Gaining information about your market and industry is central to developing and updating strategies for all aspects of marketing.  Research needs to be both comprehensive and ongoing if a company is going to stay on the cutting edge of cultural, sociological, economic and technological trends.

There are several ways to attain the information needed to continually evaluate and revise strategic marketing that ultimately impacts a company’s ability to maintain or gain market share.  Depending on the size of the business it may be possible to employ staff whose responsibilities include this important function.  Another option is to contract experts to have reports, studies and analysis provided in regular intervals.

DIY

Although most business owners and managers are occupied with myriad responsibilities above and beyond management of marketing issues, they can often be the best individuals to conduct marketing research.  Their understanding of company cultures, operation histories and existing customer bases can provide valuable foundations for assessing new information.  Thus, market data and trends can be assimilated into strategy formulations on the basis of relative background considerations.

The keys to this do-it-yourself approach are to make the time necessary to attack the associated tasks consistently, utilizing convenient and accessible resources, and acquiring the necessary help in evaluating and implementing potential marketing alternatives and refinements.

Information is available on the internet in abundance and it can be accessed at any time.  If an owner or manager were to dedicate an average of one hour per day to “surfing the web”, a lot of resources could be located in a relatively short period of time.  Once resources have been noted they can be exploited by consistently reviewing their content and related links.

Resource Types and Organization

Blogs, directories, message boards and association web sites are examples of the type of web sites where information can be obtained.  The explosion of web sites on the internet has resulted in readily available news, data and background about private and government studies, competitor operations, consumer preferences, lists of all types, analysis of trends and projections, and potential research providers.

In fact, so much information is available on the internet that unless researchers properly organize bookmarks and downloads, it is difficult to sift and evaluate it all.  It is easy to find resources only to forget about or misplace them as bookmarks and files pile up.

I have had great success at maximizing research utility by outlining the organization of bookmarks and file folders before I embark upon surfing activities.  I anticipate categories of information depending on the objective of my research and create appropriate folders in which to place everything useful that I encounter.  Depending on the depth of the research I am conducting I will create more than one folder for each category of information with codes that prioritize the immediacy of follow-up and current needs.

I also find that there are effective tools for organizing information that are better than the basic programming that comes with basic operating systems and browsers.  For example, del.icio.us is an excellent online tool for categorizing and labeling bookmarks that allows me to add descriptions and search for web sites based on key words.  Google Desktop is a superior search tool to the “find” function in MS Windows file explorer which makes accessing resident files much simpler.

It is likely that once owners and managers have developed expansive information sources and a solid comprehensive of the market issues they have explored that they do not have the skill sets or time necessary to implement strategies and action items.  Regardless of those subsequent limitations the effort spent to understand their market, industry and buying trends will have a profoundly positive impact on the work to be contracted and its cost to their companies.

Knowledge is power.  In this case the power is the ability to quickly select appropriate service providers (or even employees) and task them with activities that owners and managers know will most likely generate the greatest returns on their investments in marketing initiatives.

Related columns:  Market Research Information – Right Under Your Nose

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