Can I handle market research in-house, or should I hire an agency?
Yes, you can handle market research in-house. In fact, depending on how you choose to define market research, it can be argued that you should always be doing some amount of market research in-house.
There are many ways to define market research, but one of the simplest definitions is this: market research is the act of collecting information about your customer base, including their preferences, needs, wants, and more. Under that definition, even something as simple as reading your own reviews and asking customers for feedback counts as market research. And those are smart things to do in-house.
Of course, that’s not what most people think of when they think of “market research”. The term often brings to mind the idea of focus groups, surveys, data analysis, A/B testing, and more. This is also a part of market research, and it is these complex aspects of the job that you should probably outsource.
As can be seen on the Kadence International US website, market research agencies have the experience and the tools needed to do market research fast and effectively. Unless you’re prepared to hire a veteran from the market research industry or start an in-house department dedicated to the task, outsourcing your market research work is the best way to get world-class market analysis and reports.
That’s information and insight that you can use when developing products, marketing your brand, expanding into new markets, and more. Information is power, after all, and if you understand who your customers are and what they need, figuring out what your business should prioritize often becomes trivial.
Having information about why customers choose your competitors over your brand is also useful, as it can give you insight into how to win over those customers.
Again, most of the information a market research agency will give you is stuff you could theoretically figure out in-house. But working with market research experts can be a good way to make sure you’re not basing business decisions on bad or incomplete information.
