Research - Base of Successful Business

When it comes to running a successful business, information is power. The best way to gain information is through organized research. A competent business owner will know what areas to do research in to gain the most relevant and useful information for his business. The process of founding a business starts with research into the feasibility of the idea.

1. Research Before Startup

   When an entrepreneur first has an idea, he needs to begin with research into the market he is considering. Often, research reveals that the business idea would not be feasible, either because of an excess of competition or lack of a market. In this case, good research saves a business person money rather than making him money, by preventing him from entering into a venture that didn't have good prospects. If research does reveal good prospects, it can then provide further information about optimum times, locations and conditions under which to found the business.
   

   Market Research

   Market research is the lifeblood of many businesses. Because so many businesses function with a very narrow profit margin, they can't afford to engage in advertising, marketing or product development in fields that won't show a profit. Market research allows businesses to focus their resources in areas that will show a return. Market research may consist of focus groups, test products that are released within limited markets or public polls about product preferences. Companies also can learn a great deal by researching their own prior business records and learning lessons from their own successes and failures.
   

   Competition Research

   In order to succeed, any business needs to provide a product or service that is as good as or better than its competition, and at the same or lower price. To do this, a business needs to know what its competition is doing and how it is doing it. This type of research can range from buying and examining the competition's products all the way to legally gray areas involving corporate espionage. Corporate responses to this research can include improving its own products, pulling out of a certain market because it doesn't feel it can compete, or attempting to take over the competition through a merger or acquisition.
   

   Research and Development

   One of the most important areas of research in which business engages is in the development of new products. Depending on what field a particular business is in, products can range from the sublime to the ridiculous. Some businesses research improvements to human necessities, such as food, clothing and shelter, while others apply research methods to developing the latest profitable craze, such as hula hoops or iPods.There is at times a thin line between research devoted to fulfilling human needs and research devoted to creating new ones.

Effective Marketing Plan

What makes a good marketing plan? You can measure it by the decisions that follow, the business it generates and how well it’s implemented. A brilliant marketing plan that is not executed is worth much less than a mediocre marketing plan that’s carried out.

The plan’s value is in the success of the business. Within this general framework, successful marketing plans have several key elements. I’ll use examples from the restaurant business because it’s familiar to most people.

1. Market focus

“I don’t know the secret to success, but I do know that the secret to failure is trying to please everybody,” said Bill Cosby. Good marketing plans define target markets narrowly. A restaurant’s target market might be families, couples, baby boomers, teenagers, children, date nights, busy and rushed working people, or some combination.

You won’t find a restaurant that works for a baby boomer couple’s night out also working for families with small children. Choose. Divide and conquer.

2. Product focus

Product focus matches market focus. If you want baby boomers’ date nights, then serve good food. If you want families with kids, then serve food quickly, make the menu items relatively cheap and, of course, the food has to be safe.

Sushi doesn’t sell on price. Drive-through windows don’t deliver fast food.

3. Concrete, measurable specifics

A good marketing plan is full of dates and details. Strategy probably drives a good plan, but tactics, programs and details make the difference. As much as possible, the plan has to tie results back to activities and come up with hard numbers to measure those results.

A restaurant cannot have vague goals like having the best-tasting food. It needs specifics that are related to marketing message, insertions, posts, tweets, dinners served, return visits, members of the e-mail list, reviews, stars and so forth.

The key is to take a plan and think ahead about how you’ll know whether it was implemented. Will you be able to tell?

4. Responsibility and accountability

Groups and committees get little done. Assign every part of a marketing plan to a specific person. Measure the results of every task and be sure a person is responsible for it. Peer pressure is important: The people executing the plan have to be accountable for measurable results. Failure has to hurt, and achievement has to be rewarded.

An old joke: How do you see involvement vs. commitment in a bacon-and-egg breakfast? Answer: The chicken is involved, but the pig is committed. A good marketing plan needs commitment, not just involvement.

5. Reviews and revisions

Every successful marketing plan is actually a planning process, not just a plan. Things change too fast for static plans. A good marketing plan is part of a process that involves setting goals, measuring results and tracking performance. It entails regular review and revision.
If the group running the marketing plan isn’t meeting once a month to compare the plan with actual results and make course corrections, there is no marketing plan.