Business research is essential for starting and running a business, including researching target customers, competition, and market demand. Methods vary, including customer research and analyzing public data. Research is also important for investors and analyzing a company’s strengths and weaknesses. Specialized journals and international information are valuable resources.
Broadly speaking, business research refers to any type of research done when starting or running any type of business. For example, starting any type of business requires researching your target customer and competition to create a business plan. Conducting market research in existing companies is helpful in staying in touch with consumer demand. Small business research begins with researching an idea and name and continues with research based on demand from customers and other businesses offering similar products or services. All business research is conducted to learn information that could make the business more effective.
Business research methods vary according to the size of the company and the type of information needed. For example, customer research may involve discovering both the customer’s feelings and experiences about using a product or service. The methods used to evaluate customer satisfaction can be questionnaires, interviews or seminars. Researching public data can provide companies with statistics on financial and educational information about customer demographics and product usage, such as the hours of television viewed weekly by people in a given geographic area. Search used for advertising purposes is common because marketing dollars must be spent carefully to increase sales and brand recognition from ads.
In addition to corporate market research and advertising research, research is done to provide information to investors. Business people are not likely to invest in a company or organization without adequate research and statistics to show them that their investment is likely to pay off. Researching large or small businesses can also help a company analyze its strengths and weaknesses by learning what customers are looking for in terms of the products or services the company offers. Then a business can use business research insights to adapt to better serve customers, outrun the competition, and have a better chance of staying in business.
Most industries have specialized journals that include research reports and statistics related to a certain type of business. International information is especially important for companies that have ties to other countries and need to learn more about other nations’ cultures and demographics. For example, International Business Research is a publication of the Canadian Center of Science and Education and includes business essays and academic editorials by business people from different parts of the world such as Australia, India and Malaysia.
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