Much ado has been made over the differences in the mindsets of Baby Boomers and Millennials. In regard to their habits as retail consumers, the adults of the Millennial generation have often been painted as volatile, demanding, brand schizophrenic, overly obsessed with online shopping, and disproportionately swayed by word-of-mouth and peer product reviews. To many, Millennials are a retailer’s worst nightmare: a legion of boogeymen destined to discombobulate the delicate balance of the consumer-retailer relationship dynamic that has thrived in the half century since Baby Boomers first reached the pinnacle of their market-shaping powers.

Every business needs to evolve. Otherwise, you'll find yourself running the best buggy whip business at the turn of the century. Growing revenue is not the only benchmark of a healthy business. A business can be healthy and heading down the right path until, well, it isn't. Phrases like innovator's dilemma, innovator's solution and accelerated disruption have hit the lexicon.

Borders Books made $101 million less than three years before losing $157 million. Blackberry (enough said), Sears, JC Penney, and even more recent high fliers like Zynga have simply misread the market and found themselves on a downward trajectory after experiencing substantial success previously.

So, how do you grow? What new products will attract the customers I want? What else can I sell to my current customers? Where are my new customers? New markets?  By definition, I don’t know anything about them, how do I learn?

The subject of non-GMO (genetically-modified organism) food products has been in the spotlight constantly over the last few months. The recent phasing out of Chobani products at Whole Foods, due to the yogurt company's milk-producing cows' consumption of GMO, is a testament to the growing debate over GMO food products and increasing demand for non-GMO product development.

More broadly, the call for products that have less processing and modification has been significant in the last decade, and, thus, products like all-natural or organic have been sought after and are part of dynamic, high-growth industries.

Few industries will be challenged in the coming years like the medical device industry. Many observers project that the overall medical device market may suffer from reduced profits, less venture capital spending, and R&D due to the double-effects of a new excise tax in the United States and reimbursement cuts in world markets. But, this doesn’t mean the whole industry will suffer. Without market research, one might be tempted to generalize the industry, resulting in missed opportunities. Market research reports can help market-watchers find these right opportunities. 

"Start with the end in mind." The late Stephen Covey was not necessarily referring to business when he wrote this thought in his popular book, 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. But, the sentiment still rings true, particularly when talking about launching a start-up. Developing good habits and outlining smart steps are crucial to achieving entrepreneurial success, and beginning your endeavor with solid market research habits will much better equip you to reach your end goals. So, we've briefly outlined seven market research habits to help you launch your start-up effectively and successfully.

More product offerings and a larger audience seem to be the dynamic duo when it comes to expanding a business and increasing its revenue, and it's no different in the world of market research publishing. Internally, publishers work dilligently to continually producing new products, publishing reports on the latest in their covered industries. But, what if additional efforts could be made externally to extend your reach to entirely new audiences? Partnering with a market research marketplace can do just that.

After purchasing a market research solution, in order to get the most value from your investment, you need to evaluate your usage. But, how do you optimize your platform most effectively? Whether you have a subscription-based solution or a buy-by-the-slice platform, you need to fully understand its features and how to take advantage of them. That is why at MarketResearch.com, we have multiple Application Specialists who work closely with our platform customers to ensure you are optimizing your usage and the solution's features to reach the highest potential value for your business.

Successful market research is all about asking the right questions. No matter what industry you are in, there are specific questions to consider before diving into your market research. Particularly in the Biotechnology industry, certain factors must be taken into consideration in order to ensure that your research will be the most relevant and effective. Bruce Carlson, Publisher at one of the industry's leading market research producers, Kalorama Information, has laid out three of the most important questions to ask when researching in this field:

I am always amazed that through science man has determined that the universe is between 14-15 billion years old and, even more astounding, is the calculation for the Universe’s expansion. So, why was it that, at the Perfect Information Conference in 2012, 30 leading information professionals with hundreds of years of experience between them could not come up with the answer to a simple question: What is the ROI (return on investment) from market research? Is this the information industry's holy grail? Maybe…..

Let’s consider this in another way. If there are too many variables to determine which piece of data or knowledge proved pivotal in the launch of a new product or successful investment, then consider this: Where was the value derived?