Do you ever wonder how your favorite products or services make it to the market? Wonder no more. Companies use market research to find their customers’ preferences and other insights into their clients’ minds.
If you’re interested in learning more about the behind-the-scenes action of product development, make sure to keep reading. This article goes over market research and opinion polling basics and explains why they are essential.
What Is Market Research?
Market research collects and analyzes data about a particular market to determine market size, characteristics, participants (buyers and sellers), significant issues, and potential opportunities.
The general goal of market research is to identify ways to improve a business’ sales and increase profits by offering products or services that meet the needs and wants of their target demographic (the people who would be likely buyers).
Here is a quick example: If a company wants to change its marketing strategy for one of its products. They could survey previous customers to find their preferred advertising method for the product or whether they should offer more incentives.
Primary & Secondary Market Research
Companies use two different methods to conduct market research: primary and secondary. Let’s take a look at the difference between these types.
Primary market research involves collecting original data through surveys or interviews. A company’s staff conducts primary research to find answers they can’t find in already existing sources. Often primary market research is used when there are difficulties with access to information about a target population or when it is difficult for a company to conduct large-scale surveys on its own.
Secondary market research involves finding answers from existing sources such as government statistics or other public records. It consists of gathering information from various sources and finding ways to compile it all in a relevant way.
The advantage of secondary market research is that it can often be quicker and easier than primary research. Still, the disadvantage is that there may not always be accurate or up-to-date statistics available for specific areas.
What Is Opinion Polling?
Opinion polling is a way in which companies can conduct market research. Opinion polls help gather people’s opinions on particular issues to measure public support or disapproval for an object or subject (or politician, if the survey is politically focused).
The results of opinion polls are usually presented in a graphical form or as percentages so that businesses may easily interpret them. Methods for conducting an opinion poll include phones, interviews, and written surveys.
Why Are They Important?
Now that we know what market research and opinion polling are let’s dive deeper into why they are essential.
Although market research and opinion polls cannot tell a business what to do, they can provide helpful information which they can use when making decisions or planning strategies.
Opinion polls are crucial in politics. They give politicians an idea of their performance, which is vital when they need to know if their constituents (the people in their district) support them and the policies and statements they represent. If enough people disapprove, there could be consequences such as losing votes or potential voters in future elections.
Here are some benefits and drawbacks of market research and opinion polling:
| Benefits | Drawbacks |
|---|---|
| Opinion polls can give politicians an idea of their constituents’ thoughts. | It can be challenging to reach a consensus on many issues. |
| Market research and opinion polling help businesses determine ways to improve. | Opinion polls sometimes reflect the mood of those who participated rather than those who didn’t or will never participate. It makes it necessary to conduct surveys continuously over an extended period to get a complete picture of the public’s opinion. |
| Readers can easily interpret the results of opinion polls. | Opinion polls only show the views of a group, and it isn’t easy to conclude an entire population from a sample. |
The Essentials Of Market Research
Market research includes surveys, focus groups, polls, and data collection. Researchers use it to measure the market share, find out how competitive it is, decide which products to launch, when to launch and help determine pricing strategies.
Businesses can do, or hire researchers to conduct, market research in many different ways: phone interviews with random samples, running questionnaires and focus groups, and holding opinion polls (among other things). Some essentials that they should include in these types of market research include:
- Asking people what they think, which helps identify trends in buying behavior.
- Gathering information from suppliers concerning future activities. It keeps businesses informed about new product developments or industry changes that may affect them.
The Essentials Of Opinion Polling
Opinions polls should also include these essentials.
- It must represent a cross-section of the population that they study.
- The sample size should be large enough to produce meaningful results.
- They must use a random selection method to ensure unbiased results and avoid putting certain people on a list of people to be surveyed.
- The questions asked in the survey must not bias the respondents towards specific answers, and they should consider the results carefully so as not to draw false conclusions.
Opinion Polling And Market Research Facilities
As mentioned above, market research and opinion polling have many mediums. For example, you may find an opinion poll conducted at a shopping mall or on the street. These are both examples of primary market research.
You can also find some opinion polls on some websites such as Money4Talk. Not to mention that these polls usually are paid surveys, which is the cherry on top.
Share Your Opinion
Market research and opinion polling are essential tools to help understand your customer’s views and the general public. Of course, they have their benefits and drawbacks, but they can provide valuable insights which can help you improve your business when used correctly.
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