Need and Importance ofMarket Research forMedium Small and Micro Start-ups

Abstract

The critical input that would play a pivotal role in taking Indian Economy to still greater heights in the global markets would be the entrepreneurial mindset of its human resources. Further, it would be small and medium start-ups that would play a critical role in years to come. Opportunity identification needs to be backed-up with sound market research. In the present highly dynamic environment, it is essential for an entrepreneur and his team to undertake market research to handle and process information, so as to take far more informed decisions that would enhance their chances of long term survival and success.Market Research helps in avoiding making expensive mistakes by way of going in for an unpopular product or services that are not desired by prospective customers. Competitiveness revolves around continuous interactions between entrepreneurs and customers. Entrepreneurs as suppliers of goods and services compete against other suppliers of similar goods and services in a market by using available resources and capabilities to serve market needs better than their competitors. Their offerings take the form of product characteristics and features designed and developed to generate customer benefits that meet customer needs. A venture for its sustainable success has to identify unsatisfied market needs for which it can develop competencies and position itself so as to fill up unmet needs. Venture competitiveness is assumed to be a factor of the ability of a project to develop market competencies and to correctly position itself in the market as part of a continuing self-correcting process. Some of the simple tools and techniques that can be effectively utilized by small and medium start-ups are collection of qualitative information through focus groups, and undertaking quantitative studies through surveys on the internet. The internet could be a very effective tool to get a lot of insight about the target market. In this paper an attempt has been made to develop a model suitable for undertaking market research by small and medium start-ups.