MARKET RESEARCH

FIND FIND MARKET

CUSTOMERS ADVANTANGE

Use market research to find customers

Market research blends consumer behavior and economic trends to confirm and improve your business
idea. It’s crucial to understand your consumer base from the outset. Market research lets you reduce
risks even while your business is still just a gleam in your eye.

Gather demographic information to better understand opportunities and limitations for gaining
customers. This could include population data on age, wealth, family, interests, or anything else that’s
relevant to your business.

Then answer the following questions to get a good sense of your market:

o Demand: Is there a desire for your product or service?

o Market size: How many people would be interested in your offering?

o Economic indicators: What are the income range and employment rate?

o Location: Where do your customers live and where can your business reach?

o Market saturation: How many similar options are already available to consumers?

o Pricing: What do potential customers pay for these alternatives?

You’ll also want to keep up with the latest small business trends. It’s important to gain a sense of the
specific market share that will impact your profits.

You can do market research using existing sources, or you can do the research yourself and go direct to
consumers.

Existing sources can save you a lot of time and energy, but the information might not be as specific to
your audience as you’d like. Use it to answer general and quantifiable questions, like industry trends,
demographics, and household incomes.

Asking consumers can give you a nuanced understanding of your target audience. But, direct research
can be time-consuming and expensive. Use it to answer questions about your specific business or
customers, like reactions to your logo, improvements you could make to the buying experience, and
where customers might go instead of your business.

Here are a few methods you can use to do direct research:

 o Surveys

o Questionnaires

o Focus groups

o In-depth interviews

Use competitive analysis to find a market advantage

Competitive analysis helps you learn from businesses competing for your potential customers. This is
key to defining a competitive edge that creates sustainable revenue.

Your competitive analysis should identify your competition by product line or service and market
segment. Assess the following characteristics of the competitive landscape:

o Market share

o Strengths and weaknesses

o Your window of opportunity to enter the market

o The importance of your target market to your competitors

o Any barriers that may hinder you as you enter the market

o Indirect or secondary competitors who may impact your success

Technological Resources

Technology Resources mean any technologies that produce, manipulate, store, communicate, or
disseminate information. These resources include, but are not limited to, wired and wireless data, video,
and voice networks, computers for processing information, and other devices for storing and archiving
information.

Technology resources mean any computers, workstations, laptops, tablets, phones, servers, switches,
modems, routers, and/or any other hardware, software (local, hosted, or cloud-based, accounts, and
technology equipment, tools, or accessories.

Technology can be used to protect financial data, confidential executive decisions, and other proprietary
information that leads to competitive advantages. Simply put, technology helps businesses keep their
ideas away from their competition. Technology has important effects on business operations. No
matter the size of your enterprise, technology has both tangible and intangible benefits that will help
you make money and produce the results your customer’s demand. Technological infrastructure affects
the culture, efficiency, and relationships of a business. It also affects the security of confidential
information and trade advantages.

Capital resources
Capital resources are human-made resources used by a company to create goods and services. With
capital goods, companies can remain productive and keep serving their customers. A capital resource
can be equipment and machinery or even infrastructure. They’re a bit different from factors of
production. The latter refers to both human-made and natural resources.

Any tool or resource employed by a business in the production process of goods or services is

termed as a capital resource. It can vary from something as petty as a pen or a file cabinet to
something as substantial as heavy machinery. These resources help the productive activities of
a company. Capital resources are exploited in manufacturing and service companies both, for
their essential nature.

Here is a list of capital resources to help you get a better idea of what we’re talking about:

 Office buildings
 Production processes
 Tools
 Vehicles
 Manufacturing facilities
 Heavy machinery
 Proprietary software
 Inventory
 Cash flow

Examples

“Study Staples Co. is an academy that offers services in the educational field. It conducts physical classes
and distributes curriculum notes among the students. Considering the impact of COVID-19 and the
government-imposed SOPs, Study Staples Co. had to shut down the academy and shift to online
classes.”

The company has decided to purchase specialized devices (Mic, Laptops, Touchpads, Stylus pens, etc.) to
conduct smooth online classes. This investment will help Study Staples Co. in the provision of
educational services. All of these devices, being man-made and helpful in the provision of services,
qualify as Capital Resources.

“ABC Ltd. is a furniture manufacturing facility. It has two factories across the town, that refine and carve
wood into furniture. Lately, ABC Ltd. won two new contracts and resultantly fell short of enough
resources (factory space, wood-cutting machinery, etc.) to comply with the customer demands."

It orders to establish the new contracts; the company is planning to rent out a new factory and purchase
new machinery and all the required tools. All these resources being man-made and helpful in the
production of goods, qualify as Capital resources.