what to do in market research

How to Do Market Research: The Complete Guide

Learn how to do market research with this step-by-step guide, complete with templates, tools and real-world examples.

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Market research is the systematic process of gathering, analyzing and interpreting information about a specific market or industry.

What are your customers’ needs? How does your product compare to the competition? What are the emerging trends and opportunities in your industry? If these questions keep you up at night, it’s time to conduct market research.

Market research plays a pivotal role in your ability to stay competitive and relevant, helping you anticipate shifts in consumer behavior and industry dynamics. It involves gathering these insights using a wide range of techniques, from surveys and interviews to data analysis and observational studies.

In this guide, we’ll explore why market research is crucial, the various types of market research, the methods used in data collection, and how to effectively conduct market research to drive informed decision-making and success.

What is market research?

The purpose of market research is to offer valuable insight into the preferences and behaviors of your target audience, and anticipate shifts in market trends and the competitive landscape. This information helps you make data-driven decisions, develop effective strategies for your business, and maximize your chances of long-term growth.

Why is market research important? 

By understanding the significance of market research, you can make sure you’re asking the right questions and using the process to your advantage. Some of the benefits of market research include:

• Informed decision-making: Market research provides you with the data and insights you need to make smart decisions for your business. It helps you identify opportunities, assess risks and tailor your strategies to meet the demands of the market. Without market research, decisions are often based on assumptions or guesswork, leading to costly mistakes.
• Customer-centric approach: A cornerstone of market research involves developing a deep understanding of customer needs and preferences. This gives you valuable insights into your target audience, helping you develop products, services and marketing campaigns that resonate with your customers.
• Competitive advantage: By conducting market research, you’ll gain a competitive edge. You’ll be able to identify gaps in the market, analyze competitor strengths and weaknesses, and position your business strategically. This enables you to create unique value propositions, differentiate yourself from competitors, and seize opportunities that others may overlook.
• Risk mitigation: Market research helps you anticipate market shifts and potential challenges. By identifying threats early, you can proactively adjust their strategies to mitigate risks and respond effectively to changing circumstances. This proactive approach is particularly valuable in volatile industries.
• Resource optimization: Conducting market research allows organizations to allocate their time, money and resources more efficiently. It ensures that investments are made in areas with the highest potential return on investment, reducing wasted resources and improving overall business performance.
• Adaptation to market trends: Markets evolve rapidly, driven by technological advancements, cultural shifts and changing consumer attitudes. Market research ensures that you stay ahead of these trends and adapt your offerings accordingly so you can avoid becoming obsolete. 

As you can see, market research empowers businesses to make data-driven decisions, cater to customer needs, outperform competitors, mitigate risks, optimize resources and stay agile in a dynamic marketplace. These benefits make it a huge industry; the global market research services market is expected to grow from $76.37 billion in 2021 to $108.57 billion in 2026 . Now, let’s dig into the different types of market research that can help you achieve these benefits.

Types of market research 

• Qualitative research
• Quantitative research
• Exploratory research
• Descriptive research
• Causal research
• Cross-sectional research
• Longitudinal research

Despite its advantages, 23% of organizations don’t have a clear market research strategy. Part of developing a strategy involves choosing the right type of market research for your business goals. The most commonly used approaches include:

1. Qualitative research

Qualitative research focuses on understanding the underlying motivations, attitudes and perceptions of individuals or groups. It is typically conducted through techniques like in-depth interviews, focus groups and content analysis — methods we’ll discuss further in the sections below. Qualitative research provides rich, nuanced insights that can inform product development, marketing strategies and brand positioning.

2. Quantitative research

Quantitative research, in contrast to qualitative research, involves the collection and analysis of numerical data, often through surveys, experiments and structured questionnaires. This approach allows for statistical analysis and the measurement of trends, making it suitable for large-scale market studies and hypothesis testing. While it’s worthwhile using a mix of qualitative and quantitative research, most businesses prioritize the latter because it is scientific, measurable and easily replicated across different experiments.

3. Exploratory research

Whether you’re conducting qualitative or quantitative research or a mix of both, exploratory research is often the first step. Its primary goal is to help you understand a market or problem so you can gain insights and identify potential issues or opportunities. This type of market research is less structured and is typically conducted through open-ended interviews, focus groups or secondary data analysis. Exploratory research is valuable when entering new markets or exploring new product ideas.

4. Descriptive research

As its name implies, descriptive research seeks to describe a market, population or phenomenon in detail. It involves collecting and summarizing data to answer questions about audience demographics and behaviors, market size, and current trends. Surveys, observational studies and content analysis are common methods used in descriptive research. 

5. Causal research

Causal research aims to establish cause-and-effect relationships between variables. It investigates whether changes in one variable result in changes in another. Experimental designs, A/B testing and regression analysis are common causal research methods. This sheds light on how specific marketing strategies or product changes impact consumer behavior.

6. Cross-sectional research

Cross-sectional market research involves collecting data from a sample of the population at a single point in time. It is used to analyze differences, relationships or trends among various groups within a population. Cross-sectional studies are helpful for market segmentation, identifying target audiences and assessing market trends at a specific moment.

7. Longitudinal research

Longitudinal research, in contrast to cross-sectional research, collects data from the same subjects over an extended period. This allows for the analysis of trends, changes and developments over time. Longitudinal studies are useful for tracking long-term developments in consumer preferences, brand loyalty and market dynamics.

Each type of market research has its strengths and weaknesses, and the method you choose depends on your specific research goals and the depth of understanding you’re aiming to achieve. In the following sections, we’ll delve into primary and secondary research approaches and specific research methods.

Primary vs. secondary market research

Market research of all types can be broadly categorized into two main approaches: primary research and secondary research. By understanding the differences between these approaches, you can better determine the most appropriate research method for your specific goals.

Primary market research 

Primary research involves the collection of original data straight from the source. Typically, this involves communicating directly with your target audience — through surveys, interviews, focus groups and more — to gather information. Here are some key attributes of primary market research:

• Customized data: Primary research provides data that is tailored to your research needs. You design a custom research study and gather information specific to your goals.
• Up-to-date insights: Because primary research involves communicating with customers, the data you collect reflects the most current market conditions and consumer behaviors.
• Time-consuming and resource-intensive: Despite its advantages, primary research can be labor-intensive and costly, especially when dealing with large sample sizes or complex study designs. Whether you hire a market research consultant, agency or use an in-house team, primary research studies consume a large amount of resources and time.

Secondary market research 

Secondary research, on the other hand, involves analyzing data that has already been compiled by third-party sources, such as online research tools, databases, news sites, industry reports and academic studies.

Here are the main characteristics of secondary market research:

• Cost-effective: Secondary research is generally more cost-effective than primary research since it doesn’t require building a research plan from scratch. You and your team can look at databases, websites and publications on an ongoing basis, without needing to design a custom experiment or hire a consultant. 
• Leverages multiple sources: Data tools and software extract data from multiple places across the web, and then consolidate that information within a single platform. This means you’ll get a greater amount of data and a wider scope from secondary research.
• Quick to access: You can access a wide range of information rapidly — often in seconds — if you’re using online research tools and databases. Because of this, you can act on insights sooner, rather than taking the time to develop an experiment. 

So, when should you use primary vs. secondary research? In practice, many market research projects incorporate both primary and secondary research to take advantage of the strengths of each approach.

One rule of thumb is to focus on secondary research to obtain background information, market trends or industry benchmarks. It is especially valuable for conducting preliminary research, competitor analysis, or when time and budget constraints are tight. Then, if you still have knowledge gaps or need to answer specific questions unique to your business model, use primary research to create a custom experiment. 

Market research methods

• Surveys and questionnaires
• Focus groups
• Observational research
• Online research tools
• Experiments
• Content analysis
• Ethnographic research

How do primary and secondary research approaches translate into specific research methods? Let’s take a look at the different ways you can gather data: 

1. Surveys and questionnaires

Surveys and questionnaires are popular methods for collecting structured data from a large number of respondents. They involve a set of predetermined questions that participants answer. Surveys can be conducted through various channels, including online tools, telephone interviews and in-person or online questionnaires. They are useful for gathering quantitative data and assessing customer demographics, opinions, preferences and needs. On average, customer surveys have a 33% response rate , so keep that in mind as you consider your sample size.

2. Interviews

Interviews are in-depth conversations with individuals or groups to gather qualitative insights. They can be structured (with predefined questions) or unstructured (with open-ended discussions). Interviews are valuable for exploring complex topics, uncovering motivations and obtaining detailed feedback. 

3. Focus groups

The most common primary research methods are in-depth webcam interviews and focus groups. Focus groups are a small gathering of participants who discuss a specific topic or product under the guidance of a moderator. These discussions are valuable for primary market research because they reveal insights into consumer attitudes, perceptions and emotions. Focus groups are especially useful for idea generation, concept testing and understanding group dynamics within your target audience.

4. Observational research

Observational research involves observing and recording participant behavior in a natural setting. This method is particularly valuable when studying consumer behavior in physical spaces, such as retail stores or public places. In some types of observational research, participants are aware you’re watching them; in other cases, you discreetly watch consumers without their knowledge, as they use your product. Either way, observational research provides firsthand insights into how people interact with products or environments.

5. Online research tools

You and your team can do your own secondary market research using online tools. These tools include data prospecting platforms and databases, as well as online surveys, social media listening, web analytics and sentiment analysis platforms. They help you gather data from online sources, monitor industry trends, track competitors, understand consumer preferences and keep tabs on online behavior. We’ll talk more about choosing the right market research tools in the sections that follow.

6. Experiments

Market research experiments are controlled tests of variables to determine causal relationships. While experiments are often associated with scientific research, they are also used in market research to assess the impact of specific marketing strategies, product features, or pricing and packaging changes.

7. Content analysis

Content analysis involves the systematic examination of textual, visual or audio content to identify patterns, themes and trends. It’s commonly applied to customer reviews, social media posts and other forms of online content to analyze consumer opinions and sentiments.

8. Ethnographic research

Ethnographic research immerses researchers into the daily lives of consumers to understand their behavior and culture. This method is particularly valuable when studying niche markets or exploring the cultural context of consumer choices.

How to do market research

• Set clear objectives
• Identify your target audience
• Choose your research methods
• Use the right market research tools
• Collect data
• Analyze data 
• Interpret your findings
• Identify opportunities and challenges
• Make informed business decisions
• Monitor and adapt

Now that you have gained insights into the various market research methods at your disposal, let’s delve into the practical aspects of how to conduct market research effectively. Here’s a quick step-by-step overview, from defining objectives to monitoring market shifts.

1. Set clear objectives

When you set clear and specific goals, you’re essentially creating a compass to guide your research questions and methodology. Start by precisely defining what you want to achieve. Are you launching a new product and want to understand its viability in the market? Are you evaluating customer satisfaction with a product redesign? 

Start by creating SMART goals — objectives that are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound. Not only will this clarify your research focus from the outset, but it will also help you track progress and benchmark your success throughout the process. 

You should also consult with key stakeholders and team members to ensure alignment on your research objectives before diving into data collecting. This will help you gain diverse perspectives and insights that will shape your research approach.

2. Identify your target audience

Next, you’ll need to pinpoint your target audience to determine who should be included in your research. Begin by creating detailed buyer personas or stakeholder profiles. Consider demographic factors like age, gender, income and location, but also delve into psychographics, such as interests, values and pain points.

The more specific your target audience, the more accurate and actionable your research will be. Additionally, segment your audience if your research objectives involve studying different groups, such as current customers and potential leads.

If you already have existing customers, you can also hold conversations with them to better understand your target market. From there, you can refine your buyer personas and tailor your research methods accordingly.

3. Choose your research methods

Selecting the right research methods is crucial for gathering high-quality data. Start by considering the nature of your research objectives. If you’re exploring consumer preferences, surveys and interviews can provide valuable insights. For in-depth understanding, focus groups or observational research might be suitable. Consider using a mix of quantitative and qualitative methods to gain a well-rounded perspective. 

You’ll also need to consider your budget. Think about what you can realistically achieve using the time and resources available to you. If you have a fairly generous budget, you may want to try a mix of primary and secondary research approaches. If you’re doing market research for a startup , on the other hand, chances are your budget is somewhat limited. If that’s the case, try addressing your goals with secondary research tools before investing time and effort in a primary research study. 

4. Use the right market research tools

Whether you’re conducting primary or secondary research, you’ll need to choose the right tools. These can help you do anything from sending surveys to customers to monitoring trends and analyzing data. Here are some examples of popular market research tools:

• Market research software: Crunchbase is a platform that provides best-in-class company data, making it valuable for market research on growing companies and industries. You can use Crunchbase to access trusted, first-party funding data, revenue data, news and firmographics, enabling you to monitor industry trends and understand customer needs.

• Survey and questionnaire tools: SurveyMonkey is a widely used online survey platform that allows you to create, distribute and analyze surveys. Google Forms is a free tool that lets you create surveys and collect responses through Google Drive.
• Data analysis software: Microsoft Excel and Google Sheets are useful for conducting statistical analyses. SPSS is a powerful statistical analysis software used for data processing, analysis and reporting.
• Social listening tools: Brandwatch is a social listening and analytics platform that helps you monitor social media conversations, track sentiment and analyze trends. Mention is a media monitoring tool that allows you to track mentions of your brand, competitors and keywords across various online sources.
• Data visualization platforms: Tableau is a data visualization tool that helps you create interactive and shareable dashboards and reports. Power BI by Microsoft is a business analytics tool for creating interactive visualizations and reports.

5. Collect data

There’s an infinite amount of data you could be collecting using these tools, so you’ll need to be intentional about going after the data that aligns with your research goals. Implement your chosen research methods, whether it’s distributing surveys, conducting interviews or pulling from secondary research platforms. Pay close attention to data quality and accuracy, and stick to a standardized process to streamline data capture and reduce errors. 

6. Analyze data

Once data is collected, you’ll need to analyze it systematically. Use statistical software or analysis tools to identify patterns, trends and correlations. For qualitative data, employ thematic analysis to extract common themes and insights. Visualize your findings with charts, graphs and tables to make complex data more understandable.

If you’re not proficient in data analysis, consider outsourcing or collaborating with a data analyst who can assist in processing and interpreting your data accurately.

7. Interpret your findings

Interpreting your market research findings involves understanding what the data means in the context of your objectives. Are there significant trends that uncover the answers to your initial research questions? Consider the implications of your findings on your business strategy. It’s essential to move beyond raw data and extract actionable insights that inform decision-making.

Hold a cross-functional meeting or workshop with relevant team members to collectively interpret the findings. Different perspectives can lead to more comprehensive insights and innovative solutions.

8. Identify opportunities and challenges

Use your research findings to identify potential growth opportunities and challenges within your market. What segments of your audience are underserved or overlooked? Are there emerging trends you can capitalize on? Conversely, what obstacles or competitors could hinder your progress?

Lay out this information in a clear and organized way by conducting a SWOT analysis, which stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Jot down notes for each of these areas to provide a structured overview of gaps and hurdles in the market.

9. Make informed business decisions

Market research is only valuable if it leads to informed decisions for your company. Based on your insights, devise actionable strategies and initiatives that align with your research objectives. Whether it’s refining your product, targeting new customer segments or adjusting pricing, ensure your decisions are rooted in the data.

At this point, it’s also crucial to keep your team aligned and accountable. Create an action plan that outlines specific steps, responsibilities and timelines for implementing the recommendations derived from your research. 

10. Monitor and adapt

Market research isn’t a one-time activity; it’s an ongoing process. Continuously monitor market conditions, customer behaviors and industry trends. Set up mechanisms to collect real-time data and feedback. As you gather new information, be prepared to adapt your strategies and tactics accordingly. Regularly revisiting your research ensures your business remains agile and reflects changing market dynamics and consumer preferences.

Online market research sources

As you go through the steps above, you’ll want to turn to trusted, reputable sources to gather your data. Here’s a list to get you started:

• Crunchbase: As mentioned above, Crunchbase is an online platform with an extensive dataset, allowing you to access in-depth insights on market trends, consumer behavior and competitive analysis. You can also customize your search options to tailor your research to specific industries, geographic regions or customer personas.

• Academic databases: Academic databases, such as ProQuest and JSTOR , are treasure troves of scholarly research papers, studies and academic journals. They offer in-depth analyses of various subjects, including market trends, consumer preferences and industry-specific insights. Researchers can access a wealth of peer-reviewed publications to gain a deeper understanding of their research topics.
• Government and NGO databases: Government agencies, nongovernmental organizations and other institutions frequently maintain databases containing valuable economic, demographic and industry-related data. These sources offer credible statistics and reports on a wide range of topics, making them essential for market researchers. Examples include the U.S. Census Bureau , the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Pew Research Center .
• Industry reports: Industry reports and market studies are comprehensive documents prepared by research firms, industry associations and consulting companies. They provide in-depth insights into specific markets, including market size, trends, competitive analysis and consumer behavior. You can find this information by looking at relevant industry association databases; examples include the American Marketing Association and the National Retail Federation .
• Social media and online communities: Social media platforms like LinkedIn or Twitter (X) , forums such as Reddit and Quora , and review platforms such as G2 can provide real-time insights into consumer sentiment, opinions and trends. 

Market research examples

At this point, you have market research tools and data sources — but how do you act on the data you gather? Let’s go over some real-world examples that illustrate the practical application of market research across various industries. These examples showcase how market research can lead to smart decision-making and successful business decisions.

Example 1: Apple’s iPhone launch

Apple ’s iconic iPhone launch in 2007 serves as a prime example of market research driving product innovation in tech. Before the iPhone’s release, Apple conducted extensive market research to understand consumer preferences, pain points and unmet needs in the mobile phone industry. This research led to the development of a touchscreen smartphone with a user-friendly interface, addressing consumer demands for a more intuitive and versatile device. The result was a revolutionary product that disrupted the market and redefined the smartphone industry.

Example 2: McDonald’s global expansion

McDonald’s successful global expansion strategy demonstrates the importance of market research when expanding into new territories. Before entering a new market, McDonald’s conducts thorough research to understand local tastes, preferences and cultural nuances. This research informs menu customization, marketing strategies and store design. For instance, in India, McDonald’s offers a menu tailored to local preferences, including vegetarian options. This market-specific approach has enabled McDonald’s to adapt and thrive in diverse global markets.

Example 3: Organic and sustainable farming

The shift toward organic and sustainable farming practices in the food industry is driven by market research that indicates increased consumer demand for healthier and environmentally friendly food options. As a result, food producers and retailers invest in sustainable sourcing and organic product lines — such as with these sustainable seafood startups — to align with this shift in consumer values. 

The bottom line? Market research has multiple use cases and is a critical practice for any industry. Whether it’s launching groundbreaking products, entering new markets or responding to changing consumer preferences, you can use market research to shape successful strategies and outcomes.

Market research templates

You finally have a strong understanding of how to do market research and apply it in the real world. Before we wrap up, here are some market research templates that you can use as a starting point for your projects:

• Smartsheet competitive analysis templates : These spreadsheets can serve as a framework for gathering information about the competitive landscape and obtaining valuable lessons to apply to your business strategy.
• SurveyMonkey product survey template : Customize the questions on this survey based on what you want to learn from your target customers.
• HubSpot templates : HubSpot offers a wide range of free templates you can use for market research, business planning and more.
• SCORE templates : SCORE is a nonprofit organization that provides templates for business plans, market analysis and financial projections.
• SBA.gov : The U.S. Small Business Administration offers templates for every aspect of your business, including market research, and is particularly valuable for new startups. 

Strengthen your business with market research

When conducted effectively, market research is like a guiding star. Equipped with the right tools and techniques, you can uncover valuable insights, stay competitive, foster innovation and navigate the complexities of your industry.

Throughout this guide, we’ve discussed the definition of market research, different research methods, and how to conduct it effectively. We’ve also explored various types of market research and shared practical insights and templates for getting started. 

Now, it’s time to start the research process. Trust in data, listen to the market and make informed decisions that guide your company toward lasting success.

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How to do market research: The complete guide for your brand

Written by by Jacqueline Zote

Published on  April 13, 2023

Reading time  10 minutes

Blindly putting out content or products and hoping for the best is a thing of the past. Not only is it a waste of time and energy, but you’re wasting valuable marketing dollars in the process. Now you have a wealth of tools and data at your disposal, allowing you to develop data-driven marketing strategies . That’s where market research comes in, allowing you to uncover valuable insights to inform your business decisions.

Conducting market research not only helps you better understand how to sell to customers but also stand out from your competition. In this guide, we break down everything you need to know about market research and how doing your homework can help you grow your business.

Table of contents:

What is market research?

Why is market research important, types of market research, where to conduct market research.

• Steps for conducting market research
• Tools to use for market research

Market research is the process of gathering information surrounding your business opportunities. It identifies key information to better understand your audience. This includes insights related to customer personas and even trends shaping your industry.

Taking time out of your schedule to conduct research is crucial for your brand health. Here are some of the key benefits of market research:

Understand your customers’ motivations and pain points

Most marketers are out of touch with what their customers want. Moreover, these marketers are missing key information on what products their audience wants to buy.

Simply put, you can’t run a business if you don’t know what motivates your customers.

And spoiler alert: Your customers’ wants and needs change. Your customers’ behaviors today might be night and day from what they were a few years ago.

Market research holds the key to understanding your customers better. It helps you uncover their key pain points and motivations and understand how they shape their interests and behavior.

Figure out how to position your brand

Positioning is becoming increasingly important as more and more brands enter the marketplace. Market research enables you to spot opportunities to define yourself against your competitors.

Maybe you’re able to emphasize a lower price point. Perhaps your product has a feature that’s one of a kind. Finding those opportunities goes hand in hand with researching your market.

Maintain a strong pulse on your industry at large

Today’s marketing world evolves at a rate that’s difficult to keep up with.

Fresh products. Up-and-coming brands. New marketing tools. Consumers get bombarded with sales messages from all angles. This can be confusing and overwhelming.

By monitoring market trends, you can figure out the best tactics for reaching your target audience.

Not everyone conducts market research for the same reason. While some may want to understand their audience better, others may want to see how their competitors are doing. As such, there are different types of market research you can conduct depending on your goal.

Interview-based market research allows for one-on-one interactions. This helps the conversation to flow naturally, making it easier to add context. Whether this takes place in person or virtually, it enables you to gather more in-depth qualitative data.

Buyer persona research

Buyer persona research lets you take a closer look at the people who make up your target audience. You can discover the needs, challenges and pain points of each buyer persona to understand what they need from your business. This will then allow you to craft products or campaigns to resonate better with each persona.

Pricing research

In this type of research, brands compare similar products or services with a particular focus on pricing. They look at how much those products or services typically sell for so they can get more competitive with their pricing strategy.

Competitive analysis research

Competitor analysis gives you a realistic understanding of where you stand in the market and how your competitors are doing. You can use this analysis to find out what’s working in your industry and which competitors to watch out for. It even gives you an idea of how well those competitors are meeting consumer needs.

Depending on the competitor analysis tool you use, you can get as granular as you need with your research. For instance, Sprout Social lets you analyze your competitors’ social strategies. You can see what types of content they’re posting and even benchmark your growth against theirs.

Brand awareness research

Conducting brand awareness research allows you to assess your brand’s standing in the market. It tells you how well-known your brand is among your target audience and what they associate with it. This can help you gauge people’s sentiments toward your brand and whether you need to rebrand or reposition.

If you don’t know where to start with your research, you’re in the right place.

There’s no shortage of market research methods out there. In this section, we’ve highlighted research channels for small and big businesses alike.

Considering that Google sees a staggering 8.5 billion searches each day, there’s perhaps no better place to start.

A quick Google search is a potential goldmine for all sorts of questions to kick off your market research. Who’s ranking for keywords related to your industry? Which products and pieces of content are the hottest right now? Who’s running ads related to your business?

For example, Google Product Listing Ads can help highlight all of the above for B2C brands.

The same applies to B2B brands looking to keep tabs on who’s running industry-related ads and ranking for keyword terms too.

There’s no denying that email represents both an aggressive and effective marketing channel for marketers today. Case in point, 44% of online shoppers consider email as the most influential channel in their buying decisions.

Looking through industry and competitor emails is a brilliant way to learn more about your market. For example, what types of offers and deals are your competitors running? How often are they sending emails?

Email is also invaluable for gathering information directly from your customers. This survey message from Asana is a great example of how to pick your customers’ brains to figure out how you can improve your quality of service.

Industry journals, reports and blogs

Don’t neglect the importance of big-picture market research when it comes to tactics and marketing channels to explore. Look to marketing resources such as reports and blogs as well as industry journals

Keeping your ear to the ground on new trends and technologies is a smart move for any business. Sites such as Statista, Marketing Charts, AdWeek and Emarketer are treasure troves of up-to-date data and news for marketers.

And of course, there’s the  Sprout Insights blog . And invaluable resources like The Sprout Social Index™  can keep you updated on the latest social trends.

Social media

If you want to learn more about your target market, look no further than social media. Social offers a place to discover what your customers want to see in future products or which brands are killin’ it. In fact, social media is become more important for businesses than ever with the level of data available.

It represents a massive repository of real-time data and insights that are instantly accessible. Brand monitoring and social listening are effective ways to conduct social media research . You can even be more direct with your approach. Ask questions directly or even poll your audience to understand their needs and preferences.

The 5 steps for how to do market research

Now that we’ve covered the why and where, it’s time to get into the practical aspects of market research. Here are five essential steps on how to do market research effectively.

Step 1: Identify your research topic

First off, what are you researching about? What do you want to find out? Narrow down on a specific research topic so you can start with a clear idea of what to look for.

For example, you may want to learn more about how well your product features are satisfying the needs of existing users. This might potentially lead to feature updates and improvements. Or it might even result in new feature introductions.

Similarly, your research topic may be related to your product or service launch or customer experience. Or you may want to conduct research for an upcoming marketing campaign.

Step 2: Choose a buyer persona to engage

If you’re planning to focus your research on a specific type of audience, decide which buyer persona you want to engage. This persona group will serve as a representative sample of your target audience.

Engaging a specific group of audience lets you streamline your research efforts. As such, it can be a much more effective and organized approach than researching thousands (if not millions) of individuals.

You may be directing your research toward existing users of your product. To get even more granular, you may want to focus on users who have been familiar with the product for at least a year, for example.

Step 3: Start collecting data

The next step is one of the most critical as it involves collecting the data you need for your research. Before you begin, make sure you’ve chosen the right research methods that will uncover the type of data you need. This largely depends on your research topic and goals.

Remember that you don’t necessarily have to stick to one research method. You may use a combination of qualitative and quantitative approaches. So for example, you could use interviews to supplement the data from your surveys. Or you may stick to insights from your social listening efforts.

To keep things consistent, let’s look at this in the context of the example from earlier. Perhaps you can send out a survey to your existing users asking them a bunch of questions. This might include questions like which features they use the most and how often they use them. You can get them to choose an answer from one to five and collect quantitative data.

Plus, for qualitative insights, you could even include a few open-ended questions with the option to write their answers. For instance, you might ask them if there’s any improvement they wish to see in your product.

Step 4: Analyze results

Once you have all the data you need, it’s time to analyze it keeping your research topic in mind. This involves trying to interpret the data to look for a wider meaning, particularly in relation to your research goal.

So let’s say a large percentage of responses were four or five in the satisfaction rating. This means your existing users are mostly satisfied with your current product features. On the other hand, if the responses were mostly ones and twos, you may look for opportunities to improve. The responses to your open-ended questions can give you further context as to why people are disappointed.

Step 5: Make decisions for your business

Now it’s time to take your findings and turn them into actionable insights for your business. In this final step, you need to decide how you want to move forward with your new market insight.

What did you find in your research that would require action? How can you put those findings to good use?

The market research tools you should be using

To wrap things up, let’s talk about the various tools available to conduct speedy, in-depth market research. These tools are essential for conducting market research faster and more efficiently.

Social listening and analytics

Social analytics tools like Sprout can help you keep track of engagement across social media. This goes beyond your own engagement data but also includes that of your competitors. Considering how quickly social media moves, using a third-party analytics tool is ideal. It allows you to make sense of your social data at a glance and ensure that you’re never missing out on important trends.

Email marketing research tools

Keeping track of brand emails is a good idea for any brand looking to stand out in its audience’s inbox.

Tools such as MailCharts ,  Really Good Emails  and  Milled  can show you how different brands run their email campaigns.

Meanwhile, tools like  Owletter  allow you to monitor metrics such as frequency and send-timing. These metrics can help you understand email marketing strategies among competing brands.

Content marketing research

If you’re looking to conduct research on content marketing, tools such as  BuzzSumo  can be of great help. This tool shows you the top-performing industry content based on keywords. Here you can see relevant industry sites and influencers as well as which brands in your industry are scoring the most buzz. It shows you exactly which pieces of content are ranking well in terms of engagements and shares and on which social networks.

SEO and keyword tracking

Monitoring industry keywords is a great way to uncover competitors. It can also help you discover opportunities to advertise your products via organic search. Tools such as  Ahrefs  provide a comprehensive keyword report to help you see how your search efforts stack up against the competition.

Competitor comparison template

For the sake of organizing your market research, consider creating a competitive matrix. The idea is to highlight how you stack up side-by-side against others in your market. Use a  social media competitive analysis template  to track your competitors’ social presence. That way, you can easily compare tactics, messaging and performance. Once you understand your strengths and weaknesses next to your competitors, you’ll find opportunities as well.

Customer persona creator

Finally, customer personas represent a place where all of your market research comes together. You’d need to create a profile of your ideal customer that you can easily refer to. Tools like  Xtensio  can help in outlining your customer motivations and demographics as you zero in on your target market.

Build a solid market research strategy

Having a deeper understanding of the market gives you leverage in a sea of competitors. Use the steps and market research tools we shared above to build an effective market research strategy.

But keep in mind that the accuracy of your research findings depends on the quality of data collected. Turn to Sprout’s social media analytics tools to uncover heaps of high-quality data across social networks.

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Written by Mary Kate Miller | June 1, 2021

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Market research is a cornerstone of all successful, strategic businesses. It can also be daunting for entrepreneurs looking to launch a startup or start a side hustle . What is market research, anyway? And how do you…do it?

We’ll walk you through absolutely everything you need to know about the market research process so that by the end of this guide, you’ll be an expert in market research too. And what’s more important: you’ll have actionable steps you can take to start collecting your own market research.

What Is Market Research?

Market research is the organized process of gathering information about your target customers and market. Market research can help you better understand customer behavior and competitor strengths and weaknesses, as well as provide insight for the best strategies in launching new businesses and products. There are different ways to approach market research, including primary and secondary research and qualitative and quantitative research. The strongest approaches will include a combination of all four.

“Virtually every business can benefit from conducting some market research,” says Niles Koenigsberg of Real FiG Advertising + Marketing . “Market research can help you piece together your [business’s] strengths and weaknesses, along with your prospective opportunities, so that you can understand where your unique differentiators may lie.” Well-honed market research will help your brand stand out from the competition and help you see what you need to do to lead the market. It can also do so much more.

The Purposes of Market Research

Why do market research? It can help you…

• Pinpoint your target market, create buyer personas, and develop a more holistic understanding of your customer base and market.
• Understand current market conditions to evaluate risks and anticipate how your product or service will perform.
• Validate a concept prior to launch.
• Identify gaps in the market that your competitors have created or overlooked.
• Solve problems that have been left unresolved by the existing product/brand offerings.
• Identify opportunities and solutions for new products or services.
• Develop killer marketing strategies .

What Are the Benefits of Market Research?

Strong market research can help your business in many ways. It can…

• Strengthen your market position.
• Help you identify your strengths and weaknesses.
• Help you identify your competitors’ strengths and weaknesses.
• Minimize risk.
• Center your customers’ experience from the get-go.
• Help you create a dynamic strategy based on market conditions and customer needs/demands.

What Are the Basic Methods of Market Research?

The basic methods of market research include surveys, personal interviews, customer observation, and the review of secondary research. In addition to these basic methods, a forward-thinking market research approach incorporates data from the digital landscape like social media analysis, SEO research, gathering feedback via forums, and more. Throughout this guide, we will cover each of the methods commonly used in market research to give you a comprehensive overview.

Primary vs. Secondary Market Research

Primary and secondary are the two main types of market research you can do. The latter relies on research conducted by others. Primary research, on the other hand, refers to the fact-finding efforts you conduct on your own.

This approach is limited, however. It’s likely that the research objectives of these secondary data points differ from your own, and it can be difficult to confirm the veracity of their findings.

Primary Market Research

Primary research is more labor intensive, but it generally yields data that is exponentially more actionable. It can be conducted through interviews, surveys, online research, and your own data collection. Every new business should engage in primary market research prior to launch. It will help you validate that your idea has traction, and it will give you the information you need to help minimize financial risk.

You can hire an agency to conduct this research on your behalf. This brings the benefit of expertise, as you’ll likely work with a market research analyst. The downside is that hiring an agency can be expensive—too expensive for many burgeoning entrepreneurs. That brings us to the second approach. You can also do the market research yourself, which substantially reduces the financial burden of starting a new business .

Secondary Market Research

Secondary research includes resources like government databases and industry-specific data and publications. It can be beneficial to start your market research with secondary sources because it’s widely available and often free-to-access. This information will help you gain a broad overview of the market conditions for your new business.

Identify Your Goals and Your Audience

Before you begin conducting interviews or sending out surveys, you need to set your market research goals. At the end of your market research process, you want to have a clear idea of who your target market is—including demographic information like age, gender, and where they live—but you also want to start with a rough idea of who your audience might be and what you’re trying to achieve with market research.

You can pinpoint your objectives by asking yourself a series of guiding questions:

• What are you hoping to discover through your research?
• Who are you hoping to serve better because of your findings?
• What do you think your market is?
• Who are your competitors?
• Are you testing the reception of a new product category or do you want to see if your product or service solves the problem left by a current gap in the market?
• Are you just…testing the waters to get a sense of how people would react to a new brand?

Once you’ve narrowed down the “what” of your market research goals, you’re ready to move onto how you can best achieve them. Think of it like algebra. Many math problems start with “solve for x.” Once you know what you’re looking for, you can get to work trying to find it. It’s a heck of a lot easier to solve a problem when you know you’re looking for “x” than if you were to say “I’m gonna throw some numbers out there and see if I find a variable.”

How to Do Market Research

This guide outlines every component of a comprehensive market research effort. Take into consideration the goals you have established for your market research, as they will influence which of these elements you’ll want to include in your market research strategy.

Secondary Data

Secondary data allows you to utilize pre-existing data to garner a sense of market conditions and opportunities. You can rely on published market studies, white papers, and public competitive information to start your market research journey.

Secondary data, while useful, is limited and cannot substitute your own primary data. It’s best used for quantitative data that can provide background to your more specific inquiries.

Find Your Customers Online

Once you’ve identified your target market, you can use online gathering spaces and forums to gain insights and give yourself a competitive advantage. Rebecca McCusker of The Creative Content Shop recommends internet recon as a vital tool for gaining a sense of customer needs and sentiment. “Read their posts and comments on forums, YouTube video comments, Facebook group [comments], and even Amazon/Goodreads book comments to get in their heads and see what people are saying.”

If you’re interested in engaging with your target demographic online, there are some general rules you should follow. First, secure the consent of any group moderators to ensure that you are acting within the group guidelines. Failure to do so could result in your eviction from the group.

Not all comments have the same research value. “Focus on the comments and posts with the most comments and highest engagement,” says McCusker. These high-engagement posts can give you a sense of what is already connecting and gaining traction within the group.

Social media can also be a great avenue for finding interview subjects. “LinkedIn is very useful if your [target customer] has a very specific job or works in a very specific industry or sector. It’s amazing the amount of people that will be willing to help,” explains Miguel González, a marketing executive at Dealers League . “My advice here is BE BRAVE, go to LinkedIn, or even to people you know and ask them, do quick interviews and ask real people that belong to that market and segment and get your buyer persona information first hand.”

Market research interviews can provide direct feedback on your brand, product, or service and give you a better understanding of consumer pain points and interests.

When organizing your market research interviews, you want to pay special attention to the sample group you’re selecting, as it will directly impact the information you receive. According to Tanya Zhang, the co-founder of Nimble Made , you want to first determine whether you want to choose a representative sample—for example, interviewing people who match each of the buyer persona/customer profiles you’ve developed—or a random sample.

“A sampling of your usual persona styles, for example, can validate details that you’ve already established about your product, while a random sampling may [help you] discover a new way people may use your product,” Zhang says.

Market Surveys

Market surveys solicit customer inclinations regarding your potential product or service through a series of open-ended questions. This direct outreach to your target audience can provide information on your customers’ preferences, attitudes, buying potential, and more.

Every expert we asked voiced unanimous support for market surveys as a powerful tool for market research. With the advent of various survey tools with accessible pricing—or free use—it’s never been easier to assemble, disseminate, and gather market surveys. While it should also be noted that surveys shouldn’t replace customer interviews , they can be used to supplement customer interviews to give you feedback from a broader audience.

Who to Include in Market Surveys

• Current customers
• Past customers
• Your existing audience (such as social media/newsletter audiences)

Example Questions to Include in Market Surveys

While the exact questions will vary for each business, here are some common, helpful questions that you may want to consider for your market survey. Demographic Questions: the questions that help you understand, demographically, who your target customers are:

• “What is your age?”
• “Where do you live?”
• “What is your gender identity?”
• “What is your household income?”
• “What is your household size?”
• “What do you do for a living?”
• “What is your highest level of education?”

Product-Based Questions: Whether you’re seeking feedback for an existing brand or an entirely new one, these questions will help you get a sense of how people feel about your business, product, or service:

• “How well does/would our product/service meet your needs?”
• “How does our product/service compare to similar products/services that you use?”
• “How long have you been a customer?” or “What is the likelihood that you would be a customer of our brand?

Personal/Informative Questions: the deeper questions that help you understand how your audience thinks and what they care about.

• “What are your biggest challenges?”
• “What’s most important to you?”
• “What do you do for fun (hobbies, interests, activities)?”
• “Where do you seek new information when researching a new product?”
• “How do you like to make purchases?”
• “What is your preferred method for interacting with a brand?”

Survey Tools

Online survey tools make it easy to distribute surveys and collect responses. The best part is that there are many free tools available. If you’re making your own online survey, you may want to consider SurveyMonkey, Typeform, Google Forms, or Zoho Survey.

Competitive Analysis

A competitive analysis is a breakdown of how your business stacks up against the competition. There are many different ways to conduct this analysis. One of the most popular methods is a SWOT analysis, which stands for “strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.” This type of analysis is helpful because it gives you a more robust understanding of why a customer might choose a competitor over your business. Seeing how you stack up against the competition can give you the direction you need to carve out your place as a market leader.

Social Media Analysis

Social media has fundamentally changed the market research landscape, making it easier than ever to engage with a wide swath of consumers. Follow your current or potential competitors on social media to see what they’re posting and how their audience is engaging with it. Social media can also give you a lower cost opportunity for testing different messaging and brand positioning.

SEO Analysis and Opportunities

SEO analysis can help you identify the digital competition for getting the word out about your brand, product, or service. You won’t want to overlook this valuable information. Search listening tools offer a novel approach to understanding the market and generating the content strategy that will drive business. Tools like Google Trends and Awario can streamline this process.

Ready to Kick Your Business Into High Gear?

Now that you’ve completed the guide to market research you know you’re ready to put on your researcher hat to give your business the best start. Still not sure how actually… launch the thing? Our free mini-course can run you through the essentials for starting your side hustle .

About Mary Kate Miller

Mary Kate Miller writes about small business, real estate, and finance. In addition to writing for Foundr, her work has been published by The Washington Post, Teen Vogue, Bustle, and more. She lives in Chicago.

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Market Research: A How-To Guide and Template

Discover the different types of market research, how to conduct your own market research, and use a free template to help you along the way.

MARKET RESEARCH KIT

5 Research and Planning Templates + a Free Guide on How to Use Them in Your Market Research

Published: 02/21/24

Today's consumers have a lot of power. As a business, you must have a deep understanding of who your buyers are and what influences their purchase decisions.

Enter: Market Research.

Whether you're new to market research or not, I created this guide to help you conduct a thorough study of your market, target audience, competition, and more. Let’s dive in.

Table of Contents

What is market research?

Primary vs. secondary research, types of market research, how to do market research, market research report template, market research examples.

Market research is the process of gathering information about your target market and customers to verify the success of a new product, help your team iterate on an existing product, or understand brand perception to ensure your team is effectively communicating your company's value effectively.

Market research can answer various questions about the state of an industry. But if you ask me, it's hardly a crystal ball that marketers can rely on for insights on their customers.

Market researchers investigate several areas of the market, and it can take weeks or even months to paint an accurate picture of the business landscape.

However, researching just one of those areas can make you more intuitive to who your buyers are and how to deliver value that no other business is offering them right now.

How? Consider these two things:

• Your competitors also have experienced individuals in the industry and a customer base. It‘s very possible that your immediate resources are, in many ways, equal to those of your competition’s immediate resources. Seeking a larger sample size for answers can provide a better edge.
• Your customers don't represent the attitudes of an entire market. They represent the attitudes of the part of the market that is already drawn to your brand.

The market research services market is growing rapidly, which signifies a strong interest in market research as we enter 2024. The market is expected to grow from roughly $75 billion in 2021 to $90.79 billion in 2025 .

Free Market Research Kit

• SWOT Analysis Template
• Survey Template
• Focus Group Template

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Click this link to access this resource at any time.

Why do market research?

Market research allows you to meet your buyer where they are.

As our world becomes louder and demands more of our attention, this proves invaluable.

By understanding your buyer's problems, pain points, and desired solutions, you can aptly craft your product or service to naturally appeal to them.

Market research also provides insight into the following:

• Where your target audience and current customers conduct their product or service research
• Which of your competitors your target audience looks to for information, options, or purchases
• What's trending in your industry and in the eyes of your buyer
• Who makes up your market and what their challenges are
• What influences purchases and conversions among your target audience
• Consumer attitudes about a particular topic, pain, product, or brand
• Whether there‘s demand for the business initiatives you’re investing in
• Unaddressed or underserved customer needs that can be flipped into selling opportunity
• Attitudes about pricing for a particular product or service

Ultimately, market research allows you to get information from a larger sample size of your target audience, eliminating bias and assumptions so that you can get to the heart of consumer attitudes.

As a result, you can make better business decisions.

To give you an idea of how extensive market research can get , consider that it can either be qualitative or quantitative in nature — depending on the studies you conduct and what you're trying to learn about your industry.

Qualitative research is concerned with public opinion, and explores how the market feels about the products currently available in that market.

Quantitative research is concerned with data, and looks for relevant trends in the information that's gathered from public records.

That said, there are two main types of market research that your business can conduct to collect actionable information on your products: primary research and secondary research.

Primary Research

Primary research is the pursuit of first-hand information about your market and the customers within your market.

It's useful when segmenting your market and establishing your buyer personas.

Primary market research tends to fall into one of two buckets:

• Exploratory Primary Research: This kind of primary market research normally takes place as a first step — before any specific research has been performed — and may involve open-ended interviews or surveys with small numbers of people.
• Specific Primary Research: This type of research often follows exploratory research. In specific research, you take a smaller or more precise segment of your audience and ask questions aimed at solving a suspected problem.

Secondary Research

Secondary research is all the data and public records you have at your disposal to draw conclusions from (e.g. trend reports, market statistics, industry content, and sales data you already have on your business).

Secondary research is particularly useful for analyzing your competitors . The main buckets your secondary market research will fall into include:

• Public Sources: These sources are your first and most-accessible layer of material when conducting secondary market research. They're often free to find and review — like government statistics (e.g., from the U.S. Census Bureau ).
• Commercial Sources: These sources often come in the form of pay-to-access market reports, consisting of industry insight compiled by a research agency like Pew , Gartner , or Forrester .
• Internal Sources: This is the market data your organization already has like average revenue per sale, customer retention rates, and other historical data that can help you draw conclusions on buyer needs.
• Focus Groups
• Product/ Service Use Research
• Observation-Based Research
• Buyer Persona Research
• Market Segmentation Research
• Pricing Research
• Competitive Analysis Research
• Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty Research
• Brand Awareness Research
• Campaign Research

1. Interviews

Interviews allow for face-to-face discussions so you can allow for a natural flow of conversation. Your interviewees can answer questions about themselves to help you design your buyer personas and shape your entire marketing strategy.

2. Focus Groups

Focus groups provide you with a handful of carefully-selected people that can test out your product and provide feedback. This type of market research can give you ideas for product differentiation.

3. Product/Service Use Research

Product or service use research offers insight into how and why your audience uses your product or service. This type of market research also gives you an idea of the product or service's usability for your target audience.

4. Observation-Based Research

Observation-based research allows you to sit back and watch the ways in which your target audience members go about using your product or service, what works well in terms of UX , and which aspects of it could be improved.

5. Buyer Persona Research

Buyer persona research gives you a realistic look at who makes up your target audience, what their challenges are, why they want your product or service, and what they need from your business or brand.

6. Market Segmentation Research

Market segmentation research allows you to categorize your target audience into different groups (or segments) based on specific and defining characteristics. This way, you can determine effective ways to meet their needs.

7. Pricing Research

Pricing research helps you define your pricing strategy . It gives you an idea of what similar products or services in your market sell for and what your target audience is willing to pay.

8. Competitive Analysis

Competitive analyses give you a deep understanding of the competition in your market and industry. You can learn about what's doing well in your industry and how you can separate yourself from the competition .

9. Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty Research

Customer satisfaction and loyalty research gives you a look into how you can get current customers to return for more business and what will motivate them to do so (e.g., loyalty programs , rewards, remarkable customer service).

10. Brand Awareness Research

Brand awareness research tells you what your target audience knows about and recognizes from your brand. It tells you about the associations people make when they think about your business.

11. Campaign Research

Campaign research entails looking into your past campaigns and analyzing their success among your target audience and current customers. The goal is to use these learnings to inform future campaigns.

• Define your buyer persona.
• Identify a persona group to engage.
• Prepare research questions for your market research participants.
• List your primary competitors.
• Summarize your findings.

1. Define your buyer persona.

You have to understand who your customers are and how customers in your industry make buying decisions.

This is where your buyer personas come in handy. Buyer personas — sometimes referred to as marketing personas — are fictional, generalized representations of your ideal customers.

Use a free tool to create a buyer persona that your entire company can use to market, sell, and serve better.

10 Free Competitive Analysis Templates

Track and analyze your competitors with these ten free planning templates.

• SWOT Analysis
• Battle Cards
• Feature Comparison
• Strategic Overview

Identifying Content Competitors

Search engines are your best friends in this area of secondary market research.

To find the online publications with which you compete, take the overarching industry term you identified in the section above, and come up with a handful of more specific industry terms your company identifies with.

A catering business, for example, might generally be a “food service” company, but also consider itself a vendor in “event catering,” “cake catering,” or “baked goods.” Once you have this list, do the following:

• Google it. Don't underestimate the value in seeing which websites come up when you run a search on Google for the industry terms that describe your company. You might find a mix of product developers, blogs, magazines, and more.
• Compare your search results against your buyer persona. If the content the website publishes seems like the stuff your buyer persona would want to see, it's a potential competitor, and should be added to your list of competitors.

5. Summarize your findings.

Feeling overwhelmed by the notes you took? We suggest looking for common themes that will help you tell a story and create a list of action items.

To make the process easier, try using your favorite presentation software to make a report, as it will make it easy to add in quotes, diagrams, or call clips.

Feel free to add your own flair, but the following outline should help you craft a clear summary:

• Background: Your goals and why you conducted this study.
• Participants: Who you talked to. A table works well so you can break groups down by persona and customer/prospect.
• Executive Summary : What were the most interesting things you learned? What do you plan to do about it?
• Awareness: Describe the common triggers that lead someone to enter into an evaluation. (Quotes can be very powerful.)
• Consideration: Provide the main themes you uncovered, as well as the detailed sources buyers use when conducting their evaluation.
• Decision: Paint the picture of how a decision is really made by including the people at the center of influence and any product features or information that can make or break a deal.
• Action Plan: Your analysis probably uncovered a few campaigns you can run to get your brand in front of buyers earlier and/or more effectively. Provide your list of priorities, a timeline, and the impact it will have on your business.

Within a market research kit, there are a number of critical pieces of information for your business‘s success. Let’s take a look at these elements.

Pro Tip: Upon downloading HubSpot's free Market Research Kit , you'll receive editable templates for each of the given parts of the kit, instructions on how to use the kit, and a mock presentation that you can edit and customize.

The Beginner's Guide to the Competitive Matrix [+ Templates]

What is a Competitive Analysis — and How Do You Conduct One?

9 Best Marketing Research Methods to Know Your Buyer Better [+ Examples]

SWOT Analysis: How To Do One [With Template & Examples]

28 Tools & Resources for Conducting Market Research

TAM, SAM & SOM: What Do They Mean & How Do You Calculate Them?

How to Run a Competitor Analysis [Free Guide]

5 Challenges Marketers Face in Understanding Audiences [New Data + Market Researcher Tips]

Causal Research: The Complete Guide

Free Guide & Templates to Help Your Market Research

Marketing software that helps you drive revenue, save time and resources, and measure and optimize your investments — all on one easy-to-use platform

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What Is Market Research?

• How It Works
• Primary vs. Secondary
• How to Conduct Research

The Bottom Line

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How to Do Market Research, Types, and Example

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Joules Garcia / Investopedia

Market research examines consumer behavior and trends in the economy to help a business develop and fine-tune its business idea and strategy. It helps a business understand its target market by gathering and analyzing data.

Market research is the process of evaluating the viability of a new service or product through research conducted directly with potential customers. It allows a company to define its target market and get opinions and other feedback from consumers about their interest in a product or service.

Research may be conducted in-house or by a third party that specializes in market research. It can be done through surveys and focus groups, among other ways. Test subjects are usually compensated with product samples or a small stipend for their time.

Key Takeaways

• Companies conduct market research before introducing new products to determine their appeal to potential customers.
• Tools include focus groups, telephone interviews, and questionnaires.
• The results of market research inform the final design of the product and determine how it will be positioned in the marketplace.
• Market research usually combines primary information, gathered directly from consumers, and secondary information, which is data available from external sources.

Market Research

How market research works.

Market research is used to determine the viability of a new product or service. The results may be used to revise the product design and fine-tune the strategy for introducing it to the public. This can include information gathered for the purpose of determining market segmentation . It also informs product differentiation , which is used to tailor advertising.

A business engages in various tasks to complete the market research process. It gathers information based on the market sector being targeted by the product. This information is then analyzed and relevant data points are interpreted to draw conclusions about how the product may be optimally designed and marketed to the market segment for which it is intended.

It is a critical component in the research and development (R&D) phase of a new product or service introduction. Market research can be conducted in many different ways, including surveys, product testing, interviews, and focus groups.

Market research is a critical tool that companies use to understand what consumers want, develop products that those consumers will use, and maintain a competitive advantage over other companies in their industry.

Primary Market Research vs. Secondary Market Research

Market research usually consists of a combination of:

• Primary research, gathered by the company or by an outside company that it hires
• Secondary research, which draws on external sources of data

Primary Market Research

Primary research generally falls into two categories: exploratory and specific research.

• Exploratory research is less structured and functions via open-ended questions. The questions may be posed in a focus group setting, telephone interviews, or questionnaires. It results in questions or issues that the company needs to address about a product that it has under development.
• Specific research delves more deeply into the problems or issues identified in exploratory research.

Secondary Market Research

All market research is informed by the findings of other researchers about the needs and wants of consumers. Today, much of this research can be found online.

Secondary research can include population information from government census data , trade association research reports , polling results, and research from other businesses operating in the same market sector.

History of Market Research

Formal market research began in Germany during the 1920s. In the United States, it soon took off with the advent of the Golden Age of Radio.

Companies that created advertisements for this new entertainment medium began to look at the demographics of the audiences who listened to each of the radio plays, music programs, and comedy skits that were presented.

They had once tried to reach the widest possible audience by placing their messages on billboards or in the most popular magazines. With radio programming, they had the chance to target rural or urban consumers, teenagers or families, and judge the results by the sales numbers that followed.

Types of Market Research

Face-to-face interviews.

From their earliest days, market research companies would interview people on the street about the newspapers and magazines that they read regularly and ask whether they recalled any of the ads or brands that were published in them. Data collected from these interviews were compared to the circulation of the publication to determine the effectiveness of those ads.

Market research and surveys were adapted from these early techniques.

To get a strong understanding of your market, it’s essential to understand demand, market size, economic indicators, location, market saturation, and pricing.

Focus Groups

A focus group is a small number of representative consumers chosen to try a product or watch an advertisement.

Afterward, the group is asked for feedback on their perceptions of the product, the company’s brand, or competing products. The company then takes that information and makes decisions about what to do with the product or service, whether that's releasing it, making changes, or abandoning it altogether.

Phone Research

The man-on-the-street interview technique soon gave way to the telephone interview. A telephone interviewer could collect information in a more efficient and cost-effective fashion.

Telephone research was a preferred tactic of market researchers for many years. It has become much more difficult in recent years as landline phone service dwindles and is replaced by less accessible mobile phones.

Survey Research

As an alternative to focus groups, surveys represent a cost-effective way to determine consumer attitudes without having to interview anyone in person. Consumers are sent surveys in the mail, usually with a coupon or voucher to incentivize participation. These surveys help determine how consumers feel about the product, brand, and price point.

Online Market Research

With people spending more time online, market research activities have shifted online as well. Data collection still uses a survey-style form. But instead of companies actively seeking participants by finding them on the street or cold calling them on the phone, people can choose to sign up, take surveys, and offer opinions when they have time.

This makes the process far less intrusive and less rushed, since people can participate on their own time and of their own volition.

How to Conduct Market Research

The first step to effective market research is to determine the goals of the study. Each study should seek to answer a clear, well-defined problem. For example, a company might seek to identify consumer preferences, brand recognition, or the comparative effectiveness of different types of ad campaigns.

After that, the next step is to determine who will be included in the research. Market research is an expensive process, and a company cannot waste resources collecting unnecessary data. The firm should decide in advance which types of consumers will be included in the research, and how the data will be collected. They should also account for the probability of statistical errors or sampling bias .

The next step is to collect the data and analyze the results. If the two previous steps have been completed accurately, this should be straightforward. The researchers will collect the results of their study, keeping track of the ages, gender, and other relevant data of each respondent. This is then analyzed in a marketing report that explains the results of their research.

The last step is for company executives to use their market research to make business decisions. Depending on the results of their research, they may choose to target a different group of consumers, or they may change their price point or some product features.

The results of these changes may eventually be measured in further market research, and the process will begin all over again.

Benefits of Market Research

Market research is essential for developing brand loyalty and customer satisfaction. Since it is unlikely for a product to appeal equally to every consumer, a strong market research program can help identify the key demographics and market segments that are most likely to use a given product.

Market research is also important for developing a company’s advertising efforts. For example, if a company’s market research determines that its consumers are more likely to use Facebook than X (formerly Twitter), it can then target its advertisements to one platform instead of another. Or, if they determine that their target market is value-sensitive rather than price-sensitive, they can work on improving the product rather than reducing their prices.

Market research only works when subjects are honest and open to participating.

Example of Market Research

Many companies use market research to test new products or get information from consumers about what kinds of products or services they need and don’t currently have.

For example, a company that’s considering starting a business might conduct market research to test the viability of its product or service. If the market research confirms consumer interest, the business can proceed confidently with its business plan . If not, the company can use the results of the market research to make adjustments to the product to bring it in line with customer desires.

What Are the Main Types of Market Research?

The main types of market research are primary research and secondary research. Primary research includes focus groups, polls, and surveys. Secondary research includes academic articles, infographics, and white papers.

Qualitative research gives insights into how customers feel and think. Quantitative research uses data and statistics such as website views, social media engagement, and subscriber numbers.

What Is Online Market Research?

Online market research uses the same strategies and techniques as traditional primary and secondary market research, but it is conducted on the Internet. Potential customers may be asked to participate in a survey or give feedback on a product. The responses may help the researchers create a profile of the likely customer for a new product.

What Are Paid Market Research Surveys?

Paid market research involves rewarding individuals who agree to participate in a study. They may be offered a small payment for their time or a discount coupon in return for filling out a questionnaire or participating in a focus group.

What Is a Market Study?

A market study is an analysis of consumer demand for a product or service. It looks at all of the factors that influence demand for a product or service. These include the product’s price, location, competition, and substitutes as well as general economic factors that could influence the new product’s adoption, for better or worse.

Market research is a key component of a company’s research and development (R&D) stage. It helps companies understand in advance the viability of a new product that they have in development and to see how it might perform in the real world.

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Market research definition

Market research – in-house or outsourced, market research in the age of data, when to use market research.

• Types of market research 

Different types of primary research

How to do market research (primary data), how to do secondary market research, communicating your market research findings, choose the right platform for your market research, try qualtrics for free, the ultimate guide to market research: how to conduct it like a pro.

27 min read Wondering how to do market research? Or even where to start learning about it? Use our ultimate guide to understand the basics and discover how you can use market research to help your business.

Market research is the practice of gathering information about the needs and preferences of your target audience – potential consumers of your product.

When you understand how your target consumer feels and behaves, you can then take steps to meet their needs and mitigate the risk of an experience gap – where there is a shortfall between what a consumer expects you to deliver and what you actually deliver. Market research can also help you keep abreast of what your competitors are offering, which in turn will affect what your customers expect from you.

Market research connects with every aspect of a business – including brand , product , customer service , marketing and sales.

Market research generally focuses on understanding:

• The consumer (current customers, past customers, non-customers, influencers))
• The company (product or service design, promotion, pricing, placement, service, sales)
• The competitors (and how their market offerings interact in the market environment)
• The industry overall (whether it’s growing or moving in a certain direction)

Free eBook: 2024 market research trends report

Why is market research important?

A successful business relies on understanding what like, what they dislike, what they need and what messaging they will respond to. Businesses also need to understand their competition to identify opportunities to differentiate their products and services from other companies.

Today’s business leaders face an endless stream of decisions around target markets, pricing, promotion, distribution channels, and product features and benefits . They must account for all the factors involved, and there are market research studies and methodologies strategically designed to capture meaningful data to inform every choice. It can be a daunting task.

Market research allows companies to make data-driven decisions to drive growth and innovation.

What happens when you don’t do market research?

Without market research, business decisions are based at best on past consumer behavior, economic indicators, or at worst, on gut feel. Decisions are made in a bubble without thought to what the competition is doing. An important aim of market research is to remove subjective opinions when making business decisions. As a brand you are there to serve your customers, not personal preferences within the company. You are far more likely to be successful if you know the difference, and market research will help make sure your decisions are insight-driven.

Traditionally there have been specialist market researchers who are very good at what they do, and businesses have been reliant on their ability to do it. Market research specialists will always be an important part of the industry, as most brands are limited by their internal capacity, expertise and budgets and need to outsource at least some aspects of the work.

However, the market research external agency model has meant that brands struggled to keep up with the pace of change. Their customers would suffer because their needs were not being wholly met with point-in-time market research.

Businesses looking to conduct market research have to tackle many questions –

• Who are my consumers, and how should I segment and prioritize them?
• What are they looking for within my category?
• How much are they buying, and what are their purchase triggers, barriers, and buying habits?
• Will my marketing and communications efforts resonate?
• Is my brand healthy ?
• What product features matter most?
• Is my product or service ready for launch?
• Are my pricing and packaging plans optimized?

They all need to be answered, but many businesses have found the process of data collection daunting, time-consuming and expensive. The hardest battle is often knowing where to begin and short-term demands have often taken priority over longer-term projects that require patience to offer return on investment.

Today however, the industry is making huge strides, driven by quickening product cycles, tighter competition and business imperatives around more data-driven decision making. With the emergence of simple, easy to use tools , some degree of in-house market research is now seen as essential, with fewer excuses not to use data to inform your decisions. With greater accessibility to such software, everyone can be an expert regardless of level or experience.

How is this possible?

The art of research hasn’t gone away. It is still a complex job and the volume of data that needs to be analyzed is huge. However with the right tools and support, sophisticated research can look very simple – allowing you to focus on taking action on what matters.

If you’re not yet using technology to augment your in-house market research, now is the time to start.

The most successful brands rely on multiple sources of data to inform their strategy and decision making, from their marketing segmentation to the product features they develop to comments on social media. In fact, there’s tools out there that use machine learning and AI to automate the tracking of what’s people are saying about your brand across all sites.

The emergence of newer and more sophisticated tools and platforms gives brands access to more data sources than ever and how the data is analyzed and used to make decisions. This also increases the speed at which they operate, with minimal lead time allowing brands to be responsive to business conditions and take an agile approach to improvements and opportunities.

Expert partners have an important role in getting the best data, particularly giving access to additional market research know-how, helping you find respondents , fielding surveys and reporting on results.

How do you measure success?

Business activities are usually measured on how well they deliver return on investment (ROI). Since market research doesn’t generate any revenue directly, its success has to be measured by looking at the positive outcomes it drives – happier customers, a healthier brand, and so on.

When changes to your products or your marketing strategy are made as a result of your market research findings, you can compare on a before-and-after basis to see if the knowledge you acted on has delivered value.

Regardless of the function you work within, understanding the consumer is the goal of any market research. To do this, we have to understand what their needs are in order to effectively meet them. If we do that, we are more likely to drive customer satisfaction , and in turn, increase customer retention .

Several metrics and KPIs are used to gauge the success of decisions made from market research results, including

• Brand awareness within the target market
• Share of wallet
• CSAT (customer satisfaction)
• NPS (Net Promoter Score)

You can use market research for almost anything related to your current customers, potential customer base or target market. If you want to find something out from your target audience, it’s likely market research is the answer.

Here are a few of the most common uses:

Buyer segmentation and profiling

Segmentation is a popular technique that separates your target market according to key characteristics, such as behavior, demographic information and social attitudes. Segmentation allows you to create relevant content for your different segments, ideally helping you to better connect with all of them.

Buyer personas are profiles of fictional customers – with real attributes. Buyer personas help you develop products and communications that are right for your different audiences, and can also guide your decision-making process. Buyer personas capture the key characteristics of your customer segments, along with meaningful insights about what they want or need from you. They provide a powerful reminder of consumer attitudes when developing a product or service, a marketing campaign or a new brand direction.

By understanding your buyers and potential customers, including their motivations, needs, and pain points, you can optimize everything from your marketing communications to your products to make sure the right people get the relevant content, at the right time, and via the right channel .

Attitudes and Usage surveys

Attitude & Usage research helps you to grow your brand by providing a detailed understanding of consumers. It helps you understand how consumers use certain products and why, what their needs are, what their preferences are, and what their pain points are. It helps you to find gaps in the market, anticipate future category needs, identify barriers to entry and build accurate go-to-market strategies and business plans.

Marketing strategy

Effective market research is a crucial tool for developing an effective marketing strategy – a company’s plan for how they will promote their products.

It helps marketers look like rock stars by helping them understand the target market to avoid mistakes, stay on message, and predict customer needs . It’s marketing’s job to leverage relevant data to reach the best possible solution  based on the research available. Then, they can implement the solution, modify the solution, and successfully deliver that solution to the market.

Product development

You can conduct market research into how a select group of consumers use and perceive your product – from how they use it through to what they like and dislike about it. Evaluating your strengths and weaknesses early on allows you to focus resources on ideas with the most potential and to gear your product or service design to a specific market.

Chobani’s yogurt pouches are a product optimized through great market research . Using product concept testing – a form of market research – Chobani identified that packaging could negatively impact consumer purchase decisions. The brand made a subtle change, ensuring the item satisfied the needs of consumers. This ability to constantly refine its products for customer needs and preferences has helped Chobani become Australia’s #1 yogurt brand and increase market share.

Pricing decisions

Market research provides businesses with insights to guide pricing decisions too. One of the most powerful tools available to market researchers is conjoint analysis, a form of market research study that uses choice modeling to help brands identify the perfect set of features and price for customers. Another useful tool is the Gabor-Granger method, which helps you identify the highest price consumers are willing to pay for a given product or service.

Brand tracking studies

A company’s brand is one of its most important assets. But unlike other metrics like product sales, it’s not a tangible measure you can simply pull from your system. Regular market research that tracks consumer perceptions of your brand allows you to monitor and optimize your brand strategy in real time, then respond to consumer feedback to help maintain or build your brand with your target customers.

Advertising and communications testing

Advertising campaigns can be expensive, and without pre-testing, they carry risk of falling flat with your target audience. By testing your campaigns, whether it’s the message or the creative, you can understand how consumers respond to your communications before you deploy them so you can make changes in response to consumer feedback before you go live.

Finder, which is one of the world’s fastest-growing online comparison websites, is an example of a brand using market research to inject some analytical rigor into the business. Fueled by great market research, the business lifted brand awareness by 23 percent, boosted NPS by 8 points, and scored record profits – all within 10 weeks.

Competitive analysis

Another key part of developing the right product and communications is understanding your main competitors and how consumers perceive them. You may have looked at their websites and tried out their product or service, but unless you know how consumers perceive them, you won’t have an accurate view of where you stack up in comparison. Understanding their position in the market allows you to identify the strengths you can exploit, as well as any weaknesses you can address to help you compete better.

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Types of market research

Although there are many types market research, all methods can be sorted into one of two categories: primary and secondary.

Primary research

Primary research is market research data that you collect yourself. This is raw data collected through a range of different means – surveys , focus groups,  , observation and interviews being among the most popular.

Primary information is fresh, unused data, giving you a perspective that is current or perhaps extra confidence when confirming hypotheses you already had. It can also be very targeted to your exact needs. Primary information can be extremely valuable. Tools for collecting primary information are increasingly sophisticated and the market is growing rapidly.

Historically, conducting market research in-house has been a daunting concept for brands because they don’t quite know where to begin, or how to handle vast volumes of data. Now, the emergence of technology has meant that brands have access to simple, easy to use tools to help with exactly that problem. As a result, brands are more confident about their own projects and data with the added benefit of seeing the insights emerge in real-time.

Secondary research

Secondary research is the use of data that has already been collected, analyzed and published – typically it’s data you don’t own and that hasn’t been conducted with your business specifically in mind, although there are forms of internal secondary data like old reports or figures from past financial years that come from within your business. Secondary research can be used to support the use of primary research.

Secondary research can be beneficial to small businesses because it is sometimes easier to obtain, often through research companies. Although the rise of primary research tools are challenging this trend by allowing businesses to conduct their own market research more cheaply, secondary research is often a cheaper alternative for businesses who need to spend money carefully. Some forms of secondary research have been described as ‘lean market research’ because they are fast and pragmatic, building on what’s already there.

Because it’s not specific to your business, secondary research may be less relevant, and you’ll need to be careful to make sure it applies to your exact research question. It may also not be owned, which means your competitors and other parties also have access to it.

Primary or secondary research – which to choose?

Both primary and secondary research have their advantages, but they are often best used when paired together, giving you the confidence to act knowing that the hypothesis you have is robust.

Secondary research is sometimes preferred because there is a misunderstanding of the feasibility of primary research. Thanks to advances in technology, brands have far greater accessibility to primary research, but this isn’t always known.

If you’ve decided to gather your own primary information, there are many different data collection methods that you may consider. For example:

• Customer surveys
• Focus groups
• Observation

Think carefully about what you’re trying to accomplish before picking the data collection method(s) you’re going to use. Each one has its pros and cons. Asking someone a simple, multiple-choice survey question will generate a different type of data than you might obtain with an in-depth interview. Determine if your primary research is exploratory or specific, and if you’ll need qualitative research, quantitative research, or both.

Qualitative vs quantitative

Another way of categorizing different types of market research is according to whether they are qualitative or quantitative.

Qualitative research

Qualitative research is the collection of data that is non-numerical in nature. It summarizes and infers, rather than pin-points an exact truth. It is exploratory and can lead to the generation of a hypothesis.

Market research techniques that would gather qualitative data include:

• Interviews (face to face / telephone)
• Open-ended survey questions

Researchers use these types of market research technique because they can add more depth to the data. So for example, in focus groups or interviews, rather than being limited to ‘yes’ or ‘no’ for a certain question, you can start to understand why someone might feel a certain way.

Quantitative research

Quantitative research is the collection of data that is numerical in nature. It is much more black and white in comparison to qualitative data, although you need to make sure there is a representative sample if you want the results to be reflective of reality.

Quantitative researchers often start with a hypothesis and then collect data which can be used to determine whether empirical evidence to support that hypothesis exists.

Quantitative research methods include:

• Questionnaires
• Review scores

Exploratory and specific research

Exploratory research is the approach to take if you don’t know what you don’t know. It can give you broad insights about your customers, product, brand, and market. If you want to answer a specific question, then you’ll be conducting specific research.

• Exploratory . This research is general and open-ended, and typically involves lengthy interviews with an individual or small focus group.
• Specific . This research is often used to solve a problem identified in exploratory research. It involves more structured, formal interviews.

Exploratory primary research is generally conducted by collecting qualitative data. Specific research usually finds its insights through quantitative data.

Primary research can be qualitative or quantitative, large-scale or focused and specific. You’ll carry it out using methods like surveys – which can be used for both qualitative and quantitative studies – focus groups, observation of consumer behavior, interviews, or online tools.

Step 1: Identify your research topic

Research topics could include:

• Product features
• Product or service launch
• Understanding a new target audience (or updating an existing audience)
• Brand identity
• Marketing campaign concepts
• Customer experience

Step 2: Draft a research hypothesis

A hypothesis is the assumption you’re starting out with. Since you can disprove a negative much more easily than prove a positive, a hypothesis is a negative statement such as ‘price has no effect on brand perception’.

Step 3: Determine which research methods are most effective

Your choice of methods depends on budget, time constraints, and the type of question you’re trying to answer. You could combine surveys, interviews and focus groups to get a mix of qualitative and quantitative data.

Step 4: Determine how you will collect and analyze your data.

Primary research can generate a huge amount of data, and when the goal is to uncover actionable insight, it can be difficult to know where to begin or what to pay attention to.

The rise in brands taking their market research and data analysis in-house has coincided with the rise of technology simplifying the process. These tools pull through large volumes of data and outline significant information that will help you make the most important decisions.

Step 5: Conduct your research!

This is how you can run your research using Qualtrics CoreXM

• Pre-launch – Here you want to ensure that the survey/ other research methods conform to the project specifications (what you want to achieve/research)
• Soft launch – Collect a small fraction of the total data before you fully launch. This means you can check that everything is working as it should and you can correct any data quality issues.
• Full launch – You’ve done the hard work to get to this point. If you’re using a tool, you can sit back and relax, or if you get curious you can check on the data in your account.
• Review – review your data for any issues or low-quality responses. You may need to remove this in order not to impact the analysis of the data.

A helping hand

If you are missing the skills, capacity or inclination to manage your research internally, Qualtrics Research Services can help. From design, to writing the survey based on your needs, to help with survey programming, to handling the reporting, Research Services acts as an extension of the team and can help wherever necessary.

Secondary market research can be taken from a variety of places. Some data is completely free to access – other information could end up costing hundreds of thousands of dollars. There are three broad categories of secondary research sources:

• Public sources – these sources are accessible to anyone who asks for them. They include census data, market statistics, library catalogs, university libraries and more. Other organizations may also put out free data from time to time with the goal of advancing a cause, or catching people’s attention.
• Internal sources – sometimes the most valuable sources of data already exist somewhere within your organization. Internal sources can be preferable for secondary research on account of their price (free) and unique findings. Since internal sources are not accessible by competitors, using them can provide a distinct competitive advantage.
• Commercial sources – if you have money for it, the easiest way to acquire secondary market research is to simply buy it from private companies. Many organizations exist for the sole purpose of doing market research and can provide reliable, in-depth, industry-specific reports.

No matter where your research is coming from, it is important to ensure that the source is reputable and reliable so you can be confident in the conclusions you draw from it.

How do you know if a source is reliable?

Use established and well-known research publishers, such as the XM Institute , Forrester and McKinsey . Government websites also publish research and this is free of charge. By taking the information directly from the source (rather than a third party) you are minimizing the risk of the data being misinterpreted and the message or insights being acted on out of context.

How to apply secondary research

The purpose and application of secondary research will vary depending on your circumstances. Often, secondary research is used to support primary research and therefore give you greater confidence in your conclusions. However, there may be circumstances that prevent this – such as the timeframe and budget of the project.

Keep an open mind when collecting all the relevant research so that there isn’t any collection bias. Then begin analyzing the conclusions formed to see if any trends start to appear. This will help you to draw a consensus from the secondary research overall.

Market research success is defined by the impact it has on your business’s success. Make sure it’s not discarded or ignored by communicating your findings effectively. Here are some tips on how to do it.

• Less is more – Preface your market research report with executive summaries that highlight your key discoveries and their implications
• Lead with the basic information – Share the top 4-5 recommendations in bullet-point form, rather than requiring your readers to go through pages of analysis and data
• Model the impact – Provide examples and model the impact of any changes you put in place based on your findings
• Show, don’t tell – Add illustrative examples that relate directly to the research findings and emphasize specific points
• Speed is of the essence – Make data available in real-time so it can be rapidly incorporated into strategies and acted upon to maximize value
• Work with experts – Make sure you’ve access to a dedicated team of experts ready to help you design and launch successful projects

Trusted by 8,500 brands for everything from product testing to competitor analysis, Our Strategic Research software is the world’s most powerful and flexible research platform . With over 100 question types and advanced logic, you can build out your surveys and see real-time data you can share across the organization. Plus, you’ll be able to turn data into insights with iQ, our predictive intelligence engine that runs complicated analysis at the click of a button.

Related resources

Mixed methods research 17 min read, market intelligence 10 min read, marketing insights 11 min read, ethnographic research 11 min read, qualitative vs quantitative research 13 min read, qualitative research questions 11 min read, qualitative research design 12 min read, request demo.

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How to do market research in 4 steps: a lean approach to marketing research

From pinpointing your target audience and assessing your competitive advantage, to ongoing product development and customer satisfaction efforts, market research is a practice your business can only benefit from.

Learn how to conduct quick and effective market research using a lean approach in this article full of strategies and practical examples. 

Last updated

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A comprehensive (and successful) business strategy is not complete without some form of market research—you can’t make informed and profitable business decisions without truly understanding your customer base and the current market trends that drive your business.

In this article, you’ll learn how to conduct quick, effective market research  using an approach called 'lean market research'. It’s easier than you might think, and it can be done at any stage in a product’s lifecycle.

How to conduct lean market research in 4 steps

What is market research, why is market research so valuable, advantages of lean market research, 4 common market research methods, 5 common market research questions, market research faqs.

We’ll jump right into our 4-step approach to lean market research. To show you how it’s done in the real world, each step includes a practical example from Smallpdf , a Swiss company that used lean market research to reduce their tool’s error rate by 75% and boost their Net Promoter Score® (NPS) by 1%.

Research your market the lean way...

From on-page surveys to user interviews, Hotjar has the tools to help you scope out your market and get to know your customers—without breaking the bank.

The following four steps and practical examples will give you a solid market research plan for understanding who your users are and what they want from a company like yours.

1. Create simple user personas

A user persona is a semi-fictional character based on psychographic and demographic data from people who use websites and products similar to your own. Start by defining broad user categories, then elaborate on them later to further segment your customer base and determine your ideal customer profile .

How to get the data: use on-page or emailed surveys and interviews to understand your users and what drives them to your business.

How to do it right: whatever survey or interview questions you ask, they should answer the following questions about the customer:

Who are they?

What is their main goal?

What is their main barrier to achieving this goal?

Pitfalls to avoid:

Don’t ask too many questions! Keep it to five or less, otherwise you’ll inundate them and they’ll stop answering thoughtfully.

Don’t worry too much about typical demographic questions like age or background. Instead, focus on the role these people play (as it relates to your product) and their goals.

How Smallpdf did it: Smallpdf ran an on-page survey for a couple of weeks and received 1,000 replies. They learned that many of their users were administrative assistants, students, and teachers.

Next, they used the survey results to create simple user personas like this one for admins:

Who are they? Administrative Assistants.

What is their main goal? Creating Word documents from a scanned, hard-copy document or a PDF where the source file was lost.

What is their main barrier to achieving it? Converting a scanned PDF doc to a Word file.

💡Pro tip: Smallpdf used Hotjar Surveys to run their user persona survey. Our survey tool helped them avoid the pitfalls of guesswork and find out who their users really are, in their own words. 

You can design a survey and start running it in minutes with our easy-to-use drag and drop builder. Customize your survey to fit your needs, from a sleek one-question pop-up survey to a fully branded questionnaire sent via email. 

We've also created 40+ free survey templates that you can start collecting data with, including a user persona survey like the one Smallpdf used.

2. Conduct observational research

Observational research involves taking notes while watching someone use your product (or a similar product).

Overt vs. covert observation

Overt observation involves asking customers if they’ll let you watch them use your product. This method is often used for user testing and it provides a great opportunity for collecting live product or customer feedback .

Covert observation means studying users ‘in the wild’ without them knowing. This method works well if you sell a type of product that people use regularly, and it offers the purest observational data because people often behave differently when they know they’re being watched. 

Tips to do it right:

Record an entry in your field notes, along with a timestamp, each time an action or event occurs.

Make note of the users' workflow, capturing the ‘what,’ ‘why,’ and ‘for whom’ of each action.

Don’t record identifiable video or audio data without consent. If recording people using your product is helpful for achieving your research goal, make sure all participants are informed and agree to the terms.

Don’t forget to explain why you’d like to observe them (for overt observation). People are more likely to cooperate if you tell them you want to improve the product.

💡Pro tip: while conducting field research out in the wild can wield rewarding results, you can also conduct observational research remotely. Hotjar Recordings is a tool that lets you capture anonymized user sessions of real people interacting with your website. 

Observe how customers navigate your pages and products to gain an inside look into their user behavior . This method is great for conducting exploratory research with the purpose of identifying more specific issues to investigate further, like pain points along the customer journey and opportunities for optimizing conversion .

With Hotjar Recordings you can observe real people using your site without capturing their sensitive information

How Smallpdf did it: here’s how Smallpdf observed two different user personas both covertly and overtly.

Observing students (covert): Kristina Wagner, Principle Product Manager at Smallpdf, went to cafes and libraries at two local universities and waited until she saw students doing PDF-related activities. Then she watched and took notes from a distance. One thing that struck her was the difference between how students self-reported their activities vs. how they behaved (i.e, the self-reporting bias). Students, she found, spent hours talking, listening to music, or simply staring at a blank screen rather than working. When she did find students who were working, she recorded the task they were performing and the software they were using (if she recognized it).

Observing administrative assistants (overt): Kristina sent emails to admins explaining that she’d like to observe them at work, and she asked those who agreed to try to batch their PDF work for her observation day. While watching admins work, she learned that they frequently needed to scan documents into PDF-format and then convert those PDFs into Word docs. By observing the challenges admins faced, Smallpdf knew which products to target for improvement.

“Data is really good for discovery and validation, but there is a bit in the middle where you have to go and find the human.”

3. Conduct individual interviews

Interviews are one-on-one conversations with members of your target market. They allow you to dig deep and explore their concerns, which can lead to all sorts of revelations.

Listen more, talk less. Be curious.

Act like a journalist, not a salesperson. Rather than trying to talk your company up, ask people about their lives, their needs, their frustrations, and how a product like yours could help.

Ask "why?" so you can dig deeper. Get into the specifics and learn about their past behavior.

Record the conversation. Focus on the conversation and avoid relying solely on notes by recording the interview. There are plenty of services that will transcribe recorded conversations for a good price (including Hotjar!).

Avoid asking leading questions , which reveal bias on your part and pushes respondents to answer in a certain direction (e.g. “Have you taken advantage of the amazing new features we just released?).

Don't ask loaded questions , which sneak in an assumption which, if untrue, would make it impossible to answer honestly. For example, we can’t ask you, “What did you find most useful about this article?” without asking whether you found the article useful in the first place.

Be cautious when asking opinions about the future (or predictions of future behavior). Studies suggest that people aren’t very good at predicting their future behavior. This is due to several cognitive biases, from the misguided exceptionalism bias (we’re good at guessing what others will do, but we somehow think we’re different), to the optimism bias (which makes us see things with rose-colored glasses), to the ‘illusion of control’ (which makes us forget the role of randomness in future events).

How Smallpdf did it: Kristina explored her teacher user persona by speaking with university professors at a local graduate school. She learned that the school was mostly paperless and rarely used PDFs, so for the sake of time, she moved on to the admins.

A bit of a letdown? Sure. But this story highlights an important lesson: sometimes you follow a lead and come up short, so you have to make adjustments on the fly. Lean market research is about getting solid, actionable insights quickly so you can tweak things and see what works.

💡Pro tip: to save even more time, conduct remote interviews using an online user research service like Hotjar Engage , which automates the entire interview process, from recruitment and scheduling to hosting and recording.

You can interview your own customers or connect with people from our diverse pool of 200,000+ participants from 130+ countries and 25 industries. And no need to fret about taking meticulous notes—Engage will automatically transcribe the interview for you.

4. Analyze the data (without drowning in it)

The following techniques will help you wrap your head around the market data you collect without losing yourself in it. Remember, the point of lean market research is to find quick, actionable insights.

A flow model is a diagram that tracks the flow of information within a system. By creating a simple visual representation of how users interact with your product and each other, you can better assess their needs.

You’ll notice that admins are at the center of Smallpdf’s flow model, which represents the flow of PDF-related documents throughout a school. This flow model shows the challenges that admins face as they work to satisfy their own internal and external customers.

Affinity diagram

An affinity diagram is a way of sorting large amounts of data into groups to better understand the big picture. For example, if you ask your users about their profession, you’ll notice some general themes start to form, even though the individual responses differ. Depending on your needs, you could group them by profession, or more generally by industry.

We wrote a guide about how to analyze open-ended questions to help you sort through and categorize large volumes of response data. You can also do this by hand by clipping up survey responses or interview notes and grouping them (which is what Kristina does).

“For an interview, you will have somewhere between 30 and 60 notes, and those notes are usually direct phrases. And when you literally cut them up into separate pieces of paper and group them, they should make sense by themselves.”

Pro tip: if you’re conducting an online survey with Hotjar, keep your team in the loop by sharing survey responses automatically via our Slack and Microsoft Team integrations. Reading answers as they come in lets you digest the data in pieces and can help prepare you for identifying common themes when it comes time for analysis.

Hotjar lets you easily share survey responses with your team

Customer journey map

A customer journey map is a diagram that shows the way a typical prospect becomes a paying customer. It outlines their first interaction with your brand and every step in the sales cycle, from awareness to repurchase (and hopefully advocacy).

The above  customer journey map , created by our team at Hotjar, shows many ways a customer might engage with our tool. Your map will be based on your own data and business model.

📚 Read more: if you’re new to customer journey maps, we wrote this step-by-step guide to creating your first customer journey map in 2 and 1/2 days with free templates you can download and start using immediately.

Next steps: from research to results

So, how do you turn market research insights into tangible business results? Let’s look at the actions Smallpdf took after conducting their lean market research: first they implemented changes, then measured the impact.

Implement changes

Based on what Smallpdf learned about the challenges that one key user segment (admins) face when trying to convert PDFs into Word files, they improved their ‘PDF to Word’ conversion tool.

We won’t go into the details here because it involves a lot of technical jargon, but they made the entire process simpler and more straightforward for users. Plus, they made it so that their system recognized when you drop a PDF file into their ‘Word to PDF’ converter instead of the ‘PDF to Word’ converter, so users wouldn’t have to redo the task when they made that mistake. 

In other words: simple market segmentation for admins showed a business need that had to be accounted for, and customers are happier overall after Smallpdf implemented an informed change to their product.

Measure results

According to the Lean UX model, product and UX changes aren’t retained unless they achieve results.

Smallpdf’s changes produced:

A 75% reduction in error rate for the ‘PDF to Word’ converter

A 1% increase in NPS

Greater confidence in the team’s marketing efforts

"With all the changes said and done, we've cut our original error rate in four, which is huge. We increased our NPS by +1%, which isn't huge, but it means that of the users who received a file, they were still slightly happier than before, even if they didn't notice that anything special happened at all.”

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Market research (or marketing research) is any set of techniques used to gather information and better understand a company’s target market. This might include primary research on brand awareness and customer satisfaction or secondary market research on market size and competitive analysis. Businesses use this information to design better products, improve user experience, and craft a marketing strategy that attracts quality leads and improves conversion rates.

David Darmanin, one of Hotjar’s founders, launched two startups before Hotjar took off—but both companies crashed and burned. Each time, he and his team spent months trying to design an amazing new product and user experience, but they failed because they didn’t have a clear understanding of what the market demanded.

With Hotjar, they did things differently . Long story short, they conducted market research in the early stages to figure out what consumers really wanted, and the team made (and continues to make) constant improvements based on market and user research.

Without market research, it’s impossible to understand your users. Sure, you might have a general idea of who they are and what they need, but you have to dig deep if you want to win their loyalty.

Here’s why research matters:

Obsessing over your users is the only way to win. If you don’t care deeply about them, you’ll lose potential customers to someone who does.

Analytics gives you the ‘what’, while research gives you the ‘why’. Big data, user analytics , and dashboards can tell you what people do at scale, but only research can tell you what they’re thinking and why they do what they do. For example, analytics can tell you that customers leave when they reach your pricing page, but only research can explain why.

Research beats assumptions, trends, and so-called best practices. Have you ever watched your colleagues rally behind a terrible decision? Bad ideas are often the result of guesswork, emotional reasoning, death by best practices , and defaulting to the Highest Paid Person’s Opinion (HiPPO). By listening to your users and focusing on their customer experience , you’re less likely to get pulled in the wrong direction.

Research keeps you from planning in a vacuum. Your team might be amazing, but you and your colleagues simply can’t experience your product the way your customers do. Customers might use your product in a way that surprises you, and product features that seem obvious to you might confuse them. Over-planning and refusing to test your assumptions is a waste of time, money, and effort because you’ll likely need to make changes once your untested business plan gets put into practice.

Lean User Experience (UX) design is a model for continuous improvement that relies on quick, efficient research to understand customer needs and test new product features.

Lean market research can help you become more...

Efficient: it gets you closer to your customers, faster.

Cost-effective: no need to hire an expensive marketing firm to get things started.

Competitive: quick, powerful insights can place your products on the cutting edge.

As a small business or sole proprietor, conducting lean market research is an attractive option when investing in a full-blown research project might seem out of scope or budget.

There are lots of different ways you could conduct market research and collect customer data, but you don’t have to limit yourself to just one research method. Four common types of market research techniques include surveys, interviews, focus groups, and customer observation.

Which method you use may vary based on your business type: ecommerce business owners have different goals from SaaS businesses, so it’s typically prudent to mix and match these methods based on your particular goals and what you need to know.

1. Surveys: the most commonly used

Surveys are a form of qualitative research that ask respondents a short series of open- or closed-ended questions, which can be delivered as an on-screen questionnaire or via email. When we asked 2,000 Customer Experience (CX) professionals about their company’s approach to research , surveys proved to be the most commonly used market research technique.

What makes online surveys so popular?  

They’re easy and inexpensive to conduct, and you can do a lot of data collection quickly. Plus, the data is pretty straightforward to analyze, even when you have to analyze open-ended questions whose answers might initially appear difficult to categorize.

We've built a number of survey templates ready and waiting for you. Grab a template and share with your customers in just a few clicks.

💡 Pro tip: you can also get started with Hotjar AI for Surveys to create a survey in mere seconds . Just enter your market research goal and watch as the AI generates a survey and populates it with relevant questions. 

Once you’re ready for data analysis, the AI will prepare an automated research report that succinctly summarizes key findings, quotes, and suggested next steps.

An example research report generated by Hotjar AI for Surveys

2. Interviews: the most insightful

Interviews are one-on-one conversations with members of your target market. Nothing beats a face-to-face interview for diving deep (and reading non-verbal cues), but if an in-person meeting isn’t possible, video conferencing is a solid second choice.

Regardless of how you conduct it, any type of in-depth interview will produce big benefits in understanding your target customers.

What makes interviews so insightful?

By speaking directly with an ideal customer, you’ll gain greater empathy for their experience , and you can follow insightful threads that can produce plenty of 'Aha!' moments.

3. Focus groups: the most unreliable

Focus groups bring together a carefully selected group of people who fit a company’s target market. A trained moderator leads a conversation surrounding the product, user experience, or marketing message to gain deeper insights.

What makes focus groups so unreliable?

If you’re new to market research, we wouldn’t recommend starting with focus groups. Doing it right is expensive , and if you cut corners, your research could fall victim to all kinds of errors. Dominance bias (when a forceful participant influences the group) and moderator style bias (when different moderator personalities bring about different results in the same study) are two of the many ways your focus group data could get skewed.

4. Observation: the most powerful

During a customer observation session, someone from the company takes notes while they watch an ideal user engage with their product (or a similar product from a competitor).

What makes observation so clever and powerful?

‘Fly-on-the-wall’ observation is a great alternative to focus groups. It’s not only less expensive, but you’ll see people interact with your product in a natural setting without influencing each other. The only downside is that you can’t get inside their heads, so observation still isn't a recommended replacement for customer surveys and interviews.

The following questions will help you get to know your users on a deeper level when you interview them. They’re general questions, of course, so don’t be afraid to make them your own.

1. Who are you and what do you do?

How you ask this question, and what you want to know, will vary depending on your business model (e.g. business-to-business marketing is usually more focused on someone’s profession than business-to-consumer marketing).

It’s a great question to start with, and it’ll help you understand what’s relevant about your user demographics (age, race, gender, profession, education, etc.), but it’s not the be-all-end-all of market research. The more specific questions come later.

2. What does your day look like?

This question helps you understand your users’ day-to-day life and the challenges they face. It will help you gain empathy for them, and you may stumble across something relevant to their buying habits.

3. Do you ever purchase [product/service type]?

This is a ‘yes or no’ question. A ‘yes’ will lead you to the next question.

4. What problem were you trying to solve or what goal were you trying to achieve?

This question strikes to the core of what someone’s trying to accomplish and why they might be willing to pay for your solution.

5. Take me back to the day when you first decided you needed to solve this kind of problem or achieve this goal.

This is the golden question, and it comes from Adele Revella, Founder and CEO of Buyer Persona Institute . It helps you get in the heads of your users and figure out what they were thinking the day they decided to spend money to solve a problem.

If you take your time with this question, digging deeper where it makes sense, you should be able to answer all the relevant information you need to understand their perspective.

“The only scripted question I want you to ask them is this one: take me back to the day when you first decided that you needed to solve this kind of problem or achieve this kind of a goal. Not to buy my product, that’s not the day. We want to go back to the day that when you thought it was urgent and compelling to go spend money to solve a particular problem or achieve a goal. Just tell me what happened.”

— Adele Revella , Founder/CEO at Buyer Persona Institute

Bonus question: is there anything else you’d like to tell me?

This question isn’t just a nice way to wrap it up—it might just give participants the opportunity they need to tell you something you really need to know.

That’s why Sarah Doody, author of UX Notebook , adds it to the end of her written surveys.

“I always have a last question, which is just open-ended: “Is there anything else you would like to tell me?” And sometimes, that’s where you get four paragraphs of amazing content that you would never have gotten if it was just a Net Promoter Score [survey] or something like that.”

What is the difference between qualitative and quantitative research?

Qualitative research asks questions that can’t be reduced to a number, such as, “What is your job title?” or “What did you like most about your customer service experience?” 

Quantitative research asks questions that can be answered with a numeric value, such as, “What is your annual salary?” or “How was your customer service experience on a scale of 1-5?”

 → Read more about the differences between qualitative and quantitative user research .

How do I do my own market research?

You can do your own quick and effective market research by 

Surveying your customers

Building user personas

Studying your users through interviews and observation

Wrapping your head around your data with tools like flow models, affinity diagrams, and customer journey maps

What is the difference between market research and user research?

Market research takes a broad look at potential customers—what problems they’re trying to solve, their buying experience, and overall demand. User research, on the other hand, is more narrowly focused on the use (and usability ) of specific products.

What are the main criticisms of market research?

Many marketing professionals are critical of market research because it can be expensive and time-consuming. It’s often easier to convince your CEO or CMO to let you do lean market research rather than something more extensive because you can do it yourself. It also gives you quick answers so you can stay ahead of the competition.

Do I need a market research firm to get reliable data?

Absolutely not! In fact, we recommend that you start small and do it yourself in the beginning. By following a lean market research strategy, you can uncover some solid insights about your clients. Then you can make changes, test them out, and see whether the results are positive. This is an excellent strategy for making quick changes and remaining competitive.

Net Promoter, Net Promoter System, Net Promoter Score, NPS, and the NPS-related emoticons are registered trademarks of Bain & Company, Inc., Fred Reichheld, and Satmetrix Systems, Inc.

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How to Do Market Research

Noah Parsons

18 min. read

Updated May 10, 2024

One of the biggest and most expensive mistakes I’ve made in my business career could have been avoided by doing a little homework.

In the late 2000s, my team and I came up with what we thought was a great idea for a product . Tons of businesses would need it, and it was almost guaranteed to be a huge hit!

But, we neglected to do our market research. 

We ended up with a product searching for a market instead of figuring out who our ideal customer was and building a product specifically for them.

You can avoid making this same mistake. 

Let’s learn from my experience and go over the basics of how to conduct market research. 

• What is market research?

Market research is the process of gathering information about your potential customers. 

It helps you define your target market, craft customer personas , and understand the viability of your business, by answering questions like: 

• Who are your customers?
• What are their buying and shopping habits?
• How many of them are there? 

By exploring your ideal customers’ problems, desires, and current solutions, you can build your product, service, and overall business strategy to better serve them.

• Why is market research important?

When starting a business , conducting market research to get to know your customers is one of the most important things you can do. 

If you don’t understand your customer, you don’t know:

• How you can solve their problems . 
• What kind of marketing messages and advertising work. 
• If your product or service is actually something your customers will spend money on.

Beyond that, market research can help you:

• Reduce risk: Inform critical decisions with real-world data.
• Understand your competitors: Know how competitors and alternatives to your business represent themselves in pricing, quality, and placement.
• Identify market trends: Stay ahead by spotting emerging trends and shifts in the market.
• Enhance customer experience: Improve customer satisfaction by addressing their pain points.

Gathering data on your customers should become a regular practice for your business. 

The more in tune you are with your customers, the better you can serve them and the more likely you are to grow your business. You should never just let assumptions about your customers drive business decisions.

Developing primary and secondary data through market research is how you get an accurate reflection of your customers’ needs.

Further Reading: 6 things to consider before entering a market

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Things to consider before conducting market research

Market research can be incredibly time-consuming (and even a waste of time) when done without the right preparation.

Here are a few questions to answer to help ensure you make the most of your efforts.

What are your objectives?

A research objective is a stated purpose that explains why you’re doing market research. It should include a specific result you intend to achieve, using available resources within a certain time frame. 

Without an objective, you’ll pour over a sea of data without knowing what you’re looking for. And if you speak to customers without a goal, you’ll struggle to ask useful questions and dig deeper.

Don’t overthink it.

Your objective should be easy to understand and connected to your business needs. 

For example, if you’re just starting, your objective may be to verify before investing in production if your chosen customer base is interested and willing to purchase your product or service.

What research methods will you use?

You don’t need to have every question prepped or a list of people to interview at the start—but you should know what research methods you intend to use.

The research options you choose will impact the data you collect, and the time it will take to complete it. By doing this ahead of time, you’ll be better prepared to create a timeline of when to take specific actions and what milestones to hit to stay on track.

What tools and resources do you need?

You likely won’t know every resource you’ll need until you start doing research. However, that doesn’t mean you can’t be proactive. 

If you know the methods you’ll be using, research what tools you’ll need to:

• Conduct interviews
• Create surveys
• Observe customer behavior

If you use third-party data, identify reputable sources to provide the information you want.

• How to conduct market research

Every business will do market research differently. The sources, the methods of data collection, and how you’ll use that data are entirely up to you. 

However, the core steps you should take remain the same. Here’s my recommendation for how to structure your research efforts:

1. Start by identifying your target market

Imagine that someone walks into your business, reaches out online, or picks up the phone and calls you. 

It’s your perfect customer: someone who has the problem that you solve and is willing to spend money on your solution. 

Now imagine the details about this person. Who are they? Can you describe them?

Ideal customers and common traits

This “ideal customer” is your target market . Your business might have several target markets, but it will usually serve you best to keep your list of target customers to two or three.

Each of your target markets should share common traits . These might be demographic traits such as: 

• Income levels
• Locations 

They might be psychographic traits—groups of people that like the same things or have similar interests. Or, your target market might be a certain type of employee at another company, such as a Chief Technology Officer or head of marketing.

Most often, target markets are blends of demographic and psychographic groups. For example, you might develop a new type of shoe targeted at female triathletes. Or you might be opening a hair salon targeting urban, hipster men.

Further Reading: Why niche audiences are important and how to find yours

Market segmentation

Creating multiple target markets for your company is doing what’s called “ market segmentation .” 

This sounds complex, but all you’re doing is dividing your target markets into different groups you hope to sell to. Each market segment might have different characteristics and buy your product or service for different reasons.

You might create different marketing campaigns or customize your product or service for each segment.

Further Reading:

Target marketing explained

Your target market is your ideal customer who needs your solution. They share common traits like age, gender, income, interests, or job roles. To start, focus your efforts on one target customer.

Consider focusing on a younger audience

Younger consumers are often overlooked in favor of older customers who currently make purchasing decisions. However, if you can crack the interests of a younger audience, it may lead to long-term loyalty.

2. Find out if your market is big enough

Are there enough potential customers to sustain you and your competitors? If the answer is no, then you need to consider changing your product or service offering.

Use the attributes you defined in the target market step and determine how many people meet your demographic, psychographic, or location criteria. I’ve got some links to resources to help you figure this out at the end of this article.

For example: If your target market only has a few thousand potential customers, you must either sell to them frequently or at a fairly high price to create a sustainable, profitable business.

Further Reading: How to use TAM, SAM, SOM to determine market size

If you are targeting an existing market with established competitors, you do what’s called industry research . 

For example, perhaps you are building a new company in the market for sports drinks or the market for cell phones. In cases like this, understanding how much people buy of existing offerings will give you the best sense of your potential market size. 

In this case, you want to look for industry reports and read trade publications for your industry. These publications often summarize the market size.

Further Reading: Differences between industry and market research explained

3. Talk to your potential customers

Once you have identified your target market, or at least made a good guess at who your target market is, you need to take the most important step in this entire market research process. 

You need to get up from your desk, leave behind your computer, and go outside. That’s right, you need to go and talk to people in your potential target markets. 

Yes, you can do online surveys and other research, but that’s no substitute for actually talking to potential customers. 

You’ll gain more insight into your customers through first-hand accounts than any survey will ever tell you.

Do this one thing, and you’ll be miles ahead of your competition. Why? Because most people skip this step. It’s intimidating to talk to strangers. What if they don’t want to buy what you plan on making?

So, don’t be like most entrepreneurs (including me!) and skip this critical step. 

It can mean the difference between success and failure. Getting this step done early will help you refine your business model and make a clear impact on your future success.

Further Reading: How to Create a Market Penetration Strategy  

4. Identify and analyze your competitors

Part of understanding your customers is knowing what solutions they already use. 

These are your competitors, and they may directly compete with you or provide a reasonable substitution customers settle for. 

You’ll understand how to position your business to take advantage of potential opportunities and mitigate risks by analyzing who they are, what they do, and how customers respond.  

Document your known competitors

To keep things simple, start by listing your known competitors . Account for businesses that offer a similar product/service, and those that indirectly compete with their solution or industry expertise. 

Example:   You operate an outdoor goods retail store. Your mission is to provide hands-on direction for customers to find camping, hiking, and survival gear that they will love. You offer a wide selection of well-known brands, local options, and in-house creations.

Your direct competitors are the large brands themselves, less niche retail stores, and online sellers. You must also account for other businesses that provide expert-level information on outdoor activities. 

They likely don’t sell the products, but may provide guided tours, reviews, or other insights that overlap with your business. 

Analyze your competitors

Once you have your list, it’s time to get to know the competition. Check out their websites, social media, customer reviews, and news stories from the last year. 

Sign up for their email lists, visit their stores (if they have them), and track down any industry reports that give you an idea of their size, performance, and strategic direction.

You don’t have to do everything I just listed. But you must go deep enough to clearly understand your competitors and why potential customers may choose them over you. 

It may even be useful to use the SWOT analysis framework to provide additional structure for your research. 

Further Reading: 10 ways to determine what your competitors are doing

5. Document your findings

The final (and easiest) step is to document your findings. How formal your documentation is will depend on how you plan on using it.

If you only need to share your findings with business partners and others in your business, then you can probably communicate fairly informally. 

However, if you’re looking for investors for your business, you may need to write a more formal market analysis and do a market forecast.

Presenting your market research

The single piece of documentation that every business should create is a buyer persona . 

A persona is a description of a person that hits on all of the key aspects of your target market. And, just like you might have several target markets for your business, you might have several different buyer personas.

Creating a buyer persona converts your target marketing information from dry research into a living, breathing person. 

For LivePlan , we’ve created a persona named Garrett, who drives much of our product development. Garrett embodies the attributes of our ideal customer.

When we think about creating a new marketing campaign or developing a new feature for our products, we ask, “Would Garrett like this?” You can read about the process we used to create Garrett in this article.

How to create a detailed user or buyer persona

Visualizing your customers when reviewing a sea of data can be tricky. So, create a customer persona and turn that data into the living, breathing person you imagine your customer to be.

LivePlan customer persona example

Check out this real-world customer persona used by the business planning and management software LivePlan.

When should you conduct market research?

Market research is vital when starting a business. It will improve your product or service and help you avoid starting a business without customers.

However, market research shouldn’t be exclusive to new businesses. Conditions are bound to change, and you must stay up-to-date on your industry , competitors, and emerging trends. 

Here are a few other business events where market research can make a difference:

• Launching a new product/service or updating current features.
• Expanding into a new market.
• Consistent dips in financial performance. 
• Widespread market changes.
• New competitors enter the market.

Primary vs secondary market research explained

No matter how you decide to gather information, the methods can be boiled down to primary and secondary research. As a business owner, it’s worth understanding the basics of each type of research and how they work together.

What is primary research?

Primary research is the first-hand information collected (by you or someone you’ve hired) from customers within your market. Primary research cuts out the middleman and ensures that the results you are gathering are straight from the source. 

That’s why you should conduct primary research when validating your business idea. 

Furthermore, it can be broken down into two result categories — exploratory and specific.

Exploratory primary research

Exploratory primary research involves non-quantifiable customer feedback. This means you’re not trying to measure results but to record interest or an emotional response. You’ll accomplish this by asking open-ended questions in formats like focus groups or 1:1 interviews.

Asking for open-ended feedback ensures that the results are unfiltered and honest. You aren’t unintentionally leading or hindering their responses. 

Specific primary research

Specific research allows you to dig deeper into issues or opportunities you identified through your exploratory research. 

You may target a smaller segment of customers from the larger group you’ve spoken to, conduct additional interviews, or shift to more quantifiable research such as beta-testing or surveys.

What is secondary research?

Secondary research covers every other piece of data you have available. This includes resources such as:

• Public sources: Typically free and highly accessible information gathered through government-sponsored research projects. 
• Commercial sources: Research studies conducted by private organizations regarding the state of specific markets, industries, or innovations. 
• Internal sources: Data you have collected through everyday business operations. Everything from financial statements to Analytics reports can qualify.

Which is better: primary or secondary research?

Neither primary nor secondary research is better than the other. They simply have different use cases. So, aim for a healthy mix.

When starting, focus on conducting primary research to ensure you get the necessary information to validate your business. 

Compare those findings to secondary resources such as industry benchmarks , market reports, and internal data you’ve collected. 

You’ll likely leverage secondary research more consistently as you grow—but it’s wise to run primary research initiatives occasionally, especially when approaching a strategic decision. Only with both types of research will you fully understand the story of your place in the market. 

Further Reading: Types of market research explained and how to use them

Types of market research to try

1. face-to-face, remote, or phone interviews.

I mentioned this before, but the best thing you can do is get out and talk to your potential or current customers, virtually or in person. 

Be sure you have a refined set of closed and open-ended questions ready, and consider the interviewee’s tone, body language, and interest alongside their answers.

2. Focus groups

Similar to interviews, focus groups can provide direct feedback from your customer mix. Rather than receiving answers or reactions in a bubble, you get to see how customers may act when influenced by others in the market. You can simply ask questions, run product tests, or have them watch a demo.

3. Observational research

Observational research is about watching how potential customers engage with your product or service. You’re attempting to understand what roadblocks or frustrations they may be hitting, what functionality seems to resonate, what they want from your business, etc.

To conduct observational research, you can set up an official testing environment that you control. Or you can just go out and observe your potential customers and see how they shop, make purchases, and what factors encourage or deter them from purchasing.

4. Pricing research

You may include questions about pricing when conducting interviews or focus groups, but you can also specifically develop research around pricing. 

This can be anything from testing different pricing options on your website ( A/B testing ), offering discounts to exclusive segments, or running ad campaigns with different pricing positions. The goal is to understand what your customers are willing to pay and what they consider a fair price .

5. Brand awareness research

This type of research is about understanding if your target market knows about your brand and how much they happen to know. What do they associate with your brand? What competitors come to mind first?

It’s a great way to understand your current market penetration and who your competitors are. You can integrate this type of questioning within your other tests or conduct surveys to get this data.

6. Customer interest

As part of your initial validation process, you should try to understand current customer interest. At its most basic, you’re asking: Are customers willing to buy your product or service? 

You can simply ask questions and look for yes or no answers, but it may be wise to run a limited-time sale or pre-sale to actually line up initial revenue for your business. 

You can offer the chance to purchase during your interviews or focus groups, as well as run pre-orders through a simple landing page or by measuring engagement with a paid ad campaign.

7. Customer satisfaction

This research will help you understand current customer loyalty and what it will take to get customers to come back. Again, you can do this research within focus groups or interviews. 

Still, you can also test loyalty programs, limited-time promotions, customer service initiatives, and other ways to improve customer loyalty. 

Market research tools and resources

Finding market research data depends on the market you are targeting and the industry you are in. 

Here are a few of my go-to sources for market research:

• U.S. Census : If you’re opening a business in the U.S., the U.S. Census site is a goldmine of information. Check out the Census Business Builder to get population data and data on how much people spend in a given area on your type of business.
• Bureau of Labor Statistics : Another U.S.-centric resource, but a fantastic site for information on specific industries: hiring and expense trends as well as industry sizes. If your target market is other businesses, this is a good place to look for data.
• Consumer Expenditure Survey : If you want to know what people spend their money on, this is your source.
• SBDCNet Business Snapshots : You’ll find a great collection of industry profiles that describe how industries are growing and changing, who their customers are, and what typical startup costs are. You should also check out their list of market research resources, sorted by industry .
• ChatGPT : All data generated from AI models like ChatGPT must be verified. But it can still be an excellent market research assistant. With the right prompting, you can generate customer segments, understand their nuances, and prioritize them based on your needs.

Further Reading: 21 best market research resources for small businesses

Market research informs your startup decisions

Effective market research can help you avoid costly mistakes early on in the life of your business. 

However, it should remain a core practice that you regularly implement when approaching crucial business decisions, growth opportunities, or just to reaffirm your understanding of the market. 

Revisit this framework whenever you’re approaching a key strategic decision . Confirm that you still understand your customers, competitors, and where the market is headed.

Then use this information to inform your planning and adjust your strategy if necessary.

Noah is the COO at Palo Alto Software, makers of the online business plan app LivePlan. He started his career at Yahoo! and then helped start the user review site Epinions.com. From there he started a software distribution business in the UK before coming to Palo Alto Software to run the marketing and product teams.

Table of Contents

• Before conducting market research
• When to conduct market research
• Primary vs secondary research
• Types of market research
• Tools and resources
• Market research informs your decisions

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How To Do Market Research: Definition, Types, Methods

Jul 25, 2024

11 min. read

Market research isn’t just collecting data. It’s a strategic tool that allows businesses to gain a competitive advantage while making the best use of their resources. Research reveals valuable insights into your target audience about their preferences, buying habits, and emerging demands — all of which help you unlock new opportunities to grow your business.

When done correctly, market research can minimize risks and losses, spur growth, and position you as a leader in your industry. 

Let’s explore the basic building blocks of market research and how to collect and use data to move your company forward:

Table of Contents

What Is Market Research?

Why is market research important, market analysis example, 5 types of market research, what are common market research questions, what are the limitations of market research, how to do market research, improving your market research with radarly.

Market Research Definition: The process of gathering, analyzing, and interpreting information about a market or audience.

Market research studies consumer behavior to better understand how they perceive products or services. These insights help businesses identify ways to grow their current offering, create new products or services, and improve brand trust and brand recognition .

You might also hear market research referred to as market analysis or consumer research .

Traditionally, market research has taken the form of focus groups, surveys, interviews, and even competitor analysis . But with modern analytics and research tools, businesses can now capture deeper insights from a wider variety of sources, including social media, online reviews, and customer interactions. These extra layers of intel can help companies gain a more comprehensive understanding of their audience.

With consumer preferences and markets evolving at breakneck speeds, businesses need a way to stay in touch with what people need and want. That’s why the importance of market research cannot be overstated.

Market research offers a proactive way to identify these trends and make adjustments to product development, marketing strategies , and overall operations. This proactive approach can help businesses stay ahead of the curve and remain agile as markets shift.

Market research examples abound — given the number of ways companies can get inside the minds of their customers, simply skimming through your business’s social media comments can be a form of market research.

A restaurant chain might use market research methods to learn more about consumers’ evolving dining habits. These insights might be used to offer new menu items, re-examine their pricing strategies, or even open new locations in different markets, for example.

A consumer electronics company might use market research for similar purposes. For instance, market research may reveal how consumers are using their smart devices so they can develop innovative features.

Market research can be applied to a wide range of use cases, including:

• Testing new product ideas
• Improve existing products
• Entering new markets
• Right-sizing their physical footprints
• Improving brand image and awareness
• Gaining insights into competitors via competitive intelligence

Ultimately, companies can lean on market research techniques to stay ahead of trends and competitors while improving the lives of their customers.

Market research methods take different forms, and you don’t have to limit yourself to just one. Let’s review the most common market research techniques and the insights they deliver.

1. Interviews

3. Focus Groups

4. Observations

5. AI-Driven Market Research

One-on-one interviews are one of the most common market research techniques. Beyond asking direct questions, skilled interviewers can uncover deeper motivations and emotions that drive purchasing decisions. Researchers can elicit more detailed and nuanced responses they might not receive via other methods, such as self-guided surveys.

Interviews also create the opportunity to build rapport with customers and prospects. Establishing a connection with interviewees can encourage them to open up and share their candid thoughts, which can enrich your findings. Researchers also have the opportunity to ask clarifying questions and dig deeper based on individual responses.

Market research surveys provide an easy entry into the consumer psyche. They’re cost-effective to produce and allow researchers to reach lots of people in a short time. They’re also user-friendly for consumers, which allows companies to capture more responses from more people.

Big data and data analytics are making traditional surveys more valuable. Researchers can apply these tools to elicit a deeper understanding from responses and uncover hidden patterns and correlations within survey data that were previously undetectable.

The ways in which surveys are conducted are also changing. With the rise of social media and other online channels, brands and consumers alike have more ways to engage with each other, lending to a continuous approach to market research surveys.

3. Focus groups

Focus groups are “group interviews” designed to gain collective insights. This interactive setting allows participants to express their thoughts and feelings openly, giving researchers richer insights beyond yes-or-no responses.

One of the key benefits of using focus groups is the opportunity for participants to interact with one another. They spark discussions while sharing diverse viewpoints. These sessions can uncover underlying motivations and attitudes that may not be easily expressed through other research methods.

Observing your customers “in the wild” might feel informal, but it can be one of the most revealing market research techniques of all. That’s because you might not always know the right questions to ask. By simply observing, you can surface insights you might not have known to look for otherwise.

This method also delivers raw, authentic, unfiltered data. There’s no room for bias and no potential for participants to accidentally skew the data. Researchers can also pick up on non-verbal cues and gestures that other research methods may fail to capture.

5. AI-driven market research

One of the newer methods of market research is the use of AI-driven market research tools to collect and analyze insights on your behalf. AI customer intelligence tools and consumer insights software like Meltwater Radarly take an always-on approach by going wherever your audience is and continuously predicting behaviors based on current behaviors.

By leveraging advanced algorithms, machine learning, and big data analysis , AI enables companies to uncover deep-seated patterns and correlations within large datasets that would be near impossible for human researchers to identify. This not only leads to more accurate and reliable findings but also allows businesses to make informed decisions with greater confidence.

Tip: Learn how to use Meltwater as a research tool , how Meltwater uses AI , and learn more about consumer insights and about consumer insights in the fashion industry .

No matter the market research methods you use, market research’s effectiveness lies in the questions you ask. These questions should be designed to elicit honest responses that will help you reach your goals.

Examples of common market research questions include:

Demographic market research questions

• What is your age range?
• What is your occupation?
• What is your household income level?
• What is your educational background?
• What is your gender?

Product or service usage market research questions

• How long have you been using [product/service]?
• How frequently do you use [product/service]?
• What do you like most about [product/service]?
• Have you experienced any problems using [product/service]?
• How could we improve [product/service]?
• Why did you choose [product/service] over a competitor’s [product/service]?

Brand perception market research questions

• How familiar are you with our brand?
• What words do you associate with our brand?
• How do you feel about our brand?
• What makes you trust our brand?
• What sets our brand apart from competitors?
• What would make you recommend our brand to others?

Buying behavior market research questions

• What do you look for in a [product/service]?
• What features in a [product/service] are important to you?
• How much time do you need to choose a [product/service]?
• How do you discover new products like [product/service]?
• Do you prefer to purchase [product/service] online or in-store?
• How do you research [product/service] before making a purchase?
• How often do you buy [product/service]?
• How important is pricing when buying [product/service]?
• What would make you switch to another brand of [product/service]?

Customer satisfaction market research questions

• How happy have you been with [product/service]?
• What would make you more satisfied with [product/service]?
• How likely are you to continue using [product/service]?

Bonus Tip: Compiling these questions into a market research template can streamline your efforts.

Market research can offer powerful insights, but it also has some limitations. One key limitation is the potential for bias. Researchers may unconsciously skew results based on their own preconceptions or desires, which can make your findings inaccurate.

• Depending on your market research methods, your findings may be outdated by the time you sit down to analyze and act on them. Some methods struggle to account for rapidly changing consumer preferences and behaviors.
• There’s also the risk of self-reported data (common in online surveys). Consumers might not always accurately convey their true feelings or intentions. They might provide answers they think researchers are looking for or misunderstand the question altogether.
• There’s also the potential to miss emerging or untapped markets . Researchers are digging deeper into what (or who) they already know. This means you might be leaving out a key part of the story without realizing it.

Still, the benefits of market research cannot be understated, especially when you supplement traditional market research methods with modern tools and technology.

Let’s put it all together and explore how to do market research step-by-step to help you leverage all its benefits.

Step 1: Define your objectives

You’ll get more from your market research when you hone in on a specific goal : What do you want to know, and how will this knowledge help your business?

This step will also help you define your target audience. You’ll need to ask the right people the right questions to collect the information you want. Understand the characteristics of the audience and what gives them authority to answer your questions.

Step 2: Select your market research methods

Choose one or more of the market research methods (interviews, surveys, focus groups, observations, and/or AI-driven tools) to fuel your research strategy.

Certain methods might work better than others for specific goals . For example, if you want basic feedback from customers about a product, a simple survey might suffice. If you want to hone in on serious pain points to develop a new product, a focus group or interview might work best.

You can also source secondary research ( complementary research ) via secondary research companies , such as industry reports or analyses from large market research firms. These can help you gather preliminary information and inform your approach.

Step 3: Develop your research tools

Prior to working with participants, you’ll need to craft your survey or interview questions, interview guides, and other tools. These tools will help you capture the right information , weed out non-qualifying participants, and keep your information organized.

You should also have a system for recording responses to ensure data accuracy and privacy. Test your processes before speaking with participants so you can spot and fix inefficiencies or errors.

Step 4: Conduct the market research

With a system in place, you can start looking for candidates to contribute to your market research. This might include distributing surveys to current customers or recruiting participants who fit a specific profile, for example.

Set a time frame for conducting your research. You might collect responses over the course of a few days, weeks, or even months. If you’re using AI tools to gather data, choose a data range for your data to focus on the most relevant information.

Step 5: Analyze and apply your findings

Review your findings while looking for trends and patterns. AI tools can come in handy in this phase by analyzing large amounts of data on your behalf.

Compile your findings into an easy-to-read report and highlight key takeaways and next steps. Reports aren’t useful unless the reader can understand and act on them.

Tip: Learn more about trend forecasting , trend detection , and trendspotting .

Meltwater’s Radarly consumer intelligence suite helps you reap the benefits of market research on an ongoing basis. Using a combination of AI, data science, and market research expertise, Radarly scans multiple global data sources to learn what people are talking about, the actions they’re taking, and how they’re feeling about specific brands.

Our tools are created by market research experts and designed to help researchers uncover what they want to know (and what they don’t know they want to know). Get data-driven insights at scale with information that’s always relevant, always accurate, and always tailored to your organization’s needs.

Learn more when you request a demo by filling out the form below:

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What Is Market Research? How To Do It Right Every Time

In this post

Importance of market research

Types of market research, market research process, how to conduct market research, benefits of market research, challenges of market research, market research vs. marketing research.

Do your users know your business’ product or service like the back of their hand?

You work with it every day and know it inside and out: all of its features, how it benefits users, and where it falls short. Yes, you know your product like nothing else, but what about your users? What do you know about the people buying your product? That’s where market research comes in. It helps businesses understand a target market’s ins and outs, present and potential customers’ needs and spending habits, competitors, and the industry. Market research services providers perform in-depth research to help businesses identify potential markets, check product viability, and ensure optimal placement.

What is market research?

Market research is a systematic process to collect, analyze, and interpret qualitative and quantitative data about potential customers, existing users, competitors, and the target market. Businesses use market research results to create products, experiences, and messages to attract and maintain a solid customer base. For example, companies use market research to gauge customer sentiment, gain competitor insights, fix brand perception, create marketing strategies, to name a few.

Every successful business has one thing in common; they get their target customers right. Market research helps them get a clear picture of their potential customers’ values, goals, aspirations, and needs. An effective market research strategy is crucial to understanding the business landscape, connecting with customers, planning marketing campaigns , and beating the competition. Organizations conduct market research in-house or hire a third-party company specializing in market research services. Companies can leverage market research findings in the following ways.

• Identify opportunities to improve average order value (AOV), form business partnerships, and design targeted campaigns.
• Investigate customers’ buying behaviors to test new products, gain actionable insights into customer churn rates , and find potential product glitches.
• Create promotional strategies to create brand awareness , boost brand perception, and buy ads.
• Gather competitive intelligence to address unfulfilled customer needs, find underserved market segments , and mitigate external business environment challenges.
• Make informed business decisions by addressing potential problems and strategizing operational alternatives.

Functions of market research

• Describes target customers’ preferences, competitors, and the overall market situation
• Evaluates product positioning and marketing in comparison to competitors
• Explains reasons behind existing business problems and potential fixes
• Predicts future market opportunities and consumer behavior for creating suitable plans and policies
• Aids in choosing the correct course of action based on the newly found merits and demerits of product, price, promotion, and place (4Ps)

Whether you’re researching to understand a market or draw conclusions on squirrel migration patterns, there are two kinds you can conduct: primary and secondary.

Primary research

Primary research is research you conduct yourself. It includes going directly to a source to gather original data. Researchers use primary research methods to discover meaningful first-hand data about a specific issue or problem. The result of primary research is either exploratory (when there isn’t a clear problem definition) or conclusive (solves a problem from the exploratory research) information. Different types of primary market research are as follows.

• Focus group discussions (FGDs) collect data from a small group of participants or subject matter experts representing a target market. Researchers usually select these participants based on demographics or characteristics. An interviewer facilitates the discussion and engages in conversation to find insights about a product, market, or service.
• Telephonic or face-to-face interviews are two-way conversations between participants and researchers. Interviewers rely on a series of open-ended questions to gain insights into respondents’ opinions and perceptions. The length of these in-depth interviews depends on the complexity of the subject.
• Surveys use open- and close-ended questionnaires to collect responses from a larger population. Online surveys have become a cost-efficient way to conduct primary research across different geographies. Researchers analyze survey research responses to draw inferences about respondents’ opinions and preferences.
• Observations don’t involve direct interaction between respondents and researchers. Trained observers record subjects’ reactions and make organized notes to study further and analyze user behavior.
• Field tests assess how the product or service will function in the real-life environment. These tests are risky but show how people react to your product when other viable options are available. Field test results enable you to adjust factors that might motivate users to take their business elsewhere, like price or packaging.

Secondary research

Secondary research gathers and analyzes information from previous research analyses and publications. In this case, a researcher uses research reports of another researcher as their source of data instead of doing the research themselves. Different types of secondary research are as follows.

• Internal research discovers data available within your organization. Internal data include website, database, user-generated content , and previous research findings and campaign results.
• External research fills the knowledge gap with data from public libraries, newspapers, government agencies, competitive analyses , and journals.

Primary and secondary research methods use qualitative and quantitative data to classify research findings and conclude.

Qualitative research

Qualitative research focuses on the ‘why’ rather than ‘what’ of any behavior, action, or event. It collects and analyzes non-numerical primary and secondary data to generate new research ideas or offer in-depth insights into a problem. Qualitative research relies on observations, interviews, surveys, and FGDs to collect and interpret data. The most common qualitative research approaches are as follows.

• Grounded theory collects rich data on a topic of interest to develop theoretical approaches from observations.
• Ethnography seeks to understand a group or community’s shared culture, beliefs, and conventions.
• Action research connects research and action to drive transformative changes.
• Phenomenological research interprets participants’ lived experiences to investigate an event.
• Narrative research relies on storytelling to understand participants’ perceptions of an event.

Quantitative research

Quantitative research analyzes numerical data to discover patterns, make predictions, and generalize results. Researchers use quantitative techniques to find historical benchmarks for their study. Quantitative methods include surveys, interviews, and experiments. Market researchers use quantitative and qualitative methods to derive insights from data and make decisions. Organizations leverage these techniques to execute different kinds of marketing research.

• Product/service use research discovers what and why of product or service usability for your target audience.
• Buyer persona research uncovers your target market size, challenges, characteristics, aspirations, and motivations.
• Market segmentation research categorizes your target audience groups into segments based on their unique pain points, goals, and needs.
• Pricing research studies competitors’ price points and helps you set a fair pricing point.
• Competitive analysis evaluates competitors’ strengths and weaknesses regarding their products, sales, and marketing.
• Brand awareness research helps a brand uncover its market position and improve brand preference.
• Campaign research dives deep into previous campaigns to discover what went well.
• Brand association research studies the desirability of a brand and boosts positioning accordingly.
• Demand estimation analysis measures customer demand for a product or service.
• Marketing effectiveness assesses the potency of a go-to-market strategy in maximizing revenues.
• Mystery shopping uses independent auditors as customers to assess the sales and service quality.
• Sales forecasting studies potential unit sales to predict future revenue.
• Trendspotting identifies local, global, or regional trends before they become mainstream.
• Feasibility studies predict the success or failure of business concepts, product development, service launches, or business expansion plans.

Systematic inquiry is at the heart of any market research exercise. The process may vary depending on deadlines, budgets, resources, methodologies yet generally follow the sequential stages below.

• Define the problem or opportunity. A problem half-defined remains half-solved. That’s why researchers start with problem diagnosis and definition. A clearly defined research problem aids researchers in establishing accurate research objectives and collecting relevant data.
• Create a research objective statement to develop a hypothesis or investigate a set of research questions. Market researchers create a hypothesis only when they have sufficient empirical evidence to support a claim.
• Choose a research design to specify your plan to collect and analyze data. Think of this research design as a framework to identify information sources, data collection methods, sampling methodology, and research costs.
• Develop a sampling plan to understand the characteristics of a population and make a conclusion. Researchers define the sample population, population size, and choose a sampling method at this stage. Two commonly used sampling methods are as follows.

Types of sampling

• Probabilistic sampling selects samples from a population using the theory of probability. This sampling method is ideal for quantitative research and finding sampling errors after data collection.
• Non-probability sampling relies on a researcher’s subjective judgment to select data. This method offers an equal chance for all respondents to participate in the research and is ideal for qualitative research.
• Collect primary or secondary data depending on the research design or plan. Researchers use various data collection methods to find information on variables. This data further helps them to study and analyze the research problem.
• Process and analyze collected data. Data editing and coding help researchers to identify and remove data classification inconsistencies. Coding involves setting rules for data categorization and transfer. The analysis part attempts to discover similar data patterns and their logic.
• Prepare and present a conclusion. The final stage of the market research process interprets data analysis and presents findings through a report. Such reports ease executive decision-making with concrete data-backed evidence.

When to use market research?

Startups and prominent businesses use market research to understand their customers, measure business profitability, analyze the target market, and beat the competition. Companies conduct market research activities to:

• Evaluate product demand
• Test new products or services
• Assess business expansion opportunity
• Understand customer satisfaction levels
• Develop customer persona and test messaging
• Estimate overall business growth opportunities
• Get an inside look into customer experience (CX)
• Gauge product packaging and promotional decisions

The purpose of market research is to understand your customers to develop a one-of-a-kind product or service that fulfills their wants and needs. Researching the target market might require some extra digging, but following the steps below is an excellent place to start.

1. Identify your target audience(s)

The first step is to identify your target audience. Who do you think will benefit most from your product? Segment your target market into small groups based on location, demographics, personality traits, and buying behaviors. Because you are segmenting your audience on more than one quality, you’ll end up with more than one group to target, which is perfectly fine. You can create a persona from these audiences or develop a made-up person that might show interest in your business. This customer persona helps you hone in on the pains you’ll be relieving and gains you’ll be offering with your business.

2. Scope the competition

Researching your competition is arguably the most effective way to understand your market. Observing others in the same line of work helps you create a better marketing mix and overpower competitors. A business’s marketing mix includes four parts:

• Product: What is your competition selling? What are the benefits of the product? How can you make it better?
• Price: At what price are they offering their product? Are people willing to spend that much? Can you charge more for a luxury item or less for a cheaper version?
• Place: How is your competition reaching its customers? Is this channel effective? Or can you find a better way to connect with them?
• Promotion: How is your competition promoting its product? Where are they spending money on marketing wisely, and where are they wasting it?

3. Engage a portion of your persona

Once you have an idea of competitors, you'll want to focus on your audience. During this stage, you will conduct primary research to determine what your audience looks for in a product, why they find it valuable, and how it will benefit them. What's working for your product? What should you change? Should you scrap your idea and start over? Directly engaging with customers in this step is your best bet. Compile focus groups, send surveys, or use another market research method. We will go into more detail on those later. Your first goal will be to gather some demographic information. Ask customers their age, gender, income range, profession, education, and city of residence. Once you have that, you can ask more about their hobbies and interests and the associated goals and challenges they face daily. Then it's time to get down to business. Ask your audience about buying preferences, where they make purchases, and how often they buy a specific product. Have them go into detail about why they buy a particular product and ignore others.

4. Summarize data and draw conclusions

At this point, you’ve gathered a lot of data that’ll help you better understand the market. The last step is to organize your data and conduct customer data analysis to conclude your target audience so you can provide them with the best product, service, and messaging.

No matter what you do market research for, you’ll discover insights into your business and customers at the end. The research findings help you make informed decisions and unlock business growth. Let’s look at how companies benefit from market research activities.

• Stay ahead of the competition with a better understanding and perspective of your target market and audience.
• Minimize investment risks by evaluating new products, features, or services before launching them.
• Identify threats and opportunities to modify existing business plans, models, investments, or strategies.
• Spot emerging trends by taking a pulse of what’s hot and not in the market.
• Find business growth benchmarks to compare business revenue, productivity, and growth.

Market research challenges stem from Complex business dynamics, automation, and consumer data protection. Let’s take a sneak peek at how these challenges restrict the way researchers collect data and contribute to decision-making.

• The need for speed. Opinions change every day, and so do products. That’s why businesses can’t any longer wait for a month or more to get their hands on market research results. This need for agility pushes market research agencies to deliver quick turnaround times.
• Tight budget and automation are complicating how researchers design research and offer insights. The presence of multiple tools doesn’t necessarily streamline analysis. They instead add to training, ongoing support, and maintenance costs. That’s why you need a comprehensive platform so that you can do more with less.
• The human dimension is becoming more important in research. Today, organizations have more data available than ever and can make wrong interpretations and incorrect decisions. Market researchers’ expertise and skill are essential for companies to find real-time insights from unstructured data.
• Lack of focus on data curation is another challenge that organizations face. Analytics and data visualization software can produce many insights that may not offer concise answers to the problems at hand. That’s where data curation comes in to help businesses find the most relevant solutions for making better decisions.
• Consumer data protection is of utmost importance to any organization. This increasing need to maintain data privacy means organizations should look for credible and verifiable market research agencies that have robust data privacy protection policies in place.

Market research is the process of collecting, analyzing, and interpreting data about the viability of a product or service in a target market. Market researchers aim to understand the buying habits, behaviors, motivations of consumers to predict a potential target segment for a product or service. Marketing research goes behind finding a suitable market to sell your products. It investigates an organization’s marketing strategy. Organizations conduct marketing research to identify issues and gaps in existing marketing activities. Want to identify a market opportunity? Learn how to assess market opportunities to find their desirability.

Mary Clare Novak

Mary Clare Novak is a Content Marketing Specialist at G2 based in Burlington, Vermont, where she is currently exploring topics related to sales and customer relationship management. In her free time, you can find her doing a crossword puzzle, listening to cover bands, or eating fish tacos. (she/her/hers)

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How to do Market Research: a Step-by-Step Guide

14 min read

Looking for the best way to do market research? From framing your initial question to extracting valuable customer insights, we’ll walk you through the lean market research process step-by-step. You will learn effective techniques for collecting and analyzing data , with practical tips on applying your findings to benefit your SaaS. Get ready to empower your decisions with real-world market intelligence.

• Market research is vital for making informed business decisions, enabling companies to understand the market, target audience, and competitors, reducing risks, and optimizing marketing communications and product strategies .
• Effective market research requires clear and measurable objectives, guiding decision-making and ensuring relevance to the project’s needs, and should be accompanied by appropriate methods , including both primary and secondary research .
• Applying insights from market research to product development and marketing strategies can significantly enhance business growth. This allows businesses to tailor their offerings and engage more effectively with their target market.

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What is market research

Essentially, market research is the process of understanding one’s target audience’s needs and wants to validate a new product, feature, or service idea. It involves probing and extracting answers based on empirical evidence instead of relying on hunches or speculative judgment.

Why should you do market research?

Understanding your consumers’ behavior and needs well through methodical market research is vital for informed decision-making when it comes to your product roadmap. These choices can make or break your SaaS company. Without thorough market research, you’re navigating blindly, basing crucial judgments on antiquated notions of customer habits, imprecise economic gauges, or untested assumptions rather than solid competitive analysis.

The outcome? Sharper marketing messages, savvy product development strategies, and an intimate grasp of both prospective buyers and existing customers’ preferences and needs.

Identifying your market research goals

Before you do anything – you need to determine specific and actionable goals of your market research project. Setting SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound) goals will help you stay on track, come up with better market research questions and achieve more reliable results faster.

For effective market research outcomes, your goals must be:

• Quantifiable .
• Attainable.
• Directly aligned with project requirements.

Having established unambiguous goals prior to delving into data analysis sets up a solid foundation ensuring pivotal questions, hypotheses, and indicators are systematically tackled during effective market research.

Market research methods

Now that you understand the role of well-defined research objectives, let’s examine the different types of market research and research techniques for realizing these goals. These methods are essentially your toolkit for extracting valuable insights and they fall into two broad categories: primary research and secondary research . Choosing between them depends on many factors such as your budget, time availability, and whether you’re looking for more exploratory research data or concrete answers.

Engaging in primary research is comparable to unearthing precious metals—it requires gathering new information straight from sources through several approaches including:

• Focus groups.

This approach gives you first-hand insight into your target audience.

Conversely, secondary research uses already established datasets of primary data – which can add depth and reinforcement to your firsthand findings. For a 360 view of your market trends, combine both techniques – exploratory primary research and secondary channels of inquiry.

Let’s look a bit deeper into them now.

What is primary market research?

Market research uses primary market research as an essential tool. This involves collecting new data directly from your target audience using various methods, such as surveys , focus groups, and interviews.

Each method has its benefits. For example, observational studies allow you to see how consumers interact with your product.

There are many ways to conduct primary research.

Focus Groups : Hold discussions with small groups of 5 to 10 people from your target audience. These discussions can provide valuable feedback on products, perceptions of your company’s brand name, or opinions on competitors.

Interviews : Have one-on-one conversations to gather detailed information from individuals in your target audience.

Surveys : These are a common tool in primary market research and can be used instead of focus groups to understand consumer attitudes. Surveys use structured questions and can reach a broad audience efficiently.

Navigating secondary market research

While market research using primary methods is like discovering precious metals, secondary market research technique is like using a treasure map. This approach uses data collected by others from various sources, providing a broad industry view. These sources include market analyses from agencies like Statista, historical data such as census records, and academic studies.

Secondary research provides the basic knowledge necessary for conducting primary market research goals but may lack detail on specific business questions and could also be accessible to competitors.

To make the most of secondary market research, it’s important to analyze summarized data to identify trends, rely on reputable sources for accurate data, and remain unbiased in data collection methods.

The effectiveness of secondary research depends significantly on how well the data is interpreted, ensuring that this information complements the insights from primary research.

The role of qualitative and quantitative data in market research

In market research, there are two main types of data: qualitative and quantitative. Qualitative data explores the reasons behind consumer actions, collecting non-numeric information to understand consumer behaviors and motivations. For more on gathering and analyzing qualitative data, see How to Analyse Qualitative Data . On the other hand, quantitative data uses numeric data to measure consumer preferences, behaviors, and market sizes. To learn more about handling this type of data, check out User Analytics .

A thorough market analysis usually combines both qualitative and quantitative data. This approach provides a full view of the market by merging detailed qualitative insights with concrete quantitative statistics. For more on combining these approaches, refer to Generative vs. Evaluative Research .

Gathering qualitative insights

Qualitative research involves direct engagement with customers, like having detailed discussions. It includes observational studies that capture genuine consumer reactions. This type of research provides deep insights into consumer perceptions, brand comparisons, consumer behavior, and feedback on specific product features.

Studies on customer satisfaction and loyalty reveal effective strategies for keeping customers and what keeps them loyal, such as loyalty programs and quality customer service. The strength of qualitative research lies in its ability to dig deeper than just numbers, reaching insights that quantitative data might miss. By using qualitative data to customize experiences, businesses can increase customer satisfaction, interaction , and loyalty, leading to greater business growth.

Analyzing quantitative data

Quantitative research provides precision and the ability to measure findings using structured data collection methods like polls and surveys. Product analytics tools such as Userpilot , Amplitude , Heap , and Mixpanel are highly effective for collecting and organizing quantifiable data. This type of data is crucial for identifying trends and insights, which can help businesses track important performance indicators such as conversion rates or customer lifetime value , supporting their growth strategies.

Quantitative research data is divided into two types: discrete data, which includes countable numbers, and continuous data, which consists of numbers that can have fractions or decimals. These are vital for revealing important demographic information.

Segmenting your target market

Market research plays a key role in segmenting your target audience into manageable segments.

These market segments are typically grouped by similar needs or attributes, and display similar responses in marketing research surveys and initiatives. The full market segmentation process is vital for comprehensively grasping and satisfying the requirements of your targeted consumer base.

Accumulating demographic information forms the basis for executing effective market segmentation strategies. Businesses prioritize obtaining user data such as:

• Job functions.
• Organizational scale.
• Customer demographics profiles.
• Lifestyle choices.
• Values systems.
• Product usage patterns.

This information can be collected in the initial sign-up flow (through a signup flow survey; see the Asana example below) or by conducting comprehensive market research surveys .

At its core, successful market segmentation enables businesses to communicate effectively in their target customers’ dialects while catering explicitly to their distinct demands.

Userpilot allows you to easily segment your users not only by demographic information, company size, plan, or role – but also by their in-app engagement ( behavioral segmentation ):

In summary, the techniques used to create detailed analyses, like conducting specialized surveys and carefully collecting relevant participant information, are crucial for identifying groups within a larger target population. These groups are defined by usage patterns and broad demographic and economic indicators, enabling companies to not only reach but also deeply connect with each niche market they aim to capture.

Creating buyer personas based on your market research

Creating buyer personas is a strategic process that helps businesses better understand and cater to their target customers. Here’s how you can systematically approach creating effective buyer personas:

• Gather Initial Data : Start by collecting basic demographic information such as age, gender, location, and education level. This can come from existing customer databases, market research, or industry reports.

• Segment the Audience : Based on the collected data, segment your audience into distinct groups. Each segment should represent a type of customer with similar characteristics and behaviors. This segmentation helps in personalizing marketing and sales strategies effectively.
• Build Detailed Personas : For each segment, create a detailed persona that includes not only demographic and behavioral traits but also psychographics like interests, values, and lifestyle. Each persona should tell the story of an ideal customer, making them relatable for your marketing team.
• Refine Over Time : Buyer personas are not static. As you gather more data and the market evolves, revisit and refine your personas to keep them relevant and accurate.
• Utilize Tools Like Userpilot : Tools such as Userpilot can enhance this process by providing analytics that reveal how users interact with your product. This can confirm hypotheses or uncover new insights about user preferences and behaviors, which can be integrated into existing personas to make them even more accurate.

By carefully crafting and continually updating buyer personas, businesses can achieve a deeper understanding of their customers. This enables them to tailor their offerings and communications effectively, thereby enhancing customer engagement and satisfaction.

Recruiting participants for primary research

Choosing the right participants for primary research is a crucial step in market research. It’s important to find individuals who can provide relevant and meaningful consumer feedback, on your product or service, as this feedback is key to developing accurate user personas.

Userpilot can be instrumental in this process. It collects data on how users interact with and use your products, helping you identify who might be the best candidates for more detailed studies, such as interviews.

To efficiently recruit participants for interviews, Userpilot’s in-app features, such as in-app modals with embedded surveys can be extremely useful. You can use these tools to engage directly with users who meet your specific criteria, right within your app.

This method not only simplifies the recruitment process but also ensures that you’re interacting with the most relevant users. By leveraging these features, you can gather deep insights that significantly enhance the development of your user personas, ensuring your research is both timely and informed.

Competitive analysis for strategic advantage

Competitive analysis helps businesses understand their rivals’ strategies. It involves identifying which industries or markets to target and listing key competitors to gain a clear view of the competitive environment. This includes evaluating competitors’ market share, strengths, weaknesses, and potential entry barriers, often using tools like SWOT analysis.

By understanding competitors’ operations and past marketing efforts, businesses can craft new strategies, pinpoint opportunities, and learn from competitors’ mistakes. Employing market research, brand perception surveys, and market statistics, alongside analytical frameworks like Porter’s Five Forces Model, helps businesses uncover new opportunities and maintain a competitive advantage.

Ultimately, competitive analysis uses the understanding of competition to fuel business growth.

Conducting effective market research surveys

Primary market research often uses surveys as a cost-effective way to gather data. These surveys reach wide audiences and provide quick feedback. It’s crucial to carefully plan the creation and distribution of these surveys to ensure they are effective. Given the high amount of web traffic from mobile devices, it’s particularly important to make surveys mobile-friendly.

To get the most comprehensive data, include both quantitative (closed-ended) and qualitative (open-ended) questions in your survey . Offering incentives like financial compensation or vouchers can encourage participation, but it’s important to manage these carefully to avoid biasing the responses.

Well-designed surveys are like direct interviews with your target audience and are key to obtaining valuable insights about their views and experiences.

Userpilot offers over 50 in-app survey templates along with a bespoke builder, which are important tools for collecting the right responses. These features allow you to tailor surveys precisely to your needs, ensuring you gather accurate and relevant data directly from your users. By leveraging these templates and customizing them with the bespoke builder, you can effectively engage your audience and enhance the quality of insights you receive. This setup is crucial for conducting efficient and effective market research.

Analyzing and interpreting market research data

Once you have collected data through surveys, market research data analysis is the next critical step. It involves identifying patterns, establishing connections, and extracting insights that inform business decisions.

Userpilot’s analytics suite offers deep and easily accessible insights into your market research data:

This process starts with preparing the data by cleaning and organizing it to ensure accuracy and ease of analysis. Depending on the study’s goals, various analytical methods can be used, from simple descriptive statistics to complex multivariate analyses, all chosen to provide meaningful insights.

The core of this analysis aims to uncover market trends and understand industry specifics, which can highlight key factors such as impactful customer experiences, profitable products or services, and effective marketing strategies. Communicating these findings effectively involves presenting them in clear reports and using visual aids while making practical recommendations and addressing any limitations in the research scope or methods. Ultimately, data analysis transforms raw data into compelling narratives that offer actionable business intelligence.

Applying market research to product or service development

Market research is much more than just collecting data and uncovering insights; it’s a vital tool for driving business growth and guiding product development at every stage. Here’s how market research supports business throughout the product lifecycle:

• Concept Creation : Helps identify market needs and opportunities to inform the initial product idea.
• Building a Business Case : Provides evidence and data to justify investment in the new product.
• Product Development : Offers insights into customer preferences and feedback for refining product features.
• Market Introduction : Aids in strategizing the launch, targeting the right audience, and setting the right price.
• Lifecycle Management : Continuously gathers data on customer usage and satisfaction to enhance the product over time.

Consider a B2B SaaS company that develops project management software. By engaging in targeted market research activities like surveys and doing focus group call groups among its business clients, the company can:

• Understand Business Needs : Gain insights into the specific project management challenges and needs of different industries.
• Refine Product Features : Discover which software features are most valued by businesses, such as integration capabilities, user-friendliness, or specific tools for collaboration.
• Tailor Marketing Strategies : Identify the most effective communication channels and messaging that resonate with business clients, such as emphasizing efficiency gains or return on investment.

Market research guides businesses from the initial idea through to launch and beyond, acting as a strategic tool that ensures all actions are aligned with market demands and customer needs , ultimately aiming for successful business outcomes.

Utilizing tools for efficient market research

Using tools like Userpilot, SurveyMonkey, Google Forms, and Typeform, market researchers can reach a wide audience and get fast responses. These platforms help to design, distribute, and analyze surveys efficiently.

Userpilot stands out by allowing businesses to create targeted in-app experiences that engage users directly where they are most active—within the app itself. This direct engagement method improves the quality of the feedback collected as it relates to specific features or user experiences.

Userpilot also offers features such as demographic filtering and behavioral-based segmentation, which speeds up the process of finding and recruiting the right participants for market research.

These tools are essential for performing detailed and effective market research. They break down geographic and cultural barriers, offer access to diverse user groups, and enable businesses to conduct deep, actionable analyses across different market segments.

Translating research findings into business growth

Market research does more than just gather and analyze data; it aims to transform these insights into tangible business improvements. This process is crucial in guiding product development and helping increase a company’s market share by informing targeted strategies. For instance, a B2B SaaS company could use market research to:

• Tailor marketing strategies specifically for key user personas.
• Identify the most valued features for your users.
• Develop pricing strategies that appeal to companies of different sizes.
• Gain insight into the specific needs and expectations of their customers.

By implementing effective market research techniques, companies can customize their products or services to better serve their target audience’s needs, fundamental for stimulating company growth . Conducting personalized market research adds value, while collaborating with specialized firms may yield additional profound insights.

Market research is not just about collecting data; it’s about deeply understanding your customers, spotting opportunities, and making informed decisions that drive your business forward. It provides essential insights into the market and business environment, influencing how potential clients perceive your company.

By conducting competitor analysis and market research, organizations can:

• Connect with their target audience.
• Understand their competitive position.
• Plan strategically for future initiatives.
• Gain insights into customer perceptions of their brand, uncovering new perspectives or opportunities for improvement.

Since competitors also use market research to their advantage, engaging in these analytical processes is crucial for a comprehensive marketing strategy, aimed at business growth.

Start your own market research and journey today to pave the way to success.

Frequently asked questions

What is market research and why is it important.

Understanding their target market through collected information and insights, businesses can make informed decisions, diminish risks, and enhance marketing strategies with the aid of market research. This ensures that choices are based on reliable data, which is crucial for business success.

What is the difference between primary and secondary research?

To summarize, primary research entails the gathering of original data directly from the source, whereas secondary research utilizes previously compiled data sources to add perspective and reinforce conclusions derived from primary research.

How does market research guide product development?

By offering critical data on consumer habits and preferences, market research steers the enhancement of product features, thereby influencing decisions across all stages of a product’s life cycle and aiding in the evolution of product development.

What tools can be used for efficient market research?

Platforms such as Userpilot, SurveyMonkey, Google Forms, and Typeform can be leveraged alongside technologies that are driven by data to simplify the process of crafting, disseminating, and examining online surveys which play a crucial role in conducting market research effectively.

How can market research translate into business growth?

By informing product development, marketing strategies, and identifying opportunities for growth through enlightened decision-making, market research results can propel business expansion.

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How to Conduct Market Research for a Startup

• 17 Mar 2022

With every innovative product idea comes the pressing question: “Will people want to buy it?”

As an entrepreneur with a big idea, what’s the best way to determine how potential customers will react to your product? Conducting market research can provide the data needed to decide whether your product fits your target market.

Before launching a new venture, you should understand market research. Here’s how to conduct market research for a startup and why it’s important.

Access your free e-book today.

What Is Market Research?

Market research is the process of gathering information about customers and the market as a whole to determine a product or service’s viability. Market research includes interviews, surveys, focus groups, and industry data analyses.

The goal of market research is to better understand potential customers, how well your product or service fits their needs, and how it compares to competitors’ offerings.

There are two types of research you can conduct: primary and secondary.

• Primary research requires collecting data to learn about your specific customers or target market segment. It’s useful for creating buyer personas, segmenting your market, and improving your product to cater to customers’ needs .
• Secondary research is conducted using data you didn’t collect yourself. Industry reports, public databases, and other companies’ proprietary data can be used to gain insights into your target market segment and industry.

Why Is Market Research Important for Entrepreneurs?

Before launching your venture, it’s wise to conduct market research to ensure your product or service will be well received. Feedback from people who fall into your target demographics can be invaluable as you iterate on and improve your product.

Performing market research can also help you determine a pricing strategy by gauging customers’ willingness to pay for your product. Additionally, it can improve the user experience by revealing what features matter most to potential customers.

When assessing which startups to fund, investors place heavy importance on thorough market research that indicates promising potential. Providing tangible proof that your product fulfills a market need and demonstrating you’ve taken the time to iterate on and improve it signal that your startup could be a worthwhile investment.

Related: How to Talk to Potential Investors: 5 Tips

How to Do Market Research for a Startup

1. form hypotheses.

What questions do you aim to answer through market research? Using those questions, you can make predictions called hypotheses . Defining your hypotheses upfront can help guide your approach to selecting subjects, researching questions, and testing designs.

An example question you may ask is: “How much are people in my target demographic willing to pay for the current version of my product?” Your hypothesis could be: “If my product contains all its current features, customers will be willing to pay $500 for it.”

Another example question you may ask is: “What’s the user’s biggest pain point, and is my product meeting their needs?” Your hypothesis could be: “I believe the user’s biggest pain point is needing an easy, unintimidating way to learn basic car maintenance, and I predict that my product meets that need.”

You can and should test multiple hypotheses, but try to select no more than a few per test, so the research stays focused.

Related: A Beginner’s Guide to Hypothesis Testing in Business

2. Select the Type of Research Needed to Test Hypotheses

Once you’ve formed your hypotheses, determine which type of research to conduct.

If your hypotheses focus on determining your startup’s place in the broader market, start with secondary research. This can include using existing data to determine market size, how much of that market your startup could reasonably own, who your biggest competitors are, and how your brand and product compare to theirs.

If your hypotheses require primary research, decide which data collection method best fits your needs. These can include one-on-one interviews, surveys, focus groups, and polls. Primary research allows you to gather insights into customer satisfaction and loyalty, brand awareness and perception, and real-time product usability.

3. Identify Target Demographics and Recruit Subjects

To gather meaningful insights, you need to understand your target demographic. Do you aim to cater to working parents, young athletes, or pet owners? Determine the type of person who can benefit from your product.

If you conduct primary research, you need to recruit subjects. This can be done in several ways, including:

• Word of mouth: The simplest but least reliable way to recruit participants is by word of mouth. Ask people you know to refer others to be research subjects, then screen them to confirm they fit your target demographic.
• Promoting the study on social media: Many social media platforms enable you to show an ad to people who fall into specific demographic categories or have certain interests. This allows you to get the word out to a large number of people who qualify.
• Hiring a third-party market research company: Some companies provide full market research services and recruit participants and conduct research on your behalf.

However you recruit subjects, ensure they take a screener survey beforehand, which allows you to determine whether they fit the specific demographic you want to study or have a trait that eliminates them from the research pool. It also provides demographic data—such as age and race—that enables you to select a diverse subset of your target demographic.

In addition, you can offer compensation to boost participation, such as money, meal vouchers, gift cards, or early access to your product. Make it clear that compensation is in appreciation for subjects’ time and honest feedback.

4. Conduct the Research

Once you’ve determined the type of research and target demographic necessary to test your hypotheses, conduct your research. To reduce bias, enlist someone unfamiliar with your hypotheses to perform interviews or lead focus groups.

Ask questions based on your audience and hypotheses. For instance, if you’re aiming to test existing customers’ purchase motivations, you may ask: “What challenge were you trying to solve when you first bought the product?”

If examining brand perception, your audience should consist of potential customers who don’t yet know your brand. Present them with a list of competitor logos—with yours in the mix—and ask them to rank the brands by perceived reliability.

While the questions you ask are vehicles to prove or disprove hypotheses, ensure they don’t lead subjects in one direction. To craft unbiased research questions , use neutral language and vary the order of options in multiple-choice questions. This can keep subjects from selecting the same option each time if they sense the third option is always mapped to a certain outcome. It also helps account for primacy bias (the tendency to select the first option in a list) and recency bias (the tendency to select the final option in a list).

Once you’ve collected data, ensure it’s organized efficiently and securely so you can protect subjects’ identities .

Related: 3 Examples of Bad Survey Questions and How to Fix Them

5. Gather Insights and Determine Action Items

After you’ve organized your data, analyze it to extract actionable insights. While some of the data will be qualitative rather than quantitative, you can detect patterns in responses to make it quantifiable. For instance, noting that 15 of 20 subjects mentioned feeling overwhelmed when attempting to assemble your product.

Once you’ve analyzed the data and communicated emerging trends using data visualizations , outline action items.

If the majority of users in your target demographic reported feeling overwhelmed while assembling your product, action items might include:

• Creating different versions of assembly instructions to test with other groups, varying diagrams and instructional language
• Researching instruction manual best practices

Each round of market research can offer more information about how your product is perceived and experienced by potential users.

Market Research as an Ongoing Endeavor

While it’s useful to conduct market research before launching your product, you should revisit your hypotheses and form new ones over the course of building your venture.

By conducting market research with each version of your product, you can gradually improve it and ensure it continues to fit target customers’ needs.

Are you interested in bolstering your entrepreneurship skills? Explore our four-week online course Entrepreneurship Essentials and our other entrepreneurship and innovation courses to learn to speak the language of the startup world.

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11 Expert Tips for Conducting Better Market Research

Market research is so important that it can mean the difference between success and disaster for a business.

Today’s market, especially with the added challenges of COVID-19, is more volatile than ever. What may have been a “tried and true” method that worked five years ago probably isn’t seeing the same success today.

In addition to analyzing past and current trends, market researchers face the difficult task of finding ways to improve, use forecasts to predict how the market is going to shift, and determine what a business can do to stay one step ahead of the changes.

Some business owners hire professional market researchers to conduct this deep-level analysis. But for small operations, that option isn’t always in the budget.

We’ll break down our top tips to help you improve market research for your business, whether you’re conducting the research yourself in-house or outsourcing it to a third-party professional.

11 Ways to Improve Market Research Skills and Methods for Your Business

Businesses rely on a variety of market research methods. The most common types of market research are surveys, customer observations, focus groups, and interviews, but that’s not an all-inclusive list.

Market research can also include studying website traffic, social media interactions, studies published within a particular industry, field trials, and other means of collecting and analyzing information.

Here are some ways to improve market research:

1. Identify New Opportunities and Needs

One thing is certain about the market – it’s always changing. This state of constant evolution means a market researcher needs to use their analytical skills to study:

• Current trends
• Demographics
• Market size
• Market shares
• Trend forecasts
• Industry suppliers
• Geographic distribution
• Key competitors
• Market gaps, needs, and demands

Collecting this information and pinpointing potential areas of improvement is a critical first step in understanding the existing market and finding opportunities for business strategies, advertising, and products.

2. Understand Your Customers

In order to accurately target the customers in your market niche, you need to know who your customers are. This type of research can be conducted through focus groups, questionnaires, surveys, interviews, and analytical data collected from online interactions with your brand.

It’s important to create a customer profile that not only identifies demographics such as age, income, and interests, but also identifies needs that aren’t being met and how your audience may have changed over time.

3. Conduct Brand Research

There’s a surprising disconnect between how most companies perceive their brand and how their customers perceive it. Even the colors you choose can impact brand recognition by as much as 80% , which means seemingly minor details likely have a bigger impact than business owners realize.

This is where thorough brand research can help businesses improve their overall branding and shed light on:

• How familiar customers are with a brand
• The memorability of a logo and company name
• How customers view a brand in comparison to competitors
• What kind of reputation customers and potential customers think a brand has
• Overall brand perception and awareness in the marketplace
• How customers feel about a brand’s website, social media presence, ads, content, etc.

4. Collect and Analyze Data

Collecting data is a major part of the process, but even more important is being able to analyze that data and determine trends and changes that are currently or may soon impact your business.

Data collection and analysis needs to be a continuous process happening at every phase. Even if you did diligent research prior to launching your latest product, you then need to follow up after the launch and continue to gather customer feedback and market data.

Also, strive to measure the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns with analysis that will drive future campaigns.

5. Don’t Make Assumptions

One of the most dangerous pitfalls a market researcher can fall into is allowing assumptions to enter the equation. It’s easy to notice patterns and make automatic assumptions without diving deeper to explore why certain trends are happening.

That’s a recipe for disaster. Decisions should be made based on the numbers, studies, feedback, and trends – not unverified assumptions.

6. Apply Personalized Problem-Solving Techniques per Project

Every project should be handled individually. There is no blanket, one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to problem solving for different aspects of the market.

If you’re sending out surveys as the primary means of collecting data for your market research, take the time to consider your goal each time. Don’t create an all-in-one survey and send it out to everybody.

Instead, tailor your questions and send them to targeted people. Customers participating in your brand awareness survey should not be getting a carbon copy of your customer satisfaction survey, nor should both groups be receiving one survey that covers questions from both topics.

Taking an individualized problem-solving approach on a project-by-project basis will improve the accuracy of your market research.

7. Improve Communication Skills

In order to gather the most useful data, participants need to have a clear understanding of the questions they’re being asked.

Verbal and written communication skills need to be strong in order to clearly and accurately convey information and create well-documented reports.

8. Gather Product Feature Insights

Whether you’re launching a new product or making updates to an existing one, product feature research should be a part of your overall market research – ideally before you commit to the expenses of large-scale production costs and advertising.

Consumer feedback on concepts and, when possible, prototypes can reveal design flaws, packaging issues, and other problems that will save you a lot of time and money if you can address these issues before the official launch.

Qualitative research such as focus groups, interviews, and open-ended survey questions is best to gather insights you may not have expected from your beta testers.

9. Be Transparent

Market research usually involves interacting with participants in some capacity, whether that’s in-person interviews, virtual focus groups, telephone surveys, digital questionnaires, etc.

Participants need to have a clear understanding of exactly how you intend to use their information. Be open and honest upfront. Failing to do so can have serious repercussions later and may skew your data if participants are uneasy about giving their true opinions.

10. Incentivize Participants

When you’re looking for ways to improve market research, consider what’s motivating the respondents who are providing you with data. Are they being compensated with discounts or prize drawings? Will they be allowed to test a new product prototype?

Remember that just as your time is valuable, so is the time of the people providing you with data. Consider your audience and the best ways you could incentivize them for maximum participation. Incentives designed for B2C surveys are probably not going to be as effective for B2B, and vice versa.

11. Keep Your Surveys, Questionnaires, and Interviews Short and Simple

We already mentioned the importance of communication when it comes to improving market research. In addition to clearly communicating your needs and expectations, make sure you’re keeping the process simple.

Questions should not be complicated and confusing, and your survey shouldn’t take too long to complete. Studies have shown that the response rate drops by 15% if a survey takes more than 5 minutes to finish, with a 40% drop rate past 10 minutes.

Market research is important, but if you need to gather a lot of data, try to break it up into smaller, more manageable sessions so the participants helping you don’t feel overwhelmed.

Improve the Validity of Market Research for Business Success

Market research goes much deeper than simply sending out a survey and generating a report of the responses.

When done in a thorough and meticulous manner, market research can (and should) bring in a ton of data that needs to be analyzed and compiled into written and visual reports capable of showing trends, demographics, and opportunities.

It’s an important part of the business process, and it starts with asking the right questions. Gathering a lot of data is good if it’s the right data. Otherwise, you’re not helping your business make the best strategic decisions for a successful future.

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How to Do Market Research (+ Insights to Beat the Competition)

Why bother with market research for your business?

People have ideas all the time.

You may have had one last night in the shower, and you know that it is a billion-dollar idea that you need to build upon right now before someone steals it from you.

It is always exciting when you think of a new product, and spending hours on market research is the last thing on your mind.

You would rather spend your time creating strategies to build and launch your product.

But without proper market research, your product will be doomed even before you start. One of the main differences between successful and would-be entrepreneurs is failing to conduct appropriate market research.

Market research is not an add-on to your business; it is a necessity. It is the backbone of any powerful business strategy.

In this blog, I’ll explain the basic concepts of market research and why it is essential for your business . I’ll also tell you how to do market research and share resources to help you start your marketing research.

What is Market Research?

In simple terms, market research is all about understanding whether or not your idea for a product or service has a future.

With market research, you gain insights into your target audience and understand the motivation behind why they are interested in a particular offer.

Whether you are launching a new product or service or rebranding your business, analyzing risks is critical. Market research helps you reduce the risk involved with any decision.

Analyzing the market helps you develop a revenue forecast to see whether your investment will be justified and how much profit you would earn.

Market research is not just done before you launch a product or service. Successful businesses keep up with their market and continuously optimize their marketing strategy according to their insights.

In the last decade, the global market research industry has gone from $33.15 billion in 2009 to around $73.38 billion in 2019.

This shows how much businesses invest in market research to understand the current market trends accurately.

Market research helps you make an informed decision based on data and statistics instead of feeling and intuition.

How 3D TV failed due to the negligence of market research

Launching a product without market research is a recipe for disaster.

After the 3D movie ‘Avatar’ hit its second billion, companies like LG and Sony decided to strike when the iron was hot. They released 3D televisions backing on how successful the movie was, hoping they would gain the same traction and profit as the 3D movie.

3D TV failed spectacularly because what they didn’t consider was that people didn’t want to watch all their content in 3D.

With 3D TV, there was a lot of sales hype at the beginning, but when the product launched, it didn’t make much in terms of actual sales.

3D television required glasses and caused headaches, nausea, and neck strain.

After the market didn’t react as per their assumptions, 3D TV manufacturing ceased . 3D TV is considered one of the biggest market research failures of all time.

In this scenario, businesses downright neglected to conduct market research. But there are also instances where companies did do their research thoroughly, but their research was done in isolation.

Why Coca-Cola's ‘New Coke' Flopped

When Coca-Cola tested the market for its ‘New Coke,’ they received a hugely positive response. New Coke was a sweeter version of the original, and the results of the comparison were extremely favorable to the New Coke.

In fact, the taste tests showed that people favored the New Coke over both the original Coke and Pepsi.

The result? The product didn’t just fail, it was one of the biggest marketing debacles in history .

But if everything was perfect, why did the market crash when Coca-Cola launched their New Coke?

While consumers favored the New Coke's taste and flavor, what they did not know was that they would eventually have to choose between the original Coke and the New Coke.

Coca-cola didn't factor in people's enormous emotional connection with their original Coke when they launched a new product to replace it.

Though this was a colossal blunder, this fiasco increased their brand loyalty because people started asking for “their Coke.”

And till date, Coca-cola remains the best-selling soda on the planet.

Some of the strongest brands like Colgate , Pepsi , and Microsoft , have fallen prey to poorly researched marketing blunders.

But here is the thing.

These brands have the luxury to take such risks once in a while. For smaller businesses, such blunders can be fatal.

Why is Market Research Important for Business?

Market research is vital for businesses to realize whether or not the goals they set can be accomplished. Accurate statistics allows businesses to make the right business decisions that will maximize their profit.

Without research, businesses don't have specific directions to follow and hence, they proceed on intuition and assumptions.

There are many ways in which market research keeps businesses on track.

1. Understand your target audience.

People who are most likely to be interested in your product or service will fit into some typical demographic. Customer research provides answers to variables like age, gender, location, education, employment, and even income level.

Based on factual data and statistics, you can construct a finite build of your ideal customer and determine what triggers them.

Market research helps you identify how customers and prospects might view your business. You can recognize your customers' wants and needs and get to know why they chose your product or service over your competitors.

2. Understand your competitors.

Market research not only helps you keep a tab on your competitors, but also gives you knowledge about how you can stand out, be different, and rise above them.

Understanding their ups and downs will help you create a better strategy to succeed in your business. Analyzing their failures will tell you what pitfalls you should avoid.

A thorough understanding of your competitors will ensure you are always one step ahead in the game.

3. Keep up with market trends.

If you do not stay relevant, surviving will be a challenge.

Nokia was once the world's top mobile phone producer, but it fell because it failed to understand the change in market trends.

While on the other hand, its competitors like Apple and Samsung thrived because they stayed relevant.

You need to have thorough knowledge about where your industry is heading in the future and create strategies to ensure you are on the same path.

4. Determine the viability of a new product or service.

Before you launch anything, obtaining an objective opinion is a necessity. Basing your products on “our-customers-will-love-it” theories never work.

Testing the market before launching a product helps you determine the feasibility of the product.

Not every product can work for every person.

Effective market research can help you narrow down on your target audience and realize how much potential your product holds.

This will help you analyze how customers will connect with your product; what message creates the most impact; and how much value it holds in the real world.

5. Identify business challenges.

Market research helps you identify areas of difficulty in your business.

You can identify problems before they blow out of proportion and predict obstacles that can become an inconvenience for your business.

When you face an issue, more often than not, it has a ripple effect and affects more than just one aspect of your business.

If you do encounter an issue, market research helps ascertain the source of the problem and develop a strategy to overcome it.

6. Identify new opportunities.

Market research will help you identify areas your competitors have not addressed.

Consumers may not voice their opinion when they are satisfied with something, but they will charge without abandon when they are not happy with something.

With market research, you will be able to discover what your competitors are lacking in and target those pain points.

7. Significantly minimize risk and loss.

The data you acquire from market research may not be 100% accurate at all times, but you can significantly minimize risk and loss.

With market research, you can take calculated risks that your enterprise needs to grow. Your promotional campaigns will have a higher rate of success.

Types of Market Research: Primary versus Secondary Market Research

In terms of how you can collect research data, you can categorize market research into two types: primary and secondary.

Primary Market Research

Primary Market research is when you gather information directly from the source, i.e., your prospects and customers.

In this method, you carry out your own personal research and get realistic and personalized results about what will work for you.

You can narrow down your exact target audience and get real-time feedback about what exactly they're looking for.

This information you collect is for you alone and is not shared unless you decide otherwise. This offers your business an “information advantage” as your competitors will not be able to get hold of this inside information.

Primary market research is more time-consuming than secondary market research because you need to develop your own research plan and work on executing it.

This research technique may not be as cost-effective, but it always saves you money in the long run.

The process of collecting information with primary market research can be broken down into two methods.

• Quantitative Data Collection
• Qualitative Data Collection

Quantitative Market Research.

Quantitative market research focuses on the collection of numerical data. This technique offers concrete data that will help you quantify a research problem.

You can collect data in an organized manner using surveys, polls, or questionnaires.

The results obtained from quantitative research can be analyzed mathematically and can curate vital statistics to aid your business.

It is easy to draw conclusions from data collected by this method. You can implement this technique on a large market, and hence, the information obtained is more statistically valid.

There are various methods for obtaining quantitative data. Surveys are one of the most widely used quantitative methodologies in market research worldwide.

There are three main types of primary quantitative market research techniques.

• Questionnaires.
• Interviews.

1. Surveys.

Surveys are incredibly adept at providing data to analyze a large population. This research technique can offer a broad capability that is not provided by any other method.

The data collected via surveys is easy to analyze and interpret to make decisions.

If your survey includes checklists and rating scale type questions, it helps to quantify your audience’s behavior.

Always keep the questions of your survey to a bare minimum. The following statistical display by SurveyMonkey shows the average completion percentage by the number of questions.

Here are a few things to keep in mind when you create your survey.

• Ensure your opening question is easy-to-answer.
• Only ask questions you need to be answered.
• Close-ended questions are easy for your audience to respond to.
• Your questions should be short, specific, and straightforward.

2. Questionnaires

Surveys and questionnaires are not the same, no matter how much people use these terms interchangeably.

Questionnaires are more focused on collecting information rather than drawing a conclusion.

Questionnaires are done in isolation. You have your audience answer a predetermined set of questions.

You do not look at any kind of bigger picture, try to spot trends, or statistically analyze this data.

You can create questionnaires with the objective of conducting a survey, or you may use a series of standardized questions and other prompts with the purpose of gathering information.

3. Interviews.

You can conduct a market research interview on telephone, video-call, or even face-to-face to collect quantitative and qualitative data.

Quantitative interviews can also be called survey interviews because they have the same standardized survey question-answer format to collect data.

You can contact existing customers and potential customers with information collected by lead generation forms or website analytics.

Qualitative Market Research.

Qualitative market research doesn’t often include data that can be statistically analyzed.

This method of research focuses on understanding why people behave in a certain way. What motivates them to make a particular decision? How will they respond to a new product or service?

While qualitative questions are more close-ended where specific answers can be expected, qualitative questions are more open-ended and give people the space to state their opinions and feelings.

This research produces data that is much harder to analyze. Researchers are required to interpret the gathered information without any numbers and figures.

Among the traditional qualitative research methodologies used worldwide, 58% of respondents said they used focus groups to be their most used method.

After focus groups, the in-depth interviews have been stated to be the most dominant research technique.

There are three main types of primary qualitative market research techniques.

• Focus Groups
• In-depth Interviews.
• Observations

1. Focus Groups.

Focus groups are organized sessions with around six to twelve people who share a common characteristic.

The main objective of conducting these sessions is to comprehend people’s opinions, perceptions, and beliefs about a particular service, product, or concept.

Focus groups can give you an in-depth understanding of how and why people respond to specific topics in a certain way.

Focus groups are not about merely reporting about a discussion; it is a market research technique that can give you powerful insights that reveal something you need.

How to select participants for a focus group?

The most crucial aspect of any focus group is the selection of participants. Randomly selecting participants for your focus group is simply foolish.

For example, if you are conducting a focus group for why people don’t use a vacuum cleaner, the discussion would yield much better results if you select homemakers who clean their own homes.

Clearly define, verify, and recruit people keeping your target audience for the focus group in mind.

2. In-depth interviews.

By conducting in-depth interviews, you can gather extensive information from the respondents.

You can create in-depth questionnaires for this research technique and discuss highly complex or sensitive topics.

While other primary market research methods can give you valuable insights, have you ever poured your heart out in an online survey?

With interviews, you can gain information that would be nearly impossible to attain otherwise.

• You can know how customers really use your product.
• What stops someone from making a purchase.
• What hidden emotions drive your target audience.

How an interview saved Febreze.

The marketing story of Febreze proves how powerful interviews can be.

Procter & Gamble launched Febreze with a strong marketing campaign.

Their message behind the campaign was that their product could eliminate the foulest stenches like smoky bars and the heavy odor caused by house pets and teenage boys.

The result? Their campaign failed drastically.

Their research showed that people often get desensitized to their surrounding smell due to constant exposure. The stench doesn’t bother them as much.

P&G then turned to interview their most devoted users to understand why exactly they used Febreze.

An interview with a woman in Scottsdale was what led to their breakthrough.

She said, “It's nice, you know? Spraying feels like a little mini-celebration when I’m done with a room.”

P&G realized people didn’t use Febreze for proper cleaning; they used it as a reward of sorts.

They had found their “Dopamine hook.”

They revamped their marketing strategy and positioned Febreze as a part of the cleaning routine, restaging it as a reward.

The result? Within two months, the sales of Febreze doubled.

P&G would never have come to this epiphany if not for their decision to conduct interviews.

3. Observations.

This market research technique focuses on observing people’s behavior in a natural or planned setting.

As a researcher, you may observe your customers’ behavior from the sidelines, or you may be an active participant by conversing with people and then observe their reactions.

In a clinical setting, people’s behavior can be influenced by external stimuli. What people say doesn’t always align with what they do.

Qualitative research by observation allows you to see their true self.

But this method is very time consuming and doesn’t allow you any control over the setting or environment.

Secondary Market Research.

Secondary market research is the process of analyzing existing data and statistics that are already available for you to consume for free.

This research method involves gathering information from secondary sources.

Businesses have already collected and compiled information for you, and all you need to do is know how to access this information.

The internet is one of the most apparent sources to conduct your secondary market research, as there are many resources available online for free, as well as in exchange for money.

There are various other resources available for this research, like libraries, colleges, universities, government data, competitor’s data, trade publications, media sources, etc.

Businesses often gather as much information as they can from various sources and put them together to analyze market trends and compile their own reports with this information.

But though there are so many resources available, secondary market research is not always as easy as it may sound.

Limitations of Secondary Market Research.

• It is a time-consuming process. While a vast amount of information helps a lot, not everything you find will be applicable to your goals. It is often a time-consuming task to filter through all this data to find what you are looking for.
• It is not always credible. Finding reliable information for free is exceedingly challenging. It is your responsibility to evaluate whether the data is reliable or not.
• Nature of data. The data you find will not always be specific to your needs. It is pointless if you spend your time and effort and then find information that may not fulfill your requirements.

Not everyone knows how to acquire accurate data and statistics. And knowing how significant gaining this information is, it is even more critical to get this data right!

If you do not evaluate your market research data, it could lead to bad business decisions.

Here are a few things to look for to access the authenticity of data.

Factors you need to consider when you evaluate secondary research data.

• The research provider’s purpose. Many biased reports are published, so it favors them in some way. This data holds their personal interests at heart and may not be entirely accurate.
• The source. Who has published the information plays a significant role. You can always rely on government sources as compared to sources like private companies or websites. If the name is big, they will have a reputation to keep up. Hence, they are much more reliable than other sources.
• When the data was collected. You need to make sure that the information is relevant. Outdated information will do more harm than good, and using this information will only lead to trouble.
• How the information was collected. Methods of data collection can help you analyze the consumer’s mindset. This is especially important when looking at qualitative data, which gives you information about your audience’s beliefs, opinions, and feelings.
• What information was collected. If you have a specific type of information in mind, it will not do if the data you get includes a much broader aspect. For example, if you want to know which mobile company is most popular amongst millennials, it would not help if the data is about the most popular mobile company.
• Cross verify with other sources. If you find a report that says something specific and can’t find any information regarding the same anywhere else, it might be dangerous to trust that information blindly. Or if information regarding the same topic varies from source to source, you need to dig deeper to find the most accurate information. Always check if the data you have is consistent with other sources.

Three ways of accessing secondary market research data.

• Public sources.
• Commercial sources.
• Educational institutions.

1. Public sources.

Public sources are open sources that are available for everyone to access.

Most governments collect and publish information about markets, growth rates, consumer behavior, current trends, economic factors, and other entities. This data is usually available for free for you to access.

Google Public Data Explorer is an excellent source to access public-interest datasets.

It provides public data from several different international organizations including, but not limited to

• ICT Statistics Database
• U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
• International Monetary Fund
• U.S. Census Bureau

2. Commercial sources.

Commercial sources are those that offer marketing data and consumer insights for a cost.

They usually include research and trade associations and operate across nearly every industry.

Directory of Associations , National Trade and Professional Associations Directory , Equifax , and Dun & Bradstreet are major commercial data sources in the market.

3. Educational institutions.

Business departments of educational institutions like colleges and universities conduct research on various industries. They are the most overlooked sources for market research.

Right from graduate student projects and theses to faculty-based projects, the research material available is very vast.

To use this data, you may have to subscribe to a specific journal or pay a subscription fee to access their newsletter or website.

How to Do Market Research for Maximum Actionable Insights?

While most businesses understand the significance of market research, they sometimes skip this because they simply don’t know where to look and what to look for.

Compiling data for the sake of market research is one thing, actually doing market research, which will lead to actionable insights, is a different story altogether.

Define Your Buyer Persona.

With business, there is no “one-size-fits-all.” You need to connect with your audience if you want them to take you seriously, and that will not happen if you aim to form a connection with everybody.

If you do not create a personal appeal, people will most likely mark you as spam and move on without giving you a second glance.

This is why you need to build your ideal customer profile.

But who is an ideal customer?

An ideal customer is someone who has their wants and needs met by what you have to offer.

You need to have a detailed description of those who are likely to be interested in your products and services.

What are their goals? What are their backgrounds? What challenges do they face? Do you know what interests them? How old are they? Do they have kids? What does their daily routine look like?

This might seem more specific than you expected, but creating customer profiles that answer such intricate details will help you create much more personalized appeals.

The characteristics you define is what will give way to your business’ buyer personas.

What is a Buyer Persona?

Based on the data and statistics you collect from your potential and existing customers, you can map out a semi-fictional character of your ideal customer. This semi-fictional character is called a buyer persona.

A buyer persona is a generalized representation of your target customers.

Amongst other information, there are a few key characteristics you should specify your buyer persona.

• Their gender
• Geographical location
• Their designation and job role
• Family size
• Annual income
• Major challenges they face

Here is an example of a buyer persona.

Why use a Buyer Persona?

When you create buyer personas for your business, it is much easier for marketers, sales representatives, and designers to optimize their content specific to their wants and needs.

Creating buyer personas can essentially help you get into your customer’s head and understand what makes them tick.

How many Buyer Personas should you create?

It’s very unusual for businesses to have only one category of target audience. If you have a business, chances are that your strategy would aim to target a range of people.

But how many buyer personas you create differs from business to business. Some businesses have as little as one or two personas or go as far as 15 to 20.

But creating too many personas will only lead to chaos.

I would suggest you create no more than four personas.

If you have more, chances are that your personas are very similar to each other. You can create three to four primary personas and categorize others under these primary personas in such cases.

If two personas seem similar to you, don’t hesitate to club them. If you do not have enough information on a persona, scrap it.

Your buyer personas are not set on stone. As you move on, add and remove personas with changing market trends.

Creating content as per your buyer personas will help you pitch the same product in different ways to your audience's categories.

Negative Buyer Personas.

Negative buyer personas are a representation of people you do not want to target. These personas are based on demographics and characteristics of people who are not your ideal customers.

While it is essential to know whom you want to target, it is equally important to know whom you should avoid.

You can create anti-buyer personas to be more accurate with your target audience.

If you know exactly what you do not want, you will stray away from messages that might appeal to the wrong audience.

This will save you money in the long run as you will not waste your resources to market to the wrong people. This helps increase your business’ efficiency and productivity.

How do buyer personas benefit a business?

According to NetProspex’s case study , their following results were observed after they implemented reinforced their buyer personas:

• 900% increase in the duration of visit.
• 46% increase in conversions.
• 111% increase in email open-rate.
• 100% increase in the number of pages visited.
• 171% increase in marketing-generated revenue.

Buyer personas help businesses identify and analyze their target audience’s behavior. You can use this real-time data to ensure your products and services consider your customers' desires.

Buyer personas benefit a business in a number of ways.

• Increase compatibility. Buyer personas bring your target audience to life in a memorable way that will help everyone in your business understand your users better. It will make sure everyone is on the same page and makes it easier to communicate and collaborate while creating strategies.
• Find the right platform. While researching for your buyer persona, you will understand which platform your target audience leans towards. This will help you focus your advertising and marketing strategies on these platforms to increase your reach.
• User-focused. Buyer personas will keep you from wasting your time and resources on products and services that would not interest your target audience. With a clear understanding of your buyer personas, your products and services will be focused on your customers and ensure high efficiency.
• Build product roadmaps. Buyer personas will help you identify what your customers want and use this to create a plan of action to ensure your product’s success.
• Product positioning. With your buyer personas, you will know how to market your product in a way that people will be inclined towards. You will know what campaign message will create the best connection with your audience.

Identify a Portion of That Persona to Engage

Now that you know what a buyer persona is, the next step is to create your buyer persona.

You must already have a rough idea about what you want in your target audience. With that as a guide, identify people whom you want to engage in your research.

This step involves researching your target audience to learn more about what characteristics make up your buyer persona.

How to Research Buyer Personas?

There are many ways of collecting information via primary and secondary market research.

Many businesses create surveys to study their customers’ inclinations.

But to create buyer personas, you need to get into people’s heads, and the most powerful market research technique is to conduct interviews.

You can interview existing customers, potential customers, and even third-party networks who are not in your existing pool of target audience but come close.

The interview should cover necessary demographic information to what triggers them to make purchasing decisions.

You need to dig as deep as you can and gather as much insight about them. The more you know, the stronger your buyer persona will be.

How to find participants for your buyer persona research?

• Existing Customers. These are the easiest people to target. You already have a point of contact, and they are familiar with your products. Interviewing them will help you notice patterns about the things that appeal to them and their challenges. Since they are already connected to your product, you may not need to offer any incentives to get feedback.
• Potential Customers. You typically must have acquired their contact information via lead generation forms or web analytics . These are people who may be interested in what you have to offer but haven’t taken the leap to purchase your products.
• Referrals. If you do not have an existing customer base or any contact information about your market audience, you need to work with your personal network. Reach out to your co-workers, social media contacts, even family members, and find people you can interview. LinkedIn is an excellent place to start if you are lost; type in keywords of your target audience into the search box and filter through your connections to see people you can contact.
• Third-party Networks. You can use platforms like Respondent , UserInterviews , UserTesting and PlaybookUX to find participants for your research.

But using these platforms does not give you a chance for one-on-one interaction. This may make it much more difficult for you to gather information to create your buyer personas.

How to get people to become interviewees?

• Offer Incentives. Of course, there’s always chocolate. And you may not even need to offer that for interviewing people who are already your customers. But while reaching out to people under other categories, you could provide simple gift cards. According to PeoplePulse , there is a 10 to 15% increase in response rate when offered incentives.

You can appeal directly to your social media network and get participants to approach you if your incentive is strong.

• Be honest about your purpose. Be clear at the very beginning that it is not a sales call. Tell them you are calling them because you want to get some information for your research. If you are honest from the beginning, they are more likely to trust you and open up about their lives, feelings, and opinions.
• Be flexible. Work according to their schedule and make it easy for them to say yes. Allow them to give you a time, and make sure you send them a reminder before your call to ensure you don't catch them off guard.

Questions you can ask participants during the interview.

Telephonic or face-to-face interviews can be a little daunting if you don’t know where to start.

This is just a sample list for inspiration to help you get started. You can optimize the questions according to your target audience (in fact, you definitely should.)

Personal Background

Describe your Personal Demographics.

• Marital status.
• What are your interests and hobbies?
• What is your educational background? Where did you complete your education?
• What is your career path? How did you end up where you are today?

Professional Background

• Which industry or industries does your company serve?
• What is the size of your company (revenue, employees)?
• What are the most common challenges in your industry?
• What are the most common objections to your product or service?
• What is your job role? And your job title?
• How many years of experience do you have?
• Whom do they report to? Who reports to them?
• How is your job measured?
• Describe a typical working day.
• Which specialized skills or tools are required to do your job?
• What frustrates you the most about your job?
• What do you enjoy the most about your job?

Goals & Challenges

• What are your biggest challenges?
• What are you responsible for?
• What does it mean to be successful in your role?
• What are your personal goals? Career goals?
• How do you prioritize them?

Decision Making

• Who do you consult with and trust for advice and information?
• What is the most important thing you look for when you buy a product?
• What are your biggest complaints about our product or service?
• What must happen for you to overcome these complaints?

Information Sources

• How do you learn about new information for your job?
• What publications, blogs, or social networks are you interested in?
• How did you find out about our company?

To gain an in-depth insight, the followup question of most of the above questions should be “why?”

Ask open-ended questions and encourage them to talk. The more they talk, the more you’ll understand what motivates them to do something.

How to create your Buyer Persona?

After you have collected all raw data about your target audience, it is time to analyze this information and look for patterns and commonalities.

Here is an example of a B2C buyer persona.

From this buyer persona, you can understand that Rachael has a busy life, and doesn’t spend excessively.

The most effective way to pitch your products to her would be to highlight how easy it would make her life. She would appreciate quick and easy solutions.

Creating in-depth personas with intricate details will help you better visualize your target audience and develop messages that they can instantly connect with.

After you are done with your research, it is time to map out your buyer personas and create a layout.

If you are not sure where to start, I’ve compiled examples, tips, and templates you can use as a guide to creating your buyer persona from scratch.

1. Create 2-4 primary buyer personas.

While you may create as many personas as your business needs, it is not advisable to create more than four.

You may, of course, create more, but you can categorize those personas under the primary personas you’ve created.

2. Highlight brands or products your audience already uses in your industry.

If your customer favors Nike or only uses Apple products, it speaks about your audience’s preferences. You will understand what they value, and this secondary information will help you deduce a lot about your customers.

3. Create a customer journey map

Creating a customer journey map will help you when you try to define your primary buyer personas.

You can categorize your buyer personas by how your audience uses your product or service.

4. Include icons and illustrations.

Visuals like icons and illustrations help add context to your content. You can use them to make complex ideas more straightforward to understand and remember.

5. Have a consistent layout.

A consistent layout for all your personas will help you spot differences better.

You can easily compare information instead of trying to locate things blindly just because your designer was overzealous.

Additionally, you can also highlight fundamental differences between your personas to make your work easier.

7. Create an infographic of your persona guide.

Creating a buyer persona means including as many essential insights as possible, and what better way to illustrate your buyer persona guide other than an infographic?

Infographics are an exciting and powerful way to display information.

You can use free templates offered by websites like Canva , Pictochart , and Venngage to create your infographic.

8. Include an introduction paragraph.

This paragraph will serve the purpose of giving your persona a backstory. Talk about what makes them tick, or it could be a simple narrative that is purely biographical.

9. Use sliding scales to understand your persona better.

You can’t define everyone in extremes; it is never always this or that . Using sliding scales and or other similar visual aids will help you understand your buyer persona better.

Willian is more of an introvert than an extrovert, but labeling him solely as an introvert would not do him justice.

10. Give your personas a real name.

As you would have noticed in the above examples, all the buyer personas have names. This makes them memorable and motivates you to think of them as an actual person rather than research metrics.

This works wonders when working on a campaign, for all you have to think about is to convince “Mike” or “William.”

This keeps your target audience in center focus every time you develop an idea.

11. Use a few keywords that summarize your persona effectively.

You can summarize your buyer persona with a few keywords that practically define them.

Keywords are powerful, and if you happen to use these images as posters around your desk or office, they will cement your target audience's characteristics in your mind.

12. Don’t use celebrity images as your persona.

When you think of Will Smith , what comes to mind?

• His determination and dedication.
• His humble nature even after achieving great heights.
• How he is unapologetically himself.

If you were to use Will Smith's face for your buyer persona, it would be challenging to stop his characteristics from overshadowing your target audience.

Using images of people you don’t know will help you start afresh.

Now that you know the features that would help make your buyer persona, here are a couple of tools to help you design your persona.

Tools to create your buyer personas.

You can use templates offered by Xtensio to create your buyer personas. The software is very user-friendly and also allows you to customize your layout as per your requirements.

Hubspot’s buyer persona tool walks you step-by-step to create your persona. One downside to using Hubspot is you can not add your own persona image and have to choose from a handful of character images offered.

If there are elements you want to add that are not included by default, you can add them using the “Add new section” button.

Engage Your Market Research Participant

One of the biggest challenges of conducting primary market research is finding people willing to participate in your study.

Finding participants seems like an exceedingly tedious task, which doesn’t have to be the case. There are various ways you can recruit people for your market research.

Channels you can use to recruit interviewees.

1. Crowdsourcing.

With crowdsourcing, you can engage a large volume of people in your market research. It is an excellent alternative to traditional human subject pools.

You can use platforms like Amazon Mechanical Turk to recruit participants for reasonable rates. The average wage is $1.40 per hour .

Some other platforms you can use to source participants are Respondent and Testing Time .

2. Broadcast email.

Broadcast emails are sent to a large group of people at once. You can take advantage of your email list.

Keep note of people who have participated in your research so you can get in touch with them in the future in a similar scenario.

If you don’t have your own email list, narrow down on your interest group and approach organizations that focus on the same demographic.

Some organizations may be open to sharing their database for a price or some other inducements.

If not, at the very least, you could convince them to share an email containing your market research survey with their audience.

3. Snowball Sampling.

The best way to recruit more participants is to take advantage of your current participants. Word of mouth is one of the most potent tools of marketing.

Offer referral incentives to your current participants, and they will help recruit new people. This is called snowball sampling or chain-referral sampling.

4. Traditional and Internet Media.

You can use press releases and related print or TV/radio reports to recruit participants for your research.

If your research requires a specific pool of people, this may work really well. It does take a while to get a good volume of participants, and it may cost significantly more than other means of recruiting participants.

Another affordable and more effective alternative is to use internet media. You can research web portals and online forums that target your ideal market.

5. Search Engine Marketing (for example Google Adwords).

With online search engine ads, you can reach millions of people looking for information regarding your targeted keyword.

Depending on how strong your incentive is, you can recruit participants quickly using this method.

6. Social Media.

This is one of the best ways to source participants for your research. You can create pages or launch ads to recruit participants.

One of the best parts about using social media is that you can access people’s profiles and find extensive information about them to see if they are the right match for your research.

You can source on LinkedIn by searching for people who fit your criteria and use inMail and 2nd-degree intros to contact them.

7. Online Panels.

An online research panel is a group of selected individuals who have agreed to complete surveys via the Internet.

With online panels, it is effortless to recruit participants, and additionally, it is cost-effective.

I recommend using QuestionPro or Survey Monkey .

One drawback of using these online portals is that you can’t have immediate contact with your participants as most online panels don’t share their audience’s contact details.

8. Craigslist.

Using Craigslist may not be the best method, but you can still use it to recruit participants for low prices.

You can post an ad on Craigslist for free, but many marketers have stopped using this platform for the validity of the information provided is always in question.

Prepare Your Research Questions for Maximum Actionable Learnings

Even after you find the right participants, the most crucial part of the research is the questionnaire.

You can’t just note down questions from the top of your head. You need to ensure that each question you’ve included will help you progress with your research.

But how can you make sure all your questions are important? I’ll tell you how.

How to prepare survey research questions

1. Create a frame.

Before you write a single question, I need you to note down three things.

• The objective of your research.
• What is your desired outcome?
• Characteristics of your target audience.

This is the fundamental part of your research and will help you ground your questions. Cross-referencing your questions with these points will ensure you don’t sway away from the main objective.

2. Brainstorm Questions

You already have a list of questions you are dying to ask your customers, and it would be so convenient to include anything and everything just so you don’t miss out.

But that’s not the way to go. In this step, you write down all questions you have in mind.

Write down the silliest of questions because after you create momentum, you will find that your questions have much more depth.

But one crucial thing is to think about the questions “you already know” answers to.

How do you know the answer? Do you have any research to back your answer, or is it just your gut feeling?

Be wary of these traps where your mind says not to include a question because you already know the answer.

Learn to separate what you know and what you believe to be true.

3. Filter and find the best questions.

After you are done with brainstorming questions, it is time to review it against the frame you created in the first step.

Cross-check if your questions fulfill your objective, discard the questions that don’t, and club questions whenever necessary.

Only pick the best, juiciest questions that will give the most insights. Remember, you need actionable feedback.

Below is the result of a study conducted by Survey Monkey to understand how much time respondents spend on a survey.

It is recommended that your survey should not include more than 12 questions.

You need to hold the respondent’s attention, and for that, the survey should not take more than 5 minutes to complete.

But of course, if the incentive you offer is good enough, you can make the survey longer.

Types of Research Questions

1. Open-ended research questions.

Open-ended questions require the respondent to type in their answer into a comment box. These questions call for more depth and lengthier responses.

While open-ended questions allow the respondents the freedom and space to state their opinions, it is recommended that you don’t include many of these questions.

You can see an example of an open-ended survey question below:

2. Multiple choice research questions.

They are the most popular type of survey questions. They are easy for your participants to answer, and you receive clean data for analysis.

Below is an example of a multiple-choice research question with a multiple-select answer option:

3. Ranking research questions.

These questions help you understand your respondent’s preferences. Keep in mind that this type of question takes longer to answer, so don’t include too many of them.

For instance, in the question below, respondents need to be familiar with each feature and select a corresponding number to rank the features as per their preference.

4. Rating scale research questions.

These questions are used to get responses on a continuous scale to understand how your audience feels about something.

Here’s how a rating scale question can look:

5. Net promoter score research questions.

This is a type of rating scale question where the question has an answer that depicts a range (for example, 1 to 10, or 1 to 100.)

Always remember to give context to these questions. The numbers on the scale would not make any sense if you don’t explain the value of the numbers.

Like in the above example, 0 is ‘very unlikely,’ and 10 corresponds to ‘very likely.’

6. Likert scale research questions.

These are very popular questions for surveys. They help you understand exactly how your customer feels about something.

Below is a typical example of a Likert scale question:

7. Semantic differential scale research question

This is a type of Likert scale question which is extremely effective in quantifying how your audience feels about a particular brand, product, service, or organization.

8. Stapel scale research questions.

This type of rating scale question has an even number range with no neutral point.

For example, the question below has a range of +2 to -2, and your respondent’s answer accurately describes whether they are in agreement or disagreement with something.

9. Constant sum research questions.

In this type of question, the respondent can rate a particular entity, and you can compare the other entities using one as a reference.

This is useful for devising ratio data of different attributes.

10. Matrix table research questions.

Matrix table questions are presented in a grid and are usually easy to interpret for your respondents. This is because the answer options and scales remain consistent across all entities.

This is also highly efficient as you can make use of one question to gather significant data.

11. Image choice research questions.

These questions have images as your answer options. They dramatically increase response rates and also make your survey visually appealing.

I would recommend using this question type in between as they give your respondent a break from reading.

12. Dropdown research questions.

You can use dropdown questions when you have a long list of brief answer options. For example, if you want the respondent to pick their home town or their birth year.

Use them lightly as most people like to refer to the answer options as context when they read a question.

13. Click Map research questions.

If you want direct feedback on a product image or any other visual, this is the best approach.

Click Map question allows the user to click one spot on the image.

For example, the following is a product packaging image. You could ask the survey taker to click on the part of the packaging that appeals the most to them.

14. File Upload research questions.

In case you need supporting documents or images, you can use file upload questions.

Though, it is not recommended as it is tedious for the respondent, you can collect whatever file you require as a PNG, PDF, or Doc file.

Survey Pre-Launch Checklist.

Here is a checklist of things you need to take note of before you launch your survey.

• Ensure that your survey is compatible with all devices.
• Preview and test your survey.
• Check how long the survey takes to complete. The recommended time to finish a survey is 5 minutes.
• Check the structural components of your survey like the navigation buttons, page, and titles, etc.
• Make sure the answer format is in harmony with the question type. If the question requires multiple option selection, ensure the format allows the user to select all options that apply.
• Check the reporting value format. If you have customized your reporting value, check if the format for birth date, age, email address, etc. is set correctly.
• If you’re unsure how you can analyze the results, do a trial run, and familiarize yourself with how the results show up. Also, don’t forget to delete your test responses before you launch the survey.
• Make sure there are no grammatical or spelling errors.
• Ask someone else to cross-check the survey. A second pair of eyes might spot something you missed.

Reminder Emails.

Reminder Emails are an excellent strategy to boost your response rates.

But when do you send your first reminder email? The second? The third? When do you stop?

Survey Monkey recommends sending the first reminder email 48 to 72 hours after you have sent your first survey invite.

Below given table shows how the response rate drops exponentially after the first reminder email.

It is recommended that you send reminders only if necessary and don’t send more than four reminders.

Research Closure.

After you have closed the survey, send an email to all the respondents to thank them for participating in the survey.

Don’t forget to include the top two or three things you have found from the research and how you plan to act on them.

People like to know that their contribution created an impact and that the time they took to respond was worthwhile.

This closes the loop and sets you up with the respondents for the next time you decide to conduct a survey.

Analyze Your Findings and Identify Patterns

You finally have everything you need for your research; your results are in, and all you have to do is analyze everything you’ve found.

This next step is called Data Analysis. In this step, you bring together all the data you’ve collected, identify patterns, and draw conclusions.

You need to keep in mind a few things before you start analyzing your market research data.

• Don’t start analyzing the results before all your responses come in, and the survey is closed.
• Filter the results. There would be many low-quality responses that won’t help your research. These could be
• Incomplete survey responses.
• Responses from people who are not your target audience.
• People who completed the survey with supersonic speed. Yeah, they didn’t really read your questions.
• Unrealistic answers. For example, family size is 4700. Well, really?

Now that you have your data, what are you going to do about it? Read through hundreds of survey responses and interview notes?

The amount of data you receive can be quite overwhelming. To ensure your head doesn’t go spinning while analyzing this data, it is essential to use data organization and data reduction techniques.

These methods will be beneficial to compile and assemble data to interpret and analyze your findings.

You can segment your results to gain in-depth insights. Below are a few samples of segments you can utilize.

Types of Market Segmentation.

• Demographic Segmentation, like age, gender, and marital status.
• Geographic Segmentation, like country, state, and regions.
• Psychographic Segmentation, like personality traits, beliefs, values, lifestyle, opinions, and interests of consumers.
• Behavioral Segmentation, like decision-making patterns such as consumption, purchase, lifestyle, and usage.
• Firmographic Segmentation, like company size and the number of employees.

Online survey portals like Survey Monkey and Questionpro offer in-depth analysis with statistical data and visual charts to draw conclusions for your research.

However, not all platforms may offer such services, and additionally, you may have secondary research data to combine with your survey responses.

Here is a list of data analysis software programs that you can use to integrate your market research data, analyze your findings, and identify patterns.

Quantitative Data Analysis Software

Quantitative Data Analysis focuses on statistical, mathematical, and numerical analysis of data you have collected with market research.

Here is a list of quantitative analysis software programs.

SPSS stands for Statistical Package for Social Sciences. It is the most popular quantitative analysis tool used for editing, analyzing, and presenting numerical data.

With SPSS, you can perform analysis, interpret the results, and make sound statistical decisions.

SPSS is well-suited for all formats used for structured data analysis like Excel, plain text files, and relational (SQL) databases.

STATA is a powerful and flexible general-purpose statistical software package.

It is an interactive data analysis program that runs on a variety of platforms. It is easy to analyze, manage, and produce graphical visualizations of data.

You can use STATA for both simple and complex statistical analyses.

STATA offers several purchase options to fit your budget.

SAS is an acronym for Statistical Analysis System.

With the Market Research Application (MRA) of this software program, you are provided with advanced graphical and statistical data evaluation techniques.

R is a free software to download and use , especially for graphical and statistical computing.

If you are familiar with statistics and computing, you can add your own programs to it.

There are free software programs like JAMOVI and Jasp , both of which require no coding knowledge and are extremely easy and straightforward to use.

While all these tools can help you analyze numerical data and create statistics, they may not be of much help while trying to identify patterns in open-ended survey responses and interview comments.

The aforementioned tools are excellent for quantifiable data, but if you want to break down qualitative data, I have a list of tools to make your life easier.

Please note that most of these tools analyze both qualitative and quantitative market research data.

Qualitative Data Analysis Software.

NVivo is, by far, the largest player in the qualitative software field.

You can analyze the unstructured text, video, audio, and image data, including interviews, open-ended survey answers, focus groups, social media, and journal articles.

You can import text, audio, video, emails, spreadsheets, images, online surveys, web content, and social media from various sources and create a centralized base to conduct in-depth analysis.

NVivo offers a 14-day free trial . The price is variable .

Like NVivo, you can import data from interviews, focus groups, surveys, videos, and even social media from various sources into a simple, intuitive interface.

After you import your data, you can organize your data into different categories. You can even mark specific data and leave notes, and color-code your data for better organization.

MaxQDA offers a 30-day free trial . The price is variable according to your specifications.

Quirkos is designed to help researchers sort, manage, and comprehend large amounts of data. You can code or tag specific sections of data and even compare themes across various sources.

Quirkos does not offer as many extensive features as NVivo; its main focus is to provide simple tools for exploring qualitative data that are flexible and easier to use.

It has an extremely straightforward interface so you can focus on your work and not how to do it.

One of Quirkos’ best features is its text analyzer. This tool helps you find common keywords and phrases within various text documents.

One major drawback is Quirkos does not have support for integrated multimedia and quantitative analysis.

You can choose between a subscription service or a one-off license fee. Additionally, Quirkos offers a free trial of the full version.

With Dedoose, you organize research data in a broad range of formats, including qualitative data such as text, audio, images, or video, and quantitative data such as spreadsheets, surveys, test scores, ratings, or demographics.

It is easy to collaborate as it is a web-based software.

You can also import project data from other software like NVivo, Atlas.ti, MaxQDA, Saturate, HyperResearch, Quirkos, and others.

Dedoose pricing starts from $14.95 Per Active Month for an individual. They also offer plans for small and large groups and have a special package for students.

Regardless of the group size, Dedoose offers the first-month cycle of use is free for all users.

5. Atlas.ti

Atlas.ti is a web-based qualitative data analysis software program that allows you to capture perspectives & insights into primary or secondary research.

It is a powerful tool for efficient and effective work on your research data. You can organize data, add information, and create comments, codes, annotations, categories, and shows relationships among all of them.

Atlas.ti is an excellent tool if you want to analyze large bodies of textual, graphical, audio, and video data.

With Atlas.ti, you can import source materials as DOCX., CSV, PDF, TXT, RTF, JPEG, GIF, and other audio/video formats.

This software program is easy to manage and gives you a lot of freedom to name categories according to your preferences.

Atlas.ti offers a free 14-day trial version . The price is variable according to your specifications.

6. Qualtrics

Qualtrics is an easy-to-use web-based software program that allows users to build surveys, analyze and interpret responses, and generate reports.

You do not require any coding knowledge. Their drag-and-drop interface is extremely simple and straightforward.

From setting up your project, managing it, finding respondents, and reporting on the results, Qualtrics offers all kinds of services.

Qualtrics’ Prediction Analysis tool uses historical and current survey responses to make predictions about customer behavior. This tool helps analyze how the market will react to new products or services you plan to launch.

Qualtrics offers a flexible service so that you can request a quote according to your requirements.

These are some of the best tools available for qualitative analysis.

However, if these tools are a bit pricey for your needs, here is a list of free tools you can use.

Free Qualitative Data Analysis Software Programs:

• Square Feedback
• QDA Miner Lite
• ConnectedText

Now you know the best ways to analyze your market research data and the tools you can leverage to make this process more efficient and systematic.

List Hyper-Specific Action Items and Follow-Up Research Questions to Maximize the Value from Your Market Research

Market Research helps you identify your customer’s requirements and expectations.

With research, you can benchmark yourself against your competitors and ensure you have a leading advantage.

One of the best ways to gain a better perspective is through follow-up questions.

Interviews via telephone or face-to-face and emails are your principal follow-up marketing tools.

After your customer fills out your survey, you already have their attention. You could ask them almost any question related to your product or service, and they would probably answer it.

You might choose to stay anonymous during your original survey to avoid the respondent to be influenced by your brand. So, in the follow-up section, you can ask your audience everything you want them to answer about your brand.

You also have the freedom to include as many open-ended questions as you like, for it gives them space to share how they feel directly.

Here is a list of follow up questions to find additional information specific to your brand and business.

• What could we do to increase your score by just one mark?
• If you could change one thing about our product, what would it be?
• What three of these features would you most like to see in the product’s future?
• Which of these words best describes our product?
• What problem would you like to solve with our product?
• How would you rate the value for money of the product?
• How easy is it to navigate on our website?
• Were you able to find the information you were looking for on our website?
• How did this effort compare to your expectations?
• How responsive have we been to your feedback about our products?
• Why did you choose our product rather than a competitor’s?

You may get answers to some of these questions in your original survey, but the follow-up survey gives your audience the chance to open up.

When you allow your customers to go deeper and speak about their experience and feelings, it builds a foundation for trust and loyalty.

This happens only when you take their responses into account and improve your products to meet their needs and wants.

Most people take surveys and never hear back apart from a stale, thank you note. They don’t know how their contribution helped; if the business did anything with the information in the first place.

Be sure to drop an email after your market research analysis to thank them sincerely. Additionally, include the top 2 or 3 three conclusions you have drawn from their surveys and how you plan to implement them.

People like to know how their contributions helped create an impact and assure your audience that they didn’t waste their time with you.

When you engage them in your research process, they will distinctly remember your brand and be more open to participating in your future research.

Best Market Research Methods for Small Businesses on a Low Budget.

Spending an outrageous amount of money is not the only way to do market research.

I’ll give you five cost-effective market research strategies that you can implement to gain actionable data.

1. Research Product Reviews on Amazon.

Amazon is the world’s largest online retailer.

Amazon accounts for 13.7% of worldwide e-commerce sales . In the United States, Amazon is projected to account for more than half of the local e-commerce market.

Amazon is the fastest and easiest way to uncover what your customers are looking for and what they are actually buying.

What people say and what they do can sometimes be miles apart, and amazon shows you their actions.

You can check out your competitor’s products and head over to the review section to know what people have to say regarding the product.

You can know exactly what products are working, and the positive reviews will tell you what aspects of the product people are benefitting from.

But what will help you the most is finding what people are complaining about.

Viola! You found their pain point.

Suppose your company manufactures helmets. You scroll through your competitor’s products on amazon and navigate to the customer reviews.

There’s your pain point!

Your competitor’s product does not offer proper gear to shield people’s nose from dust.

If your product works to satisfy those customers, you can effectively steal your competitor’s audience!

2. Use Quora for Your Market Research

Quora has over 300 million unique visitors each month.

Quora is an information-focused platform to ask questions, get answers, and share your knowledge on topics you are familiar with.

Quora’s online community is an excellent place to find views, opinions, advice, standpoints, beliefs, explanations, and answers to everything you want to know.

If you think you may not find what you need at Quora, you should note that there are over 400,000 topics on Quora right now.

Quora is a platform for real people seeking answers. There is no third party involved, and you can know what people want in their own words.

It is an excellent place to conduct your research.

How to use Quora for market research?

You can sign up for Quora using your Google or Facebook account, and you can start following topics you are interested in.

Quora also gives you relevant suggestions when you type in specific topics or keywords in the search bar.

Quora has a feature where you can follow topics you are interested in.

When you follow a topic, Quora will optimize your home page news feed to show you the latest activity within topics you are interested in.

You can also note topics related to your search result on the right section of the page.

When people post questions tagging topics you follow, Quora will notify you.

You can also get the latest questions sent to you via email.

Go to the Settings option and then navigate to Email and Notifications to optimize settings according to your preference.

You will be able to track relevant topics with notifications and learn about what people in your industry are saying and what your audience has to say about your industry.

To gain more insights about a topic, click on the meatballs menu button, and select Manage.

Quora will give you information about common misspellings, alternative names, and standard abbreviations for your chosen topic.

On Quora, very similar topics are merged. You can find topics that have been integrated with the subject you are interested in.

On the right section of the page, Quora gives you information about your chosen subject's parent topics and child topics .

When you look for a particular question , Quora ranks the answers based on the number of Upvotes a response received. This feature will help you understand customer pain points.

Use Quora for your product research.

Quora also has brand-based topics. If your business has products, you can use Quora to see what people have to say about your products or services.

You should follow topics and questions specific to your business and answer queries people might have about them.

Joining in on conversations where your products or services are involved will help you gain a deeper understanding of how people perceive your products.

You can use websites like QuestionsPro to find relevant questions and track your answers.

3. Look at Your Google Analytics Data and Email Marketing Data

Google analytics.

Google Analytics is an exceptional tool for market research that is available for free.

At first glance, Google Analytics can be quite daunting.

There is way too much data presented to you, and if you are not familiar with the tool, you will keep going around in circles and walk away with a spectacular headache.

To make your life easier, here is an overview of the features of Google Analytics that can help you with your market research.

Google Analytics has eight main sections: Dashboards, Shortcuts, Intelligence Events, Real-Time, Audience, Acquisition, Behavior, and Conversions.

Out of all these, there are four sections you need to pay close attention to — Audience, Acquisition, Behavior, and Conversions.

1. Audience Section

This section gives you detailed insights about your users.

In this section, you can find information regarding the gender, age, and location of visitors to your website.

To find this information, focus on sub-sections Demographics and Geo .

The Demographics section will give you information regarding your website visitors’ age range and gender.

To know where your website visitors are from, click on the Geo Dropdown, and select Location.

If you want more specific information, you can click on individual countries to know which states in those countries your visitors are from.

Furthermore, you can select individual states to obtain a list of cities.

This will help you create strategies for your campaigns to drive better results.

2. Acquisition Section

Do most of your visitors come from Google? Instagram ? Facebook ? Quora? Website referrals?

This section will give you detailed information about how people come to your website.

You can analyze where most of your traffic comes from and find keywords your visitors used to navigate them to your website.

But this Keywords tool of Google analytics may not always be useful because of Google’s decision to encrypt keyword data.

If you would like to obtain data about Google's organic search keywords, you can use Google Webmaster Tools (Go to Search Traffic, then select Search Queries. )

3. Behavior Section

This section will provide a rich understanding of how your audience interacts with individual pages on your website.

Google Analytics Behavior section includes nine sections and tools .

These tools will help you learn about your user behavior. You can know which is the most visited page on your website and what actions people are taking while visiting your website.

4. Conversion Section

If you have an online store , the Conversion section will give you insights regarding your leads and conversions.

This section provides eCommerce Analytics to get information regarding how your products are performing and how many sessions or days it takes before your prospects convert.

Email Marketing

People don’t give their personal information without reason, and if used right, your email list can develop a profound connection with your customers.

You have contact details of people interested in what you have to say and have directly interacted with your business by providing their contact information.

So why not make the best of it?

In 2020, roughly 306.4 billion emails were sent and received each day.

Social Media platforms come and go with changing market trends, but email has been an integral part of our daily lives for ages.

This is because, with emails, you have the freedom to reach out to your audience with no restrictions. There is no third-party who can impact how, when, or why you reach out.

As of 2020, there are over 4.03 billion email users worldwide.

That is more than half of the world’s population. So, if you are looking for a way to connect with people, email is the perfect place for you.

Many marketers have used email marketing to generate sales , but if you look at email marketing in terms of only leads and sales, you lose out on a lot.

One hidden capability of email marketing is market research.

Though it isn't as full-blown as other research tools, email marketing does help with market research and has advantages over cost-effectiveness and reciprocation speed.

Using Email Marketing Data for Market Research

Any email with a call-to-action gives insights to help your research.

If you have sent an email offering seven products to your subscribers, you can analyze which product has done the best and which hasn’t.

But this isn't only limited to knowing your product's popularity; you can gain a deeper understanding by analyzing who purchased which product.

Based on past purchases or demographics, you can see which customers like a certain kind of product.

Email marketing does have its limitations.

It does not offer anonymity, meaning your customers will know who has sent them the survey. So, if they choose to take up the survey, their answers could be influenced by how they perceive your brand.

So, how can you make the most of a survey delivered by email?

• Offer Incentives. When you offer a promo code or a gift card to someone in exchange for a few minutes of their time, they will be more inclined to help you out than if you just ask them to fill a survey.
• Survey Questionnaire. The survey you send via email to your subscribers can't include the same questions as your other surveys. You need to keep in mind that they already know who you are, including questions like, “According to you, who is the best brand in the XYZ industry?” will not be useful.
• Type of questions. Your questions should be clear and straightforward. Don’t include too many open-ended questions; make it as easy-to-answer for your audience as possible.
• Compare survey analysis. You can get deeper insights if you compare survey results according to specific categories like geographical location. This will provide you with information about which type of your audience favors what.

How to build your email list?

To build your email list, you need people to subscribe. As we have already established that people don’t give out their personal information for free, you could create lead magnets.

Types of lead magnets:

• Online Courses
• Whitepapers
• Reports or Studies
• Infographics

Email Marketing Tools

Using an email marketing service is tremendously important. These software programs help you optimize and personalize your emails.

I would suggest you choose either Getresponse or Convertkit .

They are simple to use and offer a variety of features that you can leverage to create email marketing campaigns.

Even if you do not have a technical bone in your body, you can create, personalize, and customize your emails by yourself.

These tools ensure that all your emails are optimized to display perfectly over all devices and give you detailed engagement analytics.

How to Use Competitor Research for Market Research

Why are your competitors doing better than you are? What is their marketing strategy? Who are they targeting? What keywords are bringing traffic to their website?

If you are not aware of what your competitors are doing, how do you expect to outrank them?

This is the reason why you need to conduct a competitor analysis.

What is competitor analysis?

Competitor Analysis (or competitive research) is the process where you identify your major competitors and evaluate their strengths and weaknesses.

The goal of conducting a competitor analysis is to replicate their successful strategies and exploit their weaknesses.

When you know what entities your competitors are targeting, you can develop strategies to target the same entities and generate better results.

These weaknesses could be a particular market they’re overlooking or even keywords that they’re not targeting to get traffic to their website.

Competitive Analysis in Marketing

Competitor analysis will:

• Help you create full-proof marketing strategies.
• Identify gaps in the market and opportunities that your competitors are overlooking.
• Replicate your competitor’s strengths and take advantage of their weaknesses.
• Help you make informed decisions for future investments.

How to conduct your competitive analysis?

1. Identify your major competitors.

Determining who you are competing with is an essential first step.

Social media and search engines have made market research a much easier process. You are only a search result away from knowing who the major competitors in your industry are.

What products or services do they offer?

Understanding what your competitors offer and its features are essential. Here are a few questions you can answer to understand your competitor better.

• What is the price range of their products?
• Who are their ideal customers?
• What is their primary customer demographic?
• How do they stand out from their competitors?
• How are they marketing their products or services?
• What are its most popular features?

You need to assess the market to identify both the major players and those steadily on the rise.

Porter’s Five Forces Model allows you to analyze the competition in the marketplace and helps you identify your standing among competitors.

Porter’s industry analysis method recognizes the following five fundamental for

• Competitive rivalry. How many firms compete, and how much is the market growing?
• Threat of substitute products. How likely is it for customers to switch to other firms?
• Bargaining power of buyers. How much power do customers have?
• Threat of new entrants. How easy is it to establish a new firm?
• Bargaining power of suppliers. How much power do suppliers have?

This market research analysis technique will give you a better understanding of your industry’s competitive landscape.

2. Acquire Competitors’ Credit Reports.

Business credit scores rank the creditworthiness of a business.

You can get access to your competitor’s credit reports online for free. While personal credit scores are not available online, business credit scores can be accessed by anyone.

Additionally, it is vital to create your business’ credit report to determine and prove your credibility.

According to a study published by The Wall Street Journal , around 25% of business credit reports you find online may contain errors or lack critical information.

Trusted Sources to Get a Free Business Credit Report.

• Nav You can gain access to free credit report services, including a summary of business credit reports from D&B , Equifax , and Experian . The business credit report also includes a letter grade with the credit-score range.
• Creditsafe . You can sign up at CreditSafe to gain a free credit report for your own business. After you fill out an online request, you have to talk to a Creditsafe representative to activate your business credit report.
• Dun & Bradstreet Credit Signal It is a free business credit reporting service provided by D&B. Credit Signal offers free monitoring service so you can be instantly notified of changes in your business’ D&B credit scores and ratings.

Sources for Paid Business Credit Reports.

• Dun & Bradstreet It is one of the oldest credit reporting companies in existence. For every business you research, D&B provides a credit summary, a credit score, and a financial stress score. With D&B, you can also check out payment comparisons between different businesses in an industry.
• Equifax This tool will give you access to public records information like bankruptcy and a business failure score, which is a forecast of how likely it is for a company to crash in the next year. Along with a business failure score, Equifax business credit reports also include possible reasons for failure. You can also gather information about other companies associated with your chosen business and even their business demographics and payment history.
• Experian It is one of the newest key players in the credit reporting industry. Their business credit reports are incredibly detailed, including information right from the basics to risk alerts, risk indicator ratings, and even business verification. You can gain as many credit reports on your targeted business and be notified whenever new information is updated.

Analyzing these reports can tell you if the businesses are financially stable and how much risk there is in the industry.

3. Analyze and compare competitor’s content.

Familiarize yourself with the kind of content your competitor is publishing. Take note of the type of content that is receiving the most engagement.

What kind of content are you publishing, and how is it different from their content? Are you making use of all formats, or are you missing out on opportunities?

What is your competitor's primary focus on content marketing?

Here is a list of content formats you should take note of:

• White papers
• Case studies
• Newsletters
• Press releases

Compare the quality of content and analyze how frequently they are publishing. Determine their content strategy and see how you can build about that to gain better results.

4. Analyze their Website.

98% of businesses have rated a competitor’s website as a valuable resource and the best source for obtaining competitive intelligence data.

What are consumers searching for? Why are your competitors outranking you in SERPs? What strategies are they using to do so?

An essential aspect you need to know is what keywords they are ranking for.

Let’s assume McDonald’s to be your competitor brand.

For your market research, you should, of course, consider a wide range of brands. I’m only considering one brand for the purpose of learning how to do competitor analysis.

Use Google Ads Keyword Planner to analyze your competitor market.

Go to Keyword Planner and paste your competitor’s website URLs.

Be sure to select Use the entire site for the keyword planner to analyze their entire site.

When you click on Get Results , the keyword planner will give you a list of keywords that your competitor’s website ranks for.

But as you can see, most of the results won't help you as they are specific to your competitor's brand.

You can exclude their brand name by

• Clicking on Filter.
• Select Keyword.
• Choose Does not contain from the drop-down menu.
• Enter your competitor’s brand name.

Now you can see a much more relevant list that you can target.

You can now do this individually for all your competitor brands and see what they rank for and which keywords they have in common.

Note: Google Ads Keyword Planner is a free tool that is primarily for advertisers, not SEOs. You can use SEO specific tools like SEMrush , Moz , and Ahrefs to gain in-depth insights about your competitor’s SEO.

Your main objective is to try and outrank your competitor in SERPs .

Once you know what keywords your competitor is ranking for, analyze where they are using these keywords.

• URL architecture
• Meta description
• Heading tags
• Content Body
• Inbound links
• Image alt text
• Social media

Additionally, also take note of the following:

• Page Speed Insights
• Domain Authority
• Root linking domains
• Sitemaps – HTML, image, XML, video
• Backlinking strategy
• Website responsiveness (Mobile and Desktop)

Analyze what keywords your competitor is ranking for that you are not. This is called keyword gap analysis.

Analyze how they are ranking for those keywords and build upon their strategy to give Google better content to consider.

5. Look at their social media engagement.

The next step is to analyze your competitor’s social media and see how they integrate it into their marketing strategy.

• Which social media platform are they focusing on?
• Where do they receive the most engagement?
• What kind of content are they posting?
• Which content format is working the best for them?
• How often do they post?
• What kind of profile pictures and cover images are they using?
• Check out their social media bio. What points have they mentioned in their overview section?
• What is their growth rate?
• Who are they following?
• How proactive are they? How well are they addressing consumer complaints?
• How are they interacting with their customers and brand advocates?
• What are their weaknesses? Is their response rate poor? Is it irregular posting? Spelling or grammatical errors? Lack of engagement? Poor imagery?

Find out areas you can exploit and use their social media strategies to successfully build your online presence.

6. Sentiment Analysis.

Sentiment Analysis is interpreting how customers feel about your business.

This is something that is often overlooked by businesses. It is crucial to track how the audience feels about your brand when compared to your competitors.

There are various free and paid tools that can help you assess the sentiment behind customer behavior.

Sentiment Analysis Tools.

• Quick Search
• Critical Mention
• Social Mention
• Sentiment Analyzer
• Social Searcher
• MonkeyLearn

Use these insights to gain the upper hand over your competition. And though you won't take the lead overnight, it is essential to track your progress with tools like Google Analytics , SEMrush , Moz , and Google Webmasters .

Analyze what is working and what isn’t, and optimize your strategy accordingly.

Ask Your Audience with Online Surveys

Conducting an online survey is probably the most effective means of getting direct feedback from your customers.

It is a straightforward, reliable, and affordable way of obtaining data.

You do not need any coding knowledge to conduct an online survey. You simply need to register on an online survey portal and create your survey.

These are hundreds of online survey platforms you can choose to conduct your market research. Each of them has its unique features, and it is important to filter through to find the one that fits your requirements.

I have compiled a list of leading SaaS online survey platforms for you to choose from.

Online Survey Platforms.

1. Typeform .

Typeform offers over 150+ survey templates for you to choose from. You can easily optimize them as per your specifications.

Many people abandon their surveys because they get bored. With Typeform, you can choose to project one question at a time to keep your audience engaged.

The free version of Typeform, nicknamed the CORE plan, offers various features.

• 3 typeforms.
• 10 questions per Typeform.
• 100 responses per month.
• Reports and metrics.
• Email notification when someone completes your Typeform.
• Embed your Typeform on a web page.

Price: Typeform plans start from $35 per month.

2. SurveyMonkey

SurveyMonkey is one of the leading online survey platforms in the market.

It is incredibly user-friendly, and you can get reports of your market research survey in minutes.

If you do not have a source of participants for your research, with SurveyMonkey, you can find people who fit your criteria from their global panel of respondents.

SurveyMonkey Basic (Free) plan features:

• 10 questions or elements per survey
• View either 40 or 100 responses per survey (depending on when you created an account and your billing location.)

Responses over your plan’s limit are hidden and will be deleted after 60 days unless you upgrade to a paid plan.

3. QuestionPro

With QuestionPro, you can not only create surveys but analyze your qualitative and quantitative research data.

As far as free survey tools go, you won’t find another that delivers as much value as QuestionPro’s free trial version.

Here are a few features of QuestionPro’s Essential (Free) plan :

• Unlimited surveys.
• Unlimited questions‪ per survey.
• Unlimited responses (however, each survey is limited to a maximum of 1000 responses.)
• 25+ question types‪.
• Add your own logo to the survey.
• Shareable dashboard reports‪.
• Customized thank you page‪.

Price: QuestionPro plans start from $85 per month

These are the best online survey platforms available. A few other notable survey platforms you should consider are:

• Google Forms
• Zoho Survey
• ProProfs Survey Maker
• Client Heartbeat
• Survey Gizmo
• Survey Planet

All the survey tools mentioned above have their advantages and limitations. Which platform you choose ultimately depends on your business requirements.

If you are not able to come to a conclusion, I would recommend starting with SurveyMonkey or QuestionPro .

Best Sites for Market Research Reports, Finding Users to Interview, and Surveying

Throughout the blog, I’ve mentioned several websites and software programs you can use for various stages of your market research.

In this section, I am going to list additional tools (free and paid) that will make your life much easier while conducting market research.

1. U.S Census Data Tools

U.S. Census Bureau data tools are excellent for conducting secondary market research.

It provides various market research tools and free industry research reports.

You can access economic, demographic, and population data and gain valuable insights for your research.

In fact, you can segment the user data by age, race, ethnicity, and even housing status and compare this information with other locations side by side.

Price: Free.

2. Pew Research Center

This is another excellent website for obtaining free industry reports and datasets.

Pew Research Center gathers data and creates reports based on public opinion polls, demographic analysis, content research, and other social science data-driven research.

Its Download Datasets page lists the direct links to access the datasets available.

By creating an account , you can download survey reports and be notified if there are any changes made to datasets you’ve previously accessed.

3. Statista

Statista is one of the largest statistics portals in the market. The site provides datasets for over 80,000 topics.

Statista conducts market research using a broad range of specialist tools and is excellent at transforming qualitative data into statistics.

Price: You can register to create a free basic account. However, the features offered are minimal. The pricing plans start from $39 per month for a single account.

4. Google Trends

Google Trends is one of the best tools available for market research.

With Google Trends, you can determine what consumers are searching about competing brands.

You can analyze the popularity of one search term in comparison with other terms simultaneously.

You can also use filter features like region and category to gain insights according to your specifications.

With Feedier, you can effectively engage your participants, export your data, and run insight reports for your market research.

Here are a few features of Feedier’s free trial version , also called Essentials.

• 100 monthly responses
• 1 Feedback Form
• Interactive Form builder
• 12+ question types (NPS)
• Participant actions
• Visual data insights

Price: Feedrier plans start from $150 per month.

6. Think With Google – Market Finder

Think With Google is another terrific research tool to uncover the latest marketing trends.

Think With Google’s Market Finder helps you gain insights based on in-depth national and global data and consumer insights.

7. SBA’s Office of Entrepreneurship Education Resources

SBA’s Office of Entrepreneurship Education provides access to various resources and business and economic statistics.

There is a variety of tools, reports, and resources available for conducting your market research analysis.

8. Social Mention

With billions of people using social media all over the world, it is challenging to analyze what is being said and done on these platforms.

Social Mention is a search engine that analyzes content across various social media platforms.

With Social Mention, you can enter a specific keyword and get a list of mentions related to your search term. You can filter your search results by source, date, and even location.

Social Mention also provides a score for sentiment, strength, reach, and passion with respect to your search term.

9. Testing Time

One of the biggest challenges of conducting primary market research is finding participants for your research.

With Testing Time, you can find participants by specifying your target audience's characteristics like their location and demographics. You can even include additional criteria specific for your research like, “must own a car.”

Price: Their pricing options depend on the number of test users and the test method.

10. Respondent

Most survey portals that provide a source for participants do not allow direct contact with the audience.

With Respondent, you can conduct video calls, phone calls, in-person discussions, or online research. It's up to you.

You decide on how much you are willing to pay per participant according to your budget.

Price: Respondent charges a 50% service fee per participant.

Market Research FAQ

There is no one size fits all when it comes to market research.  Four primary factors that define your market research cost: 1. The type of research to fulfill your specifications and the cost associated with it. 2. The number of participants you need for your research. 3. Incidence rate, i.e., the percentage of people who fit your target audience criteria. 4. Data collection method and the incentives you offer The average cost for Top-level reports: $100 to $1,000. These reports will provide basic insights into your industry. The average cost for Full-market reports: $1,500 to $8,000 (most commonly $3,500 to $4,000). These reports will be extremely detailed and cover various metrics about your industry from current market trends to future projections. But if you are willing to put in the effort and cut down labor costs, and conduct most of your research online, you can gain insightful data for $300 to $1,500.

The truth is, you can undoubtedly conduct your market research in-house, but it is incredibly tedious to try to do everything on your own. Extending your research by making use of market research firms and online marketing tools will make this process much smoother for you. While you may not want to outsource your entire research, there is too much work that goes into market research, and handing out a few tasks makes your research much more efficient.  Hiring a freelance researcher may be the best course of action for small-scale field research. Most marketing agencies do not undertake projects with a budget below $4,000. Before hiring a freelancer, run a thorough background check to analyze their credibility. Ensure they fit your business and have enough authority to conduct the research.

While conducting secondary market research, there are thousands of sources available online for free and a cost.  While it may be tempting to leverage free research reports, it is imperative to ensure that the source is credible.  Use government sources to access free reports that give basic insights about your industry. Statistics that will have a direct impact on your business decisions should be handled with caution. For example, economic projections or subjective analysis reports. To obtain accurate data for such statistics, the information must come from multiple credible sources. So, here is the baseline.  If the data is free, verify it. If you can’t verify it on your own, purchase it from a reputed and unbiased publisher. 

Ready to Understand Your Market Better Than Your Competitors?

When it comes to understanding your customers better than your competitors, you can’t rely on assumptions or feelings. You need hard numbers.

Market research may seem incredibly daunting at first glance.

It is time-consuming and tedious, but you wouldn’t be unnerved by conducting market research if you know the exact process.

In this blog, I’ve systematically broken down the entire market research process step-by-step, so you can conduct your research to attain maximum actionable insights.

You now know how to find gaps in the market and exploit your competitor’s weaknesses.

What market research methods you can use if you are on a budget.

How to understand your competitors’ strategies and build upon them to attain better success.

I’ve also listed several market research tools that you can use to conduct your research much more efficiently.

All you have to do is follow everything I’ve mentioned in this blog to understand the market and your consumers better.

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Anastasia belyh.

Anastasia has been a professional blogger and researcher since 2014. She loves to perform in-depth software reviews to help software buyers make informed decisions when choosing project management software, CRM tools, website builders, and everything around growing a startup business.

Anastasia worked in management consulting and tech startups, so she has lots of experience in helping professionals choosing the right business software.

How to do Market Research in 7 Steps

Home » Blog » How to do Market Research in 7 Steps

Do you know about the world-changing Amazon market research strategy of 2012?

Few do, yet it influences millions of people’s daily purchasing decisions.

Many of those who were part of it got very rich. And most had zero business or sales experience!

Its simplicity was brilliant.

I’ll tell you about it and give you 7 actionable steps on how to do market research that works for every business, regardless of size. 

And explain why your market research could be the secret to your success. 

How market research changed how we shop

Two guys, Jason Katzenback and Matt Clark created an Amazon-based marketing and sales strategy called the Amazing Selling Machine that forever changed how we make our shopping decisions, a nd it ran on market research. Here’s how it worked: 

You chose a category, found a popular and profitable product, researched the major competitor’s negative reviews, and then used them to create a better alternative.

Most, if not all, of the page-one products you see on Amazon today are there because of this strategy!

The key was the better your market research, the more profit you made. And the same is true for businesses in most markets, off and online. 

Now, let’s dive in and discover how market research works for you: 

What is market research?

Market research illuminates what we don’t know, removing the uncertainty of the unknown by blending economic trends and consumer behavior to validate your business idea. 

And it does it by asking questions like: 

• Is there a need for your product/service?
• What's your market size?
• Who's your target audience?
• And how much will they pay for your products or service?

Most people buy stuff or services to solve their problems and improve their lives. Market research identifies who those people are and their concerns by analyzing data that define their needs and demographics. Providing accurate, reliable, up-to-date information you can use to design the perfect sales and marketing strategy for your business. 

In short, market research removes the uncertainty of the unknown, helping you create a product/service that a specific group of people needs, which in turn reduces the risk when starting a business . 

Why is market research essential when planning a new business?

People made tens of millions of dollars on Amazon because they knew their customers’ needs, what to sell, and how to advertise it. 

The market research was so powerful it was like shooting fish in a barrel. 

Author and marketer, Mike Gospe’s quote, also explains why market research is essential-

“Whoever understands the customer best wins.” 

And while the 2012 opportunity on Amazon was unique to that platform, market research applies to every business setting. 

It helps you: 

• Confirm the demand for your product or service.
• Establish your market size and the number of people interested in your small business ideas .
• Identify your ideal client's demographics, like age, gender, and buying habits.
• Find their location, so you know where to reach them.
• And the price your potential customers already pay for alternatives.

Market research empowers you to identify opportunities, avoid pitfalls, understand your competitor’s strengths and weaknesses, and make informed decisions on product development. Saving you from investing in a business idea that might not work because of a lack of demand for what you offer or where you’re offering it.  This is essential e specially now, and for anyone considering the best business to start in a recession.

How to find your competitors

Your direct competitors provide a similar service to your target audience and engage them using identical marketing strategies, like a website, social media, and local business listings. 

Here’s how you find them: 

• Use keywords (search terms) relative to your niche and look for your competitors online.
• Follow their social media links, and note which platforms they use.
• Look at Google My Business and local business directories to find photographers in your area.

When you find your competitors, study their websites and social media platforms to see which services they offer, their marketing strategies, pricing, how they engage their audience, and why they’re successful. 

Reading their recent reviews, you can see what’s unique about their work. Then use this information to design your service. 

Types of market research

Before diving into the different market research types, you need to know that they fall into 2 categories, primary and secondary. 

Primary research involves collecting original data through surveys, focus groups, and interviews. This type of research is often time-consuming and costly, but it can provide more in-depth and accurate results.

Secondary research involves gathering data that others have already collected and published, such as industry reports, government statistics, and online databases. 

While secondary research may be less specific and current than primary research, it’s often more cost-effective and efficient, making it a viable choice for small to medium businesses on a budget. 

Okay, here are the most common market research methods:

Surveys are a fast way to gather large amounts of data and work by asking respondents a short series of open or closed questions. You can do them online, by phone, or in person.

They’re easy and inexpensive to run, and the results are straightforward to analyze.

Focus groups

Involve a small group of carefully selected people to test your product or service, which answer specific questions or provide open feedback.

Focus groups are great for gathering in-depth insights and exploring different perspectives about your product or service.

Allow you to ask detailed questions, observe body language, and follow up on responses to discover what your intended market wants and thinks. And you can hold them one-on-one or in a group setting. 

Interviews are perfect for creating a buyer’s persona around your target audience’s gender, age, location, family size, job title, budget, likes/dislikes, and buying habits. 

Product/service use research

Product or service research is discovering what people think about your product or service and their features.

Usability testing research tells you why and how your target audience uses your product/service and which features are most helpful. Giving you insights into what your ideal clients like most about them or, sometimes, dislike. 

Observation-based research

With this market research approach, you observe how your target audience uses your product or service. Noting their user experience (UX) to determine which parts work and where the user has problems. Helping you to improve your product ’ s/service’s functionality.

Buyer persona research

Your buyer persona research is about identifying the people that make up your target audience to discover their challenges, why they need your product or service, and what they want from your brand.

Market segmentation research

You categorize your target audience into different groups based on defining characters to understand their pain points better and determine how to meet their needs effectively.

Pricing research

This helps you know your competitors’ price points for products or services like yours. It enables you to charge what your target audience expects and is willing to pay ensuring they see your brand as an attractive option.

Competitive analysis

You need this market research to know who you’re competing with and the level of competition within your market. The results can give insights into what products or services are hot and which competitors you can beat or avoid.  

A competitive analysis is also how you identify your competitor’s weaknesses and improve your USP (unique sales proposition) to separate yourself from the crowd.

Customer satisfaction and loyalty research

It’s about researching your current customers to find out what they love about your business, what satisfies them most, and which strategies best encourage them to become repeat ones. 

Some customer satisfaction guarantors include rewards, loyalty programs, great products, or exemplary customer service.

Brand awareness research

Here’s where you discover what people know, recognize, or think about your brand.

Brand awareness research is crucial as it highlights the consumer’s perception of your brand, like what you believe in and stand for and what associations they make when they think of you. 

Now let’s look at how you put those marketing strategies into action: 

Steps for conducting market research

The following steps of your market research will help you get to know your target audience and what they want from a business like yours. And uncover crucial information about your ideal clients, such as their age, wealth, family situation, interests, needs, and buying habits. 

And when you bring those together, you’ll have invaluable insights that can help create a thriving business. 

1. Define your research objectives 

There are many reasons to conduct market research, such as to create new opportunities, assess business threats, and look at past problems to avoid repeating them.  

But the first question you must answer is whether your market research is for internal or external use.

Internal use is for you and your business, while external is for others outside your business. The purpose of internal use could be to streamline your business operations and improve cash flow. In contrast, external use could convince lenders to provide a business loan. 

Research for external use is often extensive and time-consuming. Internal requires less data, and you can do it with less experience. 

With that question answered next, define which elements of your business you’re researching and why. 

Research areas could be:

• Product features during the development process.
• Preparing for your product launch.
• To better understand your target audience.
• To ensure your brand identity is on target.
• Establish different marketing campaign ideas.
• Evaluate customer experience.

Once you have the why your next step is to define who.

2. Determine your target audience 

Here’s where you identify your target market to ensure your business idea meets their needs. 

There are many external ways to research your target audience, and we’ll look at some later. But there’s a way you can do it right now; try this strategy out:

Imagine you’ve started your business and are yet to make a sale. Then your shop door opens, or someone lands on your sales platform. They need what you sell; your business idea solves their problem, and they buy your solution. 

Do you see them?

What do they look like? Can you describe them‌?

That person is your target audience.

Now, your business might have several target audiences; each could have different reasons to use your products or services. But they’ll have common traits such as demographics like age, income level, location, or gender. Or it could be psychographic traits, such as similar interests or likes and dislikes.

Your goal is to identify each group, known as market segmentation, to create marketing campaigns for each. 

And for your market research purposes, choose your research methods and arrange your questions to suit. 

I’ll explain why next:

3. Choose your market research methods 

You can use many methods to conduct market research, including surveys, interviews, focus groups, online questionnaire research, and observation. 

Which you choose depends on 3 factors:

• The type of information you want to collect
• Your research goals
• Your budget

For new business owners, a broad approach is often best. Using strategies like surveys or focus groups to balance quality and quantity at an affordable cost. 

4. Prepare your research questions 

To get the best from market research conversations, you must prepare by creating a discussion guide that’ll help you control the session and maximize the results. 

A discussion guide contains the topics and questions you want to discuss with participants throughout the interview.

The outline can include an introduction, some easy warm-up questions, product- or service-specific exploratory questions, and a debrief. Each section should be natural and conversational, with open-ended questions and time allotments. 

How to design your discussion guide:

Define your goals, research questions, and hypotheses 

Think about what you want to learn. What you’ll do with the feedback you get? What problem you’ll solve for your customers? 

Also, have a testable hypothesis to use in your research. It helps create your discussion guide with structure, use test scenarios, and get feedback on your product/service designs and functionality. 

Put your guide into critical sections, each with a unique purpose

Each unique area (intro, warm-up, specific, and debrief) ensures you answer all the essential questions you formed when defining your goals. 

Ask for feedback

Your research is all about feedback, including your research sessions!

Ask interviewees about their experiences and other thoughts to help improve your future research sessions. This feedback could also illuminate areas you hadn’t considered, leading to further discussions and enlightenment. 

The open-ended question rule!

The golden rule in marketing research is to ask open-ended questions to avoid “leading your interviewees” or getting the dreaded one-word answers. 

Also, when you ask yes or no questions, you might sway their opinion with your conclusion.

5. List your primary competitors

To analyze your market thoroughly, you must research the other businesses in your field to see what they’re offering, who they’re targeting with their marketing efforts, their location, and their advantages/disadvantages in the marketplace. 

To identify your competitors, choose a handful of industry search terms relevant to your business idea, then use them online to build a list of your competitors. 

For example: A landscaping business could use search terms like “landscape service” but also other search terms like “garden service” or “garden maintenance,” etc.

List in hand, now Google them

Record any websites using your industry terms, then compare them against your target audience’s needs and demographics. 

The aim is to see which competitors are the most likely to attract and convert your ideal clients via Google before you do. Because if Google’s promoting its website for your industry-relevant search terms, they’re your direct competitors.  

Once you have your list next, determine each competitor’s strengths and weaknesses using a (SWOT analysis) to answer questions like:

• What do they have that you don’t?
• Why would your ideal clients choose their business over yours?
• Do they pose a direct threat to your business?

SWOT analysis complete, rank them from most to least threatening, and determine your start-up’s marketing position and advantages in comparison.

6. Document your findings

Your 2nd last step is to document your market research findings. How you’ll report them depends on why you need them. 

For instance, market research for internal use and only seen by you or your business partners can be informal.

However, if you need investors, you should write it as a formal market analysis and include a business plan .

But before doing either, you must organize your findings into different sections, so it’s easier to document. Areas could consist of your competitors, target audience, product/service development, and purpose. 

Some things to consider in your findings, especially if using them to gain funding:

• An overview of your market size and growth rate
• A projection of your market percentage share
• Your business’s growth forecast, including cash flow projections
• Your industry outlook, is it declining, stagnant, or rising?
• Any noticeable consumer buying trends
• Your current prices
• What your competitors charge
• Any customer segment groups you established
• Results of any other analyses

7. Put your analysis into action

Once you’ve analyzed your data, it’s time to put it to use. Use your findings to inform business decisions, such as product development, marketing strategies, and customer service improvements.

If it’s internal, consider how you can implement your findings to improve your business, such as making your sales process more efficient or customer care more attentive.

For external, now prepare yourself to talk with those lenders about your research results and conclusions.

Finally, revisit and update your market research analysis to see where you can tweak and improve your business as it grows. 

The main takeaway is the more time and effort you put into market research now, the better you`ll benefit from it in the future.

And remember, every successful business began not knowing exactly where it was going. And got to where it is today because of yesterday`s market research. 

Albert Einstein said this:

“If we knew what we’re doing, it wouldn’t be called research.” 

My advice is not to let the thoughts of market research overwhelm you. Choose a strategy that suits your business, style, and resources, then take it from there.

Happy researching; the results might surprise you!

This portion of our website is for informational purposes only. The content is not legal advice. All statements, opinions, recommendations, and conclusions are solely the expression of the author and provided on an as-is basis. Accordingly, Tailor Brands is not responsible for the information as well as has not been evaluated the accuracy and/or completeness of the information.

Terry OToole

Terry is a serial entrepreneur with over 25 years of experience building businesses across multiple industries – construction, real estate, e-commerce, hotelier, and now digital media. When not working, Terry likes to kick back and relax with family, explore Taoism’s mysteries, or savor the taste of fine Italian red wine.

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The A-Z of Market Research - Your Ultimate Glossary

This A-Z glossary is a  reference tool for professionals in the market research industry. It encompasses an array of commonly used terms and concepts that are integral to effective market research practices. Covering everything from fundamental methodologies to specialized techniques, this glossary provides definitions that clarify the jargon often found in the field. Whether you are an experienced researcher, new to the industry, or a client aiming to enhance your understanding of research reports, this resource helps you to quickly access key market research terminology. Dive in and leverage this knowledge to elevate your expertise and drive impactful insights.

A/B Testing

A method of comparing two versions of a webpage or app against each other to determine which one performs better. It involves randomly showing the two variants (A and B) to users and analyzing which one drives more conversions. Read more about AB testing on HBR .

Access panels

A database of individuals who have agreed to be available for surveys of varying types and topics. They are used to save time and money in recruiting respondents for market research.

Accompanied shopping

A specialized type of individual depth interview where respondents are interviewed while they shop in a retail store. It combines observation with detailed questioning.

Alternative hypothesis

The hypothesis in statistical testing where some difference or effect is expected. It's the opposite of the null hypothesis.

Ambiguous question

An ambiguous question in market research is a poorly constructed query that lacks clarity and precision, allowing for multiple interpretations by respondents. These questions can lead to confusion and inconsistent answers, as different individuals may understand and respond to the question in varying ways. This ambiguity often stems from vague language, lack of context, or the inclusion of multiple concepts within a single question. As a result, ambiguous questions can compromise the reliability and validity of research data, potentially leading to misguided conclusions and decisions. Researchers must strive to craft clear, specific questions to ensure accurate and meaningful responses that truly reflect the opinions and experiences of their target audience.

A type of stimulus material where key frames for a television advertisement are drawn or computer generated with an accompanying soundtrack. They are used to test advertisement concepts before full production.

Annotation method

An approach to analyze qualitative data using codes or comments on transcripts to categorize points made by respondents.

ANOVA (Analysis of Variance)

A statistical test for the differences among the means of two or more variables. It's commonly used to compare multiple groups in experimental designs. Read more about ANOVA at Oxford University .

Area sampling

A type of cluster sampling where clusters are created based on the geographic location of the population of interest.

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

The use of computer algorithms and systems to simulate human intelligence and perform tasks such as data analysis or decision making. In market research, AI is increasingly used for data processing and analysis. Find out more about what AI is here .

Audience's thinking sequence

The sequence of thoughts that people go through when they are being communicated with. Understanding this helps in crafting effective marketing messages.

An examination and verification of the movement and sale of a product. There are three main types: wholesale audits, retail audits, and home audits.

A chart that uses a series of bars positioned horizontally or vertically to represent the values of various items. It's a common way to visually represent data in market research reports.

In market research, particularly when dealing with cross tabulations, the base refers to the total number of respondents or observations that form the foundation for calculating percentages or other statistical measures. It represents the entire sample or a specific subset of the sample for which data is being analyzed. The base is crucial for understanding the context and significance of reported percentages, as it indicates the size of the group from which conclusions are drawn. For instance, if a survey reports that 60% of respondents prefer a certain product, the base tells us how many people that percentage represents, allowing for more accurate interpretation of the data's reliability and representativeness.

Bayes' theorem

A mathematical formula that provides a way to update the probability of an event based on new information. In market research, it's used to estimate the likelihood of a target audience having certain characteristics.

Read more about Bayes rule in perception, action and cognition with Cambridge University's Machine Learning Group

Behavioural science

An interdisciplinary field applying theories and techniques mainly from psychology to uncover what consumers value and provide solutions to pricing, choice architecture, perceptions, and behaviors.

A term describing the significant volume and variety of data available to organizations and the increased frequency in which they are generated. It's increasingly important in market research for uncovering insights.

The use of physiological or behavioral characteristics to identify and verify a person's identity. In market research, it's used to authenticate survey respondents and measure physical responses to stimuli.

An abbreviated title for the term web log, meaning a frequent, chronological publication of personal thoughts and ideas. In market research, blogs can be a source of consumer insights.

Brand Equity Modelling

The creation of a Brand Equity measure and any Key Driver analysis to determine what drives Brand Equity. It helps in understanding and quantifying a brand's strength.

Let’s explore how well a brand's product qualities match what consumers truly desire. Understanding this alignment is key to optimizing your brand's positioning. Here are a few points to consider:

• What does your audience value? Discover the qualities that resonate with them.
• How do you measure this alignment? Use insights to refine your approach.
• Empower your brand strategy! When you align with customer desires, you create a stronger connection.

By focusing on these aspects, you’ll not only enhance your brand's appeal but also engage your audience in a meaningful way. 

Brand mapping

A projective technique involving presenting competing brand names to respondents and getting them to group them into categories based on certain dimensions. It helps understand brand perceptions and positioning.

Brand personalities

A projective technique where respondents imagine a brand as a person and describe their looks, clothes, lifestyles, etc. It helps understand brand perceptions and associations.

Brand Price Trade Off

A technique for establishing brand and price preferences by presenting respondents with branded products at various price points. It helps in understanding price sensitivity and brand loyalty.

Canonical Correlations

A statistical technique used to identify how much one set of independent variables drives another set of dependent variables. It's particularly useful when there are multiple dependent variables or categorical variables.

CAPI (Computer Assisted Personal Interviewing)

A method where laptop computers, tablets, or mobile devices are used instead of paper-based questionnaires for face-to-face interviewing. It allows for more complex questionnaires and immediate data entry.

Discover a powerful market research method designed specifically for the automotive industry! This approach helps gather valuable insights about consumer preferences and pinpoint potential issues with a vehicle before it hits the production line. Here’s how it works:.

• Participants engage with a pre-production or prototype vehicle.
• They share their thoughts and feedback, enabling manufacturers to make informed decisions.

This collaborative process empowers users and ensures that their voices shape the final product. 

Cartoon completion

A projective technique which involves a cartoon that the respondent has to complete. It's used to uncover underlying attitudes or perceptions.

CATI (Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing)

A telephone interviewing method where interviewers input respondents' answers directly into a computer-based questionnaire. It allows for complex routing and immediate data entry.

CATS (Completely Automated Telephone Surveys)

Telephone interviews that use interactive voice technology and require no human interviewer. Respondents answer closed-ended questions using their touch-tone telephone.

Causal research

Research that examines whether one variable causes or determines the value of another variable. It's used to understand cause-and-effect relationships in marketing phenomena.

CAWI (Computer Assisted Web Interviewing)

Also known as online interviewing, CAWI involves respondents filling in a self-completion questionnaire delivered via the internet. It allows for complex routing and multimedia stimuli.

Research which involves collecting data from every member of the population of interest. It's typically used when the population is small or when complete data is required.

CHAID (CHi Squared Automatic Interaction Detection)

A type of decision tree technique based on significance testing. It's used to create rules to classify future respondents into identified groups or detect interrelationships between different questions.

Web-based platforms that can be used for online focus groups where individuals are recruited to discuss a subject online, usually using text. They allow for real-time qualitative research with geographically dispersed participants.

Chatbot survey

A traditional survey presented to the respondent in the form of an online conversation. Instead of answering static questions, respondents engage in a conversational exchange or chat.

A statistical test which tests the 'goodness of fit' between the observed distribution and the expected distribution of a variable. It's commonly used to analyze the relationship between categorical variables.

Choice Based Conjoint

A specific type of conjoint analysis where respondents are asked to make choices between different sets of products/services to derive the overall appeal of each component part. It's used to understand consumer preferences and trade-offs.

Closed question

A closed question in market research is a type of survey question that limits respondents to choosing from a predetermined set of answer options. Unlike open-ended questions, closed questions do not allow for free-form responses. They typically come in two main forms: dichotomous questions, which offer only two possible answers (e.g. yes/no, true/false), and multiple-choice questions, which provide several options to choose from. Closed questions are valued for their ability to generate easily quantifiable data, simplify the analysis process, and reduce the time and effort required from respondents. However, they may also limit the depth of insights by constraining respondents to predefined choices, potentially missing nuanced or unexpected responses that could be captured by open-ended questions.

Cluster analysis

A statistical technique used to group similar objects or individuals. In market research, it's often used for market segmentation, grouping consumers with similar characteristics or behaviors.

Cluster sampling

A probability sampling approach in which clusters of population units are selected at random and then all or some of the units in the chosen clusters are studied. It's often used when it's impractical or expensive to sample from a widely dispersed population.

The procedures involved in translating responses into a form that is ready for analysis. It typically involves assigning numerical codes to responses, especially for open-ended questions.

Coefficient alpha

See Cronbach alpha.

Coefficient of determination

A measure of the strength of linear relationship between a dependent variable and independent variables. It indicates how much of the variance in the dependent variable is predictable from the independent variable(s).

Concept boards

Introducing a dynamic tool for gathering valuable insights: stimulus materials! These boards showcase various product, advertising, and packaging designs, helping you collect feedback on exciting new products or campaigns. Here’s what you need to know:

• What are they? A set of boards that illustrate different designs.
• Why use them? To engage your audience and gather their thoughts on potential innovations.
• How they help: Empower you to make informed decisions based on real feedback.

We’re here to foster collaboration and curiosity—let’s explore new ideas together! What designs resonate with you? We’d love to hear your thoughts!

Confidence level

The probability that the true population value will be within a particular range (result +/– sampling error). It's typically set at 95% in market research studies.

Conjoint analysis

A statistical technique to understand what combination of a limited number of attributes is most influential in the consumer's decision-making process. It's often used in product development and pricing research.

Constant sum scales

A scaling approach which requires the respondent to divide a given number of points, usually 100, among a number of attributes based on their importance to the individual. It forces respondents to make trade-offs between attributes.

Construct validity

An analysis of the underlying theories and past research that supports the inclusion of various items in a scale. It's most commonly considered in two forms: convergent validity and discriminant validity.

Content analysis

The analysis of any form of communication, whether it's advertisements, newspaper articles, television programmes, or taped conversations. It's frequently used for the analysis of qualitative research data.

Content analysis software

Software used for qualitative research which counts the number of times that pre-specified words or phrases appear in text. It's used to analyze large volumes of textual data efficiently.

Content validity

A subjective yet systematic assessment of how well a rating scale measures a topic of interest. For example, a group of subject experts may be asked to comment on the extent to which all of the key dimensions of a topic have been included.

Continuous research

See Longitudinal research.

Contrived observation

A research approach which involves observing participants in a controlled setting. It allows researchers to manipulate variables and observe their effects on behavior.

Convenience sampling

Convenience sampling is a non-probability sampling method in market research where participants are selected based on their accessibility and willingness to participate, rather than through random selection. This approach involves choosing readily available individuals or groups that are easy for the researcher to reach, such as passersby in a shopping mall, students on a university campus, or online volunteers. While convenience sampling offers advantages in terms of speed, cost-effectiveness, and ease of implementation, it comes with significant limitations. The primary drawback is the potential for bias and lack of representativeness, as the sample may not accurately reflect the characteristics of the broader target population. This can lead to skewed results and limit the generalizability of the research findings, making it less suitable for studies requiring high levels of accuracy or those aiming to make broad inferences about a population.

Convergent validity

A measure of the extent to which the results from a rating scale correlate with those from other scales or measures of the same topic/construct. It's used to assess the validity of measurement scales.

Text files placed on a user's computer by web retailers in order to identify the user when they next visit the website. In market research, they can be used to track online behavior.

Correlation

Let’s dive into a statistical approach that helps us explore the relationship between two variables! Here’s what you need to know:

• Understanding relationships : This method uses an index to clearly describe both the strength and direction of the relationship between variables.
• Empower your insights : By examining these connections, you can gain valuable insights into how different factors interact.

Isn’t it exciting to uncover these relationships? Feel free to share your thoughts or questions!

Cost per complete (CPC)

A common term in quantitative research for the price paid per completed survey. This calculation usually includes the cost of the sample, fielding costs, and the cost of using the survey software.

Critical path method (CPM)

A managerial tool used for scheduling a research project. It's a network approach that involves dividing the research project into its various components and estimating the time required to complete each component activity.

Cronbach Alpha

Cronbach's Alpha , also known as coefficient alpha, is a widely used statistical measure in market research to assess the internal consistency reliability of a multi-item scale. It quantifies how closely related a set of items are as a group, typically in questionnaires or surveys where multiple questions aim to measure the same underlying construct. The coefficient ranges from 0 to 1, with higher values indicating greater internal consistency. Generally, an alpha of 0.7 or higher is considered acceptable in most research scenarios, though this can vary depending on the field and purpose of the study. Cronbach's Alpha is particularly valuable in developing and validating measurement scales for concepts like customer satisfaction, brand loyalty, or employee engagement. It helps researchers ensure that the items in their scale are measuring the same concept consistently, thus improving the overall reliability and validity of their research instruments.

Cross tabulation (crosstab)

A technique used to analyze and compare the relationship between two or more variables. It involves creating a table that shows the distribution of one variable across the different categories of another variable.

Cross sectional research

Research studies that are undertaken once, involving data collection at a single point in time, providing a 'snapshot' of the specific situation. It's the opposite of longitudinal research.

Customer database

A manual or computerized source of data relevant to marketing decision making about an organization's customers. It's a valuable resource for customer relationship management and targeted marketing efforts.

Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)

A prediction of the net profit attributed to the entire future relationship with a customer. It's used to determine how much to invest in acquiring or retaining a customer.

CX (Customer Experience)

Refers to how customers feel or perceive all aspects (touchpoints) when they buy goods or services or interact with a business. It's crucial for understanding and improving customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Data analysis errors

Non-sampling errors that occur when data is transferred from questionnaires to computers by incorrect keying of information. They can be minimized through data cleaning and validation processes.

Data cleaning

To ensure data quality before analysis, it's essential to conduct computerized checks on your data. This friendly process helps you:

• Identify inconsistencies
• Detect any unexplained missing responses

Taking this crucial step empowers you to work with reliable information and make informed decisions. Let's embrace good data practices together! 

Data conversion

The reworking of secondary data into a format that allows estimates to be made to meet the researcher's needs. It's often necessary when using data from different sources or time periods.

Data fusion

The process of combining multiple data sources into a single, comprehensive representation of information. In market research, it's used to gain a more complete understanding of consumer behavior and market trends.

Refers to the type of data to be analyzed in a hierarchical survey. For example, in a healthcare study, analysis could be based at the doctor, patient, or therapy level.

Data mining

The process of discovering patterns and knowledge from large amounts of data using techniques such as statistical analysis and machine learning. It's used to extract useful insights and make data-driven decisions.

Data validation

The verification of the appropriateness of the explanations and interpretations drawn from qualitative data analysis. It's crucial for ensuring the credibility and trustworthiness of qualitative research findings.

Degrees of freedom (d.f.)

The number of observations (i.e., sample size) minus one. It's used in various statistical calculations and tests.

Depth interview

Descriptive statistics.

Statistics that help to summarize the characteristics of large sets of data using only a few numbers. The most commonly used are measures of central tendency and measures of dispersion.

Desk research

See Secondary research.

A continuous measurement tool used to gather feedback from participants when watching or listening to content media. Participants indicate their continuous level of agreement/like or disagreement/dislike with the content being presented.

Dichotomous questions

Dichotomous questions are survey or interview questions that offer only two possible response options, typically "Yes" or "No". While these questions are easy for respondents to answer, they yield limited information due to their binary nature.

Discrete Choice Modeling

A statistical technique used to predict a choice from a set of two or more alternatives. It's often used in market research to understand consumer preferences and decision-making processes.

Discriminant analysis

A statistical technique that uses responses to a set of questions to predict existing group membership. The output can then be used to classify future respondents into the same groups.

Discriminant validity

A measure of the extent to which the results from a rating scale do not correlate with other scales from which one would expect it to differ. It's used to assess the validity of measurement scales.

Discussion guide

Used to structure and direct focus groups or depth interviews with participants. It serves as a guide for the facilitator or interviewer, providing questions, topics, and prompts to cover during the discussion.

Disproportionate stratified random sampling

A form of stratified random sampling where the units or potential respondents from each population set are selected according to the relative variability of the units within each subset.

Do-It-Yourself (DIY) research

DIY research refers to market research methods that can be conducted independently, without professional assistance. This approach is generally more cost effective and faster than traditional market research techniques.

Double opt-in (DOI)

Refers to a person who has agreed to join a research panel and has confirmed their agreement through a two-step verification process. It helps ensure explicit consent and accurate contact information.

Double-barrelled question

A badly constructed question where two topics are raised within one question. It should be avoided as it can lead to confusion and inaccurate responses.

Doughnut chart

A form of pie chart which allows different sets of data (e.g., for different years) to be shown in the same chart. It's useful for comparing proportional data across categories.

Emotion recognition

The use of AI algorithms to detect and interpret human emotions, often through analysis of facial expressions, voice, or text. It's used in market research to understand emotional responses to products or advertisements.

Ethnography

A research method used for investigating cultural practices, rituals, consumer behavior, routines, and social norms. It helps unearth previously unseen opportunities by looking at people's worlds in an authentic way.

Eye tracking

A method of measuring and analyzing where and how people look at visual information. In market research, it's used to understand how people interact with visual stimuli like advertisements or product packaging.

Face to face survey

Research which involves meeting respondents in person and interviewing them using a paper-based questionnaire, a laptop computer, tablet, or mobile device. It allows for more complex questions and use of visual aids.

Facial tracking

A method of measuring and analyzing facial expressions and movements. In market research, it's used to understand emotional responses to advertising, products, and other stimuli.

Factor Analysis

A statistical technique to examine the similarities between items in order to identify a more concise summary of themes. It's often used for data reduction or to identify underlying constructs.

Focus group

A qualitative research method used to gather data through group discussions. Participants are brought together in a moderated setting to discuss a specific topic, product, or service.

Frequency distributions

See Holecounts.

Funnel sequence

A method for ordering questions in a questionnaire that starts with broad, general topics and gradually narrows down to more specific, detailed questions. This approach helps ease respondents into the survey, building rapport and context before addressing more complex or sensitive issues, potentially improving the quality and depth of responses.

The funnel sequence is a common and effective technique in questionnaire design, particularly useful for in-depth interviews and complex surveys.

Gabor Granger

A pricing technique used to understand price elasticity for set products. Respondents are asked how likely they are to purchase a product at different price points, allowing researchers to establish optimal pricing.

Galvanic Skin Response (GSR)

A method of measuring changes in the electrical conductance of the skin, which can indicate changes in emotional arousal. In market research, it's used to understand emotional reactions to stimuli.

Gamification

The process of adding game-like elements to a research activity to engage participants and collect data in a more interactive way. It can lead to better quality data by making surveys more engaging and fun.

GANTT chart

A managerial tool used for scheduling a research project. It's a form of flowchart that provides a schematic representation incorporating the activity, time, and personnel requirements for a given research project.

Geo-fencing in market research

The use of GPS or RFID technology to define a geographic boundary, then trigger a response when a mobile device enters or leaves the area. It's used in location-based market research and mobile surveys.

Geodemographic profiling

A profiling method which uses postal addresses to categorize different neighborhoods in relation to buying power and behavior. It's useful for targeted marketing and location-based strategies.

Grounded theory

Grounded Theory is a systematic methodological approach to qualitative research, particularly valuable in market research when exploring new or poorly understood phenomena. Unlike traditional research methods that begin with a hypothesis, Grounded Theory starts with data collection and analysis, allowing theories to emerge from the data itself. Researchers using this method gather information through various qualitative techniques such as interviews, focus groups, or observations, and then analyze this data through a process of coding and constant comparison. As patterns and concepts emerge, researchers develop theories that are "grounded" in the actual experiences and perspectives of the participants. This approach is especially useful in uncovering consumer motivations, decision-making processes, or market trends that may not be apparent through conventional research methods. While more time-consuming and complex than some other research techniques, Grounded Theory can provide deep, nuanced insights that lead to innovative marketing strategies or product development ideas.

Group depth interviews

See Focus group.

Group moderator

The interviewer responsible for the management and encouragement of participants in a group discussion. They play a crucial role in facilitating productive discussions and ensuring all participants contribute.

Research undertaken in a central hall or venue commonly used to test respondents' initial reactions to a product, package, or concept. It's also known as a Central Location Test (CLT).

A graphical representation of data where values are depicted by color. In market research, they're often used to show where people click on websites or focus their attention in visual stimuli.

Holecounts refer to the number of respondents who selected each possible answer for each question in a survey. This concept is also known as frequency distributions or topline numbers, providing a basic summary of how responses are distributed across answer options.

An assumption or proposition that a researcher puts forward about some characteristic of the population being investigated. It's tested through research to determine if it's supported or refuted.

IDI (InDepth Interview)

A qualitative research method using a relatively open, discovery-oriented approach to obtain detailed information about a topic from a participant. It allows for deep exploration of individual perspectives and experiences.

IHUT (In Home Usage Test)

A market research method that allows consumers to test products in their own homes. Participants are given a product to use and are asked to provide feedback on its features, benefits, and overall satisfaction.

Impact indices

Measure the impact any independent variable has on changing a dependent variable. Often used when the independent variables are binary, it can evaluate the impact of different product qualities on preference.

Implicit Association Test (IAT)

A psychological measurement technique used to uncover unconscious biases. It measures a respondent's automatic associations between mental representations of objects in memory and evaluations, attitudes, or stereotypes.

Implicit assumption

A badly constructed question where the researcher and the respondent are using different frames of reference as a result of assumptions that both parties make about the question being asked.

Independent samples

Samples in which the measurement of the variable of interest in one sample has no effect on the measurement of the variable in the other sample. It's important for certain statistical tests.

Internal data

Secondary data sourced from within the organization that is requiring the research to be conducted. It can include sales data, customer records, and previous research findings.

Interquartile range

A measure of dispersion that calculates the difference between the 75th and 25th percentile in a set of data. It's useful for understanding the spread of the middle 50% of the data.

Interval data

Similar to ordinal data with the added dimension that the intervals between the values on a scale are equal. However, the ratios between different values on the scale are not valid.

Interviewer bias

Bias and errors in research findings can significantly impact results, stemming from the actions of the interviewer. Factors such as the selection of interview subjects, the methodology employed during the interview process, and the precision in recording responses can all influence the integrity of the data. It's crucial to understand these elements to ensure reliable outcomes in research.

Interviewer Quality Control Scheme (IQCS)

A quality control scheme for interviewers in the UK. The scheme is aimed at improving selection, training, and supervision of interviewers.

Judgement sampling

A non-probability sampling procedure where a researcher consciously selects a sample that he or she considers to be most appropriate for the research study. It relies on the researcher's expertise but may introduce bias.

Key Driver Analysis

The analysis of the relationship between a dependent variable and one or more independent variables. Its purpose is to determine whether a relationship exists and the strength of the relationship, used to help prioritize what to focus on.

Kiosk-based survey

A survey often undertaken at an exhibition or trade show using touch screen computers to collect information from respondents. It can be cheaper to administer compared to traditional exit surveys with human interviewers.

Kruskal's relative importance analysis

A type of Key Driver Analysis used as an alternative to other techniques such as ordinary regression analysis. It's particularly useful when there is missing data or when variables are strongly related to each other.

Latent Class Analysis

A statistical method used to identify subgroups of related cases from multivariate categorical data. It's often used in market segmentation to identify groups with similar response patterns.

Leading question

A badly constructed question that tends to steer respondents toward a particular answer. Sometimes known as a loaded question, it should be avoided to prevent biased responses.

Least filled quota sampling

A variation of quota sampling where the research team attempts to fill the quotas in the most efficient way possible by selecting respondents from the sub-population that has the lowest representation in the sample.

Least squares approach

A regression procedure that is widely used for deriving the best-fit equation of a line for a given set of data involving a dependent and independent variable.

Lifetime value

The present value of the estimated future transactions and net income attributed to an individual customer relationship. It's crucial for customer relationship management and marketing strategy.

Likert scale

A rating scale which requires the respondent to state their level of agreement with a series of statements about a product, organization, or concept. It typically uses five points from "Strongly agree" to "Strongly disagree".

Linear regression

Used to find out the relative importance of different drivers in order to re-create a dependent variable. For example, the influence of brand imagery items on brand appeal.

Logistic regression

Used to find out the relative importance of different drivers in order to re-create a dependent variable when the dependent variable is binary. It's particularly useful in propensity modeling.

Longitudinal research

A study involving data collection at several periods in time, enabling trends over time to be examined. It may involve asking the same questions on multiple occasions to the same respondents or to respondents with similar characteristics.

Machine learning

A subset of AI that involves training computer models to learn from data and make predictions or decisions. In market research, it's increasingly used to automate much of the classification and analysis of both structured and unstructured data.

Mall intercept interviews

A type of market research technique where participants are approached in a shopping mall or other public area and asked to participate in a survey or interview. It allows for the collection of data from a diverse sample in a specific geographic location.

Market Basket Analysis

A data mining technique used to understand purchasing behavior by finding associations between different items that customers place in their "shopping baskets". It's often used in retail to inform product placement and promotions.

Market Research Online Communities (MROCs)

Groups of individuals recruited and engaged by a market research company to participate in ongoing research studies, surveys, and discussions about a specific topic or product. They provide ongoing insights and feedback.

Marketing research

The collection, analysis, and communication of information undertaken to assist decision making in marketing. It encompasses a wide range of methods and techniques to understand markets, consumers, and marketing effectiveness.

MaxDiff (Maximum Difference Scaling)

A technique used to understand relative importance or appeal amongst a list of features/statements. Respondents choose the most and least appealing/important items from sets, resulting in a ranking of all items.

MBC (Menu-Based Conjoint)

A specific type of conjoint analysis able to handle a variety of menu choice situations in which respondents make from one to multiple choices in the process of building their preferred selection.

The arithmetic average calculated by summing all of the values in a set of data and dividing by the number of cases. It's one of the most common measures of central tendency.

Measures of central tendency

Measures that indicate a typical value for a set of data by computing the mean, mode, or median. They provide a single value that attempts to describe a set of data.

Measures of dispersion

Measures that indicate how 'spread out' a set of data is. The most common are the range, the interquartile range, and the standard deviation.

The median is a measure of central tendency in statistics that represents the middle value in a sorted dataset. When all values are arranged in ascending or descending order, the median is the value that divides the dataset into two equal halves. It's one of the three primary measures of central tendency, alongside the mean and mode.

The method for calculating the median depends on whether the number of values in the dataset is odd or even.

Odd numbers Formula: Median position = (n + 1) / 2, where n is the number of values.

Even numbers Formula: Median = (Value at position n/2 + Value at position (n/2) + 1) / 2

Method Bias

When we say method we broadly refer to aspects of a test or task that can be a source of systematic measurement error. In a questionnaire, this includes the wording of instructions and items, or the response format (e.g. Likert, Visual Analogue Scale, etc). Many researchers, such as Podsakoff, MacKenzie, and Podsakoff’s (2012), also consider a study’s measurement context as a potential methodfactor.

Read our tips for reducing Method Bias

Mixed Mode Studies

Research studies that use a variety of collection methods in a single survey (e.g., using the same questionnaire online and face to face) in order to improve response rates and representativeness.

The mode is a statistical measure that represents the value that appears most frequently in a dataset. It's one of the three main measures of central tendency, alongside the mean and median. The mode is particularly useful for understanding the most common or typical value in a dataset, especially when dealing with categorical or discrete data.

Examples of Mode Calculation:

Example 1: Unimodal Data Dataset: 2, 3, 3, 4, 5, 5, 5, 6, 7  Mode: 5 (appears three times)

Example 2: Bimodal Data Dataset: Red, Blue, Green, Red, Yellow, Blue, Purple  Modes: Red and Blue (each appears twice)

Example 3: No Mode Dataset: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5  No mode (all values appear once)

Monadic testing

A survey method where each respondent only evaluates one concept out of several being tested. It's commonly used in the early stages of product or concept development.

Multi stage sampling

A sampling approach where a number of successive sampling stages are undertaken before the final sample is obtained. It's often used when a complete list of the population is not available.

Multidimensional scaling

A statistical technique used to visualize the level of similarity of individual cases in a dataset. In market research, it's often used to create perceptual maps of brands or products.

Multiple discriminant analysis

A statistical technique used to classify individuals into one of two or more segments (or populations) on the basis of a set of measurements.

Multiple regression analysis

A statistical technique to examine the relationship between three or more variables and also to calculate the likely value of the dependent variable based on the values of two or more independent variables.

Multivariate data analysis

Statistical procedures that simultaneously analyze two or more variables on a sample of objects. Common techniques include multiple regression analysis, factor analysis, cluster analysis, and conjoint analysis.

Mystery shopping

A method of testing the quality of services provided to customers by using researchers posing as regular customers. It's used to assess whether employees are following company procedures or industry guidelines.

Short for "national representative sample," it refers to a research sample that is intended to be representative of the entire population of a country or region. It's crucial for studies aiming to generalize findings to a whole population.

Natural Language Processing (NLP)

A branch of AI that involves understanding and generating human language. In market research, it's used for tasks such as sentiment analysis, text classification, and chatbot interactions.

Net Promoter Score (NPS)

A measure of customer loyalty and advocacy, calculated by asking customers how likely they are to recommend a company's products or services to others. It's widely used as a simple metric of customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Netnography

A qualitative research method used to study online communities. It involves the systematic observation and analysis of the interactions, communications, and content generated by a group of people on the internet.

Neuroscience

Used in market research to provide an accurate and unbiased measure of consumer response. Techniques such as EEG and fMRI are used to measure brain activity and understand how people respond to marketing stimuli.

Nominal data

Numbers assigned to objects or phenomena as labels or identification numbers that name or classify but have no true numeric meaning. They're used for categorization only.

Non probability sampling

A set of sampling methods where a subjective procedure of selection is used, resulting in the probability of selection for each member of the population of interest being unknown. It's often used when probability sampling is not feasible.

Non response errors

An error in a study that arises when some of the potential respondents do not respond. This may occur due to respondents refusing or being unavailable to take part in the research.

Non sampling error

Errors that occur in a study that do not relate to sampling error. They tend to be classified into three broad types: sampling frame error, non-response error, and data error.

Normal distribution

A continuous distribution that is bell-shaped and symmetrical about the mean. It's important in statistics because many natural phenomena follow this distribution.

Null hypothesis

The hypothesis that is tested and is the statement of the status quo where no difference or effect is expected. It's typically what researchers try to disprove in statistical testing.

Observation

A data gathering approach where information is collected on the behavior of people, objects, and organizations without any questions being asked of the participants. It can provide insights into natural behavior.

Omnibus surveys

A data collection approach that is undertaken at regular intervals for a changing group of clients who share the costs involved in the survey's set-up, sampling, and interviewing. It's a cost-effective way to ask a few questions to a large sample.

Open ended question

Questions which allow respondents to reply in their own words. There are no pre-set choices of answers and the respondent can decide whether to provide a brief one-word answer or something very detailed and long.

Ordinal data

Numbers that have the labeling characteristics of nominal data, but also have the ability to communicate the rank order of the data. The numbers do not indicate absolute quantities, nor do they imply that the intervals between the numbers are equal.

Paired interviews

An in-depth interview involving two respondents such as married couples, business partners, teenage friends, or a mother and child. It can provide insights into shared decision-making processes.

Panel research

A research approach where comparative data is collected from the same respondents on more than one occasion. Panels can provide information on changes in behavior, awareness, and attitudes over time.

Participant observation

A research approach where the researcher interacts with the subject or subjects being observed. The best-known type of participant observation is mystery shopping.

Participant Validation

A validation technique that involves taking the findings from qualitative research back to the participants/respondents that were involved in the study and seeking their feedback. It helps ensure the validity of qualitative findings.

Passive data

Data that is collected without actively seeking out the information from a respondent/participant. This type of data is generated naturally through actions such as website visits, online purchases, geolocation, and social media activity.

Pearson's product moment correlation

A correlation approach that is used with interval and ratio data. It measures the strength and direction of the linear relationship between two variables.

Perceptual mapping

An analysis technique which involves the positioning of objects in perceptual space. Frequently used in determining the positioning of brands relative to their competitors.

Photo sorts

A projective technique which uses a set of photographs depicting different types of people. Respondents are then asked to connect the individuals in the photographs with the brands they think they would use.

A type of bar chart which uses pictures of the items being described rather than bars. It can make data more visually appealing and easier to understand quickly.

Pilot testing

The pre-testing of a questionnaire prior to undertaking a full survey. Such testing involves administering the questionnaire to a limited number of potential respondents in order to identify and correct flaws in the questionnaire design.

Placement tests

The testing of reactions to products in the home and where they are to be used. Respondents are given a new product to test in their own home or office, and their experiences and attitudes are then collected.

Population of interest

The total group of people that the researcher wishes to examine, study, or obtain information from. It typically reflects the target market or potential target market for the product or service being researched.

Predictive analytics

The use of data, statistical algorithms, and machine learning techniques to identify the likelihood of future outcomes based on historical data. It's increasingly used in market research to forecast trends and behaviors.

Price Sensitivity Management (Van Westendorp)

A technique used to understand price preferences. Respondents are asked at what price they would consider a product to be too expensive, too cheap, etc. The optimal price point is determined where an equal proportion of respondents have said "too cheap" and "too expensive".

Primary data

Data collected by a program of observation, qualitative or quantitative research either separately or in combination to meet the specific objectives of a marketing research project. It's collected specifically for the research at hand.

Principal Component Analysis (PCA)

A descriptive method of multivariate analysis used to analyze numeric questions. It converts a set of observations of possibly correlated variables into a set of values of linearly uncorrelated variables called Principal Components.

Probability sampling

A set of sampling methods where an objective procedure of selection is used, resulting in every member of the population of interest having a known probability of being selected. It allows for statistical inference from the sample to the population.

Programme evaluation and review technique (PERT)

A managerial tool used for scheduling a research project. It involves a probability-based scheduling approach that recognizes and measures the uncertainty of project completion times.

Projective questioning

A qualitative research technique that asks respondents to consider what other people would think about a situation, rather than directly asking about their own opinions. Also known as third-party techniques, these methods are used to uncover deeper attitudes or beliefs that respondents might be unwilling or unable to express directly about themselves.

This technique is part of a broader category of projective techniques used in market research to gain insights into consumers' subconscious thoughts and feelings

Proportionate stratified random sampling

A form of stratified random sampling where the units or potential respondents from each population subset are selected in proportion to the total number of each subset's units in the population. It ensures representation of all subgroups in the sample.

Psychographic segmentation

A method of dividing a market into segments based on consumers' personality traits, values, attitudes, interests, and lifestyles. It goes beyond demographic segmentation to understand the psychological aspects of consumer behavior.

Purchase intent scales

A scaling approach which is used to measure a respondent's intention to purchase a product or potential product. It's often used in concept testing and new product development research.

Qualitative research

Qualitative research is an unstructured research approach with a small number of carefully selected individuals used to produce non-quantifiable insights into behavior, motivations, and attitudes. Methods include focus groups and in-depth interviews.

Quantitative research

Quantitative research is a structured research approach involving a sample of the population to produce quantifiable insights into behavior, motivations, and attitudes. It typically involves larger sample sizes and statistical analysis.

Questionnaire design process

A stepped approach to the design of questionnaires. It involves determining the information needed, question content, question wording, response format, and question sequence.

Quota sampling

Quota sampling is a non-probability sampling technique used in market research to create a sample that reflects specific proportions of characteristics in the target population. In this method, researchers divide the population into subgroups or "cells" based on relevant demographic or psychographic variables such as age, gender, income, or education level. For each subgroup, a quota is set that corresponds to its proportion in the overall population. Researchers then collect data from individuals within each subgroup until the predetermined quotas are met. While quota sampling aims to achieve a representative sample and can be more cost-effective than probability sampling methods, it is subject to potential bias in the selection process. This is because the final choice of respondents within each quota is often left to the researcher's discretion, which may inadvertently introduce selection bias and limit the generalizability of results.

A measure of dispersion that calculates the difference between the largest and smallest values in a set of data. It's a simple measure of variability but is sensitive to outliers.

Actual 'real' numbers that have a meaningful absolute zero. All arithmetic operations are possible with such data, including meaningful ratios.

A statistical approach to examine the relationship between two variables. It identifies the nature of the relationship using an equation and can be used for prediction.

Reliability of scales

Refers to the extent to which a rating scale produces consistent or stable results. Stability is most commonly measured using test-retest reliability and consistency is measured using split-half reliability.

Research brief

A written document which sets out an organization's requirements from a marketing research project. This provides the specification against which the researchers will design the research project.

River sampling

A method that invites respondents to take a survey via online banners, ads, promotions, offers, and invitations placed on various websites and social media. Respondents are screened and routed to appropriate surveys based on their characteristics.

Role playing

A projective technique which involves a respondent being asked to act out the character of a brand. It can reveal perceptions and associations with the brand that might not be expressed directly.

When designing a questionnaire, routing refers to the survey logic that allows you to change or limit the content based on previous answers given by respondents. Also known as branching or skip logic.

A subset of the population of interest. In market research, we typically study a sample and use statistical inference to draw conclusions about the wider population.

Sampling error

The difference between the sample value and the true value of a phenomenon for the population being surveyed. It can be expressed mathematically, usually as the survey result plus or minus a certain percentage.

Scaling questions

Questions that ask respondents to assign numerical measures to subjective concepts such as attitudes, opinions, and feelings. Common types include Likert scales and semantic differential scales.

Screening criteria

Criteria used to ensure that the participants in a study are relevant, qualified, and representative of the target population. Screening questions are usually asked at the start of the study and may include demographics as well as questions such as brand usage and product ownership.

Screening questionnaire

A questionnaire used for identifying suitable respondents for a particular research activity, such as a group discussion or in-depth interview.

Secondary data

Information that has been previously gathered for some purpose other than the current research project. It may be data available within the organization (internal data) or information available from published and electronic sources originating outside the organization (external data).

Segmentation

The process of dividing markets into groups of people or occasions that are similar to each other, but different from other groups. It's used to target marketing efforts more effectively.

Semantic differential scales

A scaling approach which requires the respondent to rate a brand or concept using a set of bipolar adjectives or phrases (e.g., helpful and unhelpful; friendly and unfriendly). Each pair of adjectives is separated by a seven-category scale with neither numerical nor verbal labels.

The study of symbols and signs and how they communicate meaning. In market research, it involves analyzing the visual and linguistic elements of product packaging, advertising, and branding to understand cultural and emotional associations.

Sensory testing

A method of evaluating the characteristics of a product or food by measuring how it is perceived by the senses of smell, taste, sight, touch, and sound. It's used to assess product attributes and quality.

Sentence completion

A projective technique which involves providing respondents with an incomplete sentence or group of sentences and asking them to complete them. It can reveal underlying attitudes or perceptions.

Sentiment analysis

A form of text analytics that uses natural language processing and machine learning to determine the emotion expressed in a text. It's commonly used to analyze survey responses, user/customer feedback, and product reviews.

Sequential monadic testing

A survey method whereby each respondent provides feedback on two or more concepts in the same survey. The concepts should be presented in a random order to avoid order bias.

Share of Shelf (SOS)

A metric used to measure the proportion of space a product or brand occupies on a retail shelf compared to its competitors. It helps understand the visibility and accessibility of a product in the retail environment.

Share of Voice (SOV)

A measure of the proportion of advertising a brand or product receives compared to others in the same category. It helps understand how often a brand is advertised relative to its competitors.

Share of Wallet (SOW)

A metric used to measure a company's market share in terms of customer spending. It represents the proportion of a customer's total spending on a given product or service category that is going to a particular company.

Shelf impact testing equipment

Used to determine the visual impact of new packaging when placed on shelves next to competitors' products. It helps assess how well a product stands out in a retail environment.

Simple random sampling

A probability sampling method where every possible member of the population has an equal chance of being selected for the survey. Respondents are chosen using random numbers.

Simulated test markets

A research approach used to predict the potential results of a product launch and to experiment with changes to different elements of a product's marketing mix. It relies on simulated or laboratory-type testing and mathematical modeling.

Snowball sampling

Snowball sampling is a non-probability sampling procedure where additional respondents are identified and selected on the basis of referrals from initial respondents. It tends to be used where the population of interest is small or difficult to identify.

Social media analytics

The use of data from social media platforms to understand consumer behavior and sentiment, as well as to track the performance of campaigns or products. It provides insights into online conversations and trends.

Spearman's rank-order correlation

Spearman's rank-order correlation, often referred to as Spearman's rho , is a non-parametric statistical measure used to assess the strength and direction of the relationship between two ordinal variables. This technique is particularly valuable in market research when dealing with ranked data or when the relationship between variables may not be linear. It works by converting the raw scores of each variable into ranks and then calculating the correlation between these ranks. The resulting correlation coefficient ranges from -1 to +1, where -1 indicates a perfect negative correlation, +1 a perfect positive correlation, and 0 no correlation. Spearman's correlation is robust to outliers and doesn't require the assumption of normally distributed data, making it a versatile tool for analyzing various types of ordinal data in market research, such as customer satisfaction ratings, preference rankings, or Likert scale responses.

Split half reliability

Measures the internal consistency of a summated rating scale and refers to the consistency with which each item represents the overall construct of interest. The method involves randomly dividing the various scale items into two halves.

Standard deviation

A measure of dispersion that calculates the average distance that the values in a data set are away from the mean. It provides a measure of how spread out the data is.

Stapel scales

A scaling approach which is a variation of the semantic differential scaling approach. It uses a single descriptor and 10 response categories with no verbal labels.

Stimulus materials

Materials used in group discussions and individual depth interviews to communicate the marketer or advertiser's latest creative thinking for a product, packaging, or advertising to the respondents.

Stratified random sampling

A probability sampling procedure in which the chosen sample is forced to contain potential respondents from each of the key segments of the population. It ensures representation of all important subgroups.

Structural Equation Modelling

A statistical technique for testing and estimating causal relationships, using a combination of statistical data and qualitative causal assumptions. It allows for the construction of variables which are not measured directly.

Structured observation

A research approach where observers use a record sheet or form to count phenomena or to record their observations. It provides a systematic way of collecting observational data.

System 1 & System 2 thinking

A concept in psychology that describes two different ways the brain forms thoughts. System 1 is fast, instinctive, and emotional; System 2 is slower, more deliberative, and more logical. This concept is applied in market research to understand consumer decision-making processes.

Systematic sampling

A probability sampling approach similar to a simple random sample but which uses a skip interval (i.e., every nth person) rather than random numbers to select the respondents.

A hypothesis test about a single mean if the sample is too small to use the Z test. It's commonly used to determine if there is a significant difference between the means of two groups.

Tabular method of analysis

A method for analyzing qualitative research data using a large sheet of paper divided into boxes. It allows for systematic organization and comparison of qualitative data.

Test-retest reliability

Measures the stability of rating scale items over time. Respondents are asked to complete scales at two different times under as near identical conditions as possible.

Text Mining

The process of deriving high-quality information from text. It involves the discovery of patterns and trends in large volumes of unstructured text data.

Trend Analysis

A technique used to analyze the direction and rate of change in data over time. It's used to predict future values based on historical data.

Triangulation

Using a combination of different sources of data where the weaknesses in some sources are counterbalanced with the strengths of others. It increases the validity and reliability of research findings.

TURF (Total Unduplicated Reach and Frequency)

An analysis used for providing estimates of media or market potential and devising optimal communication and placement strategies. It's particularly useful for deciding on product ranges or media mixes.

Type I error

A Type I error, also known as a "false positive," is a fundamental concept in statistical hypothesis testing that has significant implications for market research. It occurs when a researcher incorrectly rejects a true null hypothesis, essentially concluding that there is a significant effect or relationship when, in reality, there isn't one. The probability of committing a Type I error is denoted by alpha (α), which is typically set at 0.05 or 0.01 in market research studies. This means that researchers accept a 5% or 1% chance of falsely detecting an effect. Type I errors can lead to misguided business decisions, such as implementing ineffective marketing strategies or product changes based on falsely perceived consumer preferences. To mitigate this risk, researchers must carefully consider their significance levels and sample sizes, and potentially employ multiple testing corrections when conducting numerous statistical tests simultaneously.

Type II error

A Type II error, also known as a "false negative," is a crucial concept in statistical hypothesis testing within market research. It occurs when a researcher fails to reject a false null hypothesis, essentially concluding that there is no significant effect or relationship when, in reality, one does exist. The probability of committing a Type II error is denoted by beta (β), and its complement (1-β) represents the power of the statistical test. Type II errors can have serious implications in market research, potentially leading to missed opportunities or overlooked insights. For instance, a company might fail to detect a genuine consumer preference or market trend, resulting in lost competitive advantage. To reduce the risk of Type II errors, researchers often increase sample sizes, choose more sensitive statistical tests, or adjust the significance level, balancing this against the risk of Type I errors. Understanding and managing both types of errors is essential for conducting robust and reliable market research.

See Population of interest.

Unstructured questions

See Open-ended questions.

Usability Testing

A technique used to evaluate a product by testing it with representative users. It's often used for websites, apps, and software to identify any usability problems and collect qualitative and quantitative data . Read more about usability testing on Prolific .

User generated content (UGC)

Online material such as comments, profiles, photographs that is produced by end users. It can be a valuable source of insights in market research.

UX (User Experience)

Refers to the overall experience of a person using a product or service, including the design, functionality, and ease of use. UX research is used to understand how people interact with a product, website, or service, and to identify areas for improvement.

Whether the subject requiring to be measured was actually measured. It's a crucial concept in ensuring that research findings are meaningful and accurate.

Verification

The process of checking and verifying the accuracy and reliability of data collected during research. This includes reviewing data for errors, inconsistencies, and missing information.

Viewing rooms

Specialist facilities/locations for group discussions. They are set out in the form of a boardroom or living-room setting with video cameras or a large one-way mirror built into one wall.

Virtual reality

Technology that can be used in market research to create immersive experiences for consumers, allowing researchers to gather data on how consumers interact with products and brands in a simulated environment.

VoC (Voice of Customer)

A research method used to collect customer feedback. It captures how customers feel about a business, product, or service, providing insights that can help create a stronger customer experience.

Refers to the second generation of the World Wide Web, characterized by the shift from static websites to dynamic, interactive, and user-generated content. It has significant implications for online market research.

Refers to the next generation of the World Wide Web, characterized by the integration of artificial intelligence, machine learning, and the decentralized web. It aims to create a more intelligent, rich, and interconnected web.

Web scraping

A technique used in market research to gather large amounts of data from the internet, such as information on prices, product reviews, or social media sentiment. This data can then be used to gain insights into market trends and consumer behavior.

The process of adjusting the value of survey responses to account for over- or under-representation of different categories of respondent. It's used to make the sample more representative of the population.

Word association tests

A projective technique that involves asking respondents what brands or products they associate with specific words. It's useful for understanding brand imagery and building rapport in group discussions.

A visual depiction of words used by respondents in qualitative research, open-ended survey questions, or content appearing on social media or reviews. The font size of the words is determined by the frequency of use.

A hypothesis test about a single mean where the sample size is larger than 30. It's used when the population standard deviation is known and the sample size is large.

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Why Is Market Research Important for Customer Experience?

Our experts weigh in on how market research supports customer experience — and why faster marketplace insights give brands a competitive edge.

For some brands, market research can be a nice-to-have. But for brands looking to deliver the kinds of great customer experiences that contribute to overall satisfaction, loyalty, and long-term retention, it’s a must-have . At its core, this type of analysis helps brands better understand their customers — and customers-to-be.

How can market research support your customer experience program?

Market research reveals the cultural forces that are shaping a given industry, trends that are unfolding within the competitive landscape, and what’s happening across the customer journey and the non-customer journey alike — serving up a clearer picture of the marketplace as a whole. 

“Market research helps you better understand what your customers and your non-customers — or potential customers — are doing when they are not interacting with your brand, so leaders have insight into the biggest opportunities for improvement and growth,” explains Margaryta Rashev , VP of Product, Market Research at Medallia. 

As a strategic guide, market research makes it possible for brands to incorporate the voice of the customer (and potential customers) in everything they do — and validate whether the products, services, and campaigns they’re developing are having their desired impact. 

Savvy brands can use these insights to achieve the top two priorities for any organization: to drive growth and retention.

How is market research changing, and why is it becoming more important for CX teams?

Market research is becoming more agile , as businesses are feeling the pressure to conduct in-depth analyses faster than ever to move in lockstep with changing consumer behavior and evolving competitor dynamics. 

“One of the big things we’re seeing is the need for quicker time to insight,” says Cassie Wilcox , VP of Global Research and Insights at Medallia. “Brands don’t have weeks and weeks to sit around and wait for that report to come out. They need to get a question into the field and have answers within 72 hours.”

What brands can learn from market research vs. customer experience insights

While comprehensive CX programs are great at measuring experiences across channels, touchpoints, and interactions in the moment, brands also need a way to check in with customers over time to make sure that they’re staying on top of their changing needs.

Organizations can use market research to answer questions like:

• What don’t we know about our customers’ needs, interests, or preferences?
• What don’t we know about what’s happening in the broader industry and competitive landscape?
• What are the key expectations of our customers that we are not fulfilling today? 

Based on these insights, companies can adjust their ongoing CX programs to adapt to any market changes. 

“As consumers evolve, which they do all the time, brands are constantly being thrown new curveballs,” explains Wilcox. “Consumers are going to act, and interact, with brands differently. Being able to have the research capabilities to understand them better helps set up customer experience programs for longer-term success.”

Market research can help answer broad questions related to brand perceptions, awareness, and overall health, which can be used together with customer experience metrics — like Net Promoter Score® (NPS®), overall satisfaction (OSAT), and likelihood to return (LTR) — to have a more holistic understanding of business performance and levers that can be pulled to drive revenue.

Market research can also help answer highly specific questions, such as exploring a given consumer demographic, like:

• Who is Gen Z, and what’s driving their behavior?

Market research offers a window into the factors that influence purchasing (and non-purchasing) decisions, such as household income, demographics, and social factors.

For example, if a brand’s NPS® score has been trending downwards in a given market, CX insights can tell the team that this is happening and uncover some of the reasons why — but market research can help provide a fuller view of the factors influencing this change, and shed light on the actionable next steps that can be taken to turn things around. 

In other words, CX insights tell us what happens when our customers are directly transacting and interacting with our brand. Market research tells us what our customers (and non-customers) are doing when they are not transacting with us.

“Market research is the other side of the coin of CX insights,” says Rashev. “When you’re trying to understand the totality of the experience, market research is critical.”

Launch a Market Research Study — Fast

Medallia’s self-service Agile Research capabilities enable brands to answer their biggest questions in a matter of clicks. Quickly launch branded surveys with an easy interface, get connected to millions of participants worldwide through our leading third-party panel provider, select your preferred demographic and behavioral criteria, launch your study, and gain insights in the moment with real-time reporting.

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Why is market research important in product marketing?

Market research plays a critical role in product marketing. It helps teams understand market trends , build new products, and improve existing products , while competitive intelligence supports companies in differentiating their products from rivals within the industry.

In this article, we'll discuss:

• What market research is ;
• The benefits of market research ;
• How to choose relevant data ;
• Primary and secondary research ;
• Recommended research tools .

What is market research?

Market research is the process whereby product marketers collect information about the preferences of the market and their users. Companies spend time, money, and effort in conducting market research - and with good reason.

The benefits of conducting market research

It helps you identify your customer base.

It’s impossible to build a successful product unless you communicate with prospective customers . Market research provides a set of definitive answers to key questions, including:

• Who is your product aimed at?
• Who are your customer personas?
• What features do they want from your product?
• How much are they willing to spend?

The market research process allows you to clearly paint an image of:

a) your ideal customer - gender, age, location, income, etc.

b) the product you’re going to create, as dictated by the needs of the customer.

When you’ve identified who and what you’re creating, you’re able to successfully tailor your marketing strategy and pricing plans , accordingly.

It can prevent sloppy mistakes

Before launching a product , it’s important to conduct rigorous research and testing , to avoid silly (and expensive) errors.

Let prospective buyers test it out beforehand, so you can iron out any imperfections by conducting market research.

While your hunch may tell you your product will resonate with consumers, it’s not recommended to make a decision based on gut instinct; if things go wrong, you’ll be left rueing your choice not to conduct simple testing.

Focus groups are a great source of customer and market feedback . If things go swimmingly, you’ve got the peace of mind you need and you can push on with the launch. If there are areas for improvement, just go back to the drawing board and make your service even better.

You can protect your business

Market research not only indicates what the market is like now, it allows you to forecast how your industry could shape up in the future.

Proactivity helps you exploit potential gaps in the market other companies may not have spotted, so always stay on your toes and keep your eyes peeled for market opportunities .

Take HMV, for example. While they continued to channel their efforts into the sales of CDs and DVDs, Spotify and Netflix researched the market and developed mobile platforms offering music and film on demand, in line with emerging trends. In 2019, Netflix’s assets were $34.9bn, Spotify was being heralded as ‘the savior of the music industry’, while HMV called in administrators for the second time in 6-years.

Winner: Market research, by knockout.

Surpass rivals with competitive intelligence

Competitive intelligence can help you and your product marketing team understand the methods being used by your competitors, how their products work, key features and USPs, and pricing strategies , to name a few.

Business is cut-throat, and when a rival poaches customers, it’s often because they’re better prepared and have completed more in-depth research.

Preparation is key for any company, and this remains the same as far as market research is concerned. Don’t get caught in the shadow of your rivals - make them chase you. Seek valuable insights and use your findings to create an innovative strategy that’ll not only generate new leads but also improve customer retention and reduce customer churn .

How to share competitive intelligence findings

To make the most of competitive intelligence, you need to communicate your findings so your teams can use the information to develop and evolve your product.

Results are useless if you keep them to yourself - you need to share the knowledge. Our Competitive Intelligence Trends Report 2020 revealed 87% of product marketers share their findings with Sales teams, closely followed by Product (83%).

Previously, it’s been suggested there’s room for improvement in relations between product marketers and leadership teams. However, it was encouraging to see a significant proportion of people taking part (77%) saying they discuss their findings with executives and leaders.

When we dug a little deeper and explored the preferred methods for sharing competitor intel findings, we found knowledge was shared in-person on a team-by-team basis, and by segmented emails to each relevant team.

Both of these areas accounted for 34% of responses, while a further quarter indicated they send blanket emails to relevant teams within the organization.

Of the 25% of people who fell into the ‘Other’ category, the likes of battle cards, Slack channels, and tools such as Klue were identified as the chosen method of communication. With so many different ways of sharing information, we spoke with Matt Powell, Product Marketing Manager at Docebo , to get an insight into how competitor intel findings are shared at his company:

“I don’t think there is a silver bullet for effectively sharing competitive intel - it’s completely dependent on the realities of your business. I do, however, think that it’s all about creating a culture internally in which everyone is as actively involved in gathering and sharing competitive intel as possible.

“That’s a big behavioral change when it becomes less about having one or a few people gathering and sharing intel, and instead extending it as a responsibility of everyone in the revenue organization. That’s when good things start to happen - the activity becomes more collaborative and is focused on problem-solving rather than just information sharing.

“We share our intel on a team-to-team basis leveraging our competitive intelligence platform to develop regularly cadenced newsletters. They’re good and they’re actionable, but we find the juicy stuff is the intel that happens in real-time. But, I’ve found the most effective way to share intel and have great conversations in the flow of work around competitive intel is through Slack.

“Our company is a big-time Slack shop - everything happens there. However, there was a lot of good intel being lost in the scroll of conversations. To combat that, we turned it into an opportunity by installing a two-way integration that allows us to send competitive intel to our CI platform directly from Slack.

“This has been a bit of a game-changer in making sure that as much information as possible isn’t lost. The great thing about these kinds of Slack channels is that the intel is only the tipping point, the conversations that happen in the threads afterward generally end up being the context you need to make the intel actionable.”

Competitive intelligence tips

When we surveyed product marketers for the Competitive Intelligence Trends 2020 report , we unearthed a variety of competitive intelligence tips to consider when conducting the process.

“Don’t be afraid to get help from other parts of your organization. Being able to get help from a sales engineer or a developer while you’re reading technical documentation can save a ton of time and help you better understand different personas.”

Mindy Regnell, Market Insights Manager at BigCommerce

“Job postings can detail info about their tech stack. For example, if they say ‘looking for an IT manager with experience in Oracle, Kronos’, then you know the company uses these tools.”

Laura Massingham, Senior Director of Global Product Marketing at HotSchedules

“Make sure to leverage your entire company and look for a way to integrate information-sharing into your teams' daily tools (be it Slack, or a Sales Enablement tool, etc).

“Whenever someone new starts at Showpad, we hold a session dedicated to Competitive Intel and how each Showpadder plays a part in gathering and sharing that information. Our Product Marketing team is not big enough to do all the research ourselves so we've set up a system to source info gathered by BDRs, AEs, CSMs, etc.”

Lara Verlinden, Senior Product Marketing Manager at Showpad

“Spend time getting to know the competitor from all angles: explore their website and gated assets as if you were a prospect, but also understand from their existing customers if the true product experience matches the initial marketing.”

Megan Magee, Product Marketing Manager at ServiceNow

“Start with your value proposition not mentioned by you, but by your customer. From there understand why you don’t live up to that value prop and where you can improve. Know your segment, know your buyer and persona.”

Hien Phan, Director of Product Marketing at Formation

How to select appropriate research data

If you’re not using the correct data or conducting the right research, you could miss market opportunities. Therefore, it’s important to understand the difference between the types of research data that are available and make an appropriate selection.

Primary vs secondary research

There are two forms of data PMMs can collect when researching: primary and secondary.

Primary data

Primary information is collected yourself or by a specialist who has been hired to collect the data on your behalf.

For example, the PMA team collected primary data for our State of Product Marketing report, while we’re asking questions to the 1000s of product marketers who are members of our Slack community , daily.

Primary research is based on two types of information: exploratory or specific.

Exploratory research is open-ended, with respondents usually providing their views in an unstructured interview scenario.

On the other hand, specific research tends to be more structured, to solve a particular problem highlighted during the exploratory phase.

When arranging primary research, it’s important to identify the preferred method of communication, whether this is direct mail, phone, or interviews.

These should be considered carefully, given the response rate for each method varies. For example, people tend to prefer a quick chat on the phone, rather than taking more time to respond via direct mail.

Social media is also a widely used tool for conducting market research. Features such as Instagram stories allow companies to gather opinions from 1,000s of followers in a short space of time.

Secondary data

Secondary data has been completed for you and is organized for reference. This data includes things like:

• Government websites.

Information for secondary data is often available to the public and can be found in libraries, educational institutions, etc.

Media outlets such as newspaper publishers and TV stations host a breadth of information that can be used when gathering secondary data. This includes demographic information outlining income, age, gender, etc.

What is quantitative data?

Quantitative research includes cold, hard facts that can be easily converted into graphs and charts. The research is usually carried out using surveys and questionnaires with closed-ended questions, yes or no questions, checkbox or multiple-choice questions, and questions with intervals or ratios. It’s structured, statistical, and number-based.

What are the benefits of quantitative data?

Quantitative data is useful for conclusive answers, it’s easy to analyze and can help prove or disprove hypotheses. The questions are also quicker and easier to answer, so you’re likely to get more responses.

What is qualitative data?

Qualitative data is non-statistical and consists of impressions, opinions, and views. It’s generally used to answer ‘why’ questions. It’s investigative in nature and asks open-ended questions. Qualitative data can be generated through:

• Texts and documents
• Audio and video recordings
• Images and symbols
• Interview transcripts and focus groups
• Observations and notes

What are the benefits of qualitative data?

Qualitative research gives you a deeper insight into the motivations behind the statistics. It’s used to theorize and interpret, and instead of asking how many people buy your product, it asks why they buy or why they’re not buying it.

Which data is better for research?

Whether or not you decide to use qualitative or quantitative data will depend on the results you’re looking for.

If, for example, your product was an app that maps bike routes, using qualitative questions like “What do you think of our app?” will lead to many, many different answers, they might focus on speed, responsiveness, and price, which could actually be really invaluable information for you to look at.

However, if you want a specific question answering, like: “How responsive is this app?”

• Super responsive
• Sometimes responsive

Then, quantitative data is your best bet.

Recommended research tools

There’s very little margin for error for product marketers when it comes to market research. Thankfully, there's a whole bunch of customer and market research tools you can use to make the process seamless and reduce the likelihood of any mistakes.

Want to learn more?

Market research is an invaluable part of not just product marketing, but the overall organizational function. It helps us to understand what prompts the customer to purchase products within the market and, ultimately, identify how we can position our products in such a way that they stand out from the crowd.

Our Market Research Certified: Masters course has been designed to help you streamline your approach for success. By the end of this course you’ll:

🧠 Understand the importance and benefits of research for making the most impactful and strategic decisions.

🧐 Know about the different types of data and where best to source it.

🔬 Be aware of the best research methods available for conducting valuable data for your company.

✌️ Be able to consider the ethical implications of market research and data collection.

So what are you waiting for?

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How to protect marketing research from fraud in the age of AI

As AI technology advances, so do the methods of those who seek to exploit it, making fraud an ever-growing concern for marketing researchers. Discover six strategies to protect your research from AI fraud.

AI in marketing research: Key strategies for success

Editor’s note: Arjun S is co-founder of qualitative research startup Metaforms AI, San Francisco.

Generative AI has brought significant changes to market research, providing powerful tools that make processes smoother and improve data analysis. However, with these advancements come new risks, particularly the threat of fraud. As we dive deeper into this AI-driven world, it’s crucial to not only take advantage of AI's benefits but also to protect the integrity of our research efforts from these growing risks. This article offers practical strategies to help you protect your research from AI-related fraud.

The rapid adoption of AI in market research has transformed the way we conduct studies and analyze data. From creating more advanced surveys to quickly processing large amounts of data, AI has made it possible to gain insights faster and more accurately. However, as these technologies progress, so do the tactics of those looking to misuse them, making fraud an increasingly important issue.

The fraud dilemma: How AI is misused in research

With the growing reliance on AI, fraudsters are finding novel ways to exploit the system. The anonymity and automation provided by AI tools make it easier for malicious actors to introduce fake data into research projects. This problem is particularly evident in survey responses and online forums, where AI can generate convincing but entirely fabricated answers.

In some cases, AI-generated content is used to respond to open-ended questions in a manner that seems authentic on the surface but lacks genuine participant insight. This not only distorts data but also complicates efforts to detect and eliminate fraudulent responses, posing a serious threat to the validity of research findings.

Six strategies to protect your research from AI fraud

To mitigate the risk of AI-driven fraud in your market research, it’s essential to implement robust strategies. Here are six approaches:

1. Deploy multilayered identity verification.

To safeguard the authenticity of your research participants, implement a multilayered verification process that goes beyond simple checks. Combine digital identity verification tools with human oversight, such as cross-referencing with social media profiles or conducting brief video interviews. This approach not only confirms the identity of participants but also deters bots and fraudulent respondents who rely on anonymity.

2. Incorporate behavioral analytics.

Fraudulent behavior often leaves subtle traces in participant interactions. By leveraging behavioral analytics, you can monitor patterns such as inconsistent response times, unusual answer choices or erratic navigation through the survey. These analytics can flag suspicious activity for further review, allowing you to filter out potentially fraudulent data before it skews your results.

3. Use AI to combat AI fraud.

Turn AI's capabilities against fraud by implementing adaptive questioning. This technique involves dynamically altering questions based on previous responses, making it difficult for AI-generated content to produce coherent answers. For example, follow-up questions that reference earlier responses can reveal inconsistencies that are typical of non-human respondents. This method adds an additional layer of complexity that AI-driven fraudsters find challenging to navigate.

4. Enhance the transparency of your research process.

Transparency can be a powerful deterrent against fraud. Clearly communicate to participants that your research includes sophisticated fraud detection methods and outline the steps you take to ensure data integrity. When respondents know their answers will be scrutinized, they are less likely to attempt fraudulent behavior. Additionally, sharing these practices with stakeholders can increase their confidence in the reliability of your findings.

5. Incorporate live interaction elements.

Adding live interaction components to your research – such as real-time video responses, live chat interviews or interactive polling – makes it harder for AI-generated bots to participate. These live elements require participants to engage in ways that AI cannot easily replicate, such as reacting to unexpected questions or demonstrating physical tasks. This strategy not only weeds out fraudulent respondents but also enriches the quality of the data collected.

6. Implement continuous data auditing.

Rather than relying solely on post-study audits, implement continuous data auditing throughout the research process. This involves regularly reviewing incoming data for anomalies, such as repetitive patterns or responses that mirror known AI-generated content. By conducting these audits in real-time, you can identify and address issues as they arise, ensuring that your final data set is as clean and accurate as possible.

Tackling AI Fraud in qualitative research

In an article for Quirk’s , my colleague Siddish Reddy highlighted the challenges posed by AI in qualitative research. He points out that AI-generated responses, while often polished and convincing, can be too good to be true, signaling potential fraud. Reddy emphasizes the need for researchers to use AI judiciously, ensuring that it enhances rather than undermines the research process. By combining AI with rigorous verification methods, researchers can maintain the quality and trustworthiness of their insights, even in an era where AI is increasingly used to automate responses.

As AI continues to revolutionize market research, safeguarding against fraud requires a strategic, multifaceted approach. By incorporating these six strategies into your research design, you can ensure that your findings remain credible and actionable in an increasingly AI-driven world.

Navigating AI, Innovation and Human-Centric Insights Related Categories: Consumers, Research Industry, Artificial Intelligence / AI Consumers, Research Industry, Artificial Intelligence / AI, Consumer Research, Innovation, Social Media Research

Harnessing AI: Marketing researchers are the new power players in business Related Categories: Consumers, Research Industry, Data Analysis, Data Quality, Artificial Intelligence / AI Consumers, Research Industry, Data Analysis, Data Quality, Artificial Intelligence / AI, Consumer Research, High-Tech, Information Technology (IT), Marketing Research-General

How does a country’s cultural profile influence consumer responses to new products? Related Categories: Consumers, Research Industry, Data Analysis Consumers, Research Industry, Data Analysis, Advertising Research, Concept Research, Consumer Research, Cultural Insights, Innovation, Market/Category Evaluations, Product Positioning Studies

Enhancing the virtual backroom experience Related Categories: Research Industry, Qualitative Research, Qualitative-Online Research Industry, Qualitative Research, Qualitative-Online, Focus Group-Videoconference, Marketing Research-General, One-on-One (Depth) Interviews, Online Research

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In the field: Empowering farmers through agroforestry, carbon markets

• Department of Global Development

Meet  Seongmin Shin , a Ph.D. candidate in Development Studies at Cornell University with a deep commitment to environmental sustainability at the nexus of climate change, the carbon market, and agroforestry. Recently recognized with the IUFRO Student Award for Excellence in Forest Science, his research seeks to enhance smallholder farmers’ access to voluntary carbon markets through agroforestry practices and the integration of trees into agricultural landscapes. This summer, Seongmin worked with local farmers in Eastern and Northern Uganda to understand their perspectives on carbon projects and small-scale agroforestry initiatives. Seongmin sat down with us to tell us more about his fieldwork and his mission to integrate sustainability science and business strategies to combat climate change. 

First things first, tell us about your research. What are the big challenges that drive your curiosity in the field of Development Studies? 

My research is centered on improving direct benefits and accessibility for farmers, addressing critical issues of justice and inequality. A major challenge I've identified is that smallholder farmers, despite being key stakeholders, are often marginalized and excluded from the benefits of the carbon market due to a lack of transparency and technical capacity. Through my research, I aim to explore small-scale agroforestry practices that can help bridge the gap between farmers and the carbon market.

Your research recently took you to Uganda for fieldwork. Tell us about it!

This summer, I had the chance to visit Uganda to meet local farmers and understand their perspectives on carbon projects. I traveled to three rural villages in Eastern and Northern Uganda. Although the villagers were incredibly welcoming, I realized that beneath the surface, they face significant hardships—many live on less than $1 a day and are particularly vulnerable during the dry season due to climate change. Over the course of my trip, I conducted more than 40 interviews with farmers, NGOs, cooperatives, and international organizations. I also organized focus group discussions and administered over 300 surveys.

What research methods are you using in this work?  

I employed semi-structured interviews to capture the perceptions, experiences, and challenges of various stakeholders involved in carbon projects. For the survey component, I used the Double-bounded Dichotomous Contingent (DBDC) valuation method to assess farmers’ willingness to participate in carbon projects. The qualitative and quantitative insights gathered from these interactions have highlighted key challenges and potential opportunities for advancing small-scale agroforestry initiatives.

Can you tell us a bit about your background and how it relates to this research?  

Before coming to Cornell, I worked as a Forest Restoration Officer with CIFOR-ICRAF in Indonesia and the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI) in Ethiopia. During my time there, I observed how carbon projects often failed to deliver direct benefits to farmers due to technical barriers or limitations in accessing natural resources. This motivated me to seek out examples where smallholder farmers were fully compensated and actively included. That’s how I came across promising initiatives in Uganda, leading me to undertake this field trip.

Anything you’d like to add?

This work was made possible through the generous support of CIDA’s Research Innovation Fund (RIF) Summer Research Award program, with my initial research proposal titled “Digital Agriculture for Assessing Carbon Sequestration Potential in Northern Uganda.” Additionally, the trip was supported by Polson Institute Small grant “Shea Value Chain and Carbon Credit Potential in Northern Uganda” and the Okere City NGO, led by Ojok, a 2023-24 Hubert H. Humphrey Fellow.

What advice would you give to students who want to pursue fieldwork? 

Pursue opportunities early in your academic career. I took this trip right after my first year, and it was incredibly eye-opening. I learned so much from the interviews and the people I met. The experience strengthened my research approach. I didn’t have a lot of meetings arranged beforehand, but once in the field, one connection led to another, creating a snowball effect. 

Do you have any long-term goals that you would like to share? 

I plan to develop a startup with a sustainable business model that connects smallholder farmers in developing countries to the voluntary carbon market through agroforestry and biochar. By leveraging advanced technologies like machine learning and remote sensing (e.g., LiDAR), this startup would quantify carbon stocks and seek certification from third-party organizations such as Plan Vivo or Verra. This comprehensive approach aims to create a scalable model that benefits smallholder farmers, the environment, and corporate participants, setting a new standard for integrating sustainability science with business strategies to combat climate change.

About the author

Seongmin shin.

Ph.D. candidate in Development Studies

• Research focus : Climate Change & Carbon Market; Agroforestry & REDD+; Food Security
• Advisor : Chuan Liao
• Previous degrees : MSc in International Agricultural Development Cooperation, Seoul National University
• Prior to Cornell : Forest Restoration Officer with CIFOR-ICRAF in Indonesia and the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI) in Ethiopia
• Favorite Cornell class (so far!) : GDEV 3311: Environmental Governance
• Favorite activities on campus : Rock Climbing!
• Learn more about Seongmin

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New study finds CMOs embracing GenAI despite knowledge gap

Marketers leading the way on adoption of genai compared to colleagues in it; cmos leaving money on the table by not fully understanding potential of genai.

A new global study, Marketers and GenAI: Diving Into the Shallow End from SAS and Coleman Parkes Research, reveals that while 90 percent of organizations plan to invest in generative AI for marketing in 2025, 90 percent of CMOs admit that they do not fully understand GenAI or its potential impact on business processes.

This lack of detailed understanding of GenAI among senior decision makers in marketing may be hindering the eventual adoption of more sophisticated uses of GenAI – uses that could translate to improved organizational efficiencies, sustained marketing effectiveness and ultimately a sustained competitive advantage.

While 75 percent of marketers are currently using GenAI in their day-to-day work – in fact marketing is ahead of other business functions, including IT, in the adoption of GenAI – many marketers are using GenAI for simplistic tasks like copywriting, editing and content creation, which only scratches the surface of what’s possible. When it comes to more sophisticated marketing use cases, only:

• 18 percent are using the technology to build audiences.
• 16 percent are using GenAI for customer journey mapping.
• 14 percent are using it for price optimization.
• 19 percent are using GenAI for audience targeting.

This is not optimal as marketers report that when they do embrace GenAI, they are seeing strong return on their investment, particularly in terms of personalization (92%), customer satisfaction and retention (89%), processing large data sets (88%), and accuracy in predictive analytics (88%).

“It isn’t surprising that marketers lead the way in GenAI adoption, as it lends itself to experimentation and creativity – both hallmarks of the marketing profession,” said Jenn Chase, Chief Marketing Officer and Executive Vice President at SAS. “However, it is disappointing that a lack of understanding of GenAI at the CMO and senior management level is holding organizations back from experiencing the full potential of this exciting new technology. Education and training are critical to overcome this obstacle as GenAI usage not only increases productivity, but it can also improve customer experience and drive business growth.”

The good news is this looks set to change as marketers predict that they will expand their use of GenAI within the next one-to-two years in the hope of saving time and costs (63%), improving risk management and compliance (62%), and enabling more efficient processing of large data sets (60%). One in five anticipate immersive applications such as adaptive virtual reality, rising to three in 10 among those who have already fully adopted GenAI.

While lack of strategic direction from CMOs is an obstacle to successful utilization of GenAI, so too is concern over privacy and trust. Six in 10 (61%) marketers reveal their main concern about GenAI usage is data security, and 61 percent also cite data privacy. These are the top two concerns across all respondents and with good cause. While one-third of organizations have a well-established and comprehensive governance framework for data management, this falls to less than 1 in 10 for GenAI. Those who have fully implemented GenAI for marketing are more likely to have a well-established and comprehensive governance framework, but 4 in 10 do not.

“A significant gap exists between the art of what is possible with GenAI for MarTech, and what is being accomplished today,” said Jonathan Moran, Head of Martech Solutions Marketing at SAS. “The research highlights that most organizations across industries have significant work to do around GenAI education and enablement as well as data governance and compliance - and performing that work will aid in fostering trust between brand and consumer when it comes to the application of AI for marketing and customer experience pursuits.”

About SAS Customer Intelligence 360

As a complete SaaS solution, SAS Customer Intelligence 360 is a multichannel marketing hub that takes marketers beyond a traditional customer data platform with market-leading advanced audience creation, targeting and activation. It enables marketing to provide real-time, hyper-personalized, AI-driven decisions, offers and communications at scale.

Learn more about how organizations are using SAS MarTech solutions .

SAS is a global leader in data and AI. With SAS software and industry-specific solutions, organizations transform data into trusted decisions. SAS gives you THE POWER TO KNOW ® .

Editorial contacts:

• SAS Corporate HQ Angela Lipscomb (919) 531-2525

Highlights of the study on GenAI in Marketing

Ununpentium / Moscovium - Discovery, Properties and Applications

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Updated by Reginald Davey 13/01/23

Ununpentium was discovered in 2003 by a group of scientists working at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna, Russia, and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), California. The group was headed by Yuri Oganessian and Ken Moody. The term ununpentium was given on a temporary placeholder basis (the name literally means 'one-one-five').

In 2015, the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) recognized the discovery of the element, which was renamed moscovium, referring to Moscow Oblast in Russia.

Image Credit: saran insawat/Shutterstock.com

The discovery claim was strengthened by performing experiments on the element’s final decay product, which is 268 Db. Previously, the nuclides within the decay chain were unknown, so there was a lack of experimental data to support this claim.

The presence of a dubnium isotope was confirmed between June 2004 and December 2005. The scientists used chemical identification methods and measured spontaneous fission activities to confirm behavior similar to group 5 elements. The proposed 268 Db’s decay mode and half-life were confirmed. Experimental results lent support to moscovium being the parent nucleus.

In the intervening years, scientists confirmed the repetition of these early experiments. Some doubt was cast upon the synthesis of moscovium in 2016, but this was addressed by the original team in 2017.

Basic Information

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It is a highly radioactive, synthetic metallic element and only a few atoms have ever been produced. To date, around a hundred atoms of this elusive element have been observed.

Ununpentium (version 1) - Periodic Table of Videos

Like all synthetic elements, moscovium/ununpentium has no known naturally occurring stable isotopes. The standard atomic weight for this element cannot be given.

Moscovium has five known isotopes with mass numbers from 286 to 290. all four are unstable. However, isotope - 289 Mc is considered the most stable with a half-life of about 320 ms.

290 Mc is the longest-lived isotope with a half-life of 650 microseconds. Isotopes undergo alpha decay into corresponding nihonium isotopes. The half-life of isotopes increases as their neutron numbers increase. 290 Mc was the first moscovium isotope discovered in 2009, with 286 Mc the last to be discovered in 2021.

Moscovium is an artificially produced chemical element. Using equipment called a cyclotron, the scientists bombarded atoms of americium-243 with the calcium-48 ions, which resulted in one atom of ununpentium-287 and three atoms of ununpentium-288.

Health Aspects

Moscovium is considered to be harmful to health due to its radioactive nature, however, as it has very short life and is very unstable, it tends to decompose to other elements very quickly; hence it has not been possible to conduct further research to study its effects on humans.

Moscovium/ununpentium is a super heavy and artificially produced radioactive element. It is known to exist as a solid at room temperature and is the heaviest member of group 15 in the periodic table.

Currently, only the nuclear properties of muscovium have been measured. Knowledge of other properties are limited by the element’s lack of abundance and its rapid decay.

To date, key material properties such as specific heat capacity, vapor pressure, shear modulus, Young’s modulus, electron affinity, electronegativity, ionization energies are unknown.

Moscovium is expected to have similar properties to bismuth, another member of group 15 in the periodic table. In aqueous solution, moscovium’s chemistry should be that of Mc + and Mc 3+ ions.

Compounds such as moscovium carbonate and moscovium fluoride should be soluble in water. Moscovium (III) fluoride and moscovium thiozonide should be insoluble in water, much like their corresponding bismuth compounds.

Biological Role

Moscovium currently has no recognized biological role.

Applications

Moscovium/ununpentium has no applications outside scientific research. Experimental chemistry investigations have so far proven insufficient. However, pure elemental moscovium is expected to display sufficient volatility to improve the success of future chemical investigations, which may provide information on potential applications beyond the scope of research.

http://education.jlab.org/itselemental/ele115.html

http://www.webelements.com/ununpentium/

http://www.chemicool.com/elements/ununpentium.html

http://www.rsc.org/periodic-table/element/115/ununpentium

http://www.lenntech.com/periodic/elements/uup.htm

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G.P. Thomas

Gary graduated from the University of Manchester with a first-class honours degree in Geochemistry and a Masters in Earth Sciences. After working in the Australian mining industry, Gary decided to hang up his geology boots and turn his hand to writing. When he isn't developing topical and informative content, Gary can usually be found playing his beloved guitar, or watching Aston Villa FC snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

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Dubna Pharmaceutical Plant – Moscow Oblast

Unlock hidden opportunities in the Construction industry

Published: May 10, 2023 Report Code: GDCON377536-MP-L5

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• Report Overview

Methodology

Equip yourself with the essential tools needed to make informed and profitable decisions with our Dubna Pharmaceutical Plant – Moscow Oblast report.

Note: This is an on-demand report that will be delivered upon request. The report will be delivered within 2 to 3 business days of the purchase, excluding weekends and holidays. Certain sections of the report may be removed or altered based on data availability and relevance.

Why choose our report?

• Unleash the full story: Dive deep into the Dubna Pharmaceutical Plant – Moscow Oblast project and gain access to vital information such as its value, progress, and key dates. By building a complete picture, you stay one step ahead of the competition.
• Meet the influencers: Get a view of the key stakeholders involved in the Dubna Pharmaceutical Plant – Moscow Oblast project. From developers and contractors to architects, this report introduces you to the key players with whom you can forge valuable connections and unlock exciting collaboration opportunities.
• Uncover new business opportunities: Are you in the business of supplying products or services related to the construction industry? This report is your guide to identifying lucrative opportunities within the Dubna Pharmaceutical Plant – Moscow Oblast project, showcasing your offerings, and boosting your chances of securing valuable contracts.
• Turbocharge your business development: Time is precious, and we understand that. With this report in your hands, you can save valuable hours that would otherwise be spent tirelessly researching and prospecting. The comprehensive insights provided will expedite your new business development efforts, giving you a head start in seizing exciting opportunities.

What is included in the report?

Project name, value, location, stage, sector, announcement quarter, start quarter, end quarter, scope, background, description, key stakeholders.

Data in the Dubna Pharmaceutical Plant – Moscow Oblast report has been gathered from tracking over 60,000 news, company and government sources, as well as primary research with direct contact with key project stakeholders.

Following wealth of information on Dubna Pharmaceutical Plant – Moscow Oblast is covered in the scope of this report:

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Sample Report

Dubna Pharmaceutical Plant – Moscow Oblast was curated by the best experts in the industry and we are confident about its unique quality. However, we want you to make the most beneficial decision for your business, so we offer free sample report to help you:

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GlobalData is very customer orientated, with a high degree of personalised services, which benefits everyday use. The highly detailed project intelligence and forecast reports can be utilised across multiple departments and workflow scopes, from operational to strategic level, and often support strategic decisions. GlobalData Analytics and visualisation solutions has contributed positively when preparing management presentations and strategic papers.”

“COVID-19 has caused significant interference to our business and the COVID-19 intelligence from GlobalData has helped us reach better decisions around strategy. These two highlights have helped enormously to understand the projections into the future concerning our business units, we also utilise the project database to source new projects for Liebherr-Werk to use as an additional source to pitch for new business.”

Your daily news has saved me a lot of time and keeps me up-to-date with what is happening in the market, I like that you almost always have a link to the source origin. We also use your market data in our Strategic Business Process to support our business decisions. By having everything in one place on the Intelligence Center it has saved me a lot of time versus looking on different sources, the alert function also helps with this.

Having used several other market research companies, I find that GlobalData manages to provide that ‘difficult-to-get’ market data that others can’t, as well as very diverse and complete consumer surveys.

Our experience with GlobalData has been very good, from the platform itself to the people. I find that the analysts and the account team have a high level of customer focus and responsiveness and therefore I can always rely on. The platform is more holistic than other providers. It is convenient and almost like a one stop shop. The pricing suite is highly competitive and value for our organisation.

I like reports that inform new segments such as the analysis on generation Z, millennials, the impact of COVID 19 to our banking customers and their new channel habits. Secondly the specialist insight on affluent sector significantly increases our understanding about this group of customers. The combination of those give us depth and breadth of the evolving market.

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Globaldata has the right data and the reports are of very high quality compared to your competitors. Globaldata not only has overall market sizes & consumer insights on food & beverages but also provides insights at the ingredient & flavour level. That is key for B2B companies like Givaudan. This way we understand our customers’ business and also gain insight to our unique industry”

GlobalData provides a great range of information and reports on various sectors that is highly relevant, timely, easy to access and utilise.  The reports and data dashboards help engagement with clients; they provide valuable industry and market insights that can enrich client conversations and can help in the shaping of value propositions. Moreover, using GlobalData products has helped increase my knowledge of the finance sector, the players within it, and the general threats and opportunities.

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THE 30 BEST Things to Do in Dubna, Russia

Places to visit in dubna.

• 5.0 of 5 bubbles
• 4.0 of 5 bubbles & up
• 3.0 of 5 bubbles & up
• 2.0 of 5 bubbles & up
• District Central (TsAO)
• 3rd Transport Ring (TTK)
• Garden Ring
• Chistiye Prudy
• Good for Kids
• Good for Big Groups
• Good for a Rainy Day
• Budget-friendly
• Good for Couples
• Adventurous
• Hidden Gems
• Honeymoon spot
• Good for Adrenaline Seekers
• Things to do ranked using Tripadvisor data including reviews, ratings, number of page views, and user location.

1. Lenin Monument

2. Monument to Pontekorvo and Dzhelepov

3. Mendeleyev Embankment

4. Giant Chair

5. Statue of Vysotskiy

6. Museum of Winged Rockets

7. Castle Museum

8. Monument Aircraft Attack IL-2

9. Mosaic Nadia Lezhe

10. Bolshoi Volzhskiy Lighthouse

11. Family Leisure Park

12. Museum of Dubna Museum of Archeology and Local History of Dubna, Moscow Region

13. Arkhimed Pool

14. Museum of the History of Science and Technology. Joint Institute for Nuclear Research

15. Praise Temple of the Blessed Virgin Mary

16. Rocket Stele

17. Ferry Across the Channel im. Moskvy

18. Vysotskogo Alley

19. Monument to Plane MIG-25

20. Bust of Flerov

21. Church of the Smolensk Icon of the Mother

22. Spillway Dam of Ivankovskaya HPP

23. Rotunda to Afgan Soldiers

24. Yurkina Gorka

25. M.G. Meshheryakov Monument

26. Mall Mayak

27. Olymp Sports Palace

28. Church of All Saints Resplendent in the Russian Land

29. Dubnenskiy Bridge

30. Temple Panteleimon

What travellers are saying.