6 Rookie Mistakes To Avoid When You’re Doing Competitive Research

Updated October 6, 2023
By

Market research is a critical part of your strategy if you want your business to grow.

Now, who doesn’t want their business to grow?

Market research looks into the nuances of the needs of the customer, the competitors, and more. Proper market research and analysis can help remove any guesswork from your decisions. With the increase in digital and IT-related businesses, websites have become an integral part of business processes. The need for website analysis has become pertinent in that regard.

While proper market research can do wonders to the growth of your business, making mistakes in the method can also hamper its growth.

Below are six basic errors that often creep in when doing market research and you MUST avoid them.

  1. The first mistake that most people commit while doing business analysis is not asking the right questions. The basic questions that you wish to get answered are the key to the overall market analysis. These questions are the foundation of the market analysis. It is easy to find relevant information that loosely relates to the business domain and the industry. However, these may not be what you are expecting. You are not looking to find information about what your customers are looking for broadly or any such data hoping that you can stitch all this information together to get a detailed analysis.
  2. The reference material that you use for your analysis should be from a reputable source. Google can give you access to a lot of information, but many of the resources are not very accurate. These provide you with information that is often incorrect and nor can you gain from it. The basis of market research is upon the premises of statistics, which help you find the correct data sets that can reinforce your market analysis. There is a need to research your research material, to ensure that the data you are using is correct. Again, we often forget to check the dates of the data we are using. It can happen that the information is accurate, but it is from a much older period. Such dated information is never appropriate for your analysis; it may not be valid as of the current date. One more place where you can access much information and statistics that apply to your market analysis is from the local libraries. They can provide you licensed references for appropriate data, both offline and online.
  1. The data you get should be from the correct target group. The most common mistake that we often commit is choosing data from the wrong target group or demographics. This inaccurate data can put you in a spot of bother as you will keep using this information for further analysis. The incorrect data set will ultimately lead you to the wrong market analysis.
  2. Data sets are the key to provide you with information that is varied and most accurate. The more data sources you can refer to, the better. The need for multiple data sets arises from the fact that these help in smoothing out data gaps. These also help you find inconsistent data. When certain information is consistent over many data sources, you can conclude that the data is accurate. Market research is all about accurate and appropriate data. If you miss the right ones, you will miss the bus.
  3. The mistake that most business owners commit is building their research audience from friends and family. No, for proper market research, you have to look much beyond your friends and family. The people close to you will always want to support you and encourage you. The result of such market analyses is often biased. Concentrate on your potential customers and peers for objective market analysis.
  4. The last thing on this list and the most difficult to understand is your own bias. We all are biased in some way or the other. Our own opinions and our beliefs impact the way we analyze data. This can make us create false scenarios which we believe will be beneficial for the business. For a good businessman, it is important to identify and understand their own bias. Work on the bias and make sure to get over it. This is the only way you can ensure that the analysis is spot on.

Leave your comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.