How Quantitative Market Research Improves Forecasting and Demand Planning

How quantitative research helps with demand forecasting and planning

Have you been tinkering with the idea of a proper market research project for your business? You might have heard several benefits of market research for your users and products. But do you know you can use it for auxiliary benefits other than product improvement, such as forecasting, demand planning, and budgeting?

Here is a small post on how quantitative market research can help you with demand planning.

What Are Forecasting and Demand Planning?

Forecasting is the prediction for your business, focused on your sales and customer strength. Here are some questions that forecasting answers:

·         How many new customers are going to be added to your CRM?

·         How many users are likely to buy?

·         What will be the expected bulk of sales?

·         Which price point would work with your audience?

·         Which user segment is going to boom?

·         Which demographics are going to tank?

Demand planning is the answer to these questions. You plan your production, market launch, pricing strategy, and marketing and sales approach based on the answers you receive from your market research.

How Quantitative Market Research Helps with Forecasting and Demand Planning

1.      Driving Forces in Demand

Once you learn what’s driving the demands in the industry and your own business via quantitative reviews, you can tweak your business plans accordingly.

For instance, price is one of the biggest driving forces among middle-class buyers. If your product (say, a smartphone) seems to be priced on the higher side vis-à-vis your peers’, you can wait for the demand season, such as festivals, Black Friday, and paycheck days.

Plan a discount voucher of say 5% to your loyal users on the first of every month for regular products and a discount during Black Friday on annual purchases to boost your yearly sales.

Product upgrades are another great way to attract more users. Add newer features that have been missing from your product in your annual upgrade, and see the demands pouring in through advance booking.

2.      Demographic-Level Study

Since your market research is usually segment-driven, it’s easy to understand what various segments of users need from your product or services. You can analyze that data and measure which segments are more profitable for you.

If your smartphones are more popular among white-collar professionals who are earning more than an average middle-class citizen, pushing more sales according to their research feedback is going to get you more profits.

However, if teenagers have shown interest in your cell phones because of good camera quality and yet aren’t able to invest due to the higher price, you can attract this segment by launching a lite version of the phone with good camera but reduced features that aren’t necessary for the youngsters.

This way, you can use the quantitative market research data to decide which direction you aim to pursue.

Read about data challenges in the market research industry.

3.      Trends and Patterns

Learning what’s trending and what the common patterns are among your consumers can hint at what your near-future agenda should be.

Quants tell you which things are trending in the market and among the users. The numbers also reveal what’s working for the users on a long-term basis. You can observe patterns from these facts and data.

For instance, if oversized T-shirts have been popular among your users in the last six months and the graph has shown only escalation, chances of them being a rage will not die anytime soon.

You can compare this trend with other observed patterns. Then you can decide your production size and marketing plans.

Time series analysis can be a very useful method in this prediction, where you study historical market research data over a longer period, such as six months or a year.

How Track Opinion Can Help

If you’re looking for a market research partner, look no further and reach out to the Track Opinion team for a discussion. We offer both qualitative and quantitative reviews with customized packages. Our strength lies with our panel of 4.8 million users and our scripting tool. 

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