Today’s market is a jungle. Competitors are coming at you from every angle, trying to find an edge over you. How would you prevent this and find an advantage for your own business over them? The solution is custom market research.
Custom market research is the key to dominating your niche and having your competitors wondering what trick you have up your sleeve. With this strategy, you will be able to make informed decisions and attract your target audience.
In this article, we will delve into the intricacies of this strategy and how it can benefit you. Are you ready? Let’s begin!
What is Custom Market Research?
Now, what exactly is custom market research? It is one of the two types of research carried out by a market research firm- syndicated and custom research.
Syndicated market research is often carried out by the firm without being tailored to a specific company. A syndicated report may eventually be of benefit to your company but you do not have to concern yourself with it.
A custom market research project, on the other hand, involves conducting market research and tailoring it to better fit your business’s unique characteristics. It is done in your niche based on specific objectives that you may have provided, challenges you hope to scale, and milestones you wish to reach. The firm will carry out both primary research, based on these, and secondary research with which you can develop marketing strategies.
Naturally, research can be exhaustive and this causes an overload and a focus of your attention on the wrong things. With custom market research, however, you get clarity and know what exactly to tackle. This is a major difference between custom and syndicated research.
With trusted market research firms, you will have a better understanding of the wants of your target audience, an increased ability to stay ahead of market trends, and the secret to standing out in an oversaturated market.
Benefits of Custom Market Research
Fine-tuned Insights
Custom market research services can be likened to having a personal research assistant who is ready to listen to all your challenges and hopes and incorporate them into their research process. The approach ensures that every bit of research carried out is done to fulfill your business’s unique needs. This ensures that the information gathered is directly applicable to your business and not necessarily every other business in your niche.
Competitive Advantage
As mentioned previously, almost every industry in today’s market is saturated. More than anything else, you need an edge over your competitors. Custom market research can help you with that by providing you with the essential tools. It will help you understand your target market better and see the reasons why your competitors seem to be making more sales than you. Also, in case you are doing way better, it will provide you with ways to keep finding new edges and staying on top.
The understanding provided by carrying out proper custom market research will be an unparalleled edge. You will become aware of untapped opportunities, trends that will take off, and products that your customers don’t even know they need.
Precise Targeting
You can also compare custom market research to a GPS that helps you navigate the complexities of consumer behavior accurately. Customers are not difficult to understand if you put in a little effort. With this strategy, you will be able to put yourself in your customers’ shoes and find out what they want before they even realize it.
This way, your campaigns will be well-targeted with higher chances of conversion because they will resonate with resounding accuracy with your audience. What more? Because you know exactly what you are looking for, you spend less time experimenting and shoveling out money, but we’ll talk about that later.
Informed Decision-Making
Imagine this. You walk into a meeting at your office and the agenda is “opening new locations” when your current challenge is being understaffed at the locations you already have. That is what running a business without custom market research is like, you are walking around blindly.
With custom market research, however, you will do a lot less of rolling the dice and hoping to land on a one-sided-fits-all solution. You will have clarity and evidence-based research to back up your decisions. Even if your chosen strategies don’t work immediately or at all, you are bound to find a solution eventually because you are on the right track.
Product Development
Be it a product or service, performing custom market research will help you actualize its full potential. It can be seen as a blueprint for product improvement and innovation. When you understand the psychology of your audience- their desires and pains- in reference to what you have to offer, you allow your business to surpass their expectations. The best part about this is that a satisfied customer will come back for more. So, imagine how much you could gain from this. From customer acquisition to brand loyalty to increased profit, you stand to gain a lot.
Risk Mitigation
Yes, there is no part of a business that doesn’t involve even the most minor risk but what if you could minimize them? Sounds impossible? Not if you employ custom market research.
With adequate information, you will be able to make decisions that are a lot less risky than you would have. You would be able to decide which strategies are completely reckless and which ones are most likely to yield something. Custom market research will be that guide feeding your decisions with the appropriate information and accurate analysis to prevent you from falling into the many pit holes that are waiting for you in the landscape of business.
Market Expansion
Market expansion is risky, but it becomes a necessary step after certain milestones have been attained in your business. Navigating it, however, can be a difficult task, but custom market research can make it much easier for you.
Just as much as a research assistant, it can be your market entry strategist, helping you identify untapped opportunities and prime locations aligned with your unique business goal. With custom market research, most questions that come with business expansion will be answered for you- the when, the where, and even the how. This way, you have higher chances of succeeding in the new markets.
Cost Efficiency
Previously, we mentioned that custom market research can help you save money, and we will finally discuss how here.
Every business’ main goal is to make a profit. Now, imagine if you throw all your money at various strategies and service providers without any prior knowledge as to how said service or strategy can help your business. Do you think you will be making a lot of profit in time? Even if you do manage to take a good guess, it may already be a bit late. So, why not take educated guesses instead and save your money?
Because business involves risk, whatever decision you make may still be a guess, but it will at least be backed up with well-researched chances of success. This way, you get to manage your budget by choosing which methods to try to which to discard. Your chances of making a profit will increase and isn’t that what every business wants?
Still on the subject of financial sustainability, custom market research can be one of your ROI optimization tools. ROI- Return on investment- is essential in assessing the effectiveness of your business strategies and your chances of staying in the game for long. You will be aware of how every dollar contributes to the growth of your business.
Brand Positioning
Your business is not just a manufacturer, it is a brand, and how you place this brand and promote it determines how your customers will perceive it. Proper custom market research will help you form a brand image that resonates with your target audience. This will help to create a strong and positive engagement with your customers and increase trust and authenticity.
Market Trends
Custom market research can not be done without going out into the field which, in the world of today, refers to the internet. You have to dig into websites and social media platforms and find what people are talking about. This way, you can be aware of how to put your business in the conversation or incorporate some of the trends into your campaign.
You need your customers to talk about you and to do that; you have to keep up with the trends. After enough time, you may even start to create trends yourself, helping your business to stay ahead of the curve.
Conclusion
Custom market research has stopped being an option in today’s market. It is now as important as any other one of your business strategies. With the benefits stated above, you must be convinced of this fact already. So, are you ready to leverage these advantages? Are you prepared to employ the power of custom market research and transform your business? Start now and leave your competitors behind wondering how you made it.