Market research can tell you a lot of basic data and information about this market, such as how big the market is and how much purchasing power it is. How many competitors are there in this market? What's the best price in this market?

Market research provides accurate information for market forecasting and business decision-making, which is the basis of market forecasting and business decision-making. There are mainly two parts: ① Market demand survey. Mainly understand the quantity and structure of market demand for goods, product market life cycle, demand for new products, as well as consumers' income level, population and composition, investment deployment for developing production, commodity price level, consumers' buying behavior, politics, culture and other related factors. ② Market commodity supply survey. It mainly investigates the production level and operating characteristics of enterprises producing similar products, including the number and distribution of similar enterprises, the production scale of each enterprise, the number of products available, the trend of developing new products, the quality, cost, price and sales channels of products, etc.

In short, a shopping mall is like a battlefield. Without market research, it is like blindly directing troops to enter without knowing the opponent's team, except for failure or failure.

What does market research mainly do?

Take the survey as an example. There are two ways to get information. One is to obtain information at random. In many cases, you don't have a clear goal or a specific plan to get information. A lot of valuable information is found when you least expect it. As a businessman, when reading newspapers, watching TV, sightseeing, walking and chatting with people, you should be a conscientious person and always pay attention to valuable information. The second way to obtain information is to use certain means, with clear objectives and specific plans to obtain information, which is what we usually call market research.

(1) The main contents of market research (taking foreign exchange research as an example)

1, business environment survey

① Investigation of policy and legal environment.

Investigate the policy and legal information about the business you are engaged in and the services you are engaged in, and find out whether the state encourages or restricts your business, and what management measures and means are available. How does the local government implement the relevant national laws, regulations and policies, and what are the favorable and unfavorable effects on your business?

② Industry environmental investigation.

Investigate the development status, development trend, industry rules and industry management measures of the industries you operate and the services you provide. For example, if you are engaged in the beauty salon industry, you should know the development of the industry at home and in the region, the international and domestic fashion trends and advanced beauty technology, and what are the industry norms and management systems. People engaged in the clothing industry should understand the development trend of clothing, popular colors and styles, and the development trend of clothing technology. When you enter a new industry, you should fully understand and master the industry information, so as to help you realize the transformation from layman to expert as soon as possible.

(3) Macroeconomic survey.

Whether the macroeconomic situation is prosperous or not directly affects the purchasing power of ordinary people. If the business efficiency is generally bad and the economy is in recession, your business will be difficult to do, on the contrary, your business will be easy to do. It's called that the macro climate affects the micro climate. Therefore, mastering the information of the general climate is an important parameter to do a good job in small business. Economic prosperity should adopt a proactive business policy. In the economic downturn, there are profitable industries and potential market opportunities. The key lies in how you grasp and judge. For example, in the summer of 1989, some rich people in Hong Kong immigrated one after another, the market was depressed, and land and property prices plummeted. In this case, a few shrewd businessmen with political vision seized the opportunity to buy a large number of "uncompleted residential flats" when property prices fell. Within half a year, the China government was stable, the policy of reform and opening up remained unchanged, the principle of "one country, two systems" remained unchanged, Hong Kong remained prosperous and stable, the situation was clear, and property prices rose. Smart businessmen with political vision will really make a lot of money. Therefore, understanding the objective economic situation and mastering the economic situation information is an important content of business environment investigation.

2. Market demand survey

If you want to produce or distribute a product or series of products, you should investigate the market demand for this product. In other words, through market research, market positioning of products. For example, if you sell some household appliances, you should investigate the market demand of such household appliances, whether there are the same or similar products and what is the market share. For example, if you provide a professional family service project, you should investigate the residents' understanding and demand for this project, how big the demand is, whether other people or companies provide the same service project, and what is the market share.

Another important content of market demand survey is market demand trend survey. Understand the long-term demand of a product or service project in the market, and understand whether the product or service project is gradually recognized and accepted by people with broad demand prospects, or is gradually eliminated by people and the demand shrinks. Understand the development trend of this product and service project from both technical and operational aspects, and so on.

3. Customer survey

These customers can be your original customers or your potential customers. Customer survey includes two aspects: first, customer demand survey, such as who are the customers (or social groups and enterprises) who buy a certain product (or service project) and what they hope to get from it (such as utility, psychological satisfaction, technology, price, delivery time, safety, etc.). ) and why many products (or services) can or can better meet their needs in some aspects. The second is a classified survey of customers. Focus on the number, characteristics and distribution of customers, identify your target customers and master their detailed information. If it is a certain type of enterprise or unit, it is necessary to understand the basic situation of these units, such as the purchase channel, procurement management mode, telephone and office address, the specific situation and authorization scope of the person in charge of a certain business, the demand for a certain product and service, purchasing habits and characteristics, etc. If the customer is an individual consumer, it is necessary to know the types of consumer groups, that is, the approximate age range, gender, consumption characteristics, money consumption standards, demand for a product and service, purchase motivation, purchase psychology, usage habits, etc. of the target customer. Mastering this information will prepare you for targeted business.

4. Competitor survey

Under the condition of open market economy, it is too difficult to do exclusive business. Before you start a business, someone may have done the same or similar business. These are your real competitors. Maybe your business is brand-new and unique. At the beginning, there was no realistic opponent. Once your business is booming, many people will learn from your business and compete to join your competitors. These are your potential competitors. Know yourself and know yourself, and you will win every battle. Understand the competitors' situation, including their quantity and scale, distribution and composition, advantages and disadvantages, and marketing strategies, so as to occupy a favorable position in the fierce market competition, and adopt some competitive strategies in a targeted manner, so as to achieve no one has me, no one has me, and no one has me.

5, the market sales strategy survey

Focus on understanding the main promotion methods, marketing strategies and sales methods of operating a product or carrying out a service project in the market at present. Such as sales channels, sales links, minimum purchase distance and minimum wholesale links, advertising methods and key points, price strategy, what promotion methods, prize sales or discount sales, what sales methods, wholesale or retail, consignment or pyramid selling, monopoly or joining, etc. To examine whether these business strategies are effective and what are their shortcomings and deficiencies, so as to provide a basis for you to decide what business strategies and means to adopt.

(b) Common market research methods (taking foreign exchange research as an example)

1. According to the different scope of investigation, market investigation can be divided into three types: market investigation, sampling investigation and typical investigation. Market survey, that is, a one-time comprehensive survey of the market, is large in quantity, wide in scope, high in cost, long in cycle and difficult, but the survey results are comprehensive, practical and reliable. Generally, laid-off workers can't do some business, so there is no need to do such a large-scale market survey. Sampling survey, from which we can infer the overall situation. For example, if you sell a kind of food and supplies for primary school students, you can choose one or two classes of primary school students from one or two schools to investigate, so as to infer the market demand of primary school students for this product. A typical survey refers to selecting some typical individuals from the population of the respondents for investigation and analysis, and calculating the general situation of the population accordingly. For example, in the investigation of competitors, we can choose one or two typical representatives from many competitors, study and understand them deeply, and analyze their internal operation mechanism, management advantages, price level, management methods, etc., without having to investigate all competitors, which is difficult and time-consuming.

2. According to the different survey methods, market survey can be divided into interview method, observation method and trial sale or trial operation method. Interview method, that is, draw up the survey items in advance and ask the respondents through interviews, letters and visits, telephone calls, etc. , in order to obtain the necessary survey data. This kind of investigation is simple and sometimes not very formal. When chatting with people, you can unconsciously insert your own survey content and conduct market research. Observation, that is, investigators visit customers' shopping places, such as shops and trading markets, and service items, such as hotels and buses, and directly observe and record customers' categories, purchasing motives and characteristics, consumption patterns and habits, prices and service levels of merchants, business strategies and means, etc. To make the first-hand information obtained more authentic and reliable. It should be noted that your investigation behavior should not be discovered by operators. Trial sale or trial camp method. That is to say, for businesses that are not sure, we can understand customer feedback and market demand through business operation or product trial sale.

That's basically it. Satisfaction survey, product concept survey and advertising survey are subdivided.

Reference source: exchange research; Hui Jing market research consulting company