always conduct an initial free 30 min discovery call with each client to understand requirements and expectations.
If you would like to find out more and chat further about who we could help you to grow your business with the right information to understand your customers, products and market then please feel free to contact us.