How Market Research Can Make or Break your Startup

People are always surprised to learn that Apple didn’t invent the mobile phone or the mp3 player. Still, they were the first company to combine those two devices into one: the iPhone. Like Apple, successful startups need to use market research to determine what their customers want and need, who their competitors are, and how they can differentiate themselves from those competitors.

What is market research?

To sum it up, market research is crucial to launching your startup. Doing solid research will make the difference between success and failure. Identifying gaps in the market can set your business apart from competitors. Knowing the best way to reach customers will ensure they hear about you and want to buy your product. By failing to conduct adequate market research, you could miss out on valuable information to help you stay ahead of competitors and keep growing over time.

For example, suppose you are an entrepreneur with an idea for an app that enables people to book hotels without calling or going through the hassle of booking online. In that case, you’d need to do market research to find out which features would help your audience stay engaged with the app.

How to conduct market research.

Once you’ve narrowed down what kind of information you’re looking for, ask yourself how you’ll get it.

• Listen to your customers: You want to find out what your customers are saying about you and your product, but don’t stop there. You should also be listening to what they’re saying about other companies in the same industry. This will give you insights into the competition, which can be helpful if you plan on entering an established market or taking on an entrenched competitor.
• Problem solve: Find out what problems people have been trying to solve with existing products that haven’t worked for them—and address those problems with yours.
• Listen to your competitors: In addition to listening for mentions of your own brand, keep an ear out for any conversations about competing products.

Your brand isn’t about what you say it is—it’s about what your customers say it is.

A good brand delivers a message that resonates with its target audience. It’s not just about the product or service you offer but also how you communicate and deliver it to your customers. You can have the best product globally, but if your customers don’t feel connected to your brand, they won’t come back for more.

The best brands are built on a foundation of listening to the customer and understanding their needs. If you don’t listen to your customers, how can you possibly build a brand they will love? Suppose a company has no internal “brand” or identity. In that case, it will have difficulty projecting an intentional message externally to attract customers with an effective marketing campaign.

A great example of this comes from Starbucks, which has always been focused on building customer relationships through coffee cups with their name printed on them. They were able to do this by understanding what their customers wanted—something more personal than just a simple “thank you” or “have a nice day.” By listening closely to what their consumers wanted, Starbucks was able to create an experience around their products that made people feel like they mattered as individuals instead of just another faceless consumer lining up at checkout counters across America every morning before work.

Suppose your startup doesn’t already have some kind of internal brand guide or set of core values (i.e., mission statement). In that case, this should be one of the first things that get created as soon as possible. Because these documents will help guide all future decisions made by the team members involved with the business venture moving forward into the coming years ahead!

Market research will save you money and help you find your audience.

You’re a startup, so you want to spend your time and money efficiently. Whether you do the research yourself or if you hire an outside firm, market research is how you do it. Market research can save you money by helping you find out what people want, need and value before you invest in making that thing a reality. It can also help define your audience by showing them how they’re similar or different from other groups of people who might be interested in what your company has to offer—and why they should care about it too!

The key to understanding your customers and your market is asking the right questions. When it comes down to it, there are only three things that must be researched before launching a product: who will buy this product (customers), what this product does for them (competitors), and how much they value it (costs). If these three questions aren’t answered, the product is at risk of failing.

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