Market research is especially difficult when the market you have to investigate is not known to you. Desk research is usually the technique chosen to get a first idea of what a market looks like (think about checking our series of aticles on market research secrets part 1, part 2 and part 3).
Where should you start your desk research? What are the information sources at your fingertips to start your market research right?
In this article we give you 4 hints to follow to help you out in your market research assignment.
Desk research Step 1 : get an idea of the competition
Like for many other assignments, market research is like a ball of wool. Once you have found one end, it’s much easier to deal with it.
The first step will consist in getting a first look into what the market looks like through the lenses of the competition; The rationale behind this first step is the following : competitors on a market try to serve identified needs. You need to understand those needs first if you want to differentiate afterwards.
So, where can you get a list of firms competing on a given market ? You could try Google but it will be fastidious to browse each site and find out whether it matches your market research goals. Instead try to identify a market fair, a professional event where such competitors are likely to attend. Believe it or not, there are fairs for everything and a list of exhibitors is always provided for potential visitors.
Just one example among many others : if you are in the food and drink sector, the SIAL fair takes place every 2 years. More than 6000 companies are present in all sectors and you can’t dream of a better starting point. Remember the metaphor of the ball of wool.
Desk research step 2: get acquainted with market offerings
Once you have identified a reasonable number of competitors on a given market, you are ready to analyze what they offer.
If you know nothing about their market, you should start by browsing the website without any given structured approach. The aim is to get acquainted with the offers. Opening several tabs in your browser at the same time, going back and forth, looking for technical words that may not be known to you, should be enough to get a good overview after a few hours.
The second part of this article is available here.
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Posted in Marketing.
