What is market research? That is the million dollar question that haunts everyday traders, producers and firms. Everyone thinks that he has the best product to sell and make profits from. But, as Rudyard Kipling puts it, ‘The Jungle Is Big and the Cub He Is Small, So Let Him Think And Be Still’. That is what every budding businessman should realize.
While thinking and being still, they should also conduct some research on the potential consumers and buyers for the products. The markets around them are teeming with competitive sellers and buyers, who have differing tastes and preferences. To woo them into buying your product, that is not easy. Which is why that before you actually land your caravans in the market, know your customers well?
Basics of Market Research
Research is a word that is associated with science and evidence of theories. But, the art of selling goods and services requires a blend of practicality and strategy. The practical part has to do with an analysis of the regular class of consumers and purchasers, spread over varying economic strata, social groups and communities. Market research involves taking a count of specific buyers or consumers of particular goods and commodities.
Statistics have a lion’s share in preparing a concise summary of trends, attitudes and outlooks towards the purchase and use of certain products and services. These surveys study the social needs and requirements and compare them with the significant features of the product.
Once the importance of goods is confirmed, the firms can go ahead with the production. Research also reveals how the goods should be marketed so as to attract universal consumers.
Aims of Market Research
With the advent of trade in human civilization, selling and buying articles of clothing, food, transport etc have been the norm of society, states and townships. But, with advancements in technology and thought, human demands did not merely increase, they became singularly distinct.
The aim of market research is to allow the producers and capitalists to understand the changing fashions and attitudes of people, towards economic and intellectual progress. With revolutions in thought and social interactions, people’s demand for products and services undergoes changes. They expect better customer services, reasonable prices, good quality and exclusivity. Market research offers an insight into these desires and wants and enables the producers to satiate them.
A Brief History
The emergence of commerce, in the ancient ages, has created the importance of understanding consumer needs. Basic units of trade and exchange had always questioned the relevance of products and services. Merchants and traders used to summon their fortune-tellers and astrologers to predict the sales of their products and inventions.
But, later, communing directly with the masses became the ritual for kings and businessmen. Market research was initially based on the mere process of interactions, between the producers and the consumers. But, as civilizations expanded and countries sprouted into massive nations, the procedure acquired an analytical and statistical aspect.
