Marketing research involves collecting, recording, analyzing, and interpreting data relevant to the desired business. Through empirical statistics, the entrepreneur can understand consumer behavior relative to the brand, demand, competitors, and other external factors affecting business. In her article, Shaw (2022) states that there is a significant difference between the domestic and international markets. She provides some of the challenges an entrepreneur should know when considering internationalization, including different cultures, heightened risk, high competition, and the difference in infrastructure, legalities, and partnerships. The implication is that more diverse research is needed before internationalization. Google Trends, Statista, and Google Dataset search are helpful tools that provide product information. Although there are many marketing research tools, it is vital to assess multiple sources for comparison and to get a wide range of information.
There are multiple kinds of information that the marketing research sites provide. For example, when searching for baby formula, statistics revealed that its global food market is forecasted to be 86.3bn USD, the revenue in America is 6.93bn USD, and the gluten-free is 447.6m USD (Statista, 2022). In addition, there is the import and export value of the baby food market in the Google Data Set Search tool. Statista provides other content on revenue growth, retail and online sales, and consumer behavior.
Noteworthy, each of the tools provides a distinct set of information that is useful to entrepreneurs. As the name suggests, Statista mostly provides statistical data, which may include the number of people, the revenue, and the forecast. The Google Trends is mostly about consumer behavior and how it has changed over time. A search through the Google Data Set tool reveals different studies that have been done on the topic. Thus, each tool provides various types of information, and having a blend from each site ensures that entrepreneurs have all-around knowledge.
The Statista tool is ideal for determining the market with the greatest need for baby formula. The rationale is that it provides statistics on revenues, consumers, and forecasts. For instance, it showed that retail sales in the baby food market are projected to grow to 98.9 billion US dollars in 2024, up from 71.4 billion in 2018 (Statista, 2022). The data provides objective information on the current sales and that of future besides giving details on the competitors. The implication is that it helps to analyze whether the market is saturated or there is potential for new customer segments.
It is vital to utilize multiple tools as they give differing information, and when the data sets are similar, it becomes easy to make a comparison. For instance, one may notice variance in the forecasting of the consumer market. This can provoke additional searches to determine the validity and reliability of the data. Moreover, a person can calculate the mean from all the sources to get the most accurate data. Using multiple data sets allows the businessman to see similarities and differences from the tools and determine the more accurate information. In addition, some of the information may be lacking in one tool but present in the other. As Shaw (2022) indicated, there are several aspects of the market, including legal matters, language, and costs, that the entrepreneur should evaluate. Finding all the information is only possible when using multiple search tools.
In conclusion, entering a domestic or international market without empirical research sets one up for failure. Understanding consumer behavior, trends, external challenges, and other factors that may impact the business is vital. Great online tools such as Statista, Google Trends, and Google Data Set provide some needed information. Using several tools to get an accurate blend of data before launching the business is best. Thus, the success of any product is highly dependent on the accuracy and thoroughness of the research.
References
Shaw, J. (2022). The 8 major differences between domestic and international market research. Kadence. Web.
Statista. (2022). Topic: Baby food market in the U.S 2021. Web.