Market research is an important part of a company’s decision-making process. However, there are times to do market research and times not to. When it keeps you abreast of the markets in which your company operates; helps you achieve a strategic marketing advantage; allows you to select the course of action that will achieve your key marketing objectives; or clarify issues or research market trends that affect your marketing objectives, you should, by all means, conduct research.

However, there are certain times when you should NOT conduct an investigation. First, you shouldn’t do market research if you haven’t first defined the problem you need to solve. Problem definition is the most important step in the marketing research process. If not done, or done incorrectly, any research done will be useless. Of course, sometimes companies have no idea what the marketing problem is, so they have to do exploratory investigation, to help them identify the problem. In that case, there is a business problem, and that is to determine what is causing the company’s current marketing situation.

You also probably don’t need market research if:

You have access to readily available marketing information

Your sales force can be very knowledgeable about their territories, and each sales rep can understand the environment in which they’re calling. They can learn the price of competing products in those markets, as well as the relevant competitors there, and how much it costs to acquire customers there. In addition, the Internet has made all kinds of marketing information freely available, and data sources like Dun & Bradstreet’s Million Dollar Database or ABI’s ReferenceUSA have made it easier to find information about potential competitors and customers. As a result, secondary research may be all you need to do to find the solutions to your marketing problems.

There is not enough time or resources to carry out the investigation.

If time is an issue, conducting elaborate research won’t help. Sometimes a situation arises where a decision needs to be made quickly. In such a case, you are better off convening the company’s business experts for an urgent discussion of the situation, alternative courses of action, and course selection. In other cases, you may not have the financial resources or in-house staff for proper market research. In these cases, you can also rely on the business experts and secondary research you already have at your disposal.

Research adds little or no value

If the decision you want research to help you make has little impact on sales, profits, market share, customer loyalty, brand equity, or any other marketing performance indicator, then it doesn’t make sense. do market research. Research can be expensive both in terms of time and money, so if the benefit of the research doesn’t at least pay for itself in the dollars and labor invested to carry it out, it’s worth nothing. You should also consider the opportunity costs of that research. If you investigate a problem whose solution adds little value, the time and money could have been better spent investigating a different problem with a higher reward, and that opportunity is lost.

Know when you need to investigate

Develop an internal tracking system for your marketing environment. If you have a system to collect information about your company and your competition, you will alert senior management to problems that marketing research can target. These days, you can set up email alerts with Google and many of the major newspapers to stay informed of any news or blog posts about your company, your competition, and your industry. Also read trade publications in your industry and attend trade shows and conferences. Talk to your sales force, your suppliers and your customers. You can get a lot of information for free from these sources.

Knowing when not to do market research is just as important as knowing when to do it. When market research adds significant value or improves your competitive position, it’s an opportunity; when it’s just “good to know”, it’s a no!