Market and Customer Research

When you should do market or customer research

When developing and changing aspects of your business, including offerings to customers, it's important to do thorough research to have confidence in the actions you're taking, including research into:

pricing
branding
product names
new retail outlets
advertising campaigns
new products or services.

There are several methods you can use to do research, including:

conducting your own research using customer surveys, feedback and interviews
conducting analysis of your own business using your past performance in sales, goods returned and repeat business
researching industry and market trend information
reviewing reports, industry journals and government information.

Understanding market research and customer research

Market research is a methodology used to gain reliable data about specific markets and target customers. Market research organisations and industry associations provide data and statistical reports on markets and future trends.

A subset of market research is customer research. Customer research tools help you target and understand your buyer's behaviour and demographics.

The differences between market research and customer research are:

market research involves data and statistics for
- overall industry
- market attributes
- economic and population fluctuations
- technology innovations
- internet and mobile phone usage
- competitor activities
customer research involves data and insights into
- what, when and how often customers want to buy (quantitative data)
- why they make their decisions (qualitative insights).

By exploring customer profiles and motivations, you can gain insight into demographics such as geographical populations, buying habits, preferences and the projected growth or decline of targeted groups.