Reinventing market research as a profit-maker

Re-inventing market research as a profit-maker has become one of the biggest challenges imposed on industrial marketers today… Why?

Most industrial brands underuse market research. Some stick to old market research approaches, unaware or very cautious of new approaches. Others ignore market research altogether. They focus instead on internal speak.

These companies risk finding only backward-looking insights; their research turns into a collection of past interactions and transactions. Thus, they will miss out on uncovering insights that drive new ideas to take advantage of long-term market changes.

The best industrial brands blend old market research approaches with new ones. They accomplish this by focusing on:

1. Leveraging the power of digital mediums.

Digital mediums can offer incredible power. Market reactions to specific products or services, can be analysed quickly rather than the few weeks required for traditional market research approaches. You can collect larger sample sizes, allowing your brand to uncover niche opportunities, such as the examination of market segment-level brand positioning techniques for stages of your buyer decision journey.

2. Decrease reliance on traditional focus groups and expand into new forms.

Focus groups were once the default approach for qualitative research. You would typically gather eight or 10 participants for about two hours, promise them a small incentive, and ask them to give their honest and unbiased opinion.

We have found If you put greater emphasis on “customer experience” studies in order to deliver more relevant buyer behaviour insights. With a customer experience research study, participants may be asked to provide “what if” statements, a deep-dive into their greatest business fears, challenges and barriers to compete.

3. Understand how buyers make their purchase decision, not just why.

Industrial companies have long focused on what and why industrial buyers purchase. Understanding how they buy, is just as important because such insights allow industrial brands to examine a wide range of critical business challenges and drivers of choice.

Industrial brands and marketers must be open to testing, learning and improving. The market research approaches that do succeed will open up new and profitable ways of understanding market segments and customers. Industrials prepared to take the risk have a real opportunity to gain profitable market share and a true competitive advantage.

Featured Case Studies: Manufacturing and Transport Case Studies

Other Reading: Winning companies do their research

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Peter Zafiris is an industrial marketer and founder of Industrial Ideas. Having built his experience in B2B marketing from the ground up, Peter understands what it takes to succeed with your marketing strategy. All client projects are personally managed by Peter to help industrials like you get the return on investment you deserve. Peter and team, work hard to become an extension of your business, to help you get the most out of your marketing efforts. Get your free 30 minute marketing consultation to learn more.