Market research is an essential part of growing any company. Whether you’re a small business that does your own market research street-team style or a big medicine company that hires pharma market research specialists to gather data for you, asking the right questions and using the information you gather correctly is the secret to long-term success.
Check out these videos to learn more about the world of market research.
1. TED Talks – Joseph Craig on Entertainment Marketing and Research
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLllWy4lSco
TED talks are always inspirational, and this one is no exception. Joseph Craig has been involved in the world of market research for more than 20 years, and has helped many major Hollywood studios to learn what the market wants. In this short talk, he shares a few of his secrets.
2. Professor Paul Green – The Technique of Market Research
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4Rq8G10xOg
Professor Paul Green of the University of Pennsylvania delves deep into the mathematics of market research in this video. He explains everything from game theory, to various analysis techniques, helping researchers learn what to do with the data they gather.
3. UCLA – How Starbucks Built a Global Brand
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_kAiEO6jP48
This video is an interesting case study that explains how Starbucks achieved such amazing success. Effective market research, combined with clear branding and a strong, company-wide brand ethos, helped to make sure that Starbucks became known as a coffee “experience”, rather than an expensive alternative to a drink from a fast food place.
4. Market Research Interviewing Techniques – Asking Why
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECAR871eano
Good market research requires asking the right questions – and one of the questions that you should ask is “Why”. Lots of researchers forget to ask that question. Market research expert Dr Bob explains how and when to ask this question, how to phrase it, and how to understand the answers that they give. Remember; people don’t always tell the truth.
5. New Smartphone Product Testing: Funny Focus Groups
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8A4yqN4_9A
This humorous video shows a fictitious focus group for the Sony Ericsson Xperia 10 Android based smartphone. The video shows five different focus groups based on amusing stereotypes such as airhead supermodels, self-absorbed bodybuilders, technophobic old men, cute kids, and metalheads.
This video is a great viral marketing idea, and gives viewers a nice (albeit exaggerated) idea of what goes on behind closed doors in focus groups.
Market research should be an ongoing thing. Before you launch a product, you should do research to make sure there’s demand for it. When your product is almost ready, you should do focus groups to ensure that people actually like it. When it’s been out for a while, market research can help you find out how to improve it. Whether you decide to hire an industry research group to do your tech surveys or pharma market research, or you decide to invite customers to your office and do usability studies and surveys yourself doesn’t matter. The important thing is that you keep on researching and striving to improve.
This post was written by James Harper on behalf of Hall and Partners, experts in pharma market research.
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