Market Research

Will your product sell? PROFITABLY?

As we stated on our HOME page, the Microscopy market is highly heterogeneous, poorly reported, risky and expensive to enter.

If you are like many of the people who visit our site, you already know that good data is hard to come by.  The MIP can help on multiple levels: product-centric End-User studies, top-down Market Overviews, or niche-specific Industry Insight reports.

1. Test your product with a customized, End-User study

At The MIP, we are experts in conducting product-centric User-based market research, specifically for microscopy/ spectroscopy products.  In 2015, we are celebrating our 25th anniversary serving this unique niche.  Over that quarter century, we have conducted well over 100 highly targeted individual studies that reflect the insight of the end-user, the voice of your customers.  They are the only ones who can tell us if a product will really sell, profitably.

Our first step in this type of bottom-up research is to identify a test audience that matches the profile of your potential customer.   Listen to them and they will tell you the real story about instrument design, product feasibility, applications, pricing, and sales & marketing direction.  The MIP maintains a diverse list of over 6500 practitioners, many of whom have taken part in at least four different surveys because they believe strongly that their input produces better products which come to market more quickly and more economically.  If our list doesn’t match your customer profile, we will find one that does.

To produce statistically valid data, we survey in large numbers, typically looking for somewhere between 350 and 1000 respondents to a given study  (for a homogeneous group such as microscopists, a test population of 369 generates a margin of error of +/- 3%).

Larger groups have a second advantage: they allow us to parse the data so that we can provide you with granularity from multiple market perspectives (ex:title,  type of lab, discipline, type of instrument used, geography).  For example, this page of actual data analyzes a question about Social Media, analyzed by type of instrumentation used. Imagine having 60-100 pages of similarly rich data, segmented into easy-to-use chapters.

2. Grasp the lay of the land with a General Market Overview

If you are aiming for a new market, we can help with a “top-down” industry overview, developing a report that summarizes the key players, general methods of distribution, over-all size and character of that market niche.  These reviews build on The MIP’s unique matrix of technical expertise and business development experience.  Because we’ve been involved in the development of many businesses, we review the market with a trained eye, searching out potential risks, such as secondary technologies that might blind-side your efforts, as well as opportunities that can build on your company’s or product’s strengths.

3. Understand your specific market niche with an Industry Insights Report

Traditionally, generic off-the-shelf reports are fraught with errors and unwarranted assumptions gathered from web research and interviews with key sales and marketing managers who often have a corporate line to promote. Their authors are well-intentioned but inexperienced in this unique arena.

When The MIP creates an off-the-shelf Industry Insights Report, we combine our decades of experience and insight with direct research from end-users. In the past 5 years, we have published reports on the AFM and Confocal Microscopy sectors and, most recently, our 2015 “Best Practices for the Internet and Social Media in Microscopy & Spectroscopy”.  In addition, our President and Chief Strategic Consultant, Barbara Foster, often writes industry overviews appearing in key trade publications such as Microscopy Today, American Laboratory, and BioPhotonics.  To see more, visit our LIBRARY and click on “industry trends” next to any article.

Why The MIP is unique
Unlike general market research firms, we are scientifically “multi-lingual”.  Most importantly, as practicing microscopists, we speak the same scientific language as your potential customers.

Secondly, every study is highly personalized.  Every survey for a User-based study or Industry Insight report is launched over Barbara Foster’s own signature, with instructions to contact her directly if there are any questions about or problems with the survey.  She personally “baby sits” every launch, responding to hundreds of emails and calls that result.

Finally, we are not just a market research house, we launch businesses and products.  We KNOW how the data we collect and analyze for you will be used.  Of the 100+ products launched by our President & Chief Strategic Consultant, Barbara Foster, much of the strategic planning, new technology commercialization, and sales & marketing direction came from User-based research.  Nearly 100% of the plans based on this sort of research resulted in successful, rapid market penetration.  The only ones that failed did so for other business reasons.

How does our record stack up? 
At a recent meeting of angel investors, a representative of the Angel Capital Association (ACA – the official industry alliance of over 100 of the largest angel investor groups in the US), they acknowledged that this type of research was NOT part of their standard operational procedure.  In comparison to The MIP’s “high 90%” success rate, they reported a success rate of only 3 in 10.

Erase the uncertainly.  If you need market research for microscopy or spectroscopy, The MIP can help.  Call us today at (972)924-5310 and let’s discuss the best approach for you.