Market research is and an old and organized method for the companies to understand the needs and expectations of the prospective customer and also the performance of their products in lines with their needs and expectations of the audience. Though there are many methods in play to collect this data, the most commonly used methods include surveys, interviews, polling online, questionnaires, and focus groups.
Before investing in market methodology to collect some crucial data, companies have to know answers for a few key questions like who are their potential customers? What is the best way to reach targeted customers? What is the profile of a group of these prospective customers? What is the ratio of male/ female customers? And last, What is your estimated budget into it?
You can zero in the right method after you find an answer for all the questions below:
What is your target market?
You should understand the customer database to know what type of customers that are purchasing your products. This understanding helps you choose the right medium to reach potential customers and get a good feel for your target market.
What are the media sources on which your targeted customers mostly fly on?
Media sources to reach the customers are plenty but finding the ones which your target customers rely the most upon is a bit tough play. Effective research will help you in this regard. As a part of the research, you need to pay attention to your target consumer behaviour or ask straight questions about their interesting publications, email letter they subscribe to, or about the type of emails they are interested in opening and reading. You can also ask about different associations and groups which they are involved in and know they are most listened to radio stations, watched television channels and much more.
Which media can reach the message to a maximum at a low cost?
Budget is, of course, a big constraint for many companies while investing in market research. To conclude on this question, you should compare the relative investment for your marketing needs while you use any one of the media. The best and most used method is “CPM.” This measurement method breaks the media budget into a thousand exposures, so; you can use this tool to consider the right media options for your marketing needs.
What are your marketing objectives? How well will the opted media help you in achieving them?
With the CPM method, you are done with selecting effective marketing media for your target group of customers but, the actual question remains unanswered yet, do you know that chosen media is capable of meeting your advertising objective? Ex: if you choose to distribute pamphlets to keep marketing costs of your brand promotion low, you should know that people who look at the pamphlets will be able to impact your brand on the customers, and they will make a note of your contact to purchase the product you sell.
