Assessing the opportunities for a certain product in an existing or new market is of vital importance for technical and industrial companies because in many cases it involves capital goods and the related investment. In addition to the necessary figures, Kuipers focuses during a market research on obtaining information from decision makers within potentially interesting companies. Not only does this ensure that crucial, up-to-date information is obtained first-hand, it also helps to build a network of potential customers.
Besides national and international market research, Kuipers also focuses on market explorations (essentially a shortened market research) and competition analyses (“who are my competitors, which customers do they have and why aren’t they my customers?”).
The added value of market research, market exploration and competition analysis lies on the strategic level: “Are there opportunities for my company within the investigated market segments and is my company ready to exploit these opportunities or does my organisation need to be adjusted in certain areas in order to be able to exploit opportunities”.
Another interesting fact is that in certain cases, subsidies are given by the (semi-)government for conducting market research. Kuipers has carried out subsidised research several times in the past