India is an economic powerhouse with businesses growing at a rapid pace. The perennial growing opportunities are only drawing more and more organizations to set up their business here. Interestingly, India is not just a hotspot for the locals; even foreign enterprises are eyeing the vast Indian population to tap into.
However, doing business in India is not that easy. India is a land of multiple languages and has diverse cultures spread across its length and breadth. And it is vital to understand the pulse of your target audience before you wade into the deep waters of setting up businesses. Thankfully, you can mitigate your risks while entering this geography by understanding the market through Market Research and then taking informed decisions.
There are two types of market research, and both of them are equally popular among experts. The first is primary research where you directly monitor the sales, business practices, quality of services, and the tools used for communication. Secondary market research, on the other hand, is all about drawing inferences from already published data. It helps you with benchmarking and helps in targeting segments.
Why do you need market research services in India?
Here are some of the reasons why market research is crucial before starting your business in India –
Complex consumer behaviour
India is a very diverse country, be it in language or culture or even economic conditions. It is definitely not a country where a common strategy works for everyone. For instance, rice is the staple diet in the southern and eastern parts of India. You may succeed if you set up a rice business in these areas. But if you set it up in the northern and western parts of India, there is a possibility that you may not enjoy similar profits. Just like this, there are thousands of microscopic diversities across the population that are quite difficult to know without proper research. This is where market research can help by capturing consumer buying patterns across various microscopic segments in the country.
Lack of available data
In India, a major chunk of the businesses are under the unorganized sector. Many of the businesses are family-owned businesses that effectively makes the markets highly non-transparent and devoid of critical data for public consumption. This is where you need to seek the help of an external market research company in India like Tecnova that will do the groundwork and help you in gathering some of the critical data needed to make important business decisions. The help of such a market research consultant is also needed to combine various fragmented data collected across various microscopic segments and analyze them to come up with effective strategies.
Pricing is extremely important
Most of the population in India falls under the mid-income segment or what is popularly known as the middle-class segment. For middle-class people, the price of the product is of tantamount importance. Indian consumers look for places with the lowest price point and purchase from there, even if it means additional efforts. This is why the right pricing strategy is required for any enterprise planning to do business in India, and market research is the key to find the ideal price point for your product.
Helps in marketing
Indian consumers love offers and discounts on everything they purchase. The sense of satisfaction they get after purchasing a product at a discounted price is unmatchable to any other. But offers and discounts have to be done right; otherwise, it can go wrong. For instance, if there are regular offers, people might not value your brand much or consider your brand as a cheap brand. Thus it is important to understand what kind of offers work and when should it be made available to the buyers. This is something that can be found only with the help of extensive market research.
Extreme competition in India
By the time you would have finished reading this article, a new business would have sprouted up in some part of the country. That is the level of competition we are talking about in India. Take any sector or industry; you will have hundreds of other players to compete with. They might compete with you in terms of prices or volume. It is critical to understand the business of your competitors. What they are doing right, what they are doing wrong, what is the price of their products, when do they offer discounts are some of the questions that you need answers for before establishing your business. Market Research is the perfect evaluation tool to track not just your progress, but also analyze the growth of your competitors. By using market research, you can leap ahead of your competitors within your business segment in no time.
Helps you to identify changing market trends
India is a growing economy and market trends keep changing rapidly on a day to day basis. What works today might not work tomorrow. No industry remains stagnant for a long time as the demands of consumers keep changing every day, which in turn affects the markets. As a business, it will be impossible to keep track of the market trends on a daily basis. This is where an external market research consultant like Tecnova , can help you by regularly keeping track of the market trends and advise you to alter your product and services to suit the latest trend.
Conclusion
India is of significant interest to most brands across the world due to the massive opportunities that it lays on the table for them. However, getting into India is not without its fair share of challenges right from language barriers all the way to economic disparity. This is where solid market research is required that helps you to decide your entry strategy for India. An India entry consultant like Tecnova can help global organizations with their market research needs through its customized research and well experienced team across different industry verticals.
Write a comment