1. the function and importance of market research

when goods and services are transferred from producers to consumers, sales activities are formed. In sales activities, enterprises will face many problems such as market, products, prices, channels and consumption behavior. To solve these problems, enterprises collect relevant information through themselves or entrust investigation companies to record, analyze, measure and evaluate them. The investigation company provides relevant analysis conclusions and suggestions for the decision-making reference of enterprise operators. This process is called market research.

market research function: provide comprehensive information and assist scientific decision-making. Market research is a technical job! Technical work, in the process of operation, there are relatively more scientific components and technical components. Market research can objectively and comprehensively collect the information about the investigated objects, sort out the collected information, and use some analytical methods and software to summarize and refine the information, so as to form convincing conclusions and suggestions that combine theory with practice, which is very helpful for scientific decision-making. For example, market research can be used for market opportunity evaluation, consumer behavior research and enterprise market strategy evaluation ... < P > Common market research activities include: (1) market potential and consumption characteristics research; (2) product research; (3) sales research; (4) Research on consumer purchase behavior; (5) advertising and promotion research; (6) Research on sales environment; (7) Sales forecast ...

These contents are the topics that every enterprise has encountered or will encounter in the course of operation. For example, product research includes product design, development and testing, consumer's preference for product shape, packaging, taste or taste, existing product improvement suggestions, comparative analysis of competitive products, and market research, so that enterprises can design and produce products with consumer's favorite taste, packaging and moderate price; Without market research, products produced only by designers, researchers or leaders will have problems in the sales process.

such as: advertising and promotion research, testing and evaluating the effects of commodity advertising and other promotions, seeking the best promotion methods to promote consumers' effective purchase behavior. Through market research, we can make good use of scarce market input resources and achieve the effect of "just using it on the cutting edge"; Without market research, you will never know where "51% of advertising expenses are wasted?" . Take a very common example: the survey found that consumers in northern rural areas usually watch TV after 9:11 pm in summer and go to bed before 11:11 pm. Enterprises should focus on TV advertisements that affect rural consumers, but we can see that many enterprises arrange advertisements at the prime time of 7: 11-8: 31 pm. Waste? How do you know if you don't investigate

SMEs learn to believe what others have summed up in practice. Often, after an enterprise makes a personal decision, the product appears "unsuitable" in the market, and the product returns to the company for investigation, and gradually improves and gradually markets until the product is finally sold normally in the market. There are simply too many "aborted" products, but the "development speed" of new products is also relatively fast. "Don't be afraid if you fall! I got up again! " One day, when I came into contact with a survey company or a marketing company, others explained the importance of market research, and the business leaders shared the same feeling: "A few years ago, the sales staff of our company suggested to me to attach importance to market research, and now I understand the role and importance of market research." In fact, after taking a detour, we still use the theories summarized by others to guide our work.

second, how do SMEs arrange market research?

(1) "All employees are soldiers"

There is no special investigation department, which is not terrible. What is terrible is that there is no awareness of market research. Enterprises should instill the idea of market research from top to bottom, "Only when there is investigation can we have the right to speak", and strive to cultivate the awareness of all staff to attach importance to market research.

everyone is a market researcher. It doesn't matter that small and medium-sized enterprises don't have the ability to arrange special market investigators. All sales staff can be trained in market research knowledge and skills, so that everyone can act as a market information collector. In this way, when the enterprise wants to conduct market research, as long as the task is arranged, the sales staff will complete the investigation task. After the collection, it will be analyzed and summarized by a special person to form conclusions and suggestions, which can be used as a reference for decision makers.

(2) First-hand database

It is possible for small and medium-sized enterprises to obtain first-hand information through field investigation. Design the first-hand information card, list some open-ended questions on the card, and let the sales staff use the observation method and questionnaire method to investigate when visiting regularly, so as to complete the correct and accurate filling, collection, analysis and archiving of the information card.

the collection of first-hand information should be continuous and long-lasting. Only through long-term data collection can we make comparative analysis, sum up the similarities and regularities among them, and at the same time, we can test the correctness of different strategies in different periods from the data.

(3) Reuse the "experimental method" and "trial marketing method"

Experimental method: adopt the stimulus with preset conditions in an experimental environment, and then change the stimulus in a systematic and planned way to study the various reactions of consumers. The causality of consumer behavior can be obtained by experiment.

trial marketing method: market researchers will need to investigate the project in a given location, launch the trial marketing of the product under the given sales conditions, and make a conclusion on the results for reference in decision-making.

these two methods are more practical for small and medium-sized enterprises. Select several typical regional markets as experimental points, and make sales tracking records by changing one or several factors such as promotion, product price, advertising and point-of-sale packaging, so as to analyze and draw conclusions. Trial marketing is a marketing method adopted by most enterprises before the product goes on the market, which is especially useful for small and medium-sized enterprises. It also conforms to the market strategy of "local (base)-diffusion-national sales", and at the same time, the product can be modified to reduce the risks caused by non-procedural product development.

(4) "exploratory investigation" to verify the decision

exploratory investigation: the enterprise presupposes the hypothesis of the cause of the sales problem, then conducts market research to verify whether the hypothesis is valid, and then adopts improvement methods to improve the problem. Small and medium-sized enterprises can ask questions from leaders and have a preliminary conclusion, and then send personnel to conduct market research to test the validity of leaders' conclusions. Investigators and leaders can fully communicate with each other, and then the plan can be implemented in the market. This method not only does not lose the art of decision-making, but also has practical guarantee for decision-making and reduces the risk of decision-making.

(4) Return visit

The return visit mentioned here is the return visit that everyone often mentions. Similar to the same survey in market research, this survey is to use the same sample for a long-term concept survey to concentrate on the study of sample change. The experimental method is an experimental market as a sample, which studies the changes of consumer behavior through experiments, while the return visit is a sample of a single consumer, which records the objective facts with the changes of time and other factors to understand the changes of consumer behavior.

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Market research is a powerful guarantee for decision-making, and enterprises can't "do things because they are small". No matter how the organizational structure of an enterprise is set up, every salesman and every enterprise decision-maker should pay full attention to market research. Now the market has not given us time to slowly correct and explore for ourselves, and there is no chance to get up after falling.

let's always remember that "no investigation, no right to speak"!