Most every organization will benefit from even the most elementary market research. If it does not provide new information, it will confirm what is known. Market research is the process of gaining information about your market. Preferably, this is specific information about your target market and the key factors that influence their buying decisions. Market research can be casual and limited in scope and, although it may not be “statistically significant” research, it can still be valuable. The value and “degree of fit” may be based on the quality, cost, or the amount of time to acquire the information using these practical market research tools.
Determine what form of market research is going to work best for you. Make that decision based on the value you will receive, versus the time and other resources you need to invest to gain access to that information. Market research is often confused with an elaborate process conducted by a third party that takes a tremendous amount of time and money. It may be important to take a different perspective on what market research is and how it is conducted.
You can find an amazing wealth of market data on the Internet, much of it free. The hard part becomes sorting through it and determining what information to use and what to discard. Your access to competitive information will vary, depending a lot on where you are and who the competition is. Competitors that are publicly traded may have a significant amount of information available, as regular financial reporting is a requirement of every serious stock market in the world. Wherever your target is listed for public trading, it has to report data each year.
