Research reports and survey results are always a great way to get some attention for your company and for the products and services you sell. A report on new threats from an antivirus company, a survey on how much spam companies get from a mail server developer partnering with an Anti-spam application, a report on how online users share news through social media from a news outlet, survey results on how journalists and bloggers want to be approach and through which channels from a PR or marketing company, these are all great ideas to help you plunge into an in-depth analysis and get some valuable data to spread through the industry and beyond.

While the interest in your company as a trend setter or key source when it comes to market analysis is a goal worth following, coming up with valuable information from your research and surveys is not always very easy. It takes time, quite some planning, reaching out to customers, peers, other industry analysts, wrapping up results in an informative, easy to digest text and then promoting it through all major outlets.

Yet data that concerns all is always more newsworthy than a new service or product or an enhancement to an old one. It’s something of far greater impact, not only useful to those in your field, but also a effective tool to help potential customers find out what problems they are actually dealing with and why they’d need what you’re selling. Plus, seeing major news and industry outlets mentioning your name along with your research paper or survey data does wonders to brand awareness.

Have you tried using research and surveys to increase brand recognition and to gain more customers and business partners? Which were the results and what resources have you invested to get the final product?

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I’ve never really been to IKEA until recently. I went once, but my colleague and I rushed through it like a thunder storm, looking for some photo frames, so we missed most of it. Why did I go to IKEA in the end? Word of mouth, of course, from several sources. They all lead me to believe IKEA is a must see when decorating a new home, they made me envision a dreamy place where all your ideas could come true. I fell in love with these huge shrine to all all things interior design and I thought I should stop and analyze how it all happened. I believe there are quite a few lessons to be learned from this experience, which is in no way unique. Continue reading

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