As more companies strive for market expansion, the future of marketing lies within data-driven strategies. In recent years, the market research industry has grown immensely. “The global revenue of the market research industry exceeded 76.4 billion US dollars in 2021, growing more than twofold since 2008” (Statista Research Department, 2022). It has allowed companies to market more efficiently as data can guide them toward their target market. By conducting market research, businesses can identify areas where there is unmet demand or needs that are not being adequately served. This could lead to the development of new products or services that meet these needs, providing businesses with a competitive advantage to better understand their target market. By collecting data on customer preferences, behaviors, and attitudes, businesses can tailor their products or services to better meet the needs of their customers, leading to increased customer satisfaction and loyalty, as well as higher sales and profits.
Companies like New America have applied this in the various projects. Meegan Dell, the project manager of Get My Payment, and her team reached out to people who needed their stimulus checks during the pandemic. Through data, geographical locations were mapped to show different measures of need to find the target market: people who were employed but were struggling financially. Meegan shares,“we were able to look at the living conditions of these areas and put less TV ads in areas lacking internet access and use billboards instead”. The implementation of data-driven market research strategies enhanced the effectiveness of their projects. Just like her team, many other companies have begun to implement market research by hiring market research analysts, a new growing field. Fathima Shaikh, an Entrepreneurship Intern on the Marketing Team at On the Money, shares, “Through market research, we were able to reach our target audiences to fit into our budgetary restrictions, which increased the effectiveness of our marketing.” The expansion of market research lies in the near future as “employment of market research analysts is projected to grow 19 percent from 2021 to 2031, much faster than the average for all occupations.” (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics).