Many successful new businesses enjoy longevity because their owners conduct regular market research to understand their target market, identify consumer problems and pinpoint realistic competitors. It’s the simplest way for any brand or business to keep up with market trends and maintain a competitive edge by sizing up your business opportunity.
Market research can and should be carried out at various stages of a business life cycle, from pre-launch and beyond. Having a greater understanding of your marketplace from the very start will enable you to create an effective strategy to establish and grow your brand into one that’s better than the competition.
Content is more than just something to read or watch. It needs to tell a story. It needs to encourage action. It must be relevant, valuable and memorable.
Most businesses will encounter at least three different types of customer. The right market research gives you the ability to understand how your target customers think and adapt to their needs in order to convert them into regular customers and brand advocates.
A great example of this would be our work with Access Self Storage, who needed to enhance their marketing approach, starting with an improved understanding of their customers and how to target them effectively. VI was commissioned to undertake research into why customers use storage and define the key drivers to purchase. A set of bespoke illustrations were created for each customer persona and used to target key audiences through campaign activity and staff training.
The most straightforward way to learn more about your audience: asking them questions. It doesn’t take very much time or effort to create and launch a survey, especially with modern tools such as SurveyMonkey. Anything that you want to know about your target audience, can be put into a question format and submitted to your social followers and email subscribers. From there, you can quantify the results and walk away with all the insights you ever wanted. The only consideration is that you may have to incentivise participation with a prize or reward.
Marketing today is a complicated mix of multiple channels, competitors and audiences. Knowing where and how to be seen is key to a successful strategy. At VI we work closely with our clients to understand their target market and customers. We use a mix of quantitative and qualitative methodologies to deliver the best possible results. We always ‘go the extra mile’ in terms of analysis and recommendations and fully immerse ourselves in every project.
On the face of it – Marketing is complicated, with multiple channels, competitors and audiences to compete with. At VI, we work with you to understand your market, challenge you and work with you to decipher what you are trying to achieve as a business. We then develop the best-fit strategy for your audience and produce relevant messages and media to support your campaigns.
Outsourcing your marketing requirements to Visual Identity, whether on a project basis or as an annual marketing service gives you access to expert marketers without permanently adding to your staff headcount and costs. Want to work with us? Get in touch!
