Consumer Research

By Arthur Orchid

If like many people one of your dream is to become your own boss, start finding your 10 first customers !

One of the hardest things about seeing a business grow up is keeping up with the changes in consumer research. You see, when you are a small businessman, your gut is often all you need. You've never employed a consumer research firm, never tracked consumer responses to your product, never did a consumer market study, and never hired any marketing and branding consultants.

You have a good idea, a good brand name, and good people working for you. That is really all you needed. It honestly shouldn't take you longer than necessary to get around to hiring a consumer research center. You see, all of you instincts are against it. After all, it is your own decisions to make with your own sharp instincts this company built this far. Surely it didn't make sense to surrender any of that autonomy to outside consultants?

Still, when you see your sales and growth starts stagnate, you're convinced that it was true – you need to hire some consumer researchers and you need to fast. Otherwise, you would let your pride limit your own success – something that you had never wanted to do. Consumer market research is actually a much more complicated business than you ever could have anticipated.
Like most people, you have always assumed the consumer research was a pretty simple affair.

Being humble enough to realize you were wrong is already a success in your business.
Success is not always earning more cash! You assumed that all it involved was focus groups, and that these focus groups were pretty easy to design. Hiring a firm, however, you'll gain new respect for consumer research. They really do a very difficult job, and they do it very well.

Consumer research is basically about predicting every aspect of consumer response to a product. These are serious research professionals, some of them with advanced degrees in fields relating to human psychology. This is obviously the kind of things you can't guess or invent.

In such cases, there are 2 options:

1. you know
2. you ignore
   

They will measure how consumers will react to your brand, to specific products, to product innovations, and to changes in marketing and advertising. It is a really tough job, and they do it exceptionally well. Of course,Selecting the right consumer research firm can be very tough.
Are you lucky enough to have a friend who could direct you to his consumer research Corp.?

Research consumer firms are skilled at spinning things – that is one their specialties – so all of them will look good from the outside. Finding the right one for your company can be quite a difficult task.

To Your Success!