Last updated on June 16th, 2023 at 11:08 am
Congratulations on finally pulling the trigger on that business idea. You can’t imagine how many people still hang on to whether they should or shouldn’t start a business. Now, I want to show you how to do market research in Kenya that will yield the results you want.
See, it is wise to do research before starting a business in Kenya. The last thing you want is pouring all of your savings, sweat, and tears on a venture and it tanks!
What is Market Research?
Market research is a process of gathering, analyzing, and interpreting data about the needs, wants, and behaviors of a market or target audience. It helps to identify the market trends and develop products that can meet those needs.
In fact, market research is typically used in the marketing and advertising industry. Marketers use market research to gather information about their target audience, including consumers’ demographics, psychographics, and behaviors.
They then use this information to establish targets for marketing campaigns in order to maximize their success.
Marketing researchers also study trends in marketing research and consumer behavior.
Yes, market research has been used for decades in the advertising business. Surveys and market research companies have been used to generate target audiences and demographics, which are then used to develop marketing campaigns that will be most effective.
While market research is typically used in business to help companies make decisions about their products or services, sometimes, it is also used by governments to understand the needs of their constituents and to design policies and programs.
Why do market research?
No doubt, marketing is a competitive industry where the best way to stay ahead of your competitors is to have a better understanding of what your customers want.
With that said, market research helps in understanding the needs and wants of your target audience by gathering information about their demographic, psychographic, and behavioral data.
For example, In order to provide high-quality content, marketers need to understand what their customers want. Market research helps them in understanding the needs and wants of their target audience by gathering information about their demographic, psychographic, and behavioral data.
With that in mind, the importance of market research cannot be overstated as it helps companies in understanding what makes people buy your products or services and why they buy them too.
This is an essential step towards creating a successful business model, which is why it is so essential for every business.
The importance of market research in Kenya can be seen in the following:
- The success rate for startups has been shown to increase by as much as 50% when market research is conducted properly.
- The cost of having a marketing budget increases by up to 40% when it’s done poorly or not at all.
- The number of times companies lose money when they fail to conduct proper market research before launching a product increases exponentially.
How to Conduct a Proper Market Research in 5 Steps
Market research is a vital part of every business. It helps in understanding your target audience and their needs. It helps businesses to identify opportunities and risks that they have in the market.
It is important to conduct proper market research for your business to ensure that you are not wasting time on something that doesn’t lead to success.
Follow these steps to conduct effective market research in Kenya;
1). Identify and formulate the problem or opportunity
This is an important first step in conducting market research. This includes a brief introduction to the market research
Market research can be conducted for many reasons like understanding a new market, identifying a problem, finding out what your customers want from you, etc.
This step can further be broken down into the following subsets:
- Marketing research problem: In order to decide what information is needed and how it can be obtained efficiently and effectively, you need to define what information is required.
- Marketing research objective: the marketing research problem should be written into the objective of this project, so the researcher must know what their goal is. The subject will also dictate how much specific information is needed to make an informed decision
- Management decision problem: Marketing research has been around for a while and is used by managers to take actions that are in the best interest of their businesses. It can help with decisions on problems that contain many important aspects.
2). Plan the research design and gather secondary data
The next step to conducting effective market research in Kenya is to create a plan. The plan should be in the form of a table with the following information:
The purpose of the study, what are you trying to find out? What are your hypotheses? What are your research questions? Who will be involved in the study?
This plan will also outline how you are going to conduct the market research project, what you need in order to complete it, how long it will take, and who is in charge of the project.
And then there is the secondary data.
Secondary data is collected from the user’s interactions with products and services. It can be collected through surveys, online questionnaires, or social media. This is the data you collect from external sources.
The data can be used to gain insights into customer behavior, which is important for market research. In fact, market research companies in Kenya are using secondary data to gain a better understanding of their customers and create more effective marketing strategies that will increase customer retention rates.
On the other hand, secondary data collection can also be used for qualitative and quantitative analysis.
Qualitative analysis uses the information gathered from interviews to get a better understanding of a specific problem or issue that is relevant to the company’s goals.
Quantitative analysis uses information from surveys and questionnaires to understand how many people have a specific opinion on an issue or product.
3). Collect primary data
Primary data is the first data collected in market research. It is the first step towards understanding what your target audience thinks, feels, and does which helps in developing a strategy for your product or service.
This type of data can be generated using a variety of methods such as surveys, interviews, focus groups, and ethnographic studies.
And is then analyzed to understand what are the key issues that need to be addressed by the company. This will help create an action plan for how to address these issues.
Primary data is gathered from the target market by conducting interviews, surveys, and focus groups. This data is used to see what their needs are and what their interests are. It also helps to understand how they think about certain topics or products.
4). Analyze the data
The first step in analyzing data after the market research in Kenya is to understand the data and its limitations. In order to do so, one should be familiar with the different types of data that are available for analysis. The following are the four most common types:
- Primary Data: This is raw data from a survey or interview done by a company or an outside agency hired by a company.
- Secondary Data: This is collected from other sources such as government databases, social media platforms, etc.
- Quasi-Primary Data: This is collected from surveys that have been conducted by companies themselves or external agencies hired by them.
As such, after market research, it is up to you to analyze the data. You will need a data analysis tool that can help you out with this. Some tools are more helpful than others, but all are useful in their own way.
What is the best way for marketers to analyze their data?
There are many ways for marketers to analyze their data and find insights from it. The most popular ways include:
- Data visualization: This allows marketers to explore complex relationships between different variables in a visual way usually using charts or graphs
- Statistical analysis: This allows marketers to create models that can predict the future behavior of their audience
- Analytic models: This allows marketers to create mathematical equations that can be used to find insights
- Software analytics: This allows marketers to measure how many times a particular piece of content was shared, liked on Facebook, or typed into Google searches.
Data visualization is a way for marketers to explore complex relationships between different variables in a visual way. Data visualization can include charts and graphs.
One popular example of data visualization is the use of pie charts or line graphs, which show how specific pieces of information are related to one another. Pie charts show the percentage of something such as purchasing power or population share of a country. Line graphs show how specific variables change over time.
5). Prepare and present the report
After conducting market research in Kenya and analyzing the data, now prepare and present a report. The report should be a combination of the market research findings and the insights gained from your own observations.
In order to prepare for your presentation, you should use a variety of tools. Tools like Google Slides and PowerPoint are useful because they allow you to present your data in an organized way. You can also use tools like Word, Excel, or Powerpoint to create graphs and charts that will help you present your findings in a clearer way.
The report should contain the following:
- A concise statement of the research objectives
- A brief explanation of research design
- Summary of major findings
- Conclusion with recommendations
What are the Best Marketing Research Tools And Websites in the Marketplace?
There are a lot of marketing research tools and websites in the marketplace. It is always important to choose the right tool for your needs.
The best free marketing research tools could be anything from social media monitoring, to analytics, to competitive intelligence. These tools provide you with insights into what people are saying about your brand and how you can improve it.
However, there are some platforms that provide market research without asking for your contact information, and this includes social media sites like Pinterest and LinkedIn.
These are useful as they give you an idea of what people are talking about with your company or brand. Knowing what people want can help determine how to make changes in order to remain relevant.
In particular, Facebook has been a great tool for market research and can give your company an idea of what people are talking about with your brand or company.
However, it is important to remember that this is not the same as conducting surveys. In order to get accurate results, you must ensure that you set up appropriate questions and filters. Additionally, you can use the SurveyMonkey platform to design surveys and get feedback from your customers.