Biased marketing research is something that every business owner has to contend with at some point. It’s easy enough to avoid in developed markets, but emerging markets are a different story entirely.
How can you navigate the waters of biased marketing research and emerge with a clear picture of your global brand? Here’s how:
Practice Mindfulness
Be aware of your surroundings. Before you begin to collect data, take time to notice the environment where you are conducting your research. If possible, have a new set of eyes look at this space from an unbiased perspective.
Be aware of your own thoughts and feelings. As you ask questions and observe the reactions of participants during your study, be mindful of how these interactions may affect you personally.
Are you feeling more engaged or less connected with certain segments? This is often an indication that there might be some bias in play!
Be aware of your own biases as well as those of others involved in the research process:
Be Aware Of Your Time
It’s important to be aware of your time. Many tasks need to be done in marketing research, but you don’t always have the time to do them all. You need to prioritize what is most important for your business and how much time you can devote to each task.
It’s also important to make sure that the people who are researching for you have the right skills and knowledge needed for it.
For example, if they’re good at analyzing data but not so good at talking with customers then they won’t be able to get as much information out of interviews as they could otherwise.
Account For The Emerging Market Niche
If you’re looking for a good place to start with market research, consider emerging markets. These are growing areas that may not yet have established marketing strategies or consumer behaviors.
You can use this niche as an opportunity to test new products and services without the risk of impacting larger markets.
Additionally, you’ll be able to track how customers respond to your product or service through online reviews, surveys, and other feedback methods allowing you to enhance your marketing efforts in the future based on what works best for this specific region.
Focus On The Long Run
The first step in avoiding biased research is to think about the long-term benefits of your marketing research. Don’t just look at your current goal and strategy, but look further into the future when you’ll be able to see how your marketing efforts are working out.
If you’re planning a new product launch, consider how that product will affect sales and customer retention over time.
If there’s something wrong with your existing strategy, try to identify what needs fixing as soon as possible so you can fix it before it becomes too costly or damaging.
Consider not only the immediate effects of any change but also its long-term impact on other parts of the business and even beyond that!
For example: if a company starts using social media instead of traditional advertising methods like print ads or TV commercials because social media allows them greater control over their message and brand image than traditional forms do…
Then maybe someday soon everyone will have access to those same tools?!
Differentiate Between The Terms “Product” And “Service”
The first step to avoiding biased research is to differentiate between the terms “product” and “service.” A product is a physical item that you can purchase in a store. A service is intangible, and it’s not something you’d buy at a store.
A service provides value to your customers in exchange for payment or other compensation, whereas a product creates value for your customers by offering them something they want and then some.
There are many differences between services and products:
Demand Quality, Not Quantity
If you’re looking for quality research, don’t settle for quantity. A good marketing research project will take time and money. It’s better to invest in one well-executed study than rushing through four or five half-baked ones that don’t provide you with any real insights.
As a general rule, the more information you have at your disposal regarding a particular audience, the better off you’ll be when it comes time to reach out to them.
But if your budget is limited (and especially if it’s very limited), consider using an online panel rather than traditional surveys or phone interviews; these are generally cheaper and faster than other methods of collecting data (and they often yield comparable results).
If all else fails, be sure to ask yourself whether your marketing goals could be achieved without conducting any market research at all:
Sometimes there are ways around doing expensive research when simply knowing how customers feel about something will suffice or even just asking them directly!
Work With An Experienced Solutions Provider That Provides 360-Degree Support And Services
When choosing a provider, you should be sure they can provide all the services your business needs. If you are new to marketing research and data collection, your provider must be able to give you all of the training and support needed for success in this area.
A good research firm should also be able to offer more than just traditional quantitative data collection methods.
If a company is providing an effective 360-degree solution for your brand, then they may also have experience collecting qualitative data such as focus groups or interviews.
This will allow them to provide a more complete picture of how consumers feel about certain products or services before investing time and money into developing them further down the line.
Relate Your Brand To Your Customers’ Lives
You need to understand what makes your customers tick. This is much more than just understanding their demographic and psychographic profiles.
You need to walk in their shoes and live in the world they live in, so you can truly understand the problems they face and how you can help them solve them.
You also have to understand what they think about you, your brand, or even the category of products or services that you offer (if it’s not a B2C). They may love or hate something about your offering or they may have no opinion at all!
Understanding these opinions will help determine where to spend marketing budget dollars on paid advertising channels like Facebook and Google Ads as well as content marketing budgets on blogs/websites/social media channels.
Like LinkedIn Pulse articles or Twitter tweets with links back up into blog posts containing useful information for people interested in purchasing products within this category.
Consider The Demographic Niche In Which You Operate
There are several reasons to consider the demographic niche in which you operate when conducting marketing research. First, different regions, regions within a country, and even neighborhoods within a city all have unique demographics.
Some locations are more populated than others, while others may have more retirees or higher incomes than average.
Demographic differences can also be seen on smaller scales: streets, blocks and even individual buildings may have varying populations that impact how they respond to various marketing strategies or products.
Marketers need to consider these differences as they conduct market research for their products/services because it will tell them what kind of people are most likely to purchase their product/service based on where they live and work. \
Knowing this information will help them determine where best to spend their advertising dollars so that they can reach out most effectively to those who would most benefit from using their product/service
Appeal To A Global Customer Base Without Selling Out
There’s no way you can please everyone.
But there are ways to create a balance between local and global. For example, if you’re working on a project for the US market.
If your company is based in Canada, then you have a unique opportunity to appeal to both markets at once by taking advantage of shared language and culture.
That said…you need to know how far your brand can go before it starts losing relevance or credibility. This is where understanding your customers comes in: what do they want? How should we talk about our product? What kind of tone will resonate with them?
Will we offend them if we use slang or colloquialisms that aren’t widely used outside North America? These are questions that will inform how we conduct marketing research and develop messaging going forward.
And while they may seem obvious now (or maybe even obvious when reading this), sometimes it helps put things into perspective when someone else spells out why something might not work as well as expected!
Be Aware Of Your Capabilities And Limitations As A Business Owner
Before you begin any sort of marketing research, it’s important to understand what you can and cannot do. As a business owner, you should be aware of your strengths and weaknesses as well as the goals of your company.
- Who is your target audience?
- What are their needs?
- Are they looking for products like yours? If so, why? What differentiates your product from others on the market today that might be better suited for their needs or tastes?
You may have a great idea but if no one knows about it or they aren’t interested in it because there are other options out there that provide more value than yours would ever be able to bring then there is no point continuing with this project at all!
Pay Close Attention To What Your Customers Want/Need
As a marketer, you are the most important person in your organization. You are responsible for ensuring that your company has the right products and services to meet its customers’ needs. To do that, however, you must know what those needs are.
And while it might seem like there is no better way to find out than directly asking customers what they want, there is a fine line between learning what customers say they want and leading them into the answers you want to hear.
This is why it’s so important to conduct unbiased research before focusing on any particular product or service features so that bias doesn’t get in the way of finding out what customers need and want from your business.
Prioritize Customer Feedback At All Times
Customer feedback is the most important tool in the marketer’s toolkit. You can have all the fancy technology and data analytics at your fingertips, but none of that matters if you don’t know what your customers want or need.
Listening to customers doesn’t just mean hearing them; it means understanding them. When you prioritize customer feedback at all times, not only do you develop stronger products and services for them.
But you gain better insight into who they are and what makes them tick as individual people not just as an anonymous member of a large group.
This helps you improve your marketing campaigns by creating experiences that speak directly to each person’s unique needs and interests.
Staying Mindful Helps You Avoid Biased Marketing Research
When you’re mindful, you’ll be more aware of what’s going on around you. That can help you avoid biased marketing research because if you’re not focused on the task at hand, it’s easy to miss important details.
When we’re distracted or preoccupied with other thoughts, we’re less likely to pay attention to the people and things around us. This happens all the time even when we don’t think it does!
For example, You’re riding in a car with your parents and one of them starts talking about how much they love their new car stereo system.
While they continue talking about how great it sounds (and how much better it sounds than any other car stereo system), your mind drifts away from this conversation because your mom has been talking about this for days now (or maybe even weeks). What happened?
Your mom was sharing her passion for music with her husband but he wasn’t listening! Instead of offering encouragement or feedback about how awesome his wife is for being such an audiophile (and connoisseur) of high-quality sound systems…he tuned out!
So next time someone tells us something important or tries to share their excitement/enthusiasm/passion towards something…pay attention!
Conclusion
We are aware of the fact that marketing is a dynamic and constantly evolving process. You need to be up-to-date with all the latest trends to stay on top of your game.
However, it’s also important to keep in mind that you should avoid biased marketing research if you want to see results.
You may be tempted to make decisions based on what your competitors are doing, but this will not necessarily lead to favorable outcomes for your company.
Instead, focus on what works best for your business goals and remember that sometimes it’s better off-take risks than be safe
Costantine Edward is a digital marketing expert, freelance writer, and entrepreneur who helps people attain financial freedom. I’ve been working in marketing since I was 18 years old and have managed to build a successful career doing what I love.