{"id":365,"date":"2023-01-27T13:15:51","date_gmt":"2023-01-27T13:15:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstenet.com\/?p=365"},"modified":"2023-01-27T13:15:53","modified_gmt":"2023-01-27T13:15:53","slug":"how-to-conduct-market-research-for-npd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstenet.com\/how-to-conduct-market-research-for-npd\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Conduct Market Research for New Product Development Project"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Market research is the back bone of new product development, marketing expert Abhishek Sareen discusses the 5 types and how to do market research.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"How-to-Conduct-Market-Research-for-New-Product-Development-Project\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Market research is an important exercise for making great innovative products. Whether you are opening a new restaurant or your company is launching a new product, or even if you\u2019re trying to explore new markets or consumer segments, research is necessary for everything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s market research? It is the process of finding consumer insights and actionable market intelligence to make new product development decisions. Market research can broadly be classified into the following applied categories:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  1. Consumer Research<\/strong>: This involves getting insights from the end consumers, by understanding their needs and wants.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. Industry Research<\/strong>: Also known as trade analysis, industry research involves keeping track of industry and state policies, which could affect your industry. It also involves estimating the market size, i.e. how much is being spent in your category in your country or worldwide, and the size of your target group (TG). <\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. Competitor Research<\/strong>: This involves analyzing existing market players, benchmarking their products to understand their strengths and weaknesses, what market areas they are strong in and where they are vulnerable. <\/li>\n\n\n\n
  4. Trend Research<\/strong>: In order to create a breakthrough product, marketers need to keep track of their industry trends, by keeping abreast with the latest technologies that are being introduced by global competitors, and component (or tier 1) suppliers. They also need to have the insight, or rather foresight, to forecast upcoming trends.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  5. Cross-Industry Research<\/strong>: This involves keeping track of the trends in the adjacent industries that could influence your industry and markets. For example, if you are in the two-wheeler automotive industry, you would like to keep track of development in industries & markets like the four-wheeler, fashion industry, gaming, etc.  <\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    Market Research Methodologies<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    To conduct market research, marketers use methodologies that can broadly be classified as  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

      \n
    1. Primary research methodologies<\/strong> involve getting intelligence directly from your intended consumer or customer, for example, in-person interviews, observations, etc. This is also called first-hand research. <\/li>\n\n\n\n
    2. Secondary research methodologies<\/strong> is where you get the information through some secondary or intermediary source. These could be reports published by various agencies, publicly available information on the internet, etc. Also called second-hand research. <\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

      How to Select Your Research Methodology<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

      Whenever possible doing first-hand primary research is very important, as it gives you believable insights. When you are conducting market research you would be at times overloaded with information, and your job would be to cut through the clutter and prioritize your finding, which could lead to creating an actionable brief for your new product development or NPD team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      However, if for some reason, you are not able to do first-hand research, you could then look up data online or hire an agency to do the research for you. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

      For example, it\u2019s very difficult to do primary research in the defense sector, as most customers and market players are unlikely to divulge any information. This happened on a project I was working on, so we had to depend on secondary research data.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Goals of Market Research<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

      Market research is intended for new product development (NPD); the aim is to create briefs to improvise existing products and create new ones. You may also aim at entering a new market or consumer segment. It\u2019s most often a product marketing or brand manager\u2019s responsibility to conduct market research, which can then provide direction to the NPD team for the future products that they would be developing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Market research analysis should be done with the aim of providing intelligence which can lead to actionable decisions. Market research companies often leave their findings so open that it\u2019s almost impossible to take any call. I once referred to reports from a major trend forecasting firm WGSN, but their forecasts were so open-ended that I failed to make any concrete decision. However, such reports are often just used as backup NPD decisions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      In a big organization, it\u2019s very hard to make straightforward decisions. Most design or marketing heads would like to leave decision-making to a process or their juniors or mid-level management, so as to escape the blame game from the top. It\u2019s also one of the reasons why trend forecasting firms leave the trend report findings indecisive. However, if you are an entrepreneur or business owner, keep the market research goals very sharp so you can rely on the findings.<\/p>\n\n\n

      \n
      \"Goals<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

      Planning In-person Consumer Research<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

      I started my professional career as a research associate for a management consulting firm, where I learnt the biggest lesson: if one intends to take a managerial or strategic decision, one needs to do primary market research first-hand. Having spent over 15 years in brand and product management, I have executed numerous kinds of market research.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      You can refer to a lot of reports, but the best way to truly understand your customer is to conduct one-on-one personal interviews, as there are so many untold aspects about customers, that you can only experience them when you directly engage with them.<\/p>\n\n\n

      \n
      \"how<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

      To truly understand your customer, you must try to figure out the following things:<\/p>\n\n\n\n