Market research helps you plan your business by gathering information about customer thinking, buying patterns and locations. It also helps you follow market trends and understand competitors’ activity.

• Define Your Market Research Objectives
• Sources and Types of Information
• Collect, Analyse and Act on the Findings

Successful businesses research regularly to:

-identify potential new customers
-learn more about existing customers
-understand competitors better
-test new markets
-assess performance, pricing or promotional opportunities

Define Your Market Research Objectives

Define your objectives clearly to obtain useful results. Objectives expressed clearly help identify the best research method.

Also decide how much time and budget you can allocate. You may consider using a professional market research company for support.

Sources and Types of Information

Possible information sources include:

customers
competitors
industry
location
‘Primary researchrefers to information collected from original sources, such as:

surveys
face-to-face interviews
focus groups
customer feedback
questionnaires
‘Secondary researchuses information already collected and analysed, such as:

-Malaysian statistics publications
-industry and trade publications
-social media and websites
-marketing and consumer lists
-newspapers and media

Information from these sources may be quantitative or qualitative.

Qualitative information explores values, attitudes and views in a sample. It helps explain why people buy, how they respond to advertising and how they perceive a brand.

Quantitative information uses numbers and statistics and can support estimates of market reach and future revenue.

Collect, Analyse and Act on the Findings

After identifying the sources and information types you need, begin collecting them.

Keep an open mind and avoid letting personal preferences bias the research or distort the findings. 

When processing data:

-keep your research objectives in mind
-categorise information by relevance to the business
-organise data in tables or lists to identify trends and themes
-collect additional information if the findings are inconclusive

Analysing the data lets you draw conclusions against your original objectives.

Update your business and marketing plans using the information gathered through market research.