Whether you are about to start a business or want to grow a business, marketing research is an important first step to take, to ensure your business can thrive and achieve success in Singapore. As one of the countries with tight competition in the business landscape, trying to stay ahead and understand the target audience’s needs is important.
Thus, marketing research is something that you should prioritize as it is a business effort that aims to find data or information about targets, strategies, risks, and everything related to marketing. By doing marketing research, you as the business owners will be able to find hidden niches and identify more business opportunities. More than that, it will also be easier for you to understand competitors and identify trends that can affect sales and profitability. When market research is done correctly, you will get important data that is useful for business growth.
But do keep in mind that sometimes the implementation of marketing research may not go according to plan. There are a couple of common mistakes that can happen, which cause errors in the research. Check out the mistakes that often occur below, to ensure you can prevent them from happening in the future!
1. Spend a Lot of Money On the Research
One of the ultimate challenges that small business owners often have to face is related to cost situations. The expense associated with conducting marketing research can pose a significant challenge. This notion often hampers the execution of marketing research plans, especially if you are planning to engage with an institution that guarantees comprehensive data.
Though marketing research will incur some costs, do keep in mind that dedicating time and showing interest in studying the market enables small business owners to conduct their business appropriately. This approach can yield more effective results since it allows direct observation of respondents’ reactions to inquiries.
If you are opting to hire a research institution, allocating some time to discover a reasonably priced one is recommended. Being patient in the search will increase the likelihood of finding an institution offering the best value and delivering high-quality outcomes.
2. Has No Clear Purpose
An entrepreneur should know the purpose of their marketing research. By knowing these basics, you will know what actions need to be taken and what questions will be asked to collect related data or information. You can also determine the most suitable person to be the respondent. It is important to note that if you research inappropriate respondents, then your entire analysis can go awry Therefore, it is best to ensure to define your goals from the beginning.
3. Relying On Limited Data
One of the marketing research mistakes is relying on limited data. The information gathered from research typically falls into two categories, primary and secondary data. Primary data involves direct collection from the field, often through methods like observation, focus groups, or surveys. On the other hand, secondary data comprises information sourced from published studies such as books, articles, and journals.
The most comprehensive insights emerge from combining these two types of data. Relying solely on one type often proves insufficient to gain a holistic understanding of the issue at hand. Secondary data will help you to formulate problems, make research objectives clearer, as a reference to questions, and so on. You should utilize the secondary data to get as much information as possible about potential consumers, markets, and your competitors.
4. Focus On Numbers and Graphs
Numbers and graphs can be a reference for the dynamics of current consumer needs. But don’t focus too much on numbers and graphs, as this is one of the most common mistakes in marketing research. It is important to also combine and use the qualitative data obtained through interviews with your respondents.
5. Making Personal Assumption
To ensure you acquire the necessary data, refrain from treating personal assumptions as absolute truths. It’s common to fall into the trap of aligning business operations with your desires or convincing yourself that your business is doing good. It is important to understand that reality doesn’t always comply with our wishes.
As an entrepreneur, you should exercise caution when formulating questions and conducting analysis. Explore multiple interpretations and seek alternative meanings in respondents’ explanations.
When collecting and processing primary and secondary data, minimize the influence of your assumptions. Overvaluing personal presumptions could skew the research findings. Steering clear of this marketing research mistake is crucial for achieving reliable and meaningful results.
6. Not Respecting Respondent Time
You may find your research very important and ask people to give their time without realizing that their time is equally valuable. In research, the most important thing that must be considered is balance.
This applies not only to the data taken but also to the attitude towards the respondents. One of the main reasons research receives a low response rate is because it judges the respondent’s time unfairly. Respondents give you time and you have to compensate for that time. Provide fair compensation and you will receive quality data and a higher response rate.
These are the ultimate must-know things to avoid when doing market research for any aspiring entrepreneur. By knowing the points of errors that often occur in marketing research, hopefully, you can be more careful when doing one – so that you can get more valid data.
In addition to doing marketing research properly, you also need to pay attention to the legal side of the business, such as registering your company to the national business registry to ensure you can conduct your business safely.
Instead of doing everything on your own, you might want to consider hiring company incorporation services Singapore to do it in your stead. You can make sure your business is safe from any penalties or fines with their professional help!
