THE STRATEGIC ROLE OF MARKET RESEARCH:
THE STRATEGIC ROLE OF MARKET RESEARCH:

How Data-Driven Insights Shape Smarter Marketing Decisions

The Strategic Role of Market Research: How Data-Driven Insights Shape Smarter Marketing Decisions

Guest Educator: Elizabeth Sutherland

Account Manager |  SMARI

Elizabeth shares a passion for helping clients succeed. She leverages data to draw true insights that answer the overall business questions. Elizabeth oversees the analytical design of the project from start to finish and serves as a primary point of contact during the research process.

Introduction

Let’s get one thing straight: market research is your vital link to the consumer. Yet, its purpose and use can be misunderstood or underused. Has your business faced struggles like declining sales or stagnant growth? Are business decisions made from past experience or without checking in with your audience? How about a shiny new competitor gaining market share? These common struggles can be solved through market research. Market research gives your business the confidence to move forward without making costly mistakes. If your company isn’t seeing the desired results, it might be time to ask: What don’t we know that we should?

Table of Contents:

  1.  Start with Basics
  2.  Utilizing Market Research
  3. Key Components of Market Research
  4. Research Goes Beyond Consumer Targeting
  5. Conclusion

Start with Basics

Before we explain why market research is crucial to strategy, let’s start with the basics– what market research is and how it differs from your business’s marketing efforts. Although there is some overlap between marketing and market research, these are distinct processes that cannot be lumped together. Both involve your customers and prospective customers, and how you reach and connect with them to drive sales.

Marketing is a broader process of all the ways you can communicate and engage with consumers. So, how do you know the best way to reach and resonate with your target audience? Through market research, of course. Market research serves as the foundation for effective marketing. It allows you to get into the hearts and minds of customers to better understand how they behave, what they think, and what they value. Then, you can utilize this information to make informed decisions that actually connect.

Utilizing Market Research

Market research is usually utilized in response to a need for change. This need can take many forms—a brand refresh, the development of a new product or service, the need to reverse a sales decline, or a desire to get more impact from your marketing efforts. 

Your company must be ready to accept the possibility of change and embrace new perspectives before conducting market research. Although market research commonly confirms existing beliefs, insights almost always challenge preconceived notions.

Ensure you have specific research questions and objectives before delving into research, as these will be the foundation of the research design. Vague intentions like “We need to know more about our consumer” won’t produce focused or actionable results. Be more specific in what you want to know and why. Instead, an actionable goal is, “We need to understand the demographics and psychographics of our consumers and why they select our brand over competitors. This insight will help clarify our brand’s unique attributes to refine our marketing strategy.” That level of clarity sets the stage for research that leads to meaningful, strategic outcomes.

Key Components of Market Research

If you decide market research is for you and your company (we bet it is!), there will be a few key components of the process you need to be aware of:

Research Design

Your company’s specific questions and objectives will be used to construct a research plan. The audience being targeted for research will be determined, and the appropriate research method — qualitative, quantitative, or a mix of both — will be recommended. The best tools and strategies for gathering data will also be considered.

Data Collection

This is where data is gathered on the targeted audience, whether through focus groups, interviews, observational techniques, or surveys (and more!). Remember, the research design may have mixed methods to gather data.

Data Analysis

Once all data is gathered, it is synthesized and interpreted into valuable insights. Hopefully, whoever you hire for market research goes beyond number crunching and offers strategic solutions that address each research objective.

Research Goes Beyond Consumer Targeting

A common misconception of market research (and even Google searching “what is market research”) is that it only targets consumers. However, a company’s internal alignment in its brand story, differentiators, and target audience is crucial to its strategy and direction. 

Effective research designs often include speaking with company internal stakeholders to ensure alignment across the organization. Hiring a third-party market research firm can help maintain confidentiality and allow stakeholders to voice their opinions honestly.

Conclusion

As your market landscape evolves, so do consumers. Market research helps you stay in tune with your audience to understand them truly. Once you know your consumers through market research, you can create more effective marketing strategies. Market research begins with a simple question– what’s yours?  

Are you unsure where to start when considering market research? Let us do the heavy lifting for you. SMARI has been helping clients navigate the business and market research landscape for 40 years.

We specialize in delivering thorough, actionable market research that confidently informs business decisions. As a full-service firm with four decades of experience, we excel in both quantitative and qualitative research deliverables to help businesses navigate challenges, refine strategies, and uncover new opportunities. Our dedicated team delivers personalized insights tailored to each client’s unique needs.

If you want to take the guesswork out of your future business decisions, contact SMARI today. 
contact@smari.com                   www.smari.com

If you have other questions that we didn’t answer here, feel free to reach out to your marketing lead or contact us at newbusiness@studio13online.com. We are more than happy to help you love your next professional portrait.

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