Importance of Market Research in Product Development

You have a great product idea and think it’s great for others. However, it’s only the case with some. When you launch your product in the market, others raise their eyebrows. With market research, you can convince investors and win the target audience’s trust. So, you must put all your efforts into effective market research in product development.

Let’s dive into this blog to learn what market research in product development is and its importance. 

What is Market Research in Product Development? 

Market research for a new product development means doing end-to-end research about consumers’ desires, market needs and evaluating the success of your product in the market.  

But market research is more than that. When it comes to identifying market trends and knowing your customers at the deepest level, market research is an answer for you. 

Market research involves knowing about your ideal customers by gathering information about target demographics and consumers so that the business can market its products/services effectively. 

Doing market research helps businesses to research market viability, estimate the demand for the product, and identify what features your target customers are looking for.  

Then, you make informed business decisions about the product’s positioning, setting the price of the product, and marketing your product to the target audience. 

Whether you are a startup or a top-notch brand, your ultimate objective is to make your product successful. Research studies suggest that businesses that conduct market research and understand their customer base are 60% more profitable.

Thus, market research is a blessing for your business as it brings your product idea to life. 

With the help of market research, you can fine-tune your product development by gaining various aspects, such as – what price and type of message sticks with them or what marketing channels would most likely work.

Read Also- Outsourced Product Development For Startups

Relationship Between Market Research and Product Development 

Market research for new product development establishes the viability of a product because it provides an overview to businesses about whether the market is open to a product or not, whether there is a need for a product in the market or not. 

Every company wants to launch new products to attract more customers. What if your product doesn’t turn out to be a game-changer? In such a case, you must conduct effective market research to find the right product market fit. 

This is where market research revolutionizes your product development game. So, before launching a product in the market, marketers and researchers analyze whether there is a need for a product in the market or not and what problems it can solve. 

• Doing effective competitor research helps your product development team to co-create marketing documents. It gives a fair idea about what improvements your existing products need etc. 
• Using market research for product development helps you identify the needs and requirements of your target audience. If anything is missed out, it could lead product development on the wrong trajectory, resulting in wastage of time and resources. 

In addition, gut checks are required to ensure that your product development team is going in the right direction and meeting all levels of consumer demand. 

With market research for product development, you get access to qualitative and quantitative data that helps you determine how many people are interested in your product/service, how much they are willing to spend on this product, etc. 

Properly conducted research helps your product development team get valuable insights about your customers’ needs and pain points. 

Lastly, another task of doing market research is to analyze the longevity of a product.

Importance of Market Research in Product Development

Market research in product development is crucial in assessing whether your new product idea is worth it. You can conduct market research in various ways- 

• By keeping a close eye on your competitor products, you can optimize your existing products  
• Dig deeper to read online reviews on your competitor sites and discover what features your customers want. 

Thus, market research means listening to your customers and hoping on market trends.  

You can become a frontrunner in making your product successful when you step outside your organization and ask your target audience about their affordability. 

More importantly, you cannot launch your product by connecting with designers and developers. Your business will become turmoil if you focus less on customer needs and wants and are more inclined towards what you want to deliver. 

So, when done right, market research makes the product shinier and stronger and helps you formulate an effective marketing and sales strategy. As a result, it puts your products in and turns those followers into loyal fans. 

Just talk to them aka your customers, and you’ll get an answer.

“It is never about your product; it’s only and only about your customers”.

Market research is important for product development because of the following reasons-

1. Determines The Need 

Market research for new product development is important to determine whether there is an actual need for the product. Through effective market research, you learn that customers won’t need such a product, or there is no demand in the market. 

2. Finding Points of Improvement 

By researching similar products/ solutions, you will not only determine the need for a product, but also you will get ways to alter the prototype to suit the target market. 

For Instance – By reading competitor reviews, you’ll get an idea about what your target audience likes, what they don’t like about the product, what things are lacking, and what needs to be improved. 

So, market research and product development go hand in hand.  

3. Formulate Marketing Strategies 

When you conduct pre-launch market research, you get various insights on how to adapt your product as per your target customers and later on decide how to advertise your product.  

By doing market research effectively, you know how to sell your products, what works for your target audience, and what not to do and frame your marketing strategies accordingly. 

Benefits of Market Research For Product Development

Here are the benefits of market research for product development- 

1. Minimize Business Risks 

You can reduce the potential business risk once you know your product inside out. As you know, product development is an expensive and time-consuming process. Investing in those products your target audience doesn’t need leads to the failure of your business. 

In such a case, you need to do adequate market research to find out the actual needs of your customers and then come up with the perfect product market fit. 

2. It Helps You in Launching The Right Products 

You can build a successful empire once you do effective market research. Through market research, you know what your customers need, what they want, and when they want. 

3. Facilitates Effective Marketing

With the help of market research, you can formulate marketing strategies that contribute to developing successful products, such as segmenting customers, mapping their needs, etc.  

4. Provides a Competitive Edge

In-depth market research is important for you to leverage new opportunities or tap those market segments which competitors do not yet cover. 

So, researching about the market conditions before creating a product helps you gain a competitive advantage in that niche. 

To Sum Up

Developing new products can take your business to the next level. But you won’t launch new products mindlessly to attract more customers and stand out from competitors. 

After all, you want to avoid a situation when you would launch a product in the market, and no one likes to spend on it. 

Need help with full-scale product development services? Then, we are here to help you at each stage of product development, from product ideation to testing the product and finding the right product market fit. 

At BigOhTech, we have a dedicated team of experienced professionals with 13+ years of expertise and helping startups transform their businesses with our product development services.