Top 10 Tips for Start-Ups & Entrepreneurs and Business Growth

Keep Up With Your Audience

Identifying and understanding your target audience is the foundation of any successful business. During the introduction phase, wisdom suggests focusing on whatever manageable proportion of your target audience your budget allows. However, the focus should change during the growth phase. This means broadening your target audience and appealing to as many customers as possible. Market research helps you gather demographic information, preferences, and behaviours, enabling you to tailor your products and services to meet their needs.

Assess Market Demand

Before launching or relaunching a product, it’s vital to determine if there’s a demand for it. Conduct research surveys and focus groups and analyse industry reports to gauge interest and identify potential market opportunities. Our research shows that growing brands are often considered “worth paying more for” and “worth investing in” where there is social proof of concept. These elements increase demand, potentially driving consumers to pay a premium, buy company shares, or even generate interest in working for the company – massive rewards beyond the traditional scope of a ‘launch’.

Competitive Analysis

Understanding your competitors is critical to positioning your brand effectively. Market research allows you to analyse competitors’ strengths and weaknesses, uncovering opportunities to differentiate your business and identify potential threats. The advantage of regular competitor tracking research is that you can monitor movements more closely, identify early changes, and act when required (sooner rather than later). Imagine a new competitor launching a product with a disruptive advertising campaign. Consistent brand tracking could alert you to drops in consumer awareness or shifts in sentiment towards your brand or even a competitor. This allows you to analyse the situation and be agile with your brand strategy, minimising any long-term impact.

Trend Identification

New trends are constantly emerging and offer a simple way to keep your brand topical and moving forward. Staying ahead of market trends is crucial for long-term success. Regularly conducting market research helps you identify emerging trends and adjust your strategies accordingly, ensuring your business remains relevant and competitive. Some tech companies, for example, have struggled because they misplaced their trust in the wrong trends, such as Xerox believing the future was in copying machines or Kodak and Polaroid believing it was in film (rather than digital!). Finding ways to adapt and improve is vital for all businesses. However, by and large, these problems can be averted by understanding consumer needs and seeking out what is new and different.

Informed Decision-Making

Market research provides the data needed to make informed choices about product development, marketing strategies, and business expansion. Metrics are objective and reliable data for decision-making, and data-driven decisions are more likely to lead to success. Instead of relying on personal opinions, your choices can be based on concrete, measurable data, leading to a more informed and effective strategy. This can help you make decisions easier, allowing for a more rational approach to decision-making. In business, numbers often trump emotions. Spotify provides the music-tech industry with a wealth of insights by capturing data about a song’s playtime, what kind of device is streaming, and when it is played. Their ‘fans first’ initiative allows artists to identify and give their most dedicated fans access to special offers on concert tickets, merch and more.

Risk Mitigation

Launching a new product or entering a new market involves risks. Market research can identify potential challenges and allow you to develop strategies to mitigate them, reducing the likelihood of costly mistakes. People generally avoid risks, especially when it comes to spending money, growing a company, and launching new products and services, which are no exceptions to this rule. Let’s face it: innovation is costly and often risky. Most new products fail, with estimates ranging from a high of 80% to a more moderate 50%. Stagnation, remember, is the antithesis of innovation.

Customer Insights

Understanding customer behaviour and preferences can enhance your marketing efforts. Market research can reveal why customers choose your product over others and what influences their purchasing decisions, helping you refine your marketing messages. Momentum-based marketing needs to focus on customer acquisition and winning customers. Brand building is all about more people buying into what you’re doing. Therefore, the most essential step in building a brand is putting the customer at your business’s heart. Focus on understanding their wants and how you’ll deliver solutions. Your core objective should be making customers care about you. This will require allocating a significant chunk of your budget towards building awareness and telling your brand story.

Product Development

Customer feedback gathered through market research can guide your product development process. By understanding what features or improvements customers want, you can create products that better meet their needs and stand out in the market. It’s essential to emphasise brand distinctiveness and be clear about why people rationally or emotionally need your new product rather than solely attempting to raise brand awareness about the latest product/service.

Brand Positioning

Brands compete for the mind. Ultimately, how customers perceive your brand will determine the longevity of your company. Effective brand positioning requires a deep understanding of the market landscape. Market research helps you identify your brand’s unique value proposition and communicate it effectively to your target audience, enhancing brand recognition and loyalty.

Monitor Brand Momentum

Continuous market research is essential for tracking your brand’s performance and brand Momentum (for more on this, please check out my latest book, Brand Momentum, which will be available as an eBook in August). Regularly collecting and analysing data on brand awareness, customer satisfaction, and market share allows you to monitor progress and make necessary adjustments to maintain growth.

Follow Alex Brown and Vision One on LinkedIn for more marketing, branding, and market research insights and exclusive news about the imminent release of our CEO Tony Lewis’ new book, Brand Momentum.