With all new business ventures comes risk. Once an entrepreneur begins the process of developing a strong business concept and model, they need to consider the market they are about to enter. The key to success is taking the time to thoroughly understand the market landscape, which means investing in market research to analyze all aspects of the market.

The educational publishing industry traditionally has been dominated by the large textbook publishers and a few large instructional software providers. However, that has shifted. New technology companies are sprouting, changing and challenging traditional ways of providing education in schools and colleges. Investors are paying attention and pouring millions of dollars into ed tech startups in the hopes of a huge return.

The last discussion we featured on Custom Research covered the structure and timing aspects of a custom research project. This post looks more closely at the components of project structure, specifically research methodologies and techniques.

Any custom research project will have as the main deliverable the data analysis and recommendations based on the data acquired during the project. How that data is acquired (typically through a combination of secondary and primary research) is critical and very important in terms of project validity. Through the combined research approach, the project, most often, will be designed to acquire both qualitative and quantitative information.

Companies are continually searching for ways to stand out from the crowd and capitalise on new technology to promote themselves. What’s clear is that the mobile phone, the device sitting in everyone’s pockets, is vitally important for the future of marketing. Firms need to go where their audience is, and their audience, invariably, is on their smartphone – be it for browsing the internet, sending an SMS, making a call, using a social media app, taking photos or any of the many other multitude of functions these ubiquitous devices can perform.

A quick downfall for many companies is competition. Even if your company or brand is offering an amazing product, if the competition does it better, than your product might die out. Knowing who your competitors are and understanding how you compare to them in the consumer's eye is a crucial part in creating a great marketing campaign.

In my other post, "LinkedIn Profile Tips for Market Researchers," I outlined how to best utilize LinkedIn as a Market Researcher and provided tips to strengthen your profile. In this post I’m going to take it a step further and outline ways to effectively network on LinkedIn as a professional within the market research industry.

The World Wide Web is an enormous place, and it can be a bit challenging to figure out how to fit in and where. I’m sure it comes as no surprise that finding a place to fit in on social media can be very beneficial. An incredible 92% of marketers indicated in a 2014 survey that social media is important for their business. LinkedIn can play an integral role in the market research world, and you may be wondering how. So, here’s my outline on how to use LinkedIn for networking.

Corn, Modified & Clean Label Starches

The starch processing industry has transformed into a bioprocessing industry to meet the demands of a multitude of market segments, such as food, industrial, bioplastics and biochemicals-based renewable sources, with highly efficient and sophisticated biochemical and engineering processes that produce a multitude of products from corn, one of the most significant crops in world. 

The Internet of Things (IoT) remains largely an amorphous construct with many different meanings to many different constituents. One thing that is clear, however, is that it represents a next generation set of technologies, systems, networks, platforms, devices, solutions and services that will transform virtually every industry vertical. Those industries that are not transformed by IoT are also those that are destined for significant contraction. IoT will also transform consumer lifestyles and lead to a new world of possibilities in terms of how people view virtual objects and interact between virtual and physical assets.

According to Bloomberg, about 80% of entrepreneurs' business ventures fail within the first 18 months. Whether or not these entrepreneurs work to turn things around, I’m not sure. But, what I do know is that once a business begins the downward spiral, there are ways that you can direct your business back to the right track, one of which, and potentially the most crucial, is market research.

China is one of the world’s fastest growing economies, housing a fifth of the global population and one of the largest healthcare markets around the world. Along with sustained economic and population growth, as well as an aging population, the Chinese healthcare market has maintained an annual average growth rate above 16% since the1990’s. In 2014, the total value of medical devices in the Chinese healthcare market reached RMB 259.5 billion (approx US$41.8 billion). Imported medical devices made by overseas and multinational companies account for about a half. Many high-tech and high-valued medical devices, such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) equipment and computed tomography (CT) equipment, are almost monopolized by GE, Siemens, Philips and other overseas and multinational companies.