Motivations for Implementing Market Research Projects: How Can You Solve Problem X?

Oftentimes, organizations will approach market research firms with a general business problem for which they need insight. These problems may be things such as the desire to increase sales or donations, to retain more customers or donors, or to improve customer or employee satisfaction. For market researchers that are experienced and capable, there are many ways in which we can ask the correct questions to yield actionable insights that may be utilized in obtaining these outcomes. However, it is important to recognize that the goals of such endeavours must always be realistic in terms of one’s expectations. If you know the parameters by which market research projects operate, and work within them, it is difficult to be disappointed by the clarity that they produce in their conclusions.

For that to occur, it is necessary to understand that market research will not guarantee that problems can always be solved or addressed in the ways in which the client’s preconceived “ideal result” will occur. Conducting a research project will not produce a magic formula or direct answer to the question; ‘What exact steps must I take to achieve my goals?’. It will, however, allow for precise testing of ideas and concepts that give insights into those questions, that would otherwise go undiscovered. Market research makes it possible to understand the degree to which your ideas will resonate amongst their intended audience. It does so by articulating the way in which any similarities in regards to differences in behaviours, attitudes, and personal identities interact and relate to one another and to the central question at hand. What makes individuals unique can also be what brings people together.

It is the job of market research to extract, with statistical accuracy, the specific trends that both separate and unite people to understand their motives and build a framework that pinpoints the forces that drive human behaviours.  An experienced market researcher knows the right questions to ask and the most appropriate methodologies to apply to bring forward these behaviours and connections. This cannot be achieved without techniques developed in the social sciences for more than a century. The ripple effects of implementing any specific change, in terms of what will be affected and how, is the central paradigm that these techniques address. In any complex system, introducing a seemingly small variable may produce several significant unintended consequences. It is essential to tease out and quantify the most likely path that implementing these changes will produce so that decision making can be informed by scientific data rather than anecdotal notions. The creativity innate within these concepts cannot always be derived from statistical fact alone, however, when working in concert with hypothesis testing in the form of survey research, the resultant outcomes become much more knowable and therefore manageable.

It is important to understand that regardless of experience or research proficiency using data, there is no guarantee when it comes to predicting the future.  Market research answers the questions of what is driving outcomes, the effect sizes of those factors, and how can we use this knowledge to implement business plans that work towards our goals in ways that are nuanced and backed by reliable data.