How Much Are You Researching?

By Colleen Davis

In order to have strong marketing you first need to lay down the foundation of research that your marketing is going to be resting on.

This is one of the most important steps of marketing and what so many different people do everything they can to avoid if at all possible. The reason is because research can be a very lengthy process, and it is viewed by many as something a little more boring than they feel like bothering with.

Well, you can avoid research if you want, but I wouldn’t expect to get a lot of strong marketing pushes if you’re doing something like that.

How can you possibly write or design something that appeals to people if you don’t even know what it is that they want because you never bothered to research it? That’s the problem with having no research: you have no way of knowing what your customers are really looking for.

Sure you can guess about it. You decide the next time you print brochures that people are looking for good savings and that’s it. Or you have one specific product you’re just positive that they want, and so if you design a color brochure talking about it people will naturally come right in and give you business.

You might even be right some of the time. This is what often leads to a business mistakenly believing that they don’t need to do strong research. They do one or two marketing pushes where it was rather obvious from the outset what their customers were looking for. They print brochures focusing on one message or another that happens to ring true, and they generate their sales because of it.

Yes, this can certainly happen, but are they going to have sustained success? If their competition is thoroughly researching the market while that company isn’t, how long before they focus on a marketing push that doesn’t work like they were expecting it to. Suddenly they find their business faltering because they aren’t right about what they think their customers are after, and it starts to quickly show.

Opinions can shift quickly among your customers. The needs of one moment might be meaningless in the next. The only way you can be certain that your focus is accurate is if you’re being sure to actually research what it is that your customers are looking for.

Marketing without research will only last so long. Never let yourself be fooled by a few brief successful marketing pushes that research isn’t need for your company or your industry. Research is and always will be the foundation of marketing whether you’d like to believe it or not. Without research, no company is going to be able to remain on top forever. Eventually your luck is going to run out.

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