Continuing To Rely On Gut Instinct And That Market Research You Did 5 Years Ago Is The Same As Pretending Those Jeans You Wore When You Were 18 Still Fit…Unfortunately The World And Your Waistline Has Changed.
If you’re a marketer and you haven’t done any market research recently then now might be a good time to start. There are lots of cost-effective ways to undertake research to gain insight and check that your assumptions are still relevant in this recession-tinged world.
Here are 3 ideas.
1. Ask your existing customers 2 or 3 survey questions via a pop-up on your website or email.
2. Analyse your existing customer data with a view to spotting behavioural changes and emerging trends – are there any worth investigating further?
3. Look at your competitors – what are they doing differently? Are new competitors emerging?
Just taking these 3 steps may generate valuable insight or highlight the need for more analysis which, depending upon your in-house expertise, may need to be undertaken by a market researcher. If so, work out what you can do in-house and contract out the rest to an expert.
Many budgets have been cut and are under pressure but the results you get from a well-run research project can pay for themselves many times over, and may help you be better prepared for whatever is on its way…