4 Top Market Research Myths Dispelled

In today’s digital world, you can collect data on almost anything. When market research is employed to gather and analyse it correctly, it’s invaluable in guiding businesses in their strategies, whether that’s developing a new product or creating a marketing campaign. However, various commonly held myths mean that some people remain hesitant to include market research in their business processes.

Today, we’re dispelling four of these top myths to highlight how market research is a worthwhile and valuable investment for your business.

1) Market research can’t tell us anything we don’t already know about our customers

“We know our customers. We communicate with them every day. Market research can’t tell us anything new about them.”

False: Market research done properly gives you an unbiased, valid insight into what really motivates your customers.

Working within a business means your perceptions are likely to be skewed by what you already know and what you expect to know. An independent market research agency has the qualifications and experience to leverage legitimate, proven processes and tools to design, implement and analyse research that provides an objective and accurate picture of what your customers genuinely value.

2) Market research is too expensive

“It’s alright for those big brands that have an unlimited budget for just one campaign. What value can market research offer us? It’s just too expensive.”

False: If you think market research costs too much, you may be paying for it later! In other words, you need to evaluate the upfront cost of carrying out market research against the costs of launching a new product or market campaign, and it failing because it does not meet the mark. Think about how much budget you put behind designing, manufacturing, distributing and marketing your new product. How many hours of work go into getting it to market, not to mention the raw costs of the materials? All that effort could be wasted. Reflecting on this, can you afford not to carry out market research?

We advise taking some time to explore your options. Most market research agencies offer a tailored service, where they consider your budget and develop solutions that deliver the best value for you.

3) Market research takes too long

“It takes forever for agencies to design the research and find enough participants to take part. Then, there’s the analysis stage. We don’t have time for all that.”

False: Market research doesn’t have to take that long. However, it does depend on who you are looking to target, what type of information you want to acquire and how in-depth you need the analysis to be.

As a guide, you can expect a typical traditional market research project to take around 6-8 weeks. This estimate is for a smaller-scale project, where there are no more than 30 in-depth interviews or 8 focus groups. Online surveys can usually be turned around more quickly, sometimes in about four weeks if there are less than 20 questions, which are not open-ended. However, be aware that, at times, there can be unforeseen circumstances that delay the process, whichever form of market research you decide to adopt.

The approval stage is one area where you can help speed up the process. By providing market researchers with a clear idea of your ideas, the questions you want to be answered, and by whom, they can design the project more quickly and with less back and forth.

In the grand scheme of things, market research is likely only to fill a small portion of your timelines. Build it into your long-term strategy from the beginning, and it won’t seem like such a big deal and is certainly less time-consuming than rectifying mistakes that come from a lack of information or understanding.

4) My business is too complex for market researchers to understand

“How can someone from outside our industry understand our business? It’s too complicated, and there are way too many factors involved. I don’t trust them in being able to get it right.”

False: This is precisely what researchers do. They are trained to make sense of the unknown and have established research methods available to do that. Furthermore, they do not need to know all the daily ins and outs of your business to be able to draw out valuable information from your customers.

Yes, it may help if you can get them up to speed on any industry jargon that may be unfamiliar to an outsider, and it may also be worth seeking out market research agencies that specialise in your sector. But equally, creditable market researchers should be qualified and experienced enough to deliver the insights you require.

With these myths cleared up and the benefits of market research highlighted, the only question that remains is, ‘Can you risk NOT doing it?’

Mission Translate specialises in supporting market research agencies with their projects via our translation, transcription, content analysis and other research solutions. To find out more about how we can assist with your project, please visit our market research page or contact the team at [email protected].