Picture this: you’re in a packed boardroom (via Zoom, of course), your palms are sweaty, your knees are weak, your arms are heavy. You’re nervous. You have a great idea to make your organization a lot of money, but you don’t have any data to back it up, so no one takes you seriously. As GreatBlue Research explains, the answer is to test your idea with randomly selected people who fit your targeting criteria. You’ll get the answers you need to move forward with confidence. No more guessing!
The above meeting situation is not ideal, but it happens much more often than you think. Should you commit to spending the money on market research, then? Our answer may be *slightly* biased, but hear us out.
The Purpose
As Americans, the act of risk taking is embedded into our DNA. In the last several years, however, the business world has moved away from relying on intuition to take calculated risks, instead opting to support decisions with collected data.
- This is when market research steps in – when the overall goal is reducing risk and instilling confidence in business decisions.
- If your business decision requires significant financial resources, or if the cost of failure is high, you need market research.
The Usage
In theory, market research can be used to investigate pretty much whatever your business is curious about. In our experience though, it usually falls into one of the following categories:
- Customer satisfaction
- Brand awareness and impact
- Product and service validation
- Market segmentation
- Market size and structure
- Usability testing
Like most things market research related, this is by no means an exhaustive list. Market research can be helpful in almost any business-related decision you need to make. Not sure if you should commission market research? It never hurts to ask.
About GreatBlue Research, Inc.
The market research partner of Hometown Connections, Inc. and the leading customer opinion firm serving community-owned utilities, GreatBlue Research Inc. is a full-service, in-house market and public policy research company utilizing a variety of methodologies, including telephone, email, web-based surveys, focus groups, and one-on-one interviews. For more information on how GreatBlue can provide journey mapping and a wide variety of other market research services, send an email to info@hometownconnections.com.