Industrial market research is a service that provides market information, insight and advice to industrial enterprises, which can help enterprises understand the market demand, competitive situation, customer satisfaction and loyalty, so as to formulate more effective marketing strategies and enhance the value of products or services. This article introduces the main methods and steps of industrial market research, focusing on how to collect and analyze customer opinions, and how to give feedback and evaluation based on the research results. This paper also shows the practical application and effect of industrial market research combined with the specific case of industrial market research service provided by Shang Pu Consulting Company for its clients.

Industrial market research is a market research and analysis service specifically for industrial enterprises. It is different from consumer market research because the industrial market is characterized by the complexity, technology, customization and high value of products or services, as well as the small number, specialization and long-term nature of customers. Therefore, industrial market research requires a deeper understanding of customers' needs, preferences, decision-making processes and evaluation criteria, as well as competitors' strengths, weaknesses, strategies and behaviors. Industrial market research can help companies obtain information on:

Market size, structure, trends and forecasts;

customer segmentation, characteristics, behaviors and motivations;

customer satisfaction, loyalty, conversion and retention rates;

Customer needs, expectations, perceptions and evaluations of products or services;

strengths, weaknesses, differentiation and competitiveness of the product or service;

the share, position, strategy and actions of competitors;

Market opportunities, threats, challenges and risks.

Industrial market research usually uses the following methods:

Desktop research: the use of existing data and information sources, such as industry reports, statistics, professional journals, network resources, etc., for systematic collection, collation and analysis;

In-depth interviews: conduct one-on-one communication with target customers or related people through telephone or face-to-face to obtain their opinions, feelings and suggestions;

Focus groups: inviting a group6To10Participate in a moderator-led seminar to discuss one or more topics or issues;

Questionnaire: Send a series of questions to target customers or related people by mail, telephone or network to collect their answers and feedback;

Observation: By directly or indirectly observing the behavior, environment and interaction of target customers or related people, we can understand their actual situation and needs.

The general steps of industrial market research are as follows:

Identify research objectives and questions: identify the questions to be solved or objectives to be achieved, as well as questions or hypotheses to be answered;

Design research programs and tools: select appropriate research methods and samples, develop research plans and timetables, prepare interview outlines, questionnaires or observation guidelines;

Collect data and information: according to the research plan and tools, conduct desktop research, in-depth interviews, focus groups, questionnaires or observation methods to collect data and information;

Analysis of data and information: clean up, organize, classify, code, count, summarize and interpret the collected data and information, and find out the laws, relationships, differences and influencing factors;

Report writing and recommendations: Based on the results of the analysis, a research report is written, summarizing the main findings, conclusions and implications, and making specific recommendations and action plans.

This article will focus on how to collect and analyze customer opinions in industrial market research, and how to provide feedback and evaluation based on research results.

Gather customer comments

Customer opinion refers to the customer's views, feelings and feedback on the needs, expectations, perceptions and evaluations of a product or service. Collecting customer opinions is an important part of industrial market research. It can help companies understand the real needs and satisfaction of customers, evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of products or services, discover market opportunities and room for improvement, and enhance customer loyalty and reputation. The main methods of collecting customer opinions are as follows:

In-depth interviews: one-on-one communication with target customers over the phone or face-to-face to obtain detailed information about their needs, expectations, perceptions and evaluations of products or services. In-depth interviews can yield deeper, truer, and richer customer opinions, but they take more time, cost, and labor, and are difficult to quantify and compare.

Questionnaire: A series of questions sent to target customers by mail, phone or network to collect simple information about their needs, expectations, perceptions and evaluations of products or services. Questionnaires can get more extensive, faster and cheaper customer opinions, but they may lack depth, authenticity and details, and are easily affected by factors such as questionnaire design and response methods.

Online reviews: Collect public comments on products or services from target customers or related parties through online platforms such as search engines, social media, and professional websites. Online reviews can get more diverse, more natural and more immediate customer opinions, but there may be problems such as different quality, unknown source, difficult to verify, and need to be screened, classified and analyzed.

No matter which method is used to collect customer opinions, the following points need to be paid attention:

Clear collection objectives: according to the research objectives and problems, determine which aspects of customer opinions to collect, such as demand analysis, satisfaction survey, competition evaluation, etc;

Select the appropriate sample: according to the characteristics of the product or service and market conditions, select the appropriate number and type of target customers, such as existing customers, potential customers, competitors' customers, etc;

Design effective questions: according to the collection objectives and methods, design appropriate questions, such as open questions, closed questions, scoring questions, sorting questions, etc., to avoid guidance, ambiguity, bias and other issues;

Ensure data quality: through appropriate incentives, reminders, follow-up, etc., improve the participation and response rate of target customers, and ensure that the collected data is complete, accurate, valid and reliable.

Analyze customer comments

Analyzing customer opinions refers to the operations of cleaning, sorting, classifying, coding, counting, summarizing and interpreting the collected customer opinions in order to find out the laws, relationships, differences and influencing factors. The purpose of analyzing customer opinions is to evaluate the performance of a product or service from the customer's perspective, identify the strengths and weaknesses of the product or service, identify market opportunities and room for improvement, and make specific recommendations and action plans. The main methods of analyzing customer opinions are as follows:

Descriptive analysis: by calculating the average, median, standard deviation, frequency distribution and other basic statistics, describe the overall situation and characteristics of customer opinions, such as the average level and distribution of customer satisfaction;

Correlation analysis: by calculating correlation coefficients, regression coefficients and other relevant indicators, analysis of the degree and direction of correlation between customer opinions or with other variables, such as the correlation between customer satisfaction and loyalty;

Difference analysis: by conductingtTest, analysis of variance and other hypothesis tests to analyze whether there are significant differences between different types or groups of customer opinions, such as whether there are significant differences in customer satisfaction in different regions or industries;

Factor analysis: by performing dimension reduction techniques such as principal component analysis and factor analysis, multiple relevant customer opinion variables are combined into a few representative factors to simplify data structures and extract core information, such as summarizing multiple customer evaluation indicators for products or services into several main dimensions;

cluster analysis: by conductingkClustering techniques such as mean clustering and hierarchical clustering group similar customer opinions to form different customer segments or groups, such as dividing customers into different market segments according to their needs or preferences for products or services.

No matter which method is used to analyze customer opinions, the following points need to be paid attention:

Clear analysis objectives: according to the research purpose and problems, determine which aspects of customer opinions to analyze, such as overall evaluation, detail evaluation, advantages and disadvantages evaluation, etc;

Select the appropriate method: according to the data type and characteristics, select the appropriate analysis method, such as quantitative method or qualitative method, single variable method or multivariate method;

Explain the meaning of the results: according to the analysis results, explain the meaning and reasons behind it, such as why customer satisfaction is high or low, why different types or groups of customer satisfaction are different, etc;

Put forward suggestions: according to the meaning of the results, put forward specific suggestions and action plans, such as how to improve the advantages and competitiveness of products or services, how to improve the disadvantages and problems of products or services, etc.

Feedback and evaluation

Feedback and evaluation refers to the communication and reporting to relevant internal or external parties based on the results of the analysis of customer opinions, as well as the inspection and evaluation of the research process and results based on the effectiveness of the implementation. The purpose of feedback and evaluation is to let relevant people understand the real needs and satisfaction of customers, promote the improvement and innovation of products or services, and improve the quality and effectiveness of research. The main methods of feedback and evaluation are as follows:

Report writing: based on the results of the analysis of customer opinions, write research reports, summarize the main findings, conclusions and implications, and propose specific recommendations and actions, as well as possible risks and limitations;

Report: according to the content of the report, make oral or written report, introduce the research process and results to relevant internal or external people, answer their questions and concerns, and solicit their opinions and feedback;

Make plans: according to the report recommendations, make specific improvement or innovation plans, clear objectives, tasks, responsibilities, time, resources, expected results and other aspects;

Implementation actions: implement specific improvement or innovation actions according to the content of the plan, such as modifying the design, function, price, promotion, etc. of the product or service;

Tracking and monitoring: according to the action content, tracking and monitoring its implementation process and results, such as collecting customer feedback and evaluation, checking the performance and effect of products or services;

Evaluation: Based on monitoring data, conduct evaluation and analysis, compare differences and changes before and after actions, evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of actions, and summarize lessons learned and improvement measures.

Regardless of the method of feedback and evaluation, the following points need to be noted:

Clarify the target of feedback: according to the research objectives and results, determine which internal or external people to give feedback, such as R & D department, marketing department, management, customers, partners, etc;

Select the appropriate method: according to the characteristics and needs of the feedback object, select the appropriate feedback method, such as report documents, presentations, chart data, case stories, etc;

Focus on the impact of results: according to the feedback content, pay attention to its impact on the improvement or innovation of products or services, such as whether it improves customer satisfaction and loyalty, whether it increases market share and revenue, etc;

Continuous improvement: Continuously improve research methods and tools based on feedback to improve the quality and effectiveness of research.

Conclusion

Industrial market research is a service that provides market information, insight and advice to industrial enterprises, which can help enterprises understand the market demand, competitive situation, customer satisfaction and loyalty. This article introduces the main methods and steps of industrial market research, focusing on how to collect and analyze customer opinions, and how to give feedback and evaluation based on the research results. This paper also shows the practical application and effect of industrial market research combined with the specific case of industrial market research service provided by Shang Pu Consulting Company for its clients. I hope this article can be helpful to industrial enterprises.