Why Market Research Matters A data specialist offers insights for startups.
By Claire Gibson •
This story appears in the March 2015 issue of Entrepreneur. Subscribe »

The first step in launching any successful business should be conducting research into prospective markets. Capturing and sifting through such data is Dionna McPhatter's specialty. Before co-founding New York-based marketing firm The Strategy Collective, which builds custom analytics platforms to better understand customers and influence business decisions, McPhatter was responsible for unearthing data insights for British consumer-goods company RB (formerly Reckitt Benckiser) and its suite of global health and home brands, such as Airwick and Lysol.
Here, McPhatter shares how a bit of market research can benefit startups.