5 tips for researching the market

The first step that you should take in even deciding whether or not to start up a small business is to research the market.Not only is this important as you set up, but all throughout the life of your business.Doing so can help you answer the following crucial questions:

1. Should you market a product, service or both?
2. Should your marketing feature some sort of price advantage?
3. Should you emphasize your self, your quality offerings, your selection, your service or merely the existence of your business?
4. Should you take on your competition or ignore all competitors?
5. Exactly who are your competitors?
6. What are your best prospects?
7. What income groups do they represent?
8. What motivates them to buy?
9. Where do they live?
10. What do they read or watch or listen to in the way of media?

Knowing the answer to these crucial questions will help you to determine what, where, when, how and why you should start a business.In order research the market, you will need to know what to look for, how to gather it, what it means, and how to be sensitive to privacy issues and know to quit probing.

Here are five tips to help you research, interpret and handle information about your market in the most effective manner possible.

1. Get to know where your customers are coming from and learn their motives for buying your product.Familiarize yourself with their demographics, income ranges, where they live, what motivates them, their migration patterns, etc.Try to determine what it is about your clientele that is prompting them to choose you over the competition.Also determine why and who they will patronize instead if they decide to leave.

Part of breaking down customer motivations is gaining a sense of the real drive behind their buying choices.Motivation can usually be classified into one of the following; preventative/reactive and proactive.Preventative motivation is based on the desire to prevent something, such as waste, disease, etc or to correct some sort of mistake they have made.Proactive motivation is based on wants and desires that are more for comfort and enjoyment.Knowing this will help you understand why they're coming to you and what you need to target to satisfy their unstated psychological needs.

2. Decide on the quantity of options you will make available to your customers.The consuming public is split on the amount of options they want to have available.Some want to have a lot of options to choose from, while others feel more comfortable given a limited range of tried and true choices and can be overwhelmed by too many options.Once you have gotten to know your customer base and what motivates them, decide what the majority of your customer base is comfortable with and cater to them by offering an appropriate amount of options.

3. Strive for a holistic understanding of your customers and their needs.Customer service is much more than just selling a product.The more you know, the better positioned you are to move beyond just selling to establishing relationships that are more deeply embedded.The more information you have about them and the more you have a holistic understanding of your customers' lives and goals, the more their goals can become youyour goals and the better chance you are going to have to really improve their lives.

4. Make gathering customer info an ongoing effort.Aside from the information extracted from surveys, focus groups, feedback questionnaires, etc. that you get from time to time, you also will want to pay attention to what customers are saying, what you observe, and use this information to paint as complete a picture as possible of what your customers genuinely value and why.

5. Be thorough but ethical.You want to dig deep to get as much information as possible, but you also need to know when to stop.To make sure you don't cross any lines, begin your market research by laying out an information code of ethics that specifies what you want to know, how you'll gather the information, and what you intend to do with it.Above all, make it clear to your clients and customers that any information they give you is based entirely on their willingness to do so.

In summary, researching your market or gathering information on your customers and clients is an integral part of running your business.If you don't know what your customers want, you will not be able to meet their needs and in the end, your business will not sell.