What Is Market Research?
When your business is considering entering a new country, your first step should be market research. This involves finding out the needs of the local market and audience, understanding their buying habits and preferences, and evaluating how you can best meet their needs.
Market research provides a wealth of valuable information that can help you make well-informed decisions when it comes to product launches, marketing strategies, pricing models, distribution channels and more. It can help you identify potential areas of growth and potential opportunities that you may not have considered. Additionally, understanding how customers in the new country view your brand can give you an idea of what elements of your products or services they’ll find attractive.
In short, market research gives you a complete picture of the new country’s landscape allowing your business to make informed decisions on entering that region and navigating any cultural differences in order to optimize success.
Identifying Potential Customers with Market Research
When entering a new country, it’s important to know who your potential customers are and what their needs and wants are. Thankfully, market research can help you with that. By conducting market research, you can gain insight into the target market’s preferences and trends—which will give you a better chance of succeeding in that particular country.
Market research also allows you to figure out what competition may be present in the area, so you can make strategic decisions about how to set yourself apart from those competitors. Knowing who your competitors are and what strategies they use will give you an edge over them when it comes to capturing the local market.
Moreover, by carefully studying information around customer demographics, behaviors, expectations and more, you can make informed decisions about things like product pricing and positioning—both of which are critical when launching a new product in an international market. Lastly, by collecting real-time feedback from both customers and competitors through surveys and focus groups, you’ll be able to make well-informed decisions that increase the chances of success for your business in a foreign land.
Evaluating Competition and Pricing in a New Country
Knowing what your competition is up to and being able to price your product or service competitively in a new country can be the difference between success and failure. That’s where market research comes in. It can give you an understanding of the competitive landscape, the size of your potential market, and what pricing points will be most effective.
When it comes to evaluating competition, market research can give you an understanding of:
It can also provide insight into pricing in the local area, including information on taxes, tariffs, shipping costs and consumer spending power. With this information in hand, you’ll have a much better idea of how to price your product or service for maximum success without sacrificing your bottom line. If you need help entering a new market, contact our experienced research team.