Learning something new undoubtedly enriches you. When you acquire new information or skills, it is like making an investment in yourself that, obviously, is reflected in your business as well.
Following this principle and out of a desire to be closer to the business environment, we thought about sharing the experience and knowledge we have accumulated. We found the right environment to do this at Business Women Forum Romania (BWFR), alongside a group of young female entrepreneurs.
Corina Cimpoca, the founder of MKOR Consulting, held a workshop on the importance of market research for company performance, suggestively titled The wisdom of the crowd – Market study & my company’s performance.
The participants showed enthusiasm, proactivity, and critical thinking; a perfect mix that set the tone for the discussions and interactive exercises within the workshop.
The workshop was structured into two parts: an introductory presentation and an interactive exercise. The presentation included a description of MKOR and a short talk on the importance of market research. The interactive part included case studies on two market research projects that MKOR recently developed.
A first step was brainstorming with the audience about how market research is structured, how objectives are set based on what you want to find out, and what questions need to be formulated to obtain the necessary information.
Why does your business need a market study?
To answer this question, the entrepreneurs were challenged to take part in an exercise and put themselves in the shoes of a fashion designer or a travel agency business owner.
For some of the participants, this was not an exercise in imagination, but rather an applied exercise for their businesses operating in either the fashion or travel markets. This contributed to an unexpected balance between experienced entrepreneurs and those just starting out.
Whether your business is mature or still in its early stages, it can certainly benefit from a market study. In this case, to achieve our objectives, we used the questionnaire method.
Are you a fashionista or a travelista?
After receiving some tips on the structure and importance of the questionnaire, the group was divided into two teams with the mission of building a questionnaire relevant to the addressed market. Thus, the fashion market was addressed by the fashionistas team, and the travel market by the travelistas.
The exercise continued with the presentation of the results from the Romanian Online Fashion Market study, based on which the ladies present worked on how they could use the information to make strategic decisions.
The travelistas did the same, consulting the results of the tourism market study Summer Vacation 2017.
Any of these studies can be downloaded from the presentation page of our own studies, which can be accessed here.
Throughout this time, Corina offered tips on how those figures can gain meaning for a business.
Collecting information is important because it allows you to know the market, find out who your consumers are, and see what the competition looks like through the eyes of the customers.
What are your impressions of the workshop?
What do you think of the idea behind our workshop? Have you used a market study before? How much did it help you grow your business? We would love to hear your opinion.
If you have suggestions, curiosities, or need business advice, leave us a message here and we’ll discuss more over a coffee.
