I recently completed a marketing plan for an internet startup company that was desperately in need of some direction. One of the main problems was that they had done absolutely no research on their target market and actually had two disparate target markets: people aged 18-24, and women 29-44. That was about as specific as they had it.
From an entrepreneurial perspective, it often doesn't make sense to do extensive research. However, you absolutely should do some. Especially on something as vital as your target market. However, in other areas you can get away with doing much less extensive research than you might think. This allows you to seize an opportunity more quickly when only limited knowledge is necessary. This doesn't apply to the planning stages of the company, but rather decisions that need to be made as you begin to operate.
It turns out that the younger market segment they really wanted to target made no sense, and a subset of the older demographic was the best for their product offerings. This was my gut feeling from the beginning, but I did some brief primary and secondary research to back it up. That's a good rule of thumb: If you're confident in your abilities then you should trust your gut, but be ready to back up why you made the decision when you have to.
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