We’re beyond the days of advertising ideas that stem from a gut feeling or a hunch. Guessing won’t work with today’s well-informed consumers.

Knowing the industry and the pain points of the target audience is the best way to frame advertising messages. Oftentimes, market research is the leading factor in the direction of a campaign taking shape. It’s a crucial step for a successful launch of any product, service, or business.

At HenkinSchultz, we often say that you need to ask the ‘Why’ before determining the ‘How’. We believe that conducting marketing research is the best way to gain consumer insights for a full fledged advertising plan.

Here are some ways we can provide marketing research services for your next campaign!

Research Categories: Primary or Secondary

Acquiring data points ultimately leads to underlying takeaways that can be quite telling.

There are two ways to conduct marketing research in order to gain data—primary and secondary research techniques.

Primary Research

Primary research is collected directly versus research that has already been collected from another source. Typically, primary research is only done to address a certain hypothesis. It requires in-depth testing and analysis for it to be reliable.

There are several different tactics you can put in place for testing a new idea or product with primary research.

Types of primary marketing research tactics:

• Focus Groups
  A focus group consists of a collection of people from different backgrounds that come together for a guided conversation. The participants in focus groups are studied based on their reactions, feelings, and beliefs for a particular product, service, or concept.
• Online Surveys
  An online survey can be used to hunt for first-hand information from many people. Structuring a survey with multiple choice, true or false, and short answer statements help to pull in consistent results for analyzing. Surveys are often more honest than other primary research tactics since they are anonymous.
• One-on-One Interviews
  A one-on-one interview can bring in a depth of information that you might not acquire from a focus group. Interviews provide detailed information and clarity on matters discussed. In order for an interview to truly work, the conversation should be open, free of judgement, and take place in a relaxed environment.
• A/B Testing
  A/B testing is used to test two alternatives to understand which variation is more effective. It helps to determine which strategy works best while eliminating guesswork in a campaign development. To A/B test, you need a clear goal, measurable results, and one variable set as the testing component.
• Competitive Analysis
  You can’t expect to beat your competition if you aren’t aware of their performance. With a competitive analysis, the competitor’s strengths and weaknesses are sorted out to determine where the opportunities are to outwin them in the eyes of consumers. Where are the consumer’s needs satisfied with your competition and where are they dissatisfied with your competition? Answering this is the subsequent benefit of a competitive analysis.

Secondary Research

On the other hand, secondary research is contingent on existing sources in order to paint a picture of what is going on in the market.

This type of data is historical and non-original. When taken as a whole, it can lead to valuable conclusions about an industry, customer, and competition.

These types of secondary research can be obtained from a variety of sources.

Types of secondary marketing research tactics:

• Public Sources & Records
  Public sources and records come from previous primary research. Reviewing the findings in this research is a reliable way to draw conclusions. Libraries and educational institutions collect this data as well as trusted websites. This form of research takes less time to review since the results are summarized and collated already.
• Industry Trends
  Relevancy influences advertising. Studying industry trends keeps a campaign current and interesting. Industry trends play a role for the growth of any business. Discovering emerging trends in the market puts you ahead just by being in the know.
• Sales Data
  Running through sales data is one of the best ways to understand your existing customers. This historical information makes you aware of obscure similarities between sales. Leading tracking tools like Salesforce, PinPoint or HubSpot automate the process of collecting and tracking this data.

Classification of Research: Qualitative or Quantitative

The results of primary and secondary marketing research are classified as qualitative and quantitative.

Qualitative research is most often compiled from interviews, focus groups, and industry trends. Quantitative research consists of numerical data, and is most likely gathered from online surveys, sales data, and A/B testing.

We recommend a mix of qualitative and quantitative research efforts for a well-informed campaign strategy.

Our Market Research Services Determine the “Why”

Are you looking to better understand numbers with quantitative research, or determine the emotions with qualitative research, or a hybrid of both?

HS can help you determine ‘Why’ something is trending before we move to ‘How’ to address it.

Contact us for your next market research project and we’ll deliver our findings to you!