Before launching any product in the market you need to do an analysis to determine the way forward. To do anything you need to know what customers want and meet their needs. Whether it is a marketing campaign or a new product, it is ideal to know various data about the market and consumers.
In fact, only consumers can help the brand get this valuable information. Doing a market analysis is the key to determining how far you want to go and what the opportunities are. For example, you need to understand what the buying habits of potential customers are.
Likewise, this allows you to generate growth in your target market. By means of a market analysis you can discover valuable information that is used to estimate the prices of products or services and find the meeting point between customer and company.
Learn more about market analysis
Market analysis is a technique used to gather data on any aspect you want to know about, to be analyzed and interpreted to make the right decisions about your company, products, and services.
It is also a way to know relevant data to make the best marketing and sales decisions. Knowing the consumer is everything in a marketing strategy that aims to get good results nowadays.
The industry is changing and consumers have new wants and needs. So you have to know them very well, and market analysis allows you to focus efforts and resources. You have to consider statistical and analytical methods to do market analysis.
Objectives of market analysis
To learn more about how to manage a market analysis, it is necessary to consider some key aspects such as the following, especially the 3 existing types of objectives:
A.- Administrative
Market analysis objectives serve to improve brand development by planning, organizing and controlling human and material resources. In this way, the specific needs of the market are covered within the planned time frame.
B.- Social
Meeting customer needs through a product or service. In other words, the service must meet the customer’s requirements.
C.- Economic
Determine the degree of success or failure of a new project in the market. You can apply this strategy if you want to launch a new product or service to know for sure what decisions to make.
Surveys: a powerful tool of market analysis
Market analysis has several advantages when handled in an orderly manner. Different tools can be used to achieve a goal to gather information and make it possible to compare results. Surveys are the best way to obtain important information.
Surveys are one of the best ways to obtain key data, as they have the ability to provide comprehensive information due to the different formats supported. They are also an inexpensive way to obtain data for comparison.
Among the advantages of surveys in market analysis are the following:
- Large amount of information in a short time.
- They do not require dedicated staff to manage.
- Data collection, processing and analysis are easy.
- Internet surveys have a much lower cost and offer more coverage.
Advantages of market analysis in current affairs
In the world of digital marketing, market analysis is essential for launching a new product or strategy that reaches more people. Benefits for companies or brands include the following:
- It provides real and accurate information that helps solve future problems.
- You have more information to make confident decisions about digital marketing or about products or services.
- You can easily increase visibility, reach and engagement with good market analysis
- You can really know the market you want to address.
- You can determine the right sales system depending on what the market is asking for. Marketing improves.
- It helps to know how consumers perceive the brand.
- It is a good investment for any business since through it you get important information to manage sales
Steps for doing a proper market analysis
In the world of digital marketing doing a market analysis is essential. But to do it in the best way you need to find key objectives such as defining the problem, studying it, implementing it, collecting data, analyzing and reporting it to make decisions.
1.- Define the problem
This is the first step in making a good decision. Defining the problem exactly will help guide you in the right direction. Similarly, planning incorrectly for a problem triggers a loss of resources.
You can also make incorrect decisions. Problems usually appear from customer needs. To do a good market analysis you need to define the problem. Objectives must be identified precisely.
You can start by asking yourself why a market analysis is necessary. For example, determining the needs of the target audience and choosing the appropriate products to cover them, as well as the return they generate.
In market analysis, industry studies, competition and consumer profile are included. A well-defined problem regarding the marketing plan is the best guide you can have.
2.- Define the sample
Defining the meaningful sample is essential to any market analysis. In other words, a sample is a small number of people that reflects as accurately as possible a larger target group. Resources cannot be wasted by working on the wrong target.
It is important that the characteristics of the data to be analyzed are present in the chosen sample. It must be considered that sourcing data is always problematic, because there are those who may fill out the survey incorrectly. Regarding the size of the sample, the larger it is, the more likely it will be representative.
There are two types of samples which are the probability sample and non-probability sample. The former is based on a random sample, which ensures that every member of the population has the same probability of selection. The non-probabilistic sample tries to find different types of people to get a more balanced sample.
3.- Data collection
Here we group all the data obtained from different resources such as:
A.- Interviews
This is one of the most common methods of data collection. You have to be careful about the questions you ask and whether it is a live, telephone or email interview. Interviews are not cheap and are one of the most expensive tools for data collection.
B.- Observation
It is considered to be the most exact and inexpensive method of studying people’s behavior. Observation can be done on the spot directly or through a people counter. It is recommended to rely on other supplementary methods.
C.- Surveys
This is the first choice for marketing teams wishing to initiate market analysis. They have several advantages since they are versatile and useful for any context.
But it is not all positive in this methodology, since if the interviewer does not have a proper brief, he/she may misanalyze the results during collection.
The disadvantages of this method have been solved by online interviews. They have a lower cost and better results are obtained.