“Look before you leap” is generally good advice before you do anything new and different. Pursuing a new business opportunity or market segment is new and different enough to justify some proactive thinking before you dive in. It calls for a Market Research Strategy. I’ve framed this decision as “How will we gain insight into the needs of this market segment or opportunity?“.
The context for this decision within the Decision Driven® Strategy decision pattern is shown below. You may have a unique market research strategy for each target market, market segment or business opportunity that you pursue or you may develop a common strategy that spans multiple similar opportunities.
Market Research Strategy - Decision Context
You may outsource part of this effort, so there is a child decision that addresses the selection of your market research partners and their roles. Different research methods yield different types of information, so you may have another child decision that helps you identify the specific techniques that you will use as building blocks of your information gathering strategy. The alternatives in your overall market research strategy may be various combinations of these “Who” and “How” building blocks
Here is some criteria that you can use to help you evaluate various market research strategies:
Market Research Strategy - Criteria Pattern
Filed under: Decision Driven Strategy, Sample Decisions | Tagged: business opportunities, criteria, decision, decision pattern, look before you leap, market research, market research instruments, market research methods, market research strategy, market segments, new markets, proactive decision-making, value of information
