Before you embark on a new venture, or develop your product further, you need to stop and evaluate: is the opportunity real; does it solves a genuine client need; what is the competitive landscape; what is the right business model; and what is the size of the opportunity?
 
In other words, you need market research.
 
Independent market research can minimise risk and pay dividends. It feeds into product development, senior management buy-in to plans, funding drives, positioning and marketing messaging and more.
 
A-Team Group is perfectly placed to help you. By combining our in-depth industry knowledge, deep base of well-positioned contacts and over 10 years of experience delivering high quality research to help our clients – from the world's biggest exchanges, to the top data vendors, to the small entrepreneurial specialist technology or data companies – we can help ensure you make the right decisions.
 
Get in touch to find out how we help you:

• Explore and test new business opportunities and models

• Understand client attitudes towards existing products

• Generate and test ideas for ways to enhance and expand your products

• Conduct surveys to understand market trends and future direction

• Evaluate the market size and size of opportunity

And when the research is complete, we can brief your internal team to help bring them up to speed on our findings and what they mean for your business.
 
Find out more by contacting Martyn Hodges
martyn.hodges@a-teamgroup.com
+44 (0)207 096 8444
+44 (0)7790 606 216
 
Types of Market Research Projects We’ve Done
 
PRODUCT FEEDBACK AND EXPANSION TO NEW MARKETS: For a US data company we tested the client view about an established product and the viability of the product beyond its core large sell-side institutional client base.
 
Our approach: After winning the project over a couple of well-known research firms, A-Team Group conducted working sessions with the team to understand what they wanted to gain out of the research, drill down into specific areas of interest, and understand their views. We created a detailed questionnaire and conducted interviews with senior decision-makers at various firm types (eg: Buy-Side Tier 1 and 2, Sell Side Tier 2 and 3, and Custodians). We then analysed the findings of the research and, combining with our deep knowledge of the industry and our wide network of contacts, we were able to identify hot spots of opportunity for the existing product, potential opportunities for product enhancements and a new product model.
 
After delivering the research to a tight time frame, we held several discussions with the management team and the wider company to communicate our findings and answer questions, and have helped shape the future product direction by delivering feedback direct from the target client base.
 
TESTING THE OPPORTUNITY FOR A NEW PRODUCT: For a major European exchange we tested a new product plan with its intended target audience, providing constructive feedback to help guide product development and positioning.
 
Our approach: We held kick-off meetings with the exchange’s management and their teams to understand their view on the product opportunity and gauge exactly what they wanted out of the research. A-Team had an in-depth knowledge of the sector already and an understanding of what clients pain points where and how such a product might be received, which helped to frame our working sessions, as well as our conversations with the target market to quickly get to the answers we needed.
 
Once we’d analysed the findings, we delivered a presentation and detailed report to management to explain where the opportunity for the new product was, how it could be best positioned to take advantage of the opportunity, challenges that would need to be overcome and approaches to developing and positioning the product to achieve maximum success.
 
MARKET SIZING TAILORED TO YOUR MARKET SECTOR: For a smaller start-up venture we identified the size of the market within a specific industry segment to provide total revenue currently spent on part of the financial institutions’ operations. And we identified potential revenue based on their projected price points for their new service.
 
Our approach: A-Team Group has established a well-honed market sizing model which maps the number of financial institutions within any given segment or client type, with the average spend in the relevant product area to generate total revenues estimates.
 
We have conducted market sizing in several niche areas of the financial information and technology industry, from market data to low latency to reference data to risk, and can help you to identify the size of opportunity or your own penetration within a certain marketplace.
 
In a recent market sizing project, the results from our model, developed over years of tracking the industry, almost matched the client's own internal work in this area from the previous year, validating the numbers for both of us.
 
CONDUCTING SURVEYS ON TRENDS AND FUTURE DIRECTION For a mid-sized software company with a reference data related application, we conducted a comprehensive survey about a new standard development in reference data to be used for internal research as well as a public white paper to demonstrate our client’s thought leadership to their target market. It also generated sales leads for our client so they got the best of both worlds.
 
Our approach: We worked with the client to refine the topic and ensure it was timely and relevant.  We delivered an outline of the structure of the research and a detailed questionnaire. Then we conducted a survey with hand-picked industry practitioners to gather information about their attitudes and developments in regard to the new standard. We reported to the client internally about our findings to help them understand the current market view. And using our analyst and editorial skills we created a focused white paper which they printed as marketing collateral to hand out at events and in client meetings, and which was offered for downloads on our Reference Data Review online community which generated sales leads – all helping position them as a thought leader in the space.