Whether your goal is to expand into new markets, introduce a new product or service, or gauge customer reactions, even the smallest businesses can benefit from a simple but well-planned market-research study.

Market research helps you to understand your market, your customers, your competitors, and larger industry trends. High-quality research will reveal details about your current customers and will help you to target new customers. For example, before you open an organic produce market, find out if there's a demand for food grown without pesticides and whether customers will pay more for it.

In addition to the insight that you’ll gain into customer needs, market-research studies can help you to avoid costly mistakes, such as introducing an unpopular new line of goods or developing a service that no one really wants. Coca-Cola's introduction of New Coke in the 1980s demonstrates what happens when decisions aren't supported by solid research. Coke revised the formula of its traditional brand of soft drink and lost millions in sales. By performing a study and determining what people thought of the new formula, the company could have avoided public-relations headaches.