The Need For Market Research in 2021

NOKIA was the brand that defined mobile phones for most Indians in the 2000s. With the onset of the 2010s, the mobile phone market changed and with the changing landscape, Nokia became a name that is most associated with nostalgia. Today, new brands like Xiaomi, OnePlus have made India their stronghold while Nokia is a name that reminds you of the good old days. How is it possible that a brand like Samsung, which started the same as Nokia, is a global brand while Nokia has failed thrice to relaunch itself as a smartphone giant? If you are looking for concrete answers, look for them in the market research. 

Today, the market study is as important as designing a product to perfection. Be it launching a new product or understand what makes your competition succeed or understanding what your customers need, you need Market Research to fill in the blanks for you. But before we understand why Market Research is significant in 2021, there are some terms associated with it that you need to know. 

Types of Research

Market Research primarily involves two types of research that brands need to focus on:

• Primary Research: Often referred to as field research, the primary research focuses on collecting new data, that hasn’t been collected yet for the brand or business.

• Secondary Research: This type of research focuses on gathering the data that has been compiled. Example of secondary research is reports, records, stats and much more. 

Alongside these two market research types, there are two more terms you need to be aware of:

Qualitative research: This research collection method focuses on determining customer motivations by interacting via small focus group interactions. 

Quantitative research: In the quantitative collection method, the focus is on collecting a large number of data sets through surveys, pollings and other data collection means. 

Why Do You Need To Conduct Market Research in 2021?

Market Research is an essential part of the decision-making for every growing business. Not only does it tell you about what your customers think of you and your product, but it also tells you about what is helping your competitors grow and help you devise the product you would want to launch in the future. Let’s check out all the reasons you need market research in 2021:

Understand your customer better 

Shopping trends are fickle and while you might have a loyal fan base, you need to keep updating yourself with the latest trend and the changing demands of your customers. OnePlus brand, which started as a flagship killer for tech enthusiasts, had to keep changing their product design and features available to make sure that they remain connected to their fans. You can achieve the same through market research which will also allow you to understand your customers better. 

Brands that wish to remain ahead of the curve always anticipate the change in the shopping behavior of their customers and in order to make sure they maintain their lead, they roll out the products their fans and customers ask for. 

Test The Water Prior To Product Launch

Research is not just limited to understanding your customer but it also allows you to test your new products before launch. Smartphone brands today test their new products and system update prior to mass roll-out to ensure that the product meets the standard of their customer expectations. Doing so removes all the redundancies and moulds the product to its finest form. 

Even a new brand looking to step into the industry can use research tools to get broad learning of their product and the potential market. With this, you would also get an idea about the marketing narrative you need to adopt to make your product a hit in the market. 

Competitor Analysis 

Every brand or business has its own approach and while you might still be working, chances are that your competitors might be taking a cut of your customer base. If that’s the case, you can use Market Research to understand your competitor’s approach. 

A complete competitor analysis will tell you all about the key brands in the market and the ones that are on a rise. This would also help you identify the chink in your competitor’s armor. You can use these gaps to gain an advantage over your competition. This option comes in handy when your brand is in a marketing feud with a competitor. Take the case of Apple and Samsung, who have been using each other’s gaps to gain customers over each other. 

You Will Be There To Stay

Charles Darwin stumbled upon a secret of marketing while he was looking for his theory of evolution. The idea that the ones who adapt and overcome survive while the rest perish is the belief on which the entire market exists. If your brand continues conducting research and uses key data points from market research reports, the chances of your outlasting your competition are high. 

Nokia despite being a market leader in the first decade of the 21st century slipped into near oblivion because of a lack of market study. While the mobile phone market transformed into the smartphone market, Nokia wasn’t prepared for the transition because of the absence of any data point. On the other hand, Netlfix was way ahead of the curve with its extensive market study. The brands would need to conduct a regular market study in order to evolve and overcome the challenges coming their way. 

Market Insights & Growth

Every brand in the existence hopes to grow and outperform its previous year’s numbers. But with a market that sees shifts and changes every year, it is very hard to comprehend what the future might hold. To ensure that you can foresee the future trends, you need to interact with the market, study it and then use your learnings to predict. Market Research helps you to do the same. 

If you are looking for a platform to conduct and manage all your market research, Survey2Connect is the answer for you. With its audience cohorts and years of expertise in market study, you can rest assured that you will always remain ahead of your competition.