By: William Lowell, CMC

Information is the rocket fuel of modern business. Without it, your organization is like a lumbering star ship, stranded in deep space and drifting aimlessly toward an immense black hole of uncertainty and risk.

Fortunately, information is a renewable resource, with a seemingly  inexhaustible supply readily available through market research. Market research is simply the process of finding out what your customers, potential customers and competitors are thinking and doing, then using that knowledge to generate growth, increase profits and plan for the future. In the moving Arthur, Dudley Moore wistfully observed, "Aren't waiters wonderful? You ask them for things and they bring them to you." The marketplace is the same. If you ask for information,you will get it.

There are literally hundreds of things marketing research can do for you.  A very short list might include: helping you measure your image and reputation, identify new market opportunities, predict the success of a new product or service, set prices, improve customer relations, monitor changes in your industry, learn from the competition and make better strategic and operational plans.  In addition, marketing research is the most cost effective way to reach out to your existing customers and bring in new business.

Three Types of Market Research

There are three main types of market research:

Customer satisfaction studies are a good way to keep score of your return on investment.  Are those new marketing and customer service initiatives paying off?  Finding out what your customers think about you is essential.  According to a recent “future of marketing” survey conducted by Business Development Directives (BDD), customers who are only “satisfied” versus “highly satisfied” with an organization are four times more likely to look for another provider.  A customer survey can also help you keep up with the light-speed changes in consumer demand and expectations.  The same BDD study found that 63 percent of businesses and 80 percent of associations indicate their customers and members are buying differently than they were just two years ago.

Industry research will help keep you one step ahead of the competition, and it can save you the trouble of reinventing the wheel.  The assembly line concept did not come to Henry Ford in a flash of divine inspiration; he adapted the same basic processes that had been used for years in the Chicago stockyards.  Ford did pioneer the concept of Just-in-Time inventory management, which Toyota later appropriated with great success.  And research should not be narrowly focused on your particular industry.  When engineers at the Remington Firearms company wanted to find a way to keep their bullets shiny during shipment, they borrowed a process from an unlikely source: the cosmetic manufacturer Maybelline. 

Finally, you cannot succeed in modern business without a trained, motivated and highly committed crew of employees.  Studies show that consumers now make buying decisions based mostly on brand perceptions, and according to a Harvard University study, brand perceptions are mostly shaped by interaction with clerks, sales people, telephone operators and other front line staff.  A disgruntled employee is unlikely to present your brand in a positive light.  Internal marketing research is perhaps the best way to create an open and constructive environment that accurately reflects your brand and makes your company a place where the best and brightest want to work.

Designing a Research Program

All of this might sound as daunting as a graduate-level course in astrophysics, but help is available.  A select few marketing firms can design and conduct a research program that will map out your surest path to success.  If you choose to conduct your own research, be sure you ask the right questions in the right way, talk to the right people and determine the most effective medium or channel to reach that target audience.

You would never set out on a long car trip without first filling up the gas tank and looking at a map, would you?  So why would you try to navigate the new frontier of today’s global economy without the information you need to reach for the stars?

William E. Lowell, CMC, is founder and president of Business Development Directives, Milwaukee (www.bddonline.com), an associate of the Center for Strategic Change, LLC and an educator at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater.  He serves on the board of the College of Arts and Communication and the College of Business advisory board.  Lowell has authored more than 50 articles on Business and Marketing and is the author of the book entitled “Focus Groups Made Simple.”  He is available at (262) 594-9510 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it