how to do market research for a product

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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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 .

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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.

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

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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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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.

Customer Story

See How Yamaha Does Product Research

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

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, primary vs secondary research 14 min read, request demo.

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A step-by-step guide to the product research process

A strong product research process ensures product teams maximize resources, meet key business goals, and make confident decisions that will deliver successful products and features to create customer delight.

But, how do you conduct effective product research?

Just as there’s no single way to develop a product, no single research process fits all product teams. But there are key steps that will help you balance business goals and user needs for actionable product research . 

This article takes you through the factors you should consider to tailor product research to your desired outcomes and provides a step-by-by-step guide to doing research right.

Use Hotjar to streamline your product research process

Hotjar offers product teams a rich stream of quantitative and qualitative data that keeps you connected to user needs at every stage of research.

What to consider before starting product research

Before jumping into the research process , product managers prepare their team. Take time to consider the why and determine how you can design the process to meet your unique product requirements. 

Reflect on:

Why you’re doing the research

Get connected with the deep purpose of your research: what you need to understand to create a profitable and effective product .

Determine specific outcomes of the research process.

During the early product discovery stages, generating new product ideas for innovation and getting to know your users better will serve as a solid foundation throughout the research process. At later stages, look for concrete feedback on a new product, or possible upgrades and feature updates for an existing product. The why behind the research should guide your process. 

Categorizing your users

Determining customer needs and segmenting users are crucial steps that impact the success of any product research strategy. 

You might use a random sample of potential or existing customers; or segment users according to region, industry, or other criteria to spot patterns across different demographics.

Trial users can give immediate product feedback, which is usually incredibly easy to implement (a new theme, for example) or incredibly difficult, like an entirely new functionality or platform for your product. Your long-time users can give nuanced feedback, but they overlook what doesn't work due to their expertise.

Finding that middle ground of users who like what you offer but aren't stuck to your brand is essential. These users appreciate being treated like their insights matter most—because they do.

Finding impartial user insights can be tricky since many tools track users who’ve been paid or incentivized to click through to your website or product. Product experience insights software like Hotjar can help by providing organic, unbiased user data that gives you a clear picture of your customer experience (CX) .

Pro tip: Hotjar Highlights lets you sort and curate user insights and attributes, and share them with your product team. You can also watch Session Recordings of users from specific countries or industries—or filter recordings to see only satisfied or dissatisfied user experiences, which can provide valuable information on what’s working (and what’s not).

A Hotjar Session Recording

Your core business goals 

The best product research processes overlap with the overall organizational vision, so update your research goals in line with company goals to ensure alignment. 

Designing your research process with cross-functional collaboration in mind is a great way to eliminate any communication issues, ensure all departments collect data that tests product profitability, business goals, and user satisfaction.

 Your team’s methodology

Different product methodologies emphasize different aspects of product research throughout its lifecycle, so it’s important to consider techniques that will fit your team’s working stages.

Teams who use waterfall methodologies usually rely on bursts of intense research before development and again during pre-launch. They also make a clear distinction between the product’s research and development phases. 

Teams who use agile, lean, or DevOps methods usually integrate research with the broader product development process, engaging in continuous discovery methods. 

Whatever your methodology, infuse research into every stage of the product lifecycle to achieve business goals like increased revenue, acquisitions, and user adoption.

Choosing which research tools to use

When you’re deciding how to do product research, you’ll need to consider your budget and company size to pick out your tool stack.

Manual research techniques like user interviews can be time-consuming and cost-intensive, but useful to forge a personal connection with users and ask improvised questions based on their responses.

Automated research tools (like Hotjar 👋) increase speed, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness, and reduce human error. They allow you to reach a larger target audience and ensure you’re getting clean, unbiased product feedback —in person, users are more likely to feel pressure to compliment your product or underplay their concerns, but with tools like Hotjar, you’ll get genuine, in-the-moment feedback from users as they engage with your product. 

Which team members will contribute

Involve different team members at each stage of the product workflow. For example, when you’re validating product ideas, you may want to include marketing and technical departments; and when you’re testing product usability , you may want to rely on the expertise of your engineers. 

It’s also important to consider what research other departments have done before launching your own process, so you don’t waste resources duplicating generic market research. 

8 steps for amazing product research

Amazing product research is all about doing smart research to unearth effective insights without getting lost in an information overload that derails your product workflow .  

Follow these eight steps to guide your product research strategies to achieve valuable, actionable product insights that will inform your product’s entire lifecycle, from ideation to execution. 

1. Define your research goals

First, set your high-level goals, which should test business objectives as well as customer-centric product discovery. These are often drawn directly from the product vision and strategy.

Then, create attainable, specific goals or questions for your team to focus on during each stage of their research. This might include: 

Conducting market research for the product’s adoption before its launch

Identifying areas where key features can be improved after the product launch

Evaluating the product’s performance throughout the product lifecycle

2. Understand your users

User needs are at the center of effective product research processes. 

Engage in user discovery—identify and understand your customer—as early as possible , even before you have definite product or feature ideas. Open-ended user research is a key source of product inspiration and innovation, and an essential step in determining product-market fit .

Then, when you have product proposals, prototypes, or a minimum viable product ( MVP) , you can start seeking more specific feedback. 

User research is all about interacting with your current or potential users and learning what they want and need . Developing a user-centric culture of ongoing research will help you gauge the market demand, position your product against the competition, and generate customer delight .

To create a user-centric research culture, conduct user interviews and create user personas. You can also connect more passively with your user demographic by looking at forums, Facebook groups, or sites like Reddit that are used by your customer niche. 

The more organic the research process, the better. It’s ideal to catch users in situations where they answer by instinct instead of having carefully crafted answers. It's what they say instinctively that leads to better product solutions.

Pro tip: use Feedback widgets to gather user feedback in a non-invasive way. 

Hotjar’s Feedback widgets are integrated into the product interface , so users can give quick feedback and then carry on with their tasks. This means you can survey your users and gain valuable insights by learning what they’re thinking and feeling as they interact with the product.

A Hotjar feedback widget

3. Do market research for your product 

Run thorough competitive and comparative analyses to test the business potential of your product against other solutions on the market , and engage in opportunity mapping to get stakeholder buy-in.

You can also use historical market data and trade reports to predict potential profitability and run keyword research to understand users and what potential customers are searching for to generate product ideas.

Once you’ve validated whether there’s a viable market for your product and determined how saturated that target market is, focus on your product’s unique selling points.

Pro tip: even if you already have a product established in a specific market, make sure to assess the market periodically. Markets and competitors change, and making assumptions because of your initial research processes can be a costly mistake. Work with your marketing team here to validate your ideas and avoid guesswork.

Evaluate your product regularly against the industry by creating a value curve. The value curve plots the product offerings currently available in the market on one axis, and the factors the industry is competing on and investing in heavily on the other. This can help you spot market opportunities, ensure product relevance, and get ideas for features you could add to increase user demand and open up new user bases.

Check out how Gavin increased conversions for his lead generation agency by 42% with Hotjar.

 4. Get to know industry trends

Next, combine your understanding of your users and market with research on technology trends that may affect user expectations of your product or its long-term viability. 

Stay on top of trends by regularly engaging with tech cultures —read trade magazines and news sites, listen to tech news podcasts, and follow key trendspotters on social media and specialist forums. You can also use tools like Google Trends , Trend Hunter , and PSFK . 

Another key source of tech trend information is your engineering team . Chances are, you have plenty of techies on your team who are up to speed on different aspects of technology and what’s forecasted to change.

Pro tip: rigorously analyze trends and put them into context to understand what has staying power, as you avoid jumping on every passing fad. Create a learning culture that embraces experimentation and gives team members the opportunity to share their knowledge. 

Analyze the latest trending topics and projects in mainstream open-source communities across the Internet such as GitHub. These communities are an incredible resource for identifying tech trends that are sustainable, disruptive, and have immense staying power. 

It's also important to subscribe to prominent tech publications and leading technology platforms such as Azure and AWS to get the latest tech news and new feature announcements delivered directly to your inbox. This way, your product team is always in the know about the most important tech trends that are shaping product development and product markets.

5. Validate ideas with current or potential users

Once you’ve developed a strong sense of your users, market, and technology, it’s time to start testing concrete ideas and solutions. 

Based on your early research, identify possible products, features, or upgrades that could meet user needs as well as business goals. Then, run concept testing to evaluate the user experience.

First, identify key users or user types to test. Recruit participants for customer interviews or focus groups, or deploy Hotjar Surveys , Incoming Feedback tools, and Session Recordings to test ideas with existing users. 

Then, ask questions or set tasks and observe user responses. You may just want to explain concepts to users at this stage—or you can use wireframes or mockups; or, at later stages, prototypes or MVPs. 

Make sure you account for confirmation bias and false-positive responses from users when designing the validation process. Include open- and closed-ended questions and use measures like purchase intent to determine customer adoption.

Pro tip: use fake door testing to gauge interest in new features across your existing user base. 

In fake door tests, you show users a call-to-action for a product action that doesn’t exist yet. Once they click to perform the action, they’ll be taken to a page that explains this feature isn’t available yet—you may also choose to include a short survey on this page to learn more about their interest. By reviewing answers to survey questions and the click-through rate , product teams can quickly validate ideas for new features or improvements with users.

6. Test your MVP

The next step in your product research process is to develop a Minimum Viable Product based on validated ideas and run tests to improve subsequent iterations. 

This is a critical stage in product research that you shouldn’t skip. Waiting for the fully developed product before running tests makes it harder to fix software and prioritize bug issues, causing major delays. 

Quality assurance (QA) testing, regression testing, and performance testing check the MVP’s functionality and show developers where they need to make product changes . 

User tests are also key at this stage. Different types of product testing , like tree testing and card sorting, can confirm whether users can easily navigate your product to find the functionality they need. 

A/B tests and multivariate tests , where you split your user base into groups and give them different versions of a product or feature, can help you decide which iteration to run with. Hotjar Heatmaps allow you to easily compare where users click and scroll on different versions of the product.

7. Continue research after the product launch

Consider doing a soft launch—or even canary deployment—where you release new products or features to a small group of users

Gather data to weed out bugs

Finally, adapt the product based on user responses

Then you can roll it out to all users.

But even once you’ve launched the final product, your research isn’t over. The best product teams stay connected with their users and regularly analyze market trends and tech changes.

After the product is released, either through a soft launch or a regular launch, implementing a data-driven approach to the go-to-market strategy is crucial in parsing consumer reports and validating trends and customer opinions.

Continuous research ensures that your product stays relevant and successfully meets customer needs, which will boost user metrics and business metrics alike.

So how can you continue your research throughout the product lifecycle? 

Watch session recordings to spot blockers and bugs where users are rage clicking or dropping off the product journey

Use heatmaps to understand which product elements are most popular—and unpopular—with users

Measure product analytics like click-through rate (CTR) and product conversion rate

Stay up to date on industry and market trends 

Incorporate regular opportunities for cross-team discussions to get different research perspectives

Schedule regular user and customer interviews

Use product experience insights tools like Hotjar to give you a steady stream of user feedback through Surveys and Feedback widgets

8. Turn research into action

The final step in any product research process is to organize your research and turn insights into action. 

Curate your research into specific, actionable themes to cut through the noise and gather valuable, user-centric insights.

Then, use your research to establish a strong product strategy and roadmap to guide your product development process. Make sure you compare the strategy and roadmap with new research at regular intervals and update where needed, though it’s important to strike a balance: these documents should be dynamic but relatively stable touchpoints.  

Your product research should also drive your day-to-day decisions and product backlog management , and form the basis of your product storytelling to help get stakeholder buy-in. 

Why creating a user-centric research culture is essential

Remember: at heart, all product research is user research. 

Product teams who are endlessly curious about their users—who they are, what they need, how they experience your product—can better meet the demands of an ever-evolving market, inspire customer loyalty, and increase their Net Promoter Score (NPS) . With a learning mindset and a commitment to customer-centric product discovery, you can transform research into innovation and sustainable business growth .

FAQs on the product research process

What is product research.

Product research is the process of gathering data about your product’s purpose, intended users, and market to meet user needs and achieve business goals.

What are the steps in the product research process?

The 8 steps in an effective product research process are: 

1) Define your research goals

2) Understand your users

3) Do market research for your product

4) Get to know industry trends

5) Validate ideas with current or potential users

6) Test your MVP

7) Continue research after the product launch

8) Turn research into action

Why is product research important?

Strong product research is critical to product management because: 

It ensures the product will meet customer needs and hit business targets 

It helps product managers (PMs) develop a data-informed product vision, strategy, and roadmap

It helps PMs make confident decisions on the product backlog and day-to-day tasks

It keeps the product team motivated and connected with the purpose of their work 

It helps the product team communicate product value to stakeholders to get buy-in and secure resources

Prioritize product features

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How To Do Market Research: Types and Templates (2024)

Want to do market research for your brand? Get the best templates and a step-by-step guide in this article.

Market research consists of systematically gathering data about people or companies—a market—and then analyzing it to better understand what that group needs. The results of market research are then used to help business owners make informed decisions about the company’s strategies, operations, and potential customer base.

Market research can help businesses run more efficiently and market more effectively. Ahead, you’ll learn how to do market research for your business, whether you’re breaking into a new market or developing a product .

What is market research?

Market research is the process of gathering data about people or companies and analyzing it to figure out what they’re looking for. Using market research, which is usually summarized in a report, you can make better decisions about your company’s strategy, operations, and potential customers. There are two main types of market research: primary and secondary.

Primary market research

Primary data is first-hand information you gather yourself, or with the help of a market research firm. You control it. Common ways to do primary market research include surveys, interviews, focus groups, and observations. 

Doing your own research has its benefits. You’ll learn exactly what customers want, because you’ve asked them directly. Information is fresh, and you can understand the nuances of your customers, like taste preferences or pricing.

Secondary market research

Secondary data is pre-existing public information, such as data shared in magazines and newspapers or government or industry reports. 

Say you’re a fashion brand expanding its product line to sustainable options, you’d use secondary research to understand market potential. You’d read market reports from Mintel or Nielsen Company to understand consumer demands for sustainable products.

Why is market research important?

Reduce risks for entering new markets.

Misjudging market demand for a new product leads to big financial losses. Market research lowers that risk by providing insights to inform your go-to-market plan, such as:

• Market size
• Income range
• Employment rate
• Market saturation

Gathering this information beforehand helps you understand opportunities and challenges for getting new customers. It also helps you understand emerging trends to stay competitive and identify new growth opportunities.

Understand the competition

A competitive analysis helps you understand the business landscape of a new market and uncovers gaps your business can fill. By analyzing your competitors’ offerings, marketing strategies, and customer feedback, you can create a plan to differentiate yourself in a crowded market. 

Make your business customer-centric

Market research reveals the needs, preferences, and behaviors of potential customers in a new market. For example, if you were expanding into South Korea, you’d want to take into account that shoppers value fast delivery times, readily available products, and the best price possible. 

Armed with this information, you’d want to create a seamless mobile shopping experience with quick load times and quick delivery to appeal to the local market. 

Types of market research

Surveys .

Surveys consist of a list of questions that can be shared with an individual by phone, in person, on a card or paper, or online using a survey software like SurveyMonkey or Qualtrics. 

Ask customers a series of questions to better understand how they feel about a product’s features, or about the experience they had. 

Focus groups

Bringing together groups of people with a common characteristic, such as age, hobby, or buying habits, to better understand their likes and dislikes is a focus group. 

Focus groups typically consist of eight to 12 people and a moderator who poses questions for the group to discuss. They are useful ways of getting feedback on a new product, new features, or new ad campaign.

Observation

When the researcher gathers information simply by watching how a subject interacts with a product, the technique is observation. This is often used in comparing preferences for several types of products.

In-depth interviews

Another market research technique is the one-on-one interview with an individual, during which probing questions are posed to better understand that person’s thoughts, opinions, challenges, and product preferences.

Secondary sources

Secondary research is often a good place to start when conducting market research to better understand industry trends and broader shifts. 

Some of the most useful sources include:

• Industry associations and trade groups
• Trade journals specific to your industry
• Government reports, such as the census or annual federal procurement results
• Industry analysts
• University faculty members 

You can also analyze competitor websites and materials to uncover what convinces potential customers to buy from them.

How to conduct market research

1. choose your focus.

Start by defining what you want to achieve from your research. You might want to:

• Understand a target audience
• Develop new product features
• Create a brand identity
• Improve customer experience

If you’re launching a new line of eco-friendly packaging, for example, your focus might be to understand customer attitudes toward sustainability. 

2. Determine your research methods 

Choose how you’ll capture the data based on your objectives and budget. Combine qualitative research (like interviews and focus groups) with quantitative data (like surveys) to understand attitudes and perceptions.

Maybe you’ll decide to conduct a focus group with environmentally conscious consumers to explore their feelings about packaging materials.

3. Collect the data

Depending on your research methods, you might need to prepare questionnaires, conduct interviews, or analyze data courses. You can conduct the process in-house or outsource it to a third party to help speed things along.

4. Analyze the data

Now it’s time to turn that raw data into insights. Identify any patterns or trends that answer your objectives. For example, you may analyze and identify the percentage of customers who prefer sustainable packaging over traditional options.

5. Report your findings

Prepare a report that includes key insights, data, and recommendations based on your findings. Go beyond stating the findings and explain what they mean for your business. What can you conclude about your market, audience, or product? 

For example, if your research finds high demand for eco-friendly packaging amongst the 25-to-34 demographic, you can conclude a targeted marketing campaign to this group could increase sales. 

Market research templates and guides

Behind every successful business is solid market research. But the hardest part is knowing where to start, and that’s where the following templates come in. These guides can help you stay on track and prepare for your market research process. 

• Shopify’s Market Research Competitor Analysis Template : Contains a free template to help you find your product market fit, so you can sell successfully right away. 
• HubSpot’s Market Research Kit : Contains an instructional guide, SWOT analysis template, focus group template, survey template, and more.
• Qualtrics XM : Qualtrics XM offers a collection of pre-made customer, product, and brand survey templates with a free account.

Online vs. offline marketing research

Online marketing research involves using digital platforms and tools to collect data from your audience. It includes surveys, polls, online focus groups, web analytics, and social media listening . 

The benefit of online research is that you can reach a wide audience quickly and at an affordable price. Because it’s done online, it’s convenient for both researchers and participants. However, online marketing research has some drawbacks, like low response rates and poor data quality. People may not give in-depth explanations or observations if they don’t sit in front of you.

In offline research, data is collected through in-person methods, such as interviews or observations. This allows researchers to examine people’s nonverbal cues and emotions in greater detail. However, offline research is expensive to conduct and analyze, and in-person methods may also limit sample size and diversity. 

How market research helps with competitive analysis

Knowing what your competitors are doing makes it easier to break into the market (or stay ahead of it). If you’re starting an ecommerce business , market research can help you:

• Identify industry trends
• Create a benchmark against competitors 
• Determine competitive pricing strategies
• Find gaps in the market

All these elements inform your competitive analysis, whether you’re developing a new product or entering a new market. In this way, you can uncover areas where competition is intense and gain leverage over your competitors.

Free competitor research template

Find a strategic angle to achieve sales success, uncover your product-market fit, and stand out from the competition with our free template.

Market research examples

Before launching a premium cocktail machine into a new category, the team at Bartesian had to identify a common problem: how hard it was to make great-tasting cocktails at home without any professional skill. 

It was a problem the founder, Ryan Close, struggled with himself, as he explains in a Shopify Masters interview . 

“I could never get [drinks] right, so I understood it was difficult to make great tasting cocktails at home if you’re not a bartender,” Ryan says. 

For his market research, Ryan carried a prototype of the machine around the country, getting in-person feedback. He’d go to trade shows and networking events to talk with people, ask about their pain points, and find out what they’d be willing to pay for his cocktail-making machine. These events helped give Ryan the market research needed to launch Bartesian. 

💡 Read more about how Ryan Close launched Bartesian

Beardbrand 

Beardbrand has become a popular men’s grooming brand since its launch in 2012. In 2023, it was estimated to have generated $25.7 million in revenue. Its founder, Eric Bandholz, took an informal approach to market research rooted in his personal experiences. 

He identified the potential for Beardbrand through several key insights:

• Observation: Noticing an increase in beards and mustaches, and a general interest in male grooming in urban areas, Eric recognized a growing trend that had yet to be fully capitalized on.
• Community engagement: By being an active member of the beard community and blogging about beard care and lifestyle, Eric immersed himself in the target market. This direct engagement provided him with firsthand insights into the needs and wants of his potential customers.
• Participation in events: Attending the 2012 West Coast Beard & Mustache Championships in Portland, Oregon, was a pivotal moment. It was here Eric realized the existence of a like-minded community that was underserved in terms of products and content tailored to their interests.
• Using social media for feedback and ideas: Eric leveraged social media platforms, especially Tumblr, to gather product ideas and gauge community interest. This approach allowed for immediate feedback and helped shape the product offering.

Before officially launching Beardbrand, Eric experimented with blogging about beard care products and engaging with the community. This phase acted as an informal market test, providing insights into the market’s receptivity to various products.

Abel Samet and Samuel Bail started Troubadour after unsuccessfully searching for a high-performing weekender bag. This personal experience highlighted a gap in the market for bags that were both aesthetically pleasing and functionally equivalent to sports gear—lightweight, waterproof, and comfortable.

They did market testing by initially offering their products to friends, family, and colleagues, which allowed them to gather valuable feedback. The brand continued to collect qualitative feedback from customers on their likes and dislikes about the bags, as well as quantitative data on sales and returns to understand needs and buying behavior. This allowed them to innovate and expand, taking calculated risks that paid off.

📚  Read: 10 Lessons Learned From Troubadour’s 10 Years in Business

Qualitative vs. quantitative market research

Qualitative and quantitative research are two fundamental approaches to doing market research. 

Qualitative research

Focuses on understanding concepts, thoughts, or experiences through subjective data. It explores the howand why of customers’ behaviors through open-ended questions and discussions. It can involve interviews, observations, and textual analysis to develop a more detailed understanding of the participant. 

Quantitative research

Rooted in quantifying a problem through numerical data, like statistics. You’ll normally use quantitative data to generalize results from a larger sample population. These include surveys, questionnaires, and experiments with fixed questions or conditions. 

Even though these two approaches are different, you can combine them to conduct a mixed methods study. This helps further validate your findings and get a better understanding of the issue at hand. 

Conduct your own market research today

Understanding industry shifts, changing consumer needs and preferences, and legislative trends, among other things, can shape where a business chooses to focus its efforts and resources. That’s the value of market research. Use the templates and market research techniques above to improve your process and grow your business. 

• What Is a Key Performance Indicator (KPI)? Definition and Guide
• What Is Direct Mail? Definition and Guide
• What Is Media Planning? Definition and Guide
• How To Create a Digital Marketing Strategy
• What Is Guerrilla Marketing? Definition and Guide
• What Is Telemarketing? Definition and Guide
• What Is a Trade Show? Definition and Guide
• How To Create a Buyer Persona (With Examples)
• Website Builder & Website Maker by Shopify

What is market research? FAQ

What are the 4 types of marketing research.

• Exploratory research
• Descriptive research
• Causal research
• Predictive research

What is an example of market research?

An example of market research would be a company conducting a survey to learn more about their target audience’s preferences and buying habits. They might ask questions about age, gender, income level, and what types of products they purchase. The research would then inform the company’s business and marketing strategy. 

How often should market research be conducted?

Businesses can conduct market research on an as-needed basis. If you are launching a new product or entering a new market, you’ll do market research to support the initiative. Some businesses do market research on an annual basis to stay competitive. 

What are the 4 main purposes of market research?

• Identifying and understanding the target market: Market research helps organizations better identify and understand their target market. It can provide insights into customer demographics, preferences, needs and motivations.
• Product/service development and innovation: Market research helps organizations identify and develop new products or services that meet the needs of their target market. It also helps them understand how new products or services can be positioned in the marketplace.
• Market entry and expansion: Market research helps organizations plan and execute successful market entry and expansion. It can help them identify target markets, assess market potential and evaluate the competitive landscape.
• Brand and reputation management: Market research helps organizations maintain and improve their brand and reputation. It can provide insights into customer perception and help organizations differentiate their brand from competitors.

How much does market research cost?

How much market research costs depends on the research method used. For example, face-to-face interviews are more expensive than phone interviews. The sample size required is also a factor. The larger your sample size, the more expensive it will cost. On average, you can expect to pay between $20,000 and $60,000 for a round of market research from a marketing research firm.

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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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Actionable Strategies for Starting & Growing Any Business.

Product Market Research: 8 Essential Steps & Real-Life Examples

~90% of companies state that they listen to the voice of their customers while developing new products. 1 One of the efficient ways to hear from customers is to conduct market research . Product market research stands as a beacon, guiding businesses in creating products that resonate with their target customers.

Explore the essential steps of conducting effective product market research , various methods , and real-life examples of successful product market research:

Essential steps for conducting product market research

1- assessment of the company’s resources.

Before diving into market research, it’s imperative for a business to take stock of its internal capabilities and how these align with potential product development opportunities. This initial step is a foundational one, requiring a thorough assessment of the company’s resources, strengths, and limitations.

For example, a tech company with a strong background in software development might explore avenues in the latest app technologies, whereas a retail business with a robust supply chain might consider expanding its product line.

Here is a strategic map to help your company prioritize its investments and innovation efforts based on the current and future significance of different competencies (see figure below).

Figure 1. Map of strategic importance of the investment and company position

Source: McKinsey 2

2- Deciding on the target markets

Once you evaluate the strengths and capabilities of your company, you can decide on the target market and audience. This involves defining the specific group of customers for whom the product is intended. Understanding the demographics, psychological factors, pain points, and needs of this target market is essential for tailoring the research.

For those interested, here is our article on retail market research trends and some real-life examples .

3- Crafting informed research questions

The next step is to prepare the questions that you wish to hear from your target audience. The foundation of successful product market research is in formulating insightful and targeted questions. This step is particularly crucial when designing surveys, as the quality of questions directly impacts the relevance and usefulness of the data collected.

Check out our comprehensive article on the best practices of conducting market research .

4- Choosing the right market research vendors

The selection of a market research vendor can significantly influence the outcomes. Businesses need to ensure that the vendor’s expertise aligns with their specific research needs, especially in constructing and administering effective surveys.

If you are looking for a market research software , check out our vendor deep dive.

You can also check out our data-driven list of market research tools .

5- Determining data collection methods

Selecting the most appropriate tools and techniques for gathering and interpreting market data is as crucial as determining your questions, target market, and audience. Although there are various methods, surveys, due to their adaptability and broad reach, often become the method of choice for businesses seeking comprehensive and direct consumer feedback.

6- Finding the right research channels 

This involves determining where and how to distribute the surveys to reach the target audience effectively. Channels might include online platforms, email, social media, in-person venues, or a combination of these, depending on where the target market is most accessible. Bear in mind that market research or survey tools can also handle this process.

7- Analyzing and interpreting results

The data obtained, particularly from surveys, should be meticulously analyzed to extract actionable insights. This step transforms raw data into actionable intelligence about consumer preferences and market trends.

If you are looking for a survey analysis tool , check out our vendor benchmark.

8- Communicating market research findings

Effectively presenting the research findings to stakeholders is a critical part of conducting market research itself. The valuable insights, especially those derived from surveys, should be communicated clearly to inform strategic decisions.

Product market research types

The product market research process can be broadly categorized into different types based on the data collection technique, data types and research topics.

Based on the data collection technique

1. primary market research.

Primary market research involves gathering fresh data directly from sources. This method is proactive and tailored to specific research needs. The primary objective is to collect data that is relevant, in-depth, and directly related to the research question. Methods used in primary market research include:

• Online Surveys : Surveys are pivotal in product market research. They provide direct insights from the target audience, are cost-effective, and can be scaled to reach a broad demographic. Besides, they are useful for conducting both qualitative research and quantitative research. The richness and validity of the data garnered from well-designed surveys are unparalleled in gauging consumer sentiment and preferences. 
• Individual interviews : These offer nuanced understandings of consumer attitudes, supplementing the quantitative data from surveys with qualitative depth. Companies can also understand how to attract potential customers through these individual meetings.
• Focus groups: This refers to gathering a group of people to discuss and react to something, such as a product or campaign. It’s particularly beneficial for understanding reactions and attitudes, and more useful for exploratory research.

2. Secondary market research

Secondary research uses data that already exists and has been collected by other initiatives. It’s often quicker and less expensive than primary research. This method includes:

• Public sources : Publicly available data like government reports and industry analyses offer a contextual backdrop for primary data and competitive analysis.
• Social media channels: Social media platforms (e.g., Instagram, X, LinkedIn) are a rich source of secondary market research data. They provide real-time insights into customer sentiment, emerging trends, brand perceptions, and competitor activities.

Based on the data types

3. qualitative market research.

Qualitative market research focuses on collecting non-numerical data to gain a deeper understanding of market dynamics. Methods used in qualitative research include

• Focus groups: Gather a group of target customers to discuss and provide feedback on products or services.
• Individual interviews: Conduct one-on-one interviews to delve deeper into personal consumer experiences and perceptions.
• Observational research: Observe consumer behavior in natural settings to gain insights into purchasing decisions.

4. Quantitative market research

Quantitative market research involves the collection of numerical data that can be statistically analyzed. This approach is crucial for data collection and analysis, benchmarking and comparisons, and hypothesis testing. Methods used in quantitative research include

• Online surveys: Distribute surveys to collect numerical data from a broad audience efficiently.
• Polls: Quick and targeted data collection to gauge opinions on specific issues.
• Web Statistics: Analyze data from online platforms to understand user behavior and engagement.
• Financial records: Examine sales data and financial metrics to assess market performance and trends.

Based on research topics

Product branding research.

Conducting market research is essential for understanding how a company’s brand is perceived in the target market.

By analyzing both quantitative and qualitative data, market researchers can gain actionable insights into market trends and the competitive landscape. Effective market research helps businesses tailor their marketing strategy to better align with the target market and differentiate their product or service from competitors.

Product feature testing research

When testing product features, conducting market research involves a blend of primary and secondary research to assess how well the features meet customer needs.

This comprehensive approach ensures that product feature testing yields relevant data and supports informed business decisions, enhancing the product’s competitive advantage and aligning it with market trends and consumer expectations.

Product market research real-life examples

Figure 2. zoom docs as a development of product market research.

Source: Zoom 3

Zoom Docs, announced at Zoomtopia 2023, is a testament to Zoom’s market research-driven product development. 4 Addressing the complexities of hybrid work, Zoom Docs integrates AI-enhanced document and collaboration tools within Zoom’s ecosystem, aligning with the identified needs for more streamlined and efficient workplace solutions. This innovation, as a park of Zoom’s marketing strategy, is set for release in 2024, and it reflects Zoom’s commitment to evolving its services in response to changing work dynamics.

Warby Parker

Warby Parker, founded in 2010, revolutionized the eyewear market with a direct-to-consumer model that undercut traditional optical boutiques. 5 Their innovative Home Try-On program allowed customers to test frames at home, addressing common pain points in buying glasses online. This consumer-centric approach, combined with their expansion into physical retail locations and the integration of an AR Virtual Try-On feature, showcases Warby Parker’s commitment to evolving with market trends and consumer needs, offering a broad range of stylish, affordable eyewear options.

Lush Cosmetics

Lush Cosmetics, driven by market research and a commitment to environmental sustainability, has innovatively tailored its product development strategy. 6 Emphasizing on eco-friendly practices, Lush’s products predominantly use fresh, vegetarian ingredients, with a large vegan selection. Their unique approach extends to packaging, focusing on reducing waste through ‘Naked’ products like solid shampoo bars and reusable packaging options, including knot-wraps made from recycled materials. This strategy, reflecting consumer preferences for ethical and sustainable products, has significantly strengthened Lush’s brand value and appeal in the cosmetics industry.

If you need help in market research, we can help:

External Links

• 1. “ Digital Product Development 2025 “. PwC. Retrieved December 25,2023.
• 2. “ A capabilities strategy for successful product development “. McKinsey. July 13, 2017. Retrieved December 25,2023.
• 3. “ Zoom Docs “. Zoom. October 3, 2023. Retrieved December 25,2023.
• 4. “ Zoom Docs “. Zoom. October 3, 2023. Retrieved December 25,2023.
• 5. “ How does Warby Parker work? Here’s a step-by-step guide to ordering new prescription glasses. ” Mashable. September 6, 2023. Retrieved December 25,2023.
• 6. “ Lush Cosmetics Gets Naked “. Packaging World. November 14, 2019. Retrieved December 25,2023.

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How to Do Market Research

Market research can help you learn about your audience and competitors. Check out this guide to learn how to do effective market research.

Whether you are making a new product or introducing a unique service, market research stands out as a crucial step of its launch. It not only helps you understand the needs of your target audience, but also allows you to know what type of solutions competitors are offering to your potential customers.

If you don’t have the relevant data to analyze these factors, you are essentially shooting in the dark. This leads you down a path full of potential missteps, mistakes, and losses. Due to these reasons, it is absolutely critical for you to learn how to do market research.

From drawing out buyer personas to gathering tools for relevant social media ads , here is how you can conduct market research for an ideal rollout.

What is market research?

Market research is the process of collecting and analyzing data about a target market, relevant audiences, and associated demand for a product or service. The approach is most often used to assess the potential of a new offering within a specific market.

Conducting market research helps you learn the strengths and weaknesses of your solutions through the eyes of your target customers. Additionally, the process enables you to know more about market drivers such as economic indicators.

In turn, your product developers can refine your offering to fit market expectations. At the same time, your marketing department can put together buyer personas to leverage their buying habits to your advantage.

This enables you to use techniques such as behavioral targeting and market segmentation before, during, and after your product rollout. As a result, it becomes easier for you to achieve critical goals such as creating a positive buzz, building a high buyer interest, and increasing your return on investment (ROI).

Typically, market research covers various segments of data collection, such as the following.

• The overall demand for your product or service.
• The general size of your target market.
• The economic strength of your associated audiences.
• The demographics of your potential customers.
• The availability and prices of similar solutions.

When you learn how to conduct market research that includes these key aspects, you are able to determine the overall viability of your offering. This gives you a guideline for making informed decisions for your business, and keeps you from investing in a solution that seems doomed from the start.

When to conduct market research

More often than not, businesses perform market research before the launch of a new product or service. But that is not the only situation where the process stands out as an important step. In fact, the decision of when to perform market research depends upon your approach towards your solutions, policies, and target market.

Keeping this in mind, you can execute your market research in situations including but limited to:

• Testing the potential of a new product or service.
• Understanding buyer sentiment for an existing solution.
• Refining your offerings through feedback from target customers.
• Analyzing market reception to product updates and changes.
• Assessing the strength of your existing product or service against new competitors.

To put it simply, doing marketing research is most common before rolling out a new offering. But you can also continue performing it well after your initial launch. The latter may seem like an additional ongoing investment. However, it also consistently strengthens your solutions in light of new data, trends , and consumer buying habits.

What are the benefits of market research?

There are various advantages to conducting market research across a number of situations. On a macro level, all of these perks work towards enhancing your market positioning and increasing your ROI. This allows you to achieve your goals without running into unnecessary hurdles.

On a micro level, each of these benefits bring something distinct to the table. As a result, these individual rewards contribute to your business’ growth in more than one way.

The following segments describe some of the most common benefits of conducting market research.

You learn more about your target market

The most glaring advantage of performing market research comes in the form of understanding your target audience. This includes but is not limited to gathering more information about the needs, expectations, and buying habits of your potential customers.

By collecting and organizing relevant data, you can also determine your target demographics that tell you more about the age, location, and income of your average buyer. This allows you to determine buyer personas, and leads you to meet the demands of your target customers.

You get to know the latest industry trends

Market research also gives you a firm grasp over the latest industry trends that could make or break your offering. This includes the hype around certain technologies, buyer sentiment towards particular solutions, and the overall strength of the economy.

Through primary and secondary research, you can also learn about the most popular methods that encourage potential customers to voice their opinions. You may then use this information to optimize content for surveys and interviews alike.

You are able to gauge your competition’s status

Even when you are not performing a complete competitor analysis, asking your target customers certain questions can paint a picture of your competition. This reveals if anyone is offering the same solution as you, while also outlining their reputation and status within your target segment.

Through this data collection, you can also determine the strength and weaknesses of your competitors’ offerings. This helps you set your product positioning, messaging, and pricing through an informed approach. This way, you can be confident to spend money on measures that give you an edge over your competitors.

You can easily refine your offerings

From launching a new solution to making updates to your existing offerings, market research can help you determine where your product or service stands for potential customers. This gives your product developers a guideline to improve your solution and cater to your audience’s feedback.

Besides helping you steer clear of losses, this approach lets you bring a compelling product to market. This also sets a foundation for your approach towards customer service, and encourages you to continue listening to customers for consistent benefits in the future.

You may build a strong marketing campaign

When you learn how to conduct market research, you are able to obtain information that goes beyond your basic buyer demographics. By understanding your target audience’s behavior towards personal research and information consumption, you can devise an effective marketing campaign for your solutions.

Learning how to perform market research also gives you the ability to invest in a variety of marketing methodologies. This covers segments such as search engine optimization (SEO), pay per click (PPC), and email outreach. By using a range of marketing tools, you can effortlessly connect with your potential customers and existing audiences in the long run.

Types of market research methods

Since market research is a broad subject, it also holds different types of measures to collect relevant data. Depending upon your business’ requirements, budget, and the outlined timeframe to bring your product to market, you can choose between different types of market research approaches.

Some of the most popular ways to conduct market research include the following methods.

While learning how to perform market research, you may come across the benefits of primary research. Unlike secondary research that uses pre-published and generalized findings, this method allows you to directly collect data from your target market. As a result, you get conclusive and definitive results that are specific to your product or service.

Surveys are a big part of this primary research approach. With the availability of digital avenues, they also allow you to reach out to potential customers without a huge investment of time and money. For seamless data collection through your surveys, you can also turn to an email marketing solution.

Personal interviews

Another part of primary research, personal interviews provide you with the opportunity to conduct face-to-face conversations. This method also gives you the ability to ask open-ended questions, which lead you to have a deeper understanding of your potential customers, their likes, and their dislikes.

With the availability of video call solutions, you can also conduct these interviews digitally. When you don’t require the physical presence of involved parties at the same location, you can hold these conversations in a timely and convenient manner.

Focus groups

You may have already heard of focus groups through the web, TV, or print media. These groups comprise a set of people from different walks of life who examine your offering in a controlled setting. This primary research approach also involves conversations with open-ended questions.

While focus groups are an important part of market research, you need to understand the pros and cons of using a focus group carefully. One of the biggest considerations in this regard is an individual’s biased opinion that could influence the final results for the whole group.

Observation

Unlike many primary research methods, observation does not ask questions or indulge the participants in conversations. Instead, it involves a designated professional watching over a participant while they interact with your product or service. This can be a highly effective method of learning how potential customers feel about your offering.

While conducting market research through this method, you should be ready to give your participants a fully-functional product. This allows you to get specific opinions about all of the product’s features and benefits. This way, you can rest assured in the strength of the activity’s results.

As you move forward with these approaches, it is important to learn the differences between quantitative research and qualitative research. Simply put, the former provides you with numerical and statistical data, while the latter delivers detailed views and commentary. You should use both approaches for optimal results.

How to conduct market research

Once you understand the basics of market research, conducting it is simply a matter of following predefined processes. When you have helpful information such as a market research template at hand, you can go through the required activities without additional stress.

While conducting market research, you can use the following methods to reach out to your target market.

• Digital ads . These online ads on different websites and search engines help you find people from your target audience who are willing to participate in your chosen method of research.
• Email marketing . You can run a marketing campaign to reach out to existing and potential customers through emails. Besides helping you get appointments for interviews and observational research, it is also one of the easiest ways to conduct surveys.
• Professional solutions . You can hire seasoned professionals who specialize in conducting market research. This outsourcing approach is often followed for personal interviews and focus groups.

You can consider any of these market research approaches or even combine them for maximum effect. With that being said, you should always have tools in place to track performance and make decisions according to latest results.

You can also use best practices to get the most out of each research methodology.

How to lead personal interviews and focus groups

• Have your specific product or service ready for demonstration.
• Lead with a description of your offering.
• Ask open-ended questions about consumer perception .
• Inquire about competitors and similar solutions in the market.
• Present questions about what’s missing from the offering.
• Ask for opinions about your intended price.
• Watch out for any single participant who is influencing others’ opinions.
• Get concluding notes and commentary from each participant.

How to perform research in observation settings

• Ask potential customers if you can observe them while they use your solution.
• Notice if they face any difficulties in accessing the features of your offering.
• Assess the overall interest of the participants while using the product or service.
• Highlight how comfortable or challenging it was for them to complete certain actions.
• Use meticulous record-keeping approaches to document their experience.
• Include how long each participant engaged with the product or service.

How to build a market research template

Since surveys are predetermined questionnaires that you can send through emails, you can get inspiration from a template of this market research method.

Typically, an effective template for conducting market research surveys covers the following aspects.

• Demographic . This covers aspects such as age, gender, and location.
• Industry . This relates to the recipient’s familiarity and involvement in your sector.
• Business . This refers to the participant’s professional life and routine.
• Brand . This asks for their knowledge about your brand.
• Competition . This involves questions related to similar solutions.
• Product or Service . This inquires about the recipient’s perception towards your offering.

After learning how to do market research using these methods, it becomes easy for you to draft a detailed questionnaire that leads you through interviews and surveys alike. As long as you are mindful about all the necessary details that you should cover in your research, you can get the answers you need to ensure an optimal product rollout.

Final notes

Conducting market research is an essential step for all types of businesses that are planning a new product rollout or refining their existing solutions. By adopting the right practices for market research, you can ensure that your product or service is ready to check all the boxes for your potential customers.

With Mailchimp, you can perform your market research through digital avenues, while also benefiting from intelligent analysis and reporting tools. By utilizing our all-in-one email platform’s automation, customization, and segmentation features, you can get the most out of each research effort by your brand.

Related Topics

• Marketing Tools
• Product-Market Fit
• Business Inspiration
• Create Your Brand
• Launching a Business

The Ultimate Guide to Market Research: Types, Benefits, and Real-World Examples

Team Fratzke

Today's consumers hold a lot of power when making purchase decisions. With a quick inquiry in a search engine or search bar within a social media platform, they can access genuine reviews from their peers without relying on sales reps.

Considering this shift in consumer behavior, adjusting your marketing strategy so it caters to the modern-day buying process is essential . To achieve this, you must thoroughly understand your target audience, the market you operate in, and the factors influencing their decision-making.

This is where market research can be leveraged so you stay current with your audience and industry. 

Article Overview

In this article, we’ll walk you through everything you need to know about how to conduct market research, including:

• Why market research is essential for understanding your target audience, the market you operate in, and factors influencing decision-making
• What are the different types of market research, such as primary and secondary market research
• How to collect information about your customers and target market to determine the success of a new or existing product, improve your brand, and communicate your company's value
• Real-world examples of companies leveraging market research

What is market research?

Market research is a necessary process that involves collecting and documenting information about your target market and customers. This helps you determine the success of a new product, improve an existing one, or understand how your brand is perceived. You can then turn this research into profits by  developing marketing strategies and campaigns to effectively communicate your company's value .

While market research can provide insights into various aspects of an industry, it is not a crystal ball that can predict everything about your customers. Market researchers typically explore multiple areas of the market, which can take several weeks or even months to get a complete picture of the business landscape.

Even by researching just one of those areas, you can gain better insights into who your buyers are and what unique value proposition you can offer them that no other business currently provides.

Of course, you can simply use your industry experience and existing customer insights to make sound judgment calls. However, it's important to note that market research provides additional benefits beyond these strategies. There are two things to consider:

• Your competitors also have experienced individuals in the industry and a customer base. Your immediate resources may equal those of your competition's immediate resources. Seeking a larger sample size for answers can provide a better edge.
• Your brand's customers do not represent the entire market's attitudes, only those who are attracted to your brand.

The market research services industry is experiencing rapid growth , indicating a strong interest in market research as we enter 2024. The market is expected to grow from approximately $75 billion in 2021 to $90.79 billion in 2025, with a compound annual growth rate of 5%. 

Your competitors have highly skilled individuals within the industry, meaning your available personnel resources are likely similar to those of your competitors. So what are you going to do to get ahead?

You’re going to do thorough market research, which is why seeking answers from a larger sample size is essential. Remember that your customers represent only a portion of the market already attracted to your brand, and their attitudes may not necessarily reflect those of the entire market. You could be leaving money on the table by leaving out untapped customers .

Why do market research?

Market research helps you meet your buyers where they are. Understanding your buyer's problems, pain points, and desired outcomes is invaluable as our world becomes increasingly noisy and demanding. This knowledge will help you tailor your product or service to appeal to them naturally. 

What’s even better is when you're ready to grow your business, market research can also guide you in developing an effective market expansion strategy.

Market research provides valuable insights into factors that impact your profits and can help you to :

• Identify where your target audience and current customers are conducting their product or service research
• Determine which competitors your target audience looks to for information, options, or purchases
• Keep up with the latest trends in your industry and understand what your buyers are interested in
• Understand who makes up your market and what challenges they are facing
• Determine what influences purchases and conversions among your target audience
• Analyze consumer attitudes about a particular topic, pain, product, or brand
• Assess the demand for the business initiatives you're investing in
• Identify unaddressed or underserved customer needs that can be turned into selling opportunities
• Understand consumer attitudes about pricing for your product or service.

Market research provides valuable information from a larger sample size of your target audience, enabling you to obtain accurate consumer attitudes. By eliminating any bias or assumptions you have about your target audience, you can make better business decisions based on the bigger picture. 

As you delve deeper into your market research, you will come across two types of research: primary and secondary market research . Simply put, think of two umbrellas beneath market research - one for primary and one for secondary research. In the next section, we will discuss the difference between these two types of research. That way, if you work with a market who wants to use them, you’ll be ready with an understanding of how they can each benefit your business.

Primary vs. Secondary Research

Both primary and secondary research are conducted to collect actionable information on your product. That information can then be divided into two types: qualitative and quantitative research. Qualitative research focuses on public opinion and aims to determine how the market feels about the products currently available. On the other hand, quantitative research seeks to identify relevant trends in the data gathered from public records. 

Let's take a closer look at these two types.

Primary Research

Primary research involves gathering first-hand information about your market and its customers. It can be leveraged to segment your market and create focused buyer personas . Generally, primary market research can be categorized into exploratory and specific studies.

Exploratory Primary Research

This type of primary market research is not focused on measuring customer trends; instead, it is focused on identifying potential problems worth addressing as a team. It is usually conducted as an initial step before any specific research is done and may involve conducting open-ended interviews or surveys with a small group of people.

Specific Primary Research

After conducting exploratory research, businesses may conduct specific primary research to explore issues or opportunities they have identified as necessary. Specific research involves targeting a smaller or more precise audience segment and asking questions aimed at solving a suspected problem. Specific primary research reveals problems that are unique to your audience so you can then offer a unique (and valuable) solution.

Secondary Research

Secondary research refers to collecting and analyzing data that has already been published or made available in public records. This may include market statistics, trend reports, sales data, and industry content you already can access. Secondary research really shines when you go to your competitors . The most commonly used sources of secondary market research include:

• Public sources
• Commercial sources
• Internal sources

Public Sources

When conducting secondary market research, the first and most accessible sources of information are usually free . That’s right–these public sources are free and at your fingertips so there’s no reason for you to not be checking them out and leveraging them for your own gain.

One of the most common types of public sources is government statistics. According to Entrepreneur, two examples of public market data in the United States are the U.S. Census Bureau and the Bureau of Labor & Statistics. These sources offer helpful information about the state of various industries nationwide including:

Commercial Sources

Research agencies such as Pew, Fratzke, Gartner, or Forrester often provide market reports containing industry insights from their own in-depth studies . These reports usually come at a cost if you want to download and obtain the information, but these agencies are experts at what they do, so the research is most likely valuable.

Internal Sources

Internal sources of market data can include average revenue per sale, customer retention rates, and other data on the health of old and new accounts. They are often overlooked when it comes to conducting market research because of how specific the data is; however, these sources can be valuable as they provide information on the organization's historical data.

By analyzing this information, you can gain insights into what your customers want now . In addition to these broad categories, there are various ways to conduct market research. Let’s talk about them.  

Types of Market Research

• Interviews (in-person or remote)

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.

Interviews can be conducted face-to-face or virtually, allowing for a natural conversation flow while observing the interviewee's body language. By asking questions about themselves, the interviewee can help you create buyer personas , which are made by using information about the ideal customer, such as:

• Family size 
• Challenges faced at work or in life 

And other aspects of their lifestyle. This buyer profile can shape your entire marketing strategy , from the features you add to your product to the content you publish on your website. Your target audience will feel that the marketing was made just for them and will be drawn to your product or service.

Focus groups are market research involving a few carefully selected individuals who can test your product, watch a demonstration, offer feedback, and answer specific questions. This research can inspire ideas for product differentiation or highlight the unique features of your product or brand that set it apart from others in the market.  This is a great market research option to gain specific feedback, which you can use to improve your services .

Product/Service Use Research

Product or service usage research provides valuable insights into how and why your target audience uses your product or service.  This research can help in various ways including:

•  Identifying specific features of your offering that appeal to your audience. 
• Allowing you to assess the usability of your product or service for your target audience. 

According to a report published in 2020, usability testing was rated the most effective method for discovering user insights, with a score of 8.7 out of 10. In comparison, digital analytics scored 7.7, and user surveys scored 6.4.

Observation-based research is a process that involves observing how your target audience members use your product or service. The way that you intended your product or service to be used may not be the actual way that it is used. Observation-based research helps you understand what works well in terms of customer experience (CX) and user experience (UX), what problems they face, and which aspects of your product or service can be improved to make it easier for them to use.

To better understand how your potential customers make purchasing decisions in your industry, it is essential to know who they are. This is where buyer persona research comes in handy. Buyer or marketing personas are fictional yet generalized representations of your ideal customers. They give you someone to whom you want your marketing efforts to empathize and move, even though they don’t really exist. 

Gathering survey data and additional research to correctly identify your buyer personas will help you to visualize your audience so you can streamline your communications and inform marketing strategy . Key characteristics to include in a buyer persona are:

• Job title(s)
• Family size
• Major challenges

Market segmentation research enables you to classify your target audience into various groups or segments based on specific and defining characteristics. This method allows you to understand their needs, pain points, expectations, and goals more effectively.

Pricing research can provide valuable insights about the prices of similar products or services in your market. It can help you understand what your target audience expects to pay for your offerings and what would be a reasonable price for you to set. Correct pricing is important because if you set it too high, consumers will go to your cheaper competitor; but if you set it too low, your consumers may become suspicious of your product or service and still end up with your competitor. This information allows you to develop a solid pricing strategy aligning with your business goals and objectives. 

Competitive Analysis

Competitive analyses are incredibly valuable as they provide a deep understanding of your market and industry competition. Through these analyses, you can gain insights like: 

• What works well in your industry 
• What your target audience is already interested in regarding products like yours
• Which competitors you should work to keep up with and surpass 
• How you can differentiate yourself from the competition

Understanding customer satisfaction and loyalty is crucial to encouraging repeat business and identifying what drives customers to return (such as loyalty programs, rewards, and exceptional customer service). Researching this area will help you determine the most effective methods to keep your customers coming back again and again. If you have a CRM system, consider further utilizing automated customer feedback surveys to improve your understanding of their needs and preferences.

Brand awareness research helps you understand the level of familiarity your target audience has with your brand. It provides insights into your audience members' perceptions and associations when they think about your business.This type of research reveals what they believe your brand represents. This information is valuable for developing effective marketing strategies, improving your brand's reputation, and increasing customer loyalty .

To improve your marketing campaigns, you need to research by analyzing the success of your past campaigns among your target audience and current customers. This requires experimentation and thoroughly examining the elements that resonate with your audience. By doing so, you can identify the aspects of your campaigns that matter most to your audience and use them as a guide for future campaigns. 

Now that you understand the different market research categories and types let's look at how to conduct your market research.  Using our expertise and experience, we’ve created a step-by-step guide to conducting market research.

How to Do Market Research (Detailed Roadmap)

• Define the problem or objective of the research. 
• Determine the type of data needed. 
• Identify the sources of data. 
• Collect the data. 
• Analyze the data. 
• Interpret the results. 
• Report the findings. 
• Take action based on the findings.

1. Define the problem or objective of the research

Defining the problem or objective of the research is the first step in conducting market research. This involves identifying the specific issue that the research is trying to address. It is essential to be clear and specific about the research problem or objective, as it will guide the entire research process.

2. Determine the type of data needed

After defining the research problem or objective, the next step is determining the data type needed to address the issue. This involves deciding whether to collect primary or secondary data. Primary data is collected directly from the source, while secondary data is collected from existing sources such as government reports or market research studies.

3. Identify the sources of data

Once the data type has been determined, the next step is identifying the data sources. This involves identifying potential sources of primary and secondary data that can be used to address the research problem or objective. Primary data sources can include surveys, focus groups, and interviews, while secondary data sources can include government reports, industry publications, and academic journals.

4. Collect the data

After identifying the data sources, the next step is to collect the data. This involves designing and implementing a data collection plan consistent with the research problem or objective. The data collection plan should specify the methods and procedures for collecting data, sample size, and sampling method.

5. Analyze the data

Once the data has been collected, the next step is to analyze the data. This involves organizing, summarizing, and interpreting the data to identify patterns, relationships, and trends. The research problem or objective should guide the data analysis process and be conducted using appropriate statistical methods and software.

6. Interpret the results

After analyzing the data, the next step is to interpret the results. This involves drawing conclusions from the data analysis and using the results to address the research problem or objective. It is essential to analyze the results objectively and to avoid making assumptions or drawing conclusions that are not supported by the data.

7. Report the findings

Try identifying common themes to create a story and action items.To make the process easier, use your favorite presentation software to create a report, as it will make it easy to add quotes, diagrams, or call clips.

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

• Background: What are your goals, and why did you conduct this study?
• Participants: Who you talked to? A table works well to break groups down by persona and customer/prospect.
• Executive Summary: What were the most exciting things you learned? What do you plan to do about it?
• Key Findings: Identify the key findings using data visualizations and emphasize key points.
• Recommendations + Action Plan: Your analysis will uncover actionable insights to fuel strategies and campaigns you can run to get your brand in front of buyers earlier and more effectively. Provide your list of priorities, action items , a timeline, and its impact on your business.

8. Take action based on the findings

The final step in conducting market research is to take action based on the findings. This involves using the results to make informed decisions about the marketing strategy, product development, or other business decisions. It is important to use the findings to drive action and to monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of the action taken continuously.

How to Prepare for Market Research Projects

Identify a persona group to engage, prepare research questions for your market research participants, list your primary competitors.

The idea is to use your persona as a reference point for understanding and reaching out to your industry's audience members. Your business might cater to more than one persona, and that's completely acceptable! However, you must be mindful of each persona while strategizing and planning your content and campaigns. 

How to Identify the Right People to Engage for Market Research

When selecting a group on which to conduct market research , it is essential to consider individuals with the same characteristics as your target audience. 

If you need to research multiple target audiences, recruit separate groups for each one. Select people who have recently interacted with you by looking through social media for post interactions or seeing if they’ve made recent purchases from you.

If you are planning to conduct an evaluation, it is recommended that you focus on people who have completed it within the last six months. However, if you have a longer sales cycle or a specific market, you can extend the period up to a year. It is crucial to ask detailed questions during the evaluation, so the participants' experience must be fresh.

Gather a mix of participants

If you want to expand your customer base, you’re going to want to get viewpoints of your product or service from every angle. Consider getting this mix by recruiting individuals who have already purchased your product, those who have bought a competitor's product, and those who haven't purchased anything. While targeting your existing customers may be the easiest option, gathering information from non-customers can help you gain a more balanced market perspective .

We recommend taking the following steps to select a mix of participants:

• Create a list of customers who made a recent purchase . This is usually the most accessible group to recruit. If you have a CRM system with list segmentation capabilities, run a report of deals that closed within the past six months and filter it for the characteristics you're looking for. Otherwise, work with your sales team to get them a list of appropriate accounts.
• Create a list of customers who were in an active evaluation but didn't make a purchase. You should get a mix of buyers who either purchased from a competitor or decided not to purchase. Again, you can obtain this list from your CRM or your Sales team's system to track deals.
• Use social media to call for participants. Try reaching out to people who follow you on social media but decided not to buy from you. Some may be willing to talk to you and explain why they did not purchase your product.
• Leverage your network . Spread the word that you're conducting a study to your coworkers, former colleagues, and LinkedIn connections. Even if your direct connections don't qualify, some will likely have a coworker, friend, or family member who does.
• Choose an incentive to motivate participants to spend time on your study. If you're on a tight budget , you can reward participants for free by giving them exclusive access to content. 

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• 5 Marketing Predictions for the Looming Recession
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• Marketing Operations Framework - The Five Ps
• Biggest Marketing Challenges Leaders Face
• Digital Marketing Benchmarks & KPIs - How To Compare Your Performance

Preparation is key when conducting research in hopes of gaining productive and informative conversations. This involves creating a discussion guide, whether it is for a focus group, an online survey, or a phone interview. The guide should help you cover all the relevant topics and manage your time efficiently.

The discussion guide should be in an outline format, with an allocated time and open-ended questions for each section. All the questions must be open-ended, as asking closed questions may lead the interviewee to respond with a simple "yes" or "no" answer. You may need more detailed answers to make informed decisions, so be sure to ask follow-up questions as necessary.  Also leave out any leading questions as they may unintentionally influence the interviewee's response, skewing your research results.

It's essential to identify your competitors accurately and you may even have some hidden in plain sight.  There are some instances where your company's business division might compete with your main product or service, even though that company's brand might have a different focus. Take a look at Apple:  the company is known primarily for its laptops and mobile devices, but Apple Music competes with Spotify over its music streaming service.

From a content perspective, you might compete with a blog, YouTube channel, or similar publication for inbound website visitors — even though their products don't overlap with yours. An example of this is when a toothpaste company might compete with publications like Health.com or Prevention on specific blog topics related to health and hygiene, even though the magazines don't sell oral care products.

Here are a few ways to build your competitor list:

• Check your industry quadrant on G2 Crowd: This is a significant first step for secondary market research in some industries. G2 Crowd aggregates user ratings and social data to create "quadrants" that show companies as contenders, leaders, niche players, or high performers in their respective industries. G2 Crowd specializes in digital content, IT services, HR, e-commerce, and related business services.
• Download a market report: Companies like Forrester and Gartner offer free and gated market forecasts yearly on the vendors leading their industry. On Forrester's website, for example, you can select "Latest Research" from the navigation bar and browse Forrester's latest material using a variety of criteria to narrow your search. These reports are good assets to save on your computer.
• Use social media : Social networks can be excellent company directories if you use the search bar correctly. On LinkedIn, for example, select the search bar and enter the name of the industry you're pursuing. Then, under "More," select "Companies" to narrow your results to the businesses that include this or a similar industry term on their LinkedIn profile.

Identifying Content Competitors

Search engines can be beneficial when it comes to secondary market research . To identify the online publications competing with your business, start with the overarching industry term you identified earlier, and then come up with more specific industry terms that are related to your company . For example, if you run a catering business, you might consider yourself a "food service" company, as well as a vendor in "event catering," "cake catering," "baked goods," and so on.

Once you have this list, follow these steps:

• Google it: Running a search on Google for the industry terms that describe your company can be very beneficial. You may come across a mix of product developers, blogs, magazines, and other websites.
• Compare your search results against your buyer persona: Remember the persona you created during the primary research stage? You can use it to evaluate whether a publication you found through Google could steal website traffic from you. If the website's content aligns with what your buyer persona would want to see, it is a potential competitor and should be added to your list of competitors.

After a series of similar Google searches for the industry terms you identify with, look for repetition in the website domains that have come up.

When searching, examine the first two or three pages of results. These websites are considered reputable sources of content in your industry and should be monitored closely as you create your collection of videos, reports, web pages, and blog posts.

Market Research Examples

Mcdonald's focus on customer feedback and profiling.

McDonald's invests in developing a detailed consumer profile to attract and retain customers, including parents of young children who appreciate the family-friendly atmosphere and menus. The brand seeks feedback from customers through surveys and questionnaires in stores, social media, and its mobile app. It also monitors customer feedback on digital channels.

Nike's Extensive Research and Collaboration for Running Shoes Development

Nike invests heavily in creating running shoes that cater to the needs of its customers, which it determines through extensive market research and customer surveys. The brand goes to great lengths to understand its customers' preferences, such as the type of running surface, the distance they run, and their running style, to develop shoes that meet their specific needs.

In addition to customer surveys, Nike also collaborates with athletes to develop shoes that cater to their specific requirements. This research helps Nike improve its existing running shoe models and innovate new ones, ensuring that the brand stays ahead of the competition.

Disney employs focus groups that specifically cater to children to test out their new characters and ideas.

The Walt Disney Company invests millions of dollars in creating captivating stories tested for their effectiveness with children, the intended audience. Disney executives hold focus groups with preschoolers and kindergartners several times a year to gather their opinions and feedback on TV episodes, Disney characters, and more. 

This market research strategy is effective because children are the ultimate audience that Disney aims to please. The collected feedback helps the company improve existing content to meet the preferences of its audience and ensure continued success as a multi-billion dollar enterprise.

KFC tested its meatless product in specific markets before launching it nationwide.

In 2019, KFC began developing and testing a meatless version of its famous chicken. However, instead of immediately launching the product nationwide, they decided to test it in select stores in the Atlanta, Georgia area. 

This is an innovative and practical approach to market research, as it allows the company to determine the product's sales performance on a smaller scale before committing too many resources to it. If the meatless chicken fails to gain popularity in Georgia, KFC can make the necessary changes to the product before introducing it to the broader market.

Yamaha conducted a survey to determine whether to use knobs or sliding faders on the Montage keyboard.

Yamaha is a Japanese corporation that produces various products, from motorcycles to golf cars to musical instruments. When it began developing its new Montage keyboard, the team was unsure whether to use knobs or sliding faders on the product. 

To address this dilemma, Yamaha used Qualtrics to send a survey to their customers. Within just a few hours , they received 400 responses. By using survey feedback, Yamaha ensured that it was designing a product that would perfectly meet the preferences of its audiences.

The Body Shop used social listening to determine how to reposition brand campaigns based on customer feedback.

The Body Shop is a well-known brand that offers ethically sourced and natural products. They take pride in their core value of sustainability. The Body Shop team tracked conversations to understand the sustainability subtopics that were most important to their audiences. 

They found that their customers cared a lot about refills. Based on this information, the Body Shop team confidently relaunched their Refill Program across 400 stores globally in 2021, with plans to add another 400 in 2022. Market research confirmed that their refill concept was on the right track and also highlighted the need for increased efforts to demonstrate how much the Body Shop cares about its customers' values .

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The takeaway.

Fratzke Consulting offers a comprehensive suite of market research services to help brands gain valuable insights into their target market, competitors, and industry trends. Our expert team utilizes various primary and secondary research methods to gather accurate and unbiased data, including surveys, competitive research, and industry reports. With Fratzke Consulting, you'll have the tools to succeed in today's rapidly evolving business landscape.

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What Is Market Research?

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

The Bottom Line

• Marketing Essentials

How to Do Market Research, Types, and Example

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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.

Britannica Money. “ Market Research .”

U.S. Small Business Administration. “ Market Research and Competitive Analysis .”

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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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How To Do Market Research For New Product Development

Market research for new product development can be overwhelming.

It’s easy to get lost in a mountain of market reports with thousands of data points…. yet get no clear insights on which product is best for your brand.

Instead of aimlessly searching for new product ideas and sifting through endless market reports, this post will walk you through a simple step-by-step process that outlines:

• How to quickly find relevant new product ideas.
• Specific data and metrics you need to analyze each product opportunity (and how to find these metrics).
• How to use market research data to assess a product opportunity.

What Is Market Research For New Product Development?

Market research for new product development is the process of evaluating the demand, growth, and gaps in a market for a particular product (typically a physical product sold in a retail setting or direct to consumer).

These insights help you understand which products your target market wants, which ones are most profitable, and the key characteristics customers like and dislike about competitors' products.

With this data, you can more accurately predict which product will perform best for your business.

Types Of Market Research For New Product Development

There are four types of market research typically used for researching and developing products: 

• Qualitative research
• Quantitative research
• Primary research
• Secondary research

Quantitative Research

Examples of quantitative data you might collect during the product market research process include:

• Market size and growth rates
• Pricing data
• Sales forecasts
• Website traffic data
• Market share of the top competitors

Quantitative data is helpful for benchmarking and is often the main type of research used to quickly gauge the potential of market opportunities.

Quantitative data can be fact-checked, but accuracy still varies depending on factors like sample size and data collection methods.

Qualitative Research

Qualitative research is data based on subjective opinions.

An example of qualitative data is customer feedback.

This data is helpful for product market research, as you can better understand customer pain points and what they like and dislike about what's already out there.

Some examples of qualitative research methods include:

• Interviews with potential customers
• Customer reviews
• Questionnaires and surveys
• Discussion analysis (monitoring conversations on social media, in forums, etc.)
• Feedback from focus groups

Primary Research

Primary research is data collected by you or your company.

Here are some examples of primary research:

• Results from a survey you conducted
• A report from sales data your team analyzed
• Customer interviews conducted by your team

The advantage of primary market research is that it's proprietary data your company owns. So your competitors won't have access to it. You can also tailor the data to answer your specific questions about the market.

The downside of primary research is that it’s expensive and time-consuming. You'll have to conduct the research, clean the data, and analyze it yourself.

You can hire a market research firm to help, but this will make it even more costly.

Secondary Research

Secondary research is data collected and published by other third-party sources, like an industry publication or government agency.

Here are some examples of secondary research:

• Free and paid market reports published by a source like Grand View Research or MarketResearch.com .
• Statistics published by a source like The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics or the U.S. Energy Information Administration .
• Data in the Census Business Builder .

Secondary research is usually cheaper than primary research, so it's great for the early stages of product market research when you're narrowing down your list of product ideas.

For example, if you're interested in the padel market, search "padel market forecast" to find free industry reports. You can look at statistics like compounding annual growth rate and market size to quickly gauge if the padel market is worth exploring in more detail.

The drawback of secondary research is that the data quality may vary as you can't control data quality.

So research how each provider collects and cleans the data they publish.

Step By Step Process To Conduct Market Research For Product Development

​​In this step-by-step market research process for new product development, you'll learn how to find, validate, and develop a great product.

Step 1: Research And Identify Trending Products

Many people browse social media and Amazon to find trending product ideas.

But emerging products, by definition, aren't easy to find.

You might spend hours browsing these platforms to find a few promising product ideas. And even the most diligent product researchers might still overlook the best emerging product ideas.

One solution to find great product ideas faster is to use a product research tool.

However, each tool contains different product ideas.

So the tool you choose significantly impacts the product ideas you find.

For example, many product research tools only show products that have grown significantly in the past few weeks. These are often fads, and demand may die out when you’re ready to launch your product.

Other product research tools show you products that are currently trending. Yet this isn't helpful if you want to launch a product before demand peaks.

Or, the product research tool might simply overlook the best product ideas. This is common with product research tools relying on human analysts to find product ideas, as even the best analysts may overlook a great product idea.

To solve these problems, we built our own product research tool, Exploding Topics.

It has a unique trend identification and qualification method that uses AI and ML to scan millions of data points across sources like YouTube, Amazon, Spotify, Google Search, and Reddit. This ensures it consistently spots emerging product ideas. Then, we use Google Search volume data to ensure the topic has a steady compounding growth trajectory.

This process allows Exploding Topics to consistently identify emerging products with long-term growth potential.

It's also easy to use.

When you open the Trending Products dashboard, you'll see a list of trending products. You can filter the database by category (fitness, fashion, beauty, gaming, pets, etc.), BSR, monthly sales, price, revenue, and reviews.

The graph next to the product information also represents the keyword's Google Search volume trend so that you can gauge its growth trajectory:

When you see a product that interests you, click on it for more details, like a forecast of its growth trend for the coming year.

Further down the product page is a list of the Top Sellers for that product on Amazon.

You’ll also see related trending products and topics. You can also click on any of those products for more detailed information.

To track a product, click "Track Topic" and add it to a Project.

Projects are folders that live inside the Trend Tracking dashboard, and Exploding Topics updates each topic's growth trend in real time.

This makes it easy to gauge product growth at a glance so that you never have to worry about managing a product idea spreadsheet.

You can try Exploding Topics Pro for $1 to start researching product ideas.

Step 2: Analyze The Market For Each Product Idea

Your product is much more likely to succeed if it’s part of a growing market.

An easy way to quickly analyze a market’s general growth trajectory is to look at a market forecast.

Sources like Grand View Research , Globe Newswire , and Market.us usually offer free market reports with forecast data.

To find these reports, Google the product keyword and "market report:"

Next, identify the brands with the largest market share and analyze their growth trajectory.

If the market leaders are growing rapidly, the market is probably also expanding.

There are two ways to easily gauge a brand's growth.

1. Check the brand’s Google Search volume trend .

You can find a brand's Google Search volume trend by typing the brand name into Google Trends or the Trends Search feature in Exploding Topics.

You can also click "Track Topic" and add it to a Project to monitor growth.

2. Employee headcount

A company is probably growing if it has steadily increased employee headcount over the past few years.

You can find employee headcount data by typing the brand name into LinkedIn and scrolling down to the bottom of the company page:

Funding data is also a great indicator of a market's growth trajectory.

Investors spend a lot of time and resources assessing market growth, so a lot of funding activity is a good sign the market is growing.

Paid tools like CB Insights and Pitchbook offer detailed funding data for most industries. You can also search "funding" and the industry name to find press releases, funding reports, and other relevant investment news.

Step 3: Conduct Customer Research

Once you find a trending product in a growing market, the next step is figuring out how to create the best product possible.

First, identify what customers like and dislike about existing products. Then, create a product that incorporates the elements customers like about existing products and solves the pain points they experience.

The easiest way to conduct customer research is to analyze customer reviews.

Amazon is the best resource to find verified reviews. As you're reading through the reviews, make notes on:

• Target Audience Demographics : Who is buying the product? (gender, age, location, etc.).
• Use Case : What problem did they purchase the product to solve?
• Praise : What do they like about the product?
• Pain Points : What do they like about the product?

For example, from the review below, you can tell that customers value soft material, accurate color descriptions, and expensive aesthetics. You can also see that customers want a more durable product.

Reading through reviews can help you better understand your target customers, but most people don't have time to read thousands of customer reviews.

So you can also copy and paste customer reviews into ChatGPT and ask it to extract insights on audience demographics, product use cases, likes, and dislikes.

Here's a prompt you can use to analyze the reviews. (In this screenshot, all of the reviews are pasted in quotes following the prompt):

Here’s a snippet of the response it generated:

You can also find Reddit or Facebook groups of your target audience.

For example, if you're considering selling infant vitamins, you could join these Facebook groups for moms:

After joining the group, you can ask members about the product you're researching. Here are some specific questions you can ask:

• Why did they purchase the product?
• How did they select the brand they purchased from?
• What do they like/dislike about the product?

You can also ask respondents if they would consider getting on a quick call. One-on-one interviews let you ask more follow-up questions to better understand the audience.

Talking to prospects is also a great way to build up some demand for your product and even recruit a group of beta testers.

If you already have an audience, ask them about your new product idea.

For example, this creator asked her TikTok followers what they thought of her sleepwear product idea.

Then, she documented the product development process and gathered feedback from her followers to craft a product they want.

For example, after designing a few concepts with the manufacturer, she created another video of the initial product designs and asked her audience for feedback.

Her product launch went on to be a major success and she sold out in a matter of hours.

Step 4: Pre-Sell Your Product And Gather Initial Feedback

The best way to validate market demand for your product concept is to see if people will buy it.

So design a few product samples and then run a pre-order sale.

If nobody buys the product, you'll avoid wasting thousands of dollars developing tens or hundreds of products that nobody wants.

And if your pre-order sale is successful, you can use that revenue to fund product development.

For example, Nebia ran a pre-order sale for its bidets to validate the product concept.

There are a few different ways you can generate pre-orders.

If you already have an audience, you can create a social media post or email your list and announce the pre-order sale.

This post is a great example of a pre-order sale video. The influencer explains how the product works, its benefits, and how it solves common pain points.

If you don't have an audience, you can work with an influencer to create a pre-order video for you.

You can also run Facebook or Instagram ads to a landing page to generate pre-orders. Facebook has a step-by-step guide explaining how to set up and run ads for pre-order sales.

Another option is to run a pre-order sale on Kickstarter.

Nebia is a great example of an ecommerce brand that validated its product idea on Kickstarter.

The Kickstarter community will also give you initial feedback on the product before you launch it to the public. Kickstarter users also know they're beta testers, so they tend to be more forgiving if the initial product concept isn't perfect.

You can also ask some Kickstarter buyers to record video reviews of the product for your public product launch.

Step 5: Launch Your New Product And Gather Feedback

After launching your product, gather feedback from your audience to continue iterating on the original product.

If you have a social media following, you can ask your audience what they like and dislike about the product.

You can also email your list offering a discount or coupon to complete a product survey.

Survey tools like Pollfish and SurveyMonkey make it easy to create and send a product survey.

In the survey, ask specific questions about the product. For example, if you’re selling athletic clothing, you could ask them to rate the product fit, material quality, durability, style, color, and other specific factors.

If you leave the questions too open ended, people will give you generic feedback that might not be very helpful for improving the product.

Start The New Product Market Research Process Today

A solid product market research process takes the guesswork out of product launches by giving you the data you need to identify and design the best product for your audience.

It will also give you more confidence on launch day, as you'll have solid evidence of strong demand for your product.

To get started with the first step of the product market research process, use Exploding Topics to browse thousands of emerging trending products today.

Find Thousands of Trending Topics With Our Platform

Market research for new product development in 6 steps

Market research for new product development will help you understand your users' needs, as well as potential risks and market opportunities.

What is market research in new product development?

Why do market research for new product development, the importance of market research in product development, choose the correct type of market research, how to conduct market research for a new product , examples of market research for new products, what product development idea have you been dallying off.

Picture this: you’ve got a great idea for a new product, or for improving your current product or service. At least, you think it’s great. When you explain it to others, they raise their eyebrows.

While you are incredibly enthusiastic about the product, they have critical questions about consumer trends , the market , and those latest developments in the world. Ouch.

‘My gut told me to go for’ won’t convince a lot of investors to invest in your idea. Plus, your designers, marketers and engineers will work in a much more confident way if they know that what they’re working on has a chance to succeed. The only way to give them that confidence, is through market research. And one of the most valuable types of research is that which you’ve carried out among your target consumers. This research provides you with proprietary data (also known as zero-party data ).

In this article, we’ll explore why consumer research is so important when you’re developing a new product or want to change something you’re currently already selling. We’ll take you through five crucial steps and give you some valuable tips along the way.

Market research for new product development can focus on different areas. You can research market viability, the demand for the product you have in mind, the features your target group is looking for, or the best way to position, price, communicate and market your product to your target audience. You take into account your competitors, market developments, and important trends. And whether you’re running market research for a startup or a massive brand, it’s an essential step to make sure your new products hit the mark. This can be a difficult task, leading many to consult US market research companies .

Market research for new product development is all about identifying opportunities and finding out if it’s worth bringing your product idea to life. And if so, how to do that in the best way.

It’s about more than what the competition is doing, and if your target audience would be willing to spend money on you. You can also dive into market trends to identify the best ways to market your product.

You can use market research to fine-tune your product development and the relevant aspects around it. Based on how your audience is developing, what price and type of message would grab their attention? What kind of marketing tactics are likely to work, and what channels dominate your market?

Consumer research is about understanding all the aspects of your market. You can approach it as a big puzzle, and once you have all the pieces in place, you can proudly present a solid plan or research to your investors and team, to help them understand why your product development idea is worth working on.

To get the best consumer insights, send a survey with our concept testing template . And for a sector-specific lowdown, find out all about the food product development process .

Market research for your new product development strategy helps you minimise risks and prepares you for a successful product launch. You get to know your market and audience in a way that helps you create not just the perfect product concept, but also the right messaging and marketing around it—something that will actually resonate with your audience.

Market research is used to base your decisions on facts, not just ideas and hunches – however good you might be at guessing games. Before spending time and money on a product idea, you get a good idea of how likely it is to be a success. This will also help you plan how much time and money you’ll actually need.

Investors and stakeholders will also want to see market research if you want to launch a new idea: they want some kind of security that the product will actually sell. Even though market research isn’t a crystal ball and doesn’t exactly predict the future, when it’s done right it can definitely give you a clear picture of how your product concept will be welcomed into the market.

Market research is not only important to verify if your completely new product idea is worth the work. You can also use it to optimise existing products, by keeping a close eye on how competitors are changing their products. You might even read online reviews on products similar to yours and see that customers are asking for specific features. This is also market research.

This also goes for adding new products to a line to supplement your current assortment, or if you want to start an entirely new adventure with your breakthrough product idea.

Market research for product development, whether new or existing, is all about listening to what is happening in the market. Step outside of your organisation and ask the people who pay for your products how you would make them even happier, or find out what trends you can jump onto now, so you can become a frontrunner in the future.

Product development shouldn’t just be done in-house, with your designers and developers closely looking at the product. It’s easy to get tunnel vision and build a product that’s more focused on what you can and want to deliver, and less on what the customer wants.

Market research done right forces you to step out of that bubble and not just look at how you can make the product shinier, faster and stronger, but how you can give it the right place in the market . Because product development is also developing a marketing and sales strategy . It’s having a customer journey and experience ready to put the product in and turn your customers into fans. All you need to do, is go talk to them!

Moreover, market research helps you determine what the marketing mix should look like, since developing a new product is never just about a product.

Turn customers into fans with market research tools

Compare the top market research tools of 2022, including details on their features and the best ways to use each tool.

Let’s get back to basics: what types of market research are there? We often lose ourselves in the wide variety of tools out there that give you data – but what kind of data is available, and how relevant is it to you?

It’s important to understand where data is coming from and how complete it is. How can you supplement it with additional research to get the full picture? Let’s look at the types of research you can – and should! – combine.

Quantitative market research

Don’t let the saying ‘quality over quantity’ fool you for this one—if you’re trying to make money, quantity certainly does matter. Quantitative research focuses on things you can measure .

How many people are interested in your type of product? What are they willing to spend, on average? Has that number been growing, been steady or are they willing to pay less and less? And if the latter is the case, is the group growing in size at least?

You can also gather information on how happy people are about a product or service. What’s lacking in this type of information is the motives behind it. For that, you need qualitative market research .

Qualitative market research

Qualitative research gives context to the numbers . Yes, people are increasingly interested in product X – but why is that? What were they looking at before, and what made them make the switch? Was it a change in price, a recommendation from a friend, something they saw in the news?

Now, it’s nearly impossible to gather qualitative data for all the quantitative data you measure. That’s why it’s incredibly important that you get that qualitative data from a hyper-relevant part of your target group. Don’t send out surveys to gather quantitative data from a specific part of your target group, and then ask another part to explain those numbers. That wouldn’t be helpful at all.

Qualitative data often comes from focus groups . You could find a focus group in the people that you survey, or by interviewing existing customers that fit the profile you’re studying. This will help you get a real-life picture of consumer needs and consumer problems. The best person to ask is the one you’re trying to fit into a buyer’s persona.

How is qualitative market research important for your product development process? It’ll help you understand the needs of your target market better. You conduct research that will steer your product idea generation in the right direction, gathered by real consumer insights and consumer feedback.

Of course, you can’t come to your market consumer in the initial stages of the process and ask them to design the product for you. You’ll gather the base information you have through quantitative methods and online new product development surveys , so you can ask focused concept testing questions to your focus group.

Primary market research

Primary market research is collecting raw data directly from your target customers or market by doing your own research. It simply means you only use data you yourself have collected,  from things like surveys and focus groups – no trend reports from third parties.

This is important for product development research , because you can’t base your decisions and product development process on someone else’s findings for different product and target group entirely.

Anything you directly collect from your market, whether it’s through focus groups, surveys, interviews or product research is primary data.

Inform your product development with our JTBD template

Get up and running with your next product development project and learn what customers really need with our jobs-to-be-done (JTBD) template.

Secondary market research

Secondary research can be done using existing data . The fact that it’s not brand-new information, doesn’t mean that it doesn’t hold valuable insights. You just need to collect the right information and connect that to information that’s relevant for your case specifically.

Secondary research can be done to identify business risks, for instance by looking at market developments. Competitor research is also a valuable form of secondary research. Through competitor research you’ll get a real understanding of the other options your potential customers have – a good starting point for any new product development strategy.

What parts of market research can you not skip over when your goal is using it for product development research? We’ve divided it up into five bite-sized steps that will give you a solid framework to work within.

Step 1. Exploratory research

Basically, this is researching what you specifically want to research. It’s completely normal not to immediately know what your research goal is, or how you’ll get there. That’s where exploratory research comes in.

You start by gathering secondary data on all kinds of aspects. Find things that stand out, developments that you hadn’t thought about and things you want to know more about.

With that information, you can start defining what’s most relevant for you in this stage. Where are your knowledge gaps, and how do you make sure you get the relevant data to make wise business decisions?

This is not necessarily about gathering as much data as you can – you want to keep it manageable and relevant. Find out what questions you can’t answer straight away, and focus your exploratory research on that.

Step 3. Define research objectives

After your exploratory research, you can start pinpointing what you really need to know to move forward in your product development process.

Will you be focussing on customer needs, or how to get a competitive advantage? Will the market analysis focus on product demand and pricing, or is there still a lot of ground to cover in the physical product and usage habits?

It’s important to have a clear idea of what you’ll be researching. Ask yourself: what actionable insights do I need to win in this market segment? Make your objectives as concrete as you can, so your answers will be focused and you can confidently use them to base your next step on.

Step 4. Define the scope of the research

Of course, market research is a way to minimise risk. But there’s always a risk if you’re venturing out with a new product. You can never get a 100 percent guarantee of what will happen, until you launch your product.

That’s why it’s important to define a scope around your objectives. It can also help you to decide where you can use secondary data, and where you definitely need primary data.

Step 5. Decide on market research tools or partners

Are you going to focus on the product or business as usual while a research agency does the heavy lifting? Or do you want to keep everything in-house? In that case, you’re going to be in charge of deciding what market research tools you use. And the possibilities are nearly endless…

There’s a tool for every part of research, but it’s important that you use tools that are easy to work with, and collect all the data you want, so you don’t need to glue it all together from different tools. Especially if you’re going to talk directly to your consumers, you want to use a tool that’s as easy and pleasant to use for them as it is for you.

Of course, we have some suggestions. Check out our article on the 6 best—tried and tested—market research tools out there. And if you’re leaning towards agencies in the UK, here’s our rundown of the top market research agencies in London . And here are the top market research companies in the US .

Or, if you’d prefer to focus on sending out insightful customer insights surveys, see our list of the top 11 Qualtrics alternatives .

Step 6. Concept testing

As interesting as the market itself may be, this specific research is still about your product development idea. Is the idea you have in mind good enough to enter the market, or do you need input to fine-tune it?

That’s where concept testing comes in. With concept testing, you create an MVP that you can show to your focus groups. You find out what they think about it. What features do they miss and love? What would they pay for this? How easy is it to use?

But, like we said, you’re not just developing a product. You are also developing the marketing and communication around it, and that also needs to be tested thoroughly. That’s why you can also target your market research at your marketing for the new or improved product, by creating mock-ups and testing messaging with your focus group. 

How are brands you love using Attest to do market research around product development? Let’s tale a look at US farming cooperative,  Organic Valley . They save time and money by using quantitive analysis for new product development.

‘For a lot of our day-to-day work we had been using other tools that weren’t necessarily user-friendly, easy to use or intuitive. We were looking for a tool with a fairly rapid turnaround and I wanted my team to be able to use it themselves, I didn’t want to have to go out and hire somebody else,’ says Tripp Hughes, Organic Valley’s Senior Director of Consumer Strategy. He saw a need for a tool that his team could use, without having to go through excessive training.

After seeing Attest demoed at a conference, Hughes brought in some of his peers to take a look. They now use it for market analysis, concept ideation and testing, creative testing, and messaging testing.

Hughes estimates that being able to make quick initial learnings through Attest saves Organic Valley between 10 to 20 times what it would cost to make the discoveries later down the line.

‘The impact is coming in reduced time and improved next-round thinking that we’re taking into focus groups where we’ve got a high-cost factor. If we don’t go in with the right materials and the right framework, we’re wasting money. And so Attest has helped us do a lot of the front-end work that then we’re able to go and build on.’

Read more about how Organic Valley is developing awesome products with insights from Attest in this case study.

We get it – taking risks is scary. But developing new products is exciting, and could lift your business to the next level. And while doing product development research, you could find a lot more inspiration about other improvements you can make in your business.

If you’re looking for a tool that brings you closer to your target audience and helps you find hyper relevant results, try Attest.

Ask the right questions for NPD

Learn which product development survey questions you should ask to discover what customers value most, from pricing to features.

Customer Research Lead 

Nick joined Attest in 2021, with more than 10 years' experience in market research and consumer insights on both agency and brand sides. As part of the Customer Research Team team, Nick takes a hands-on role supporting customers uncover insights and opportunities for growth.

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How to Do Market Research

With effective market research, you can determine the need for your service, a product's likelihood to sell, target-market demographics, and desirable store locations. there are numerous ways to uncover this information"”from online research to focus groups to counting customers. to help you meet your target market's needs, we've put together a collection of our best market-research articles and resources..

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Product Management

How to do Product Research [Step-by-Step Guide]

Associate Product Marketer at Zeda.io.

Mahima Arora

Created on:

May 15, 2024

Updated on:

14 mins read

Transform Insights into Impact

Build Products That Drive Revenue and Delight Customers!

An effective and robust product research process increases the chances of product success. 

Seth W. Godin, an American author, once said – ‘Don’t find customers for your products, find products for your customers.’

The quote subtly hints at the necessity of product research. By performing product research beforehand, product managers can create the ideal product for customers. 

Did you know that 90% of new product research focuses on ‘modifications’ and ‘additions’ rather than new concepts? 

But even improving or adding new features to an existing product requires a proper product research process.   

Product research enables managers to understand the current and future needs of the users. Thus, based on users’ pain points and what they are looking for, product managers can innovate products of a higher value. 

Furthermore, organizations with a strong product research process understand the market better. They stay one step ahead of the competition and survive better in the long run. 

Now that you know how important product research is, you must dive into how to do product research right away!

So, let’s begin!

10 Steps to Product Research

There’s no single product research process that fits all the product development teams. But there are certain key steps in the process that product managers must know about. 

Here are the 10 essential steps to perform a successful product research process. Follow these steps to derive valuable product insights that will guide your product development decisions.  

1. Define your research goals

Why are you performing the research?

Once product managers find an answer to the why, they can set the goals of the research. 

Set the high-level goals first. You can set these goals considering the product strategy and vision, ensuring their alignment with business objectives. 

Next, create SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Reliable, and Time-bound) goals for the product development team to focus on during each research stage. This may include;

• Performing market research for product adoption before its release
• Finding out the key areas or features of the product to be improved after the launch
• Assessing the product performance through the product’s lifecycle.

Setting clear, measurable, and time-bound goals for the product research process guides the product team’s actions. It helps them to understand what they need to do. Also, the goals help product managers to measure outcomes and make improvements where necessary.  

2. Understand your customer's needs and pain points

An effective product research process is always customer-centric. So, start engaging in user discovery. 

Understand user pain points. Start your user research even before planning the product features. Interact with your existing and potential users to identify their needs and wants. 

Performing open-ended user research will help product managers to; 

• Measure the market demand, 
• Get inspiration for the new product
• Determine the product-market fit
• Product positioning against competitors, and 
• Increase customer satisfaction. 

Since user research is a vital part of the product research process, you can check out the best product discovery questions list . 

After the user research, when product teams develop prototypes, they can start trials and ask for user feedback. Next, the insights from feedback can be used to improve the product. 

3. Perform competitor and comparative analysis

The next step in the product research process is to know the competition. 

• Start with competitive analysis . It involves reviewing the products that are directly similar to yours. For example, if a company sells smartphones, it is directly competing with other companies selling smartphones (like Samsung and Xiaomi). 
• Next, perform a comparative analysis . It involves evaluating the alternative options for a product. For instance, an automobile manufacturer can compare the safety features of multiple car models to measure the sales of each and identify the features that require improvement. 

Performing the analyses will provide insights that product teams can use to make the product better. 

4. Study the market

Besides performing competitive and comparative analyses, product managers must run thorough market research to map the available opportunities.

Here are a few ways to study the market thoroughly;

• Use the historical market records, and research reports by academic institutions, government agencies, and trade associations. 
• Observe and analyze the competitors’ strategies like advertising, pricing, and distribution of products. 
• Read up on blogs, magazines, social media posts, and other specific content related to your space.
• Run keyword research to understand what your users are looking for. This can help you generate product ideas too. 

Once product managers validate a viable market for the product and determine the market saturation, the development teams can focus on the product's USP (Unique Selling Points). 

5. Conduct research using qualitative and quantitative methods

Further, product managers can use both qualitative and quantitative methods of market research. 

Qualitative methods – The qualitative methods of market research aren’t statistically significant. These methods help product teams to understand the potential customers at a deeper level. Individual interviews, focus groups, observations or follow-me-homes, and interviews with professionals or field experts are a few qualitative methods you can utilize for market research.

Quantitative methods – Quantitative methods include conducting surveys, polls, or sending out questionnaires. Through quantitative methods, product managers study a large enough pool of respondents in their target market to have reasonable confidence in the collected data. For organizations with a limited budget, you can rely on the survey reports of other organizations in the relevant field.

6. Know the industry trends

Stay on top of the industry trends by updating your knowledge regularly. Observe the tech trends that may impact users’ expectations of your product or its viability in the long run. 

Engage with the tech cultures – read blogs, news, and magazines, listen to tech podcasts, follow the latest tech updates on social media platforms, forums, etc. Product managers can also use tools like Google Trends, Trend Hunter, etc. 

The IT teams in organizations also serve as a key source of tech information. Product managers can interact and take regular updates from them. 

The industry trend updates can also help product managers to research future projections, disruptive technologies, and the chances of product category obsolescence. Thus, with these insights, the product teams can create products that are likely to be in demand in the future. 

7. Validate product ideas

After thorough research, product teams can test ideas and solutions.

Based on the extensive research data, you can identify the possible products, their key features, or improvisations that can meet the user's needs. Further, you can perform concept testing to examine user experiences with concrete product ideas.

To start testing, identify the key users to test. Get participants for interviews, focus groups, or implement surveys, feedback tools, etc., to test the ideas with the existing users. 

Product managers can also ask questions and assess user responses. Or, they may simply explain to the users the product concept using wireframes and mock-ups.

8. Build your product and test the MVP

A crucial step in the product research process and the most conclusive market research that product managers can perform to ensure product success. It is only after a lot of effort that product teams get to the point of testing MVP (Minimal Viable Product).

Testing MVP is all about creating the MVP and trying to sell the product or the product idea to the target audience. Several types of product testing, like card sorting, tree testing, etc., tell whether or not users can navigate your product easily, to find the different functionalities they are looking for. 

Further, product managers can run a regression analysis, quality assurance, and performance testing to check the MVP functionalities. Running these tests helps the team to identify the areas where changes are needed.  

Multivariate tests and A/B tests are helpful when the user base is split into different groups and each group has different products or product features. These tests help product managers to choose the perfect iteration.

9. Derive findings and insights from the market research data 

The market research data is of no use unless you convert them into findings and insights. 

Products managers and the product team must analyze the data to find out conclusive outcomes that can support their product decisions. 

The team can then start building the final product or improvise the MVP based on the research insights. 

10. Use the analysis to guide your product strategy

The final step in the product research process is to convert the research insights into action. Cut through the noise and gather valuable customer-centric insights .

Then, you can use the research to create a strong product roadmap and strategy to guide the entire product development process. When you perform new research, ensure to compare the strategy and roadmap to keep them updated. 

Further, the research should also be used to make regular decisions, drive product backlog management , and create the basis for your product storytelling. 

7 Tips to Conduct an Effective Product Research

A strategic approach to performing the product research process is essential. But alongside the planned strategy, product managers must consider a few tips or best practices to conduct the product research successfully. 

1. Research highly-demanded products

At the initial stage, when you do not have a product concept, get inspired by the products high in demand. 

Check out trending hashtags, reviews, comments on review sites, and bestsellers list to find out the most popular products in your space. 

Here, the goal is not to imitate the product in demand. It is to keep an open mind, ascertain the demand level, and evaluate if the product idea is awesome or not. The product manager’s goal is to perform an honest evaluation and get back to brainstorming with the collected inspirations.

2. Read about similar products

When performing a competitive analysis, read reviews and case studies on the products. 

Product reviews are gold mines. You can find out what users like about the product and what they do not. Reading the reviews carefully can give you a list of the customer pain points. 

Similarly, product managers must download or buy case studies from companies that sell similar products. The case studies generally include the product-related challenges and how the company solved them. 

Evaluating reviews and case studies allows product managers to think through the potential issues and keep the solutions handy. Also, they can identify the product features that can be made better than that of the competitors. 

3. Host a focus group

Evaluate your product by bringing in people who fit your target market. Give them a product profile – what the product will look like, its features, and benefits. Then, ask relevant questions concerning what they like and dislike about the product.

Though focus groups aren’t effective all the time, they can help product managers to get an idea of what people would say about the product. 

Providing the focus group with an MVP or prototype works better. The feedback received is more valid and meaningful. 

4. Get expert product engineers

Product managers can hire product engineers to get unbiased opinions on the product prototypes. 

The experts work on a contractual basis. They evaluate the product design, and features, test prototypes, and ensure quality and usability. 

If required, product engineers can also assess the market research, build design ideas, and supervise production. 

5. Consider product marketing

Building the product is not the end of the product research process. Not overlooking product marketing is one of the best practices to follow. 

Product managers must give equal importance to product positioning and marketing strategy. They can check out the competitors to understand;

• How they promote their products
• Whether or not their marketing strategy is successful
• How to make improvements in the strategy

Further, considering the target market is a must. Try answering questions like;

• Where do they mostly shop?
• What are their interests?
• What are the social media platforms and communication channels mostly used by the target market?
• Where do they discover the products from?

Considering these aspects, the marketing strategies, campaigns, and distribution channels must be planned. 

6. Go for a soft launch

A trial or soft launch allows product managers to estimate sales. If the trial results aren’t satisfactory, they can modify the product before spending more on its marketing.

Soft launches need not be expensive. You can create a simple landing page for the product and then run a PPC or Pay per Click campaign to assess the demand. 

You can also provide a form that interested users could fill up. Explain the product to those who inquire, maintain communication, and notify them when the product is available. 

7. Continue product research

Continue your research even after the product launch . Ask for customer feedback, measure the outcomes of your marketing campaign, and track metrics like repeat purchases, new customers, etc. 

Further, track competitors too. Observe their strategies and emerging trends. Also, test new strategies like referral programs or loyalty programs. 

Product Research Tools

Building a user-centric product isn’t easy. Product managers must be equipped with the most effective tools. They must take every bit of help available to them. 

A product research tool is something that can help the product teams a great deal. It helps in making product management a more organized and structured process. Further, using these tools, product managers can get data-backed user insights and accurate research findings.

Check out the best 5 product research tools you can invest in.

Zeda.io is one of the best product management tools that you must invest in. It is a platform where you can; 

• Collect feedback, ideas, and feature requests from customers, 
• Analyze the data from a single dashboard, convert them to actionable insights, identify trends
• Plan product roadmaps , create live roadmaps, and share them with teams and customers
• Prioritize product tasks with prioritization frameworks like RICE
• Execute the product development process in collaboration with teams

In a nutshell, Zeda.io is the all-in-one product management software that allows you to build a product seamlessly and in an organized way. 

Also Read: Top AI Tools for Product Managers and Product Teams

Zendesk is a tool that helps you maintain interactions with your customers. It is a platform that allows collecting, understanding, and responding to user feedback .

Using Zendesk, product teams can listen to customer issues, develop a response plan, and deliver solutions to address their concerns.

Simply said, Zendesk ensures carrying out regular customer conversations as they are an integral part of the product research process. These customer conversations provide direct insights into customers' thoughts opinions, suggestions, and challenges. 

Thus, you can learn from customer feedback and incorporate changes, and better features in the product to ensure an incredible user experience. 

3. ProductPlan

In the product research process, the product research eventually converts to a product roadmap. It is the product roadmap that highlights the present and future priorities, workflows, product vision, and product progress. 

Once you have come across the research stage, the focus is on building the product roadmap. ProductPlan is the platform you can use to build visual roadmaps. The tool helps in maintaining flexibility, team collaboration, and efficient addressing of issues.

Here’s why you should get ProductPlan in your product research tool stack.

• It is easy to use
• It allows customizing roadmaps with lists, layouts, and timelines
• The drag-and-drop interface helps in tailoring the roadmaps according to one’s needs
• You can collaborate with teams, tag the members, and also comment within the roadmap

Another must-have product management tool, Jira ensures a hassle-free product journey from prototyping to product launch.

Jira is a project management tool that primarily helps with;

• Organizing project tasks
• Managing scrum and agile teams
• Capturing and recording software bugs 

With Jira, agile product teams can manage their workflow seamlessly. The tool offers 300+ integrations, is highly customizable, great for managing product issues, and overall effective product management. 

5. Proto.io

After you have built a product, you cannot release it directly to the market. User feedback and validation are required. So, instead of building a full-fledged product, you create an MVP or prototype with the basic features for testing the waters first. 

This is where Proto.io comes in. Proto.io is one of the leading prototyping tools that help you build a prototype quickly and easily. 

• Proto.io has a great interactive drag-and-drop interface that lets you create the prototype to test each product feature or idea based on your research. 
• It is user-friendly with integrated icons and easy image management

Thus, Proto.io increases your research efficiency. It helps you to offer customers an amazing product experience resulting in better customer satisfaction. 

Also Read: Choosing the Best Product Discovery Tool: Top 5 Picks

Final Thoughts

How to do product research is a common but complex question. Not all organizations use the same way to perform product research. But the product research process does have a few key steps that are crucial for its success. 

Throughout the process, just remember that product research is all about user research. The main goal is to understand the users, their needs, and their pain points. 

Once product managers implement the user-centric approach, they can build better products – the products that would meet the ever-changing demands of the market. Further, it will increase customer satisfaction and inspire loyalty.

With platforms like Zeda.io , your product research process can get easier. You can seamlessly perform user research using Zeda.io ’s product features like the central dashboard, prioritization framework, building live product roadmap, easy tracking, sharing roadmaps with teams and customers, etc.  

Suggested Read: The Product Management Process: 6 Essential Steps

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9 Marketing Research Methods to Refine Your Marketing Strategy

11 min read

What are the different marketing research methods product marketing teams can use to inform their strategies?

This is the main question the article answers.

You will also learn about different types of market research and how to conduct it step by step.

Let’s dive right in.

Market research is the process of gathering, analyzing, and interpreting information about a target market, competitors, and customers.

• Its goal is to help make informed decisions about product development , marketing strategies, pricing, and customer acquisition in SaaS companies.
• Conducting market research offers numerous benefits, including a better understanding of customer needs and market trends.
• Teams can leverage the insights to guide product development for better customer satisfaction and to get ahead of competitors. They also enable targeted user engagement and improve the effectiveness of marketing campaigns.
• The main types of market research include primary research (original data collection), secondary research (using existing data), quantitative research (using measurable data), qualitative research (gathering exploratory insights), and competitor research (analyzing the competitive landscape).

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Nine effective market marketing research methods include:

• Survey research : Email and in-app surveys to collect quantitative and qualitative data.
• User interviews : One-on-one conversations for qualitative insights.
• Focus groups : Sessions leveraging group dynamics to extract diverse insights.
• Observational research : Watching users engage with the product, e.g., through session recordings.
• Social listening : Monitors what existing and prospective customers say online about you and your competitors.
• A/B testing : Testing two versions of the product or marketing collateral side-by-side.
• Heatmaps : Color-coded UI overlays indicating areas of high engagement.
• Exploratory research : Qualitative research without any pre-defined focus.
• Public databases : Secondary sources, excellent at initial research stages.
• The market research process involves defining clear goals , identifying and segmenting the target market, choosing relevant research methods, collecting data using appropriate tools, and analyzing the data to extract actionable insights .
• A wide range of tools are available for market research, including Userpilot for in-app surveys and user behavior analysis , SurveyMonkey for email surveys, Hotjar for user interviews and heatmaps, and Google Analytics for web analytics.
• Book the demo to learn how Userpilot can help your team with market research!

What is market research?

Such research helps SaaS companies make informed decisions about product development , marketing strategies, pricing, and customer acquisition.

The benefits of conducting market research

Let’s face it: market research requires time and resources. However, the investment is fully justified for a number of reasons:

• Market research helps you better understand your customers’ pain points , needs, and desires. Such insights are essential to building products that solve genuine problems and quickly achieve product-market fit .
• By understanding what your customers want, you can continuously improve your offerings and enhance customer satisfaction . This translates into higher customer retention and, ultimately, better business performance.
• Keeping a pulse on your market allows you to spot emerging trends and unmet needs. Such insights drive innovation to give you a competitive advantage.
• Understanding your competitors’ strengths and weaknesses can help you define your unique selling proposition.
• Whether you’re launching a new product or entering a new market, market research can help you test the waters before diving in and potentially save you from costly mistakes.
• With insights from market research, you can create more targeted, effective marketing campaigns that resonate with your audience.
• Market research provides solid data to back up your business decisions – so no more guesswork and acting on hunches.

Different types of market research to gather valuable insights

Market researchers rely on different kinds of research to obtain the necessary insights.

Let’s unpack the main ones.

Primary market research

Primary research is the original data you gather yourself. It’s tailor-made for your specific needs and usually involves direct interaction with your target audience , for example, through interviews or surveys .

Such research can provide up-to-date and highly relevant insights but is time-consuming and costly.

Secondary market research

Secondary research recycles information that already exists, for example, from industry benchmark reports or academic studies.

Data obtained in this way isn’t 100% relevant to your circumstances but can give you a good understanding of the trends in your niche. And it’s quicker and more cost-effective than primary market research.

Quantitative research

Quantitative market research deals with data that can be measured and statistically analyzed. In SaaS, this could be data from web and product analytics or quantitative survey questions, like NPS.

If conducted on a large enough sample, such research is very objective and allows you to identify trends and patterns over time.

However, it may not offer you the answers as to why users behave in a particular way.

Qualitative research

Qualitative market research complements quantitative insights by helping you explain the ‘why’ behind the numbers.

For practical reasons, it involves smaller customer samples than quantitative studies and uses techniques like interviews, focus groups, surveys , and session recordings.

Competitor research

Competitive research helps you understand your position in the competitive landscape.

It gives you an understanding of your competitors’ strategies, strengths, and weaknesses and allows you to identify market gaps and new opportunities.

Competitive analysis uses primary and secondary research to obtain qualitative and quantitative data.

9 marketing research methods to execute

Let’s look a bit closer at market research techniques that you can use for each type of research.

1. Customer surveys

Customer surveys are the bread and butter of market research. They’re easy to administer, and you use them to gather both quantitative and qualitative data at scale. They can help you gauge customer satisfaction , gather product feedback, or understand market trends.

When collecting feedback from existing users, in-app surveys are particularly effective and have higher response rates than email surveys.

With tools like Userpilot , you can launch an in-app survey within minutes.

Pick a template from the library, tweak the question , select the audience, and set how to send the survey. You can either pick a specific date and time or use event-based triggering to gather contextual feedback.

What if you don’t have users yet?

Tools like SurveyMonkey give you access to respondent pools you can target based on hundreds of criteria.

2. User interviews

User interviews are more time-consuming and resource-intensive, so conducting them at scale is difficult. However, nothing beats a one-to-one conversation when you’re after deep, nuanced insights .

That’s because they give you the flexibility to drill down on interviewees’ ideas.

It doesn’t mean that they’re completely unstructured.

To get the most out of the interview, they need to have a clear focus.

Here’s a template you can use to prepare for them.

How do you recruit interview participants? You can send in-app invites to your customers who meet the criteria or, again, lean into an interviewee pool available in tools like Hotjar.

3. Focus groups

A focus group brings together a small number of people, usually 6-10, from your target audience to discuss your product.

The interaction between participants can spark conversations and ideas that might not come up in individual interviews. And can reveal shared experiences, pain points , and desires that individual interviews might miss.

However, to get the most out of them, bring in a skilled moderator to guide the discussion and ensure all voices are heard and key topics are covered.

Otherwise, dominant personalities or groupthink can skew the results.

4. Observational research

Observational research involves watching how users interact with your product or service in their natural environment. This could be in-person observation or through tools like session recordings for digital products.

Why bother?

Because what people do is often more revealing than what they say. Observing customers can highlight discrepancies between reported and actual behavior or offer insights that users themselves might not be aware of or able to articulate.

This method can uncover usability issues, reveal unexpected use cases, and is particularly valuable for understanding the context in which your product is used.

Session recordings are coming to Userpilot soon to allow you to observe how users interact with your product.

5. Social listening

Social listening involves monitoring social media platforms for mentions of your brand, products, competitors, or industry. It can help you track sentiment , identify emerging trends, manage your online reputation, and even find potential customers or brand advocates .

How do you do it?

Monitor your social media accounts and review sites, and use tools like Hootsuite, Sprout Social, or Brand24 to monitor the broader expanses of the internet.

But don’t focus just on your online presence. Follow what users have to say about your competitor, too.

6. A/B testing

If you can’t decide on a version of your webpage, email, or product feature, A/B test them.

A/B testing involves comparing two options side by side to see which performs better.

This method is particularly useful for optimizing digital experiences . You can test everything from button colors to pricing structures, using real user behavior to guide your decisions.

What if you have more versions to test? Run multivariate tests .

Userpilot allows you to run both types of tests on your onboarding flows to determine if there are statistically significant differences in their performance.

7. Heatmaps

Heatmaps provide a visual representation of user behavior on your website or app. Using color coding, they show areas of high and low engagement.

They are particularly useful for understanding how users interact with your digital interfaces. It can reveal usability issues, help optimize page layouts, and show which elements are successful or unsuccessful at grabbing user attention.

With Userpilot, you can generate heatmaps of your user in-app engagement – all their clicks , hovers, and text inputs.

8. Exploratory research

When you’re venturing into new territory, exploratory research helps you establish a foothold.

This kind of research is often qualitative and can involve literature reviews, expert interviews, or case studies . It’s particularly useful in the early stages of product development or when entering new markets.

The goal is to define problems more precisely, develop hypotheses, or establish research priorities. It may not provide definitive answers but can point you in the right direction for further, more focused research.

The secret to its success?

Asking open-ended questions and being receptive to unexpected findings.

9. Public databases

Public databases, government reports, industry associations, and academic studies offer a wealth of information.

They can provide valuable context, market size estimates, demographic information, and trend data, which is a cost-effective way to get a broad overview of your market or industry.

Useful sources include:

• U.S. Census Bureau (or regional equivalents).
• Crunchbase.
• Product Hunt (to see what kinds of products get good traction).

While this data isn’t tailored to your specific needs, it can provide a solid foundation for your research and help you identify areas for further primary research.

A step-by-step process on how to conduct market research

Let’s wrap up by exploring the market research process, one step at a time.

Define your market research goals

The process starts by setting clear goals for your market research project. They will determine what data you gather and how.

The goals will differ depending on your product maturity and high-level business goals.

Early on, your goals may be to identify underserved user needs or validate a product idea . And when you’re expanding into new markets, it could be to gauge the demand and potential customers’ willingness to pay .

Whatever your focus, make your goals specific. Use a framework like SMART if you’re only starting.

Identify the target market to research on

Knowing who to research is just as important as knowing what to research. So, the next step is defining your target market as precisely as possible.

If you already have a product in place, use your current customer base for clues. Who are your best customers ? What traits do they share?

If not, start defining the target market with basic demographics like age, gender, location, and income.

Don’t stop there. Dig deeper into psychographics like interests, values, and lifestyle.

As you’re discovering more and more about your customers, segment them based on their needs and behaviors. Identifying these segments will help tailor further research and later – your products or marketing campaigns.

Use this information to create detailed customer personas .

Choose relevant market research methods

With your goals set and the target market defined, it’s time to select your research methods that are aligned with your objectives and audience.

Usually, a mix of methods provides the most comprehensive view.

For example, start with surveys and user behavior analysis and zero in on the key insights with interviews and focus groups. Or the other way round – use surveys to validate insights from an interview.

Of course, the choice of research methods depends. Balance the depth of insights you need with the resources available.

Don’t forget about your audience’s preferences. If your target audience is tech-savvy, they will happily take part in online surveys. Surveys won’t be very helpful when getting insights from my dad – a phone call might, though.

Collect data using the right tools

Time to put your research machine into motion and start collecting data using the right tools.

I’ve already mentioned a few options before, but here’s a more comprehensive list that can help you conduct effective market research:

• Email surveys: Typeform, MonkeySurvey, and HubSpot.
• In-app surveys : Userpilot.
• A/B Testing : Optimizely, VWO, and Userpilot
• Interviews: Hotjar and Fullstory.
• Heatmaps : Userpilot, Hotjar, and Mouseflow.
• Session recordings: Fullstory, Hotjar, and Userpilot soon.
• User behavior analysis: Userpilot, Google Analytics, Amplitude , and Mixpanel.
• Social listening: Hootsuite, Sprout Social, Brand24, and Mention.

Apart from the obvious things like pricing, functionality, or intuitive UI, pay attention to integrations so that you can seamlessly sync the data and analyze it in one place.

Analyze the data collected for valuable insights

Collecting market research data is only half the battle – the real value comes from analysis. The goal isn’t just to summarize what you found but to extract actionable insights that can drive business decisions.

Start by organizing your data. Clean it up, removing any duplicates or irrelevant information.

Use data visualization tools to help spot trends. Graphs, charts , and word clouds can make patterns more apparent. Leverage AI to extract insights from qualitative data, like survey responses.

In your analysis, look for patterns and trends . What common themes emerge from interviews? What correlations appear in your survey data?

Top tip: Make it a team sport. Bring in team members from different departments to get diverse perspectives on what the data might mean for your business.

The choice of market research methods isn’t as challenging as it might initially seem as long as you have a clear idea of what you want to achieve.

The success of the research process depends a lot on the tools that you have available. A well-integrated tech stack will help you collect the necessary data from the right customers and extract actionable insights.

If you’d like to learn how Userpilot can help you with your market research, book the demo!

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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.

Was This Article Helpful?

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.

Money blog: Big Issue seller reveals all about wearing the red jacket - from how much you earn to how it saves lives

The Money blog is a hub for personal finance and consumer news and tips. We speak to a Big Issue seller for our weekend feature this week. Share your thoughts on any of the stories we've published in the past week in the box below - and we'll be back with live updates on Monday.

Saturday 31 August 2024 08:24, UK

Essential reads

• 'This job has saved lives': What's it like selling the Big Issue?
• Major change for Barclays customers next week
• Has the Nike trainer bubble burst?
• Top chef shares cheap soup recipe - as he picks best budget eats in Kent

Tips and advice

• Key deadline for free childcare today
• Eyewatering rate hike awaiting anyone coming off a five-year fixed
• Treat savings like monthly bill, says savings guru
• Young people doing 'big no-no' with holiday money - here are the golden rules

Ask a question or make a comment

By Bhvishya Patel , Money team

It was easy to find him - the red jacket stuck out in the slow-moving crowd.

I'd come to meet Andre Rostant in Soho on a Friday afternoon armed with a list of questions: those that occur to me and probably most of us when we pass a Big Issue seller on the street. 

They ranged from the personal to the practical - how does it all work? How do vendors make money?

Most of them, it turned out, Andre was prepared to answer - some he wasn't. 

What are the criteria?

Andre, who is 60, has been a Big Issue vendor for more than a decade.

Founded in 1991 and now the world's most widely circulated street newspaper, the magazine offers homeless people, those at risk of homelessness or those experiencing poverty a chance to earn an income. 

There is no application form but sellers must be over the age of 18.

Once their age has been verified, a vendor is allocated a pitch and can start selling the magazine immediately that day - they get five free copies to sell initially.

How much do sellers earn?

The Big Issue operates as a business and vendors buy their magazines for £2 and sell them for £4, making £2 a copy.

Sellers "are immediately earning and putting [money] into their pocket", says Catherine Parsons, managing director of the Big Issue Changing Lives Community Interest Company.

"It's their stock and their investment so every sale counts for those vendors," she adds. "While £2 doesn't sound a lot, it is a lot to that individual." 

Andre, who lives in temporary accommodation with his teenage children, says his job is a "flexible way of making money" when he needs - though not a long-term solution.

He says it works as "supplemental income or emergency income", adding: "It would be perhaps ambitious to use it as your sole income. It's a difficult thing to make a full income out of."

Alongside selling the magazine, Andre does other work where he can - until three weeks before I met him he was also working three days a week doing secretarial work at a law firm.

When you're homeless, Andre says, "a lot of your spending is on emergency stuff because things break and run out and if you are waiting until the end of the month you just don't have the money - but with this you do. 

"With this, you can fill in the gaps."

What is a typical day like?

Andre had been at his pitch for about three hours when I met him and was rounding off for the day.

There's no set times for sellers to be on the street - but a typical shift might be five or six hours. Many other vendors do part-time or casual work alongside, like Andre.

The key, he says, is being consistent about the time spent on your pitch, comparing selling to fishing: "Some days you can stand here and as pretty as you look, you can just stand here for a couple of hours and people walk past smiling and someone might give you a pound.

"On another day it's as though the fish are jumping in.

"You could sell no magazines one day and 20 the next."

'It's a blunderbuss technique but it works'

So what's the best way of getting someone to stop and buy a copy?

Andre's method is simple: "I'm not shy of people - my technique of selling is I will stand in the middle of the pavement as an obstruction and by way of attrition you will get sales.

"I make a sound, I'm standing in the middle of the pavement - it's a very blunderbuss technique but it works."

Most interactions are positive, he says: "The experience of people is overwhelmingly good. People are overwhelmingly sympathetic and good.

"But I've had in the past young drunk men dragging my magazines and shouting out things. There is a presumption that this is something we are begging for - it's not.

"In the same way WH Smith is there on the corner selling magazines, I'm here on this corner selling magazines in the same way. I buy them and sell them."

From destitution to published author

My last question was personal: how did Andre come to find himself outside a Foyles bookshop near Leicester Square selling the Big Issue? 

He tells me he became homeless in 2012 - he was "destitute" and in "terrible debt".

He had worked for the Financial Services Authority doing secretarial work before he lost his home.

He's not comfortable sharing any more details, but he hints at the difficulties he has faced: "I think I would have imploded in some way if I had tried to just keep doing a regular five-day-a-week job with the pressure of the children and the pressure of the circumstances that led to our being homeless. 

"I just couldn't have done it."

Andre's experiences of poverty have also inspired him to write a book, The Muffin Man, which was published in June and explores the mind of a Big Issue vendor working in the underbelly of Soho.

It was published by Arkbound, a charity book publisher, but he was repeatedly rejected at first: "I sent my manuscript to a load of publishers and all of them wrote back and said 'this is interesting but it's not our cup of tea'."

'This job has saved lives'

Selling the Big Issue is about much more than the money for Andre - it's life-saving.

"This is a way of meeting contingencies and finances but more importantly than that, perhaps, is the human contact," he says.

"It's interacting with people which you wouldn't necessarily otherwise get."

He says: "If you are homeless and single, who do you communicate with? Who do you meet? Who do you see during the day? 

"This interaction brings you back into the real world. I can say for certain that this job has saved lives.

"There are people who might otherwise have taken their life but because of this and the interaction with other people, they don't."

He also says the Big Issue acts as a "a stepping stone back into regular society".

Ms Parsons agrees: "It's a really difficult job and not very well paid and we assume that people who want to sell are people affected by poverty.

"It's that sense of belonging to a community and having regular people they can talk to and a sense of being seen and heard.

"It's a really important structure in lots of people's lives - it gives them a reason to get up and get out of bed in the morning.

"It's also really important that those vendors are not just standing outside, sometimes in the rain, for six hours and people are not just walking by and not even making eye contact.

"The one person that stops and buys a magazine will keep them going for another hour getting wet in the rain."

In the end, Andre says, Big Issue sellers have many of the same struggles as most people do.

"While I still need to find a fiver for milk and bread - this helps take the edge off," he says.

"And it's London - everybody has got multiple jobs and nobody has got any money. We're all working like maniacs just to stand still.

"If I do this I can make sure my children have shoes on their feet and clothes on their back and food in their bellies."

Anyone over 18 can start earning a legitimate income almost immediately by becoming a Big Issue vendor. You'll receive full support, work fully flexibly and get five free copies to sell initially. Just email [email protected] for more information.

By Jimmy Rice, Money blog editor

As Britain woke up from a long bank holiday weekend, Sir Keir Starmer gave the country something else to look forward to: tax hikes and spending cuts.

These were all-but confirmed in a Downing Street news conference outlining the "dire" state of the public finances.

Again we heard that VAT, national insurance and income tax would be exempt from any changes. Instead, commentators believe levies on capital gains and inheritance will rise, with leading tax firm Blick Rothenberg issuing this warning on the former...

We have two months to wait for more details - the budget is on 30 October - but our politics team has outlined which other taxes the chancellor could have in her sights here...

One of the first things to go under Labour - ministers say due to the economic inheritance left by the previous government - was universal winter fuel payments for pensioners.

Only those who receive pension credit or other means-tested benefits will still get the £200-£300 towards the cost of their energy bills.   

Even then, they could have to fill in a 243-question form, as we revealed on Thursday…

On Wednesday's episode of the Daily, host Liz Bates heard from one of the plan's critics, Labour backbencher Rachael Maskell. 

Plus, Liz discussed whether there could be an alternative - one that could keep everyone happy - with The Social Market Foundation's Sam Robinson.

Listen below or tap here to follow the Daily wherever you get your podcasts.

Finally, here in the Money blog, we looked at the hidden refund option that could save you hundreds of pounds...

We'll be back with live updates on Monday - but do check out our Saturday feature on Big Issue sellers from 8am tomorrow.

Have a good weekend.

One of the stories inviting the most reader comments this week was our feature on whether the Nike trainers bubble has burst...

Many of the things examined in the long read came up in your correspondence - with quality and price seemingly major issues for consumers...

Nike have lost their way in the running market, unless you are looking for a top of the range, super fragile, supershoe. I used to have multiple pairs in my rotation, but today I don't have a single one. Brands like Hoka beat them hands down on product line-up & quality. TheRunner

I think Nike trainers in this era are ugly & overpriced. I collect Nike OGs from the 80s & 90s. Classic Nike Air Max 1s, Air Trainer 1s, 180s, you cannot go wrong with them. MarkyG74

Bought a £180 pair of Nike trainers the other week, smudged glue, loose fabric + stitching everywhere, most trainers nowadays should come with some trimming and assembly required note. Gudgeonb

Has Nike rested on their historical reputation and not moved on with the market? Value for money, consumer ethical beliefs and young people have moved on - have they simply lost that competitive edge? Not great for trail running that's for sure! Fashion statement, maybe. Jo

Jordans have had their day, Nike losing the market. Stoneymezza

Nike have priced themselves out of the market, the price of their trainers have increased by £40 on a pair of Air Max 90s in the last three years, people won't be ripped off and will simply take there business to other brands. Matteo

Nike's bubble has burst, they ditched the independent retailer and it's been downhill from there. New brands are now occupying independent retail spaces, retail space whereby you get a personalised experience, one where you learn the history and culture of a brand. Anthony Hammond

This is always down to price. The affordability of some of these trainers is scandalous, £200 for same material as ones I get front Primark for £10. Nickgloverbirkenhead

Myself and fiancée used to love Nike. But I feel they aren't as diverse and inclusive as they once were. Additionally, they aren't as affordable or comfortable. It feels as if they've prioritised cheap manufacturing over expensive prices. This is upsetting. From a Nike fan. Niall Benson

Readers also reacted to this post suggesting capital gains tax could rise in the October budget...

These were some of the comments...

I spent many of my professional years being paid by clients to minimise their exposure to CGT. The government could (and perhaps should) require a CGT computation on a property sale, to be made as part of the sales transaction and a payment made on account at that time. Nick Taylor

The vast majority of working people earning below £30k a year will not need to worry about this. So why are the media making a big deal of it? CGT accounts for 2% of total tax so it's a good move for the people or companies to pay their fair share as it's felt like they haven't. Mike

We also had lots of mail on hotels putting up prices on nights when Oasis are playing.

This dynamic pricing is used across the industry - but this week Maldron Hotels found itself facing a backlash after what it called a "technical error" led to cheaper reservations being cancelled, and then the rooms being temporarily advertised at a higher rate.

Here are some of the comments that came in...

Booked a hotel in Dublin for Oasis concert dates yesterday, paid 200 then they cancelled it and when I went back on the same room was nearly 500. How is this allowed? Joe mallon10

Happened to me. Booked two rooms at the Maldron Hotel Cathedral Square at £253 each. Got an email to say they were cancelled, called the hotel as they were still confirmed on booking.com and they said they were all cancelled on their side but being resold at £443 10 minutes later. Katie

Hotels have been doing this for years. The minute LFC get into a final the room prices triple. Jackolfc

The prices can only go as high as the concert goers will. For these concerts they will be prepared to go very high. That's the ONLY reason Oasis are touring. Money!👍🏼😂 Hafalumpa

Hotels should be regulated and fined for doing such unscrupulous pricing. They do this regularly for events, it needs government intervention. Barbara

Planned strikes by LNER train drivers have been called off this weekend, the Aslef union has announced.

Members were due to walk out tomorrow and over several more weekends this year over a dispute about the breaking of work practice agreements.

However Aslef has announced today that the industrial action has been suspended and drivers will work as normal. 

It follows meetings between the union and LNER bosses.

Sainsbury's has announced a £130m deal to buy 10 Homebase stores and convert them into supermarkets , in a move that is expected to create around 1,000 jobs.

It said the deal should be completed next month.

The new shops will cover "key target locations" for expansion across England, Northern Ireland and Scotland, the supermarket said.

The first converted store is due to be opened next summer, will all sites expected to be converted by the end of 2025.

Vinted has launched a new electronics category on its app, allowing for items such as games consoles, headphones and smart watches to be sold for the first time.

Retail Week reported that the new category has been brought in due to the popularity of the limited number of electronics allowed to be sold on the app previously.

Fashion will remain the focus of the second hand marketplace, it said.

Experts are reacting today after it emerged that employers will have to offer flexible working hours - including a four-day week - to all workers under government plans.

To receive their full pay, employees would still have to work their full hours but compressed into a shorter working week - something some workplaces already do.

Currently, employees can request flexible hours as soon as they start at a company but employers are not legally obliged to agree.

The Labour government now wants to make it so employers have to offer flexible hours from day one, except where it is "not reasonably feasible".

It is understood Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner is behind the move and wants to introduce legislation on it this autumn after consulting with unions and businesses.

The government has denied employers will be forced to allow staff to work four-day weeks, or make employees work a four-day week.

But some experts have reacted positively to the proposed plan, with one describing it as a "beacon of hope" for employee wellbeing.

Gabriel McKeown, head of macroeconomics   at Sad Rabbit Investments, said talk of a four-day week is now longer a "whisper in the corridors of progressive workplaces".

"Yet, despite the natural 'too good to be true' suspicion surrounding anything that feels remotely utopian, this policy could be a beacon of hope for improved mental health and enhanced productivity," he said.

He noted that implementing the change would not come without "complexities" for employees.

Meanwhile,  Cara Cunniff, leadership and performance consultant   at ThriveWell Global, said a "clearer focus on outputs over inputs may be just the thing to jolt the British economy into action".

The plan "throws down the gauntlet" and "may be just the catalyst employees and businesses need" to recruit and retain the best workers, she said.

"We're in a race for scarce talent and the expectations of the workers of today and tomorrow bear little comparison to those of former generations."

Sky News has also spoken to Joe Ryle, director of the 4 Day Week Campaign , and Michelle Evans, founder of Small Business Britain , about what they think of the government's plan.

Mr Ryle says he welcomes the move which shows that ministers recognise "the four day week is here to stay" - though he noted the proposal only allows for a compression rather than a reduction in hours, which is what the campaign is aimed at.

He says some companies which have allowed employees to reduce their hours and maintain their pay have "seen productivity being maintained and the wellbeing of workers improving". 

Offering a different opinion, Ms Evans says it could cause "challenges" for small to medium businesses.

There are lots of sectors where this "just isn't feasible", she adds, saying firms such as those in the retail and hospitality sector "can't just close for a day" or afford to hire more staff.

She adds that it's important to "be really clear" about how far flexible working can go. Smaller businesses "aren't the bad guys" and "want their staff to do well", she says. 

As the hopes of tens of thousands of Oasis fans are crushed by a tweet just now announcing that everyone who's got lucky in the presale ballot has already been contacted... we've been asking just how much you'd be willing to pay for a ticket.

Oasis revealed yesterday how much tickets for the upcoming tour will cost, after Liam and Noel Gallagher confirmed they'd set aside their differences for a hotly anticipated reunion.

Prices for the cheapest seats start at around £73 and around £150 for standing - while the most expensive ticket will see fans paying over £500.

It had been widely reported that tickets could soar over the £100 mark.

A poll of Sky News followers on LinkedIn has offered some insight into how much people are willing to fork out to see one of the biggest bands of the 90s:

The largest proportion of people (42%) said they'd want to spend less than £100 to see Oasis. Only 6% said they'd pay £200-£300, while interestingly, a higher proportion (11%) said they'd be willing to spend over £300.

Social media users are reacting to the ticket prices, as fans prepare to find out today whether they've been successful in a resale ballot.

One X user said they were "so disappointed", while another said the band were "taking the p***".

"Those Oasis ticket prices are a farce," said another.

Other fans took to social media with evidence of much cheaper tickets from days gone by...

But while some have been left feeling put out by how much an Oasis ticket could set them back - others have defended the pricing.

One user said they felt the tickets were a "fair price", while another said: "Did people really expect Oasis to charge the price of a Watford at home ticket and a packet of pork scratchings? Come on."

"Oasis can just take my money I absolutely do not care what the ticket price is," said another fan.

By Sarah Taaffe-Maguire , business reporter

House prices are now growing at the fastest annual rate in nearly two years, the UK's largest building society has said, with rises expected to continue.

In the year up to August, houses became 2.4% more valuable with the average property costing £265,375, according to Nationwide.

But prices are still below the all-time highs recorded in the summer of 2022 by about 3%.

The annual increase and associated increase in buying demand is still "subdued by historic standards", Nationwide said.

Read the full story here :

The deadline for working parents of nine-month-olds in England to register for 15 free hours of government-funded childcare a week is tomorrow.

From 1 September, the free childcare offer is being extended to eligible parents with children of this age and older.

But with applications due by 31 August, families need to act now.

Check if you're eligible  here  - or read on for our explainer on free childcare across the UK.

Three and four-year-olds

In England, all parents of children aged three and four in England can claim 15 hours of free childcare per week, for 1,140 hours (38 weeks) a year, at an approved provider.

This is a universal offer open to all.

It can be extended to 30 hours where both parents (or the sole parent) are in work, earn the weekly minimum equivalent of 16 hours at the national minimum or living wage, and have an income of less than £100,000 per year.

Two-year- olds

Previously, only parents in receipt of certain benefits were eligible for 15 hours of free childcare.

But, as of April, this was extended to working parents.

This is not a universal offer, however.

A working parent must earn more than £8,670 but less than £100,000 per year. For couples, the rule applies to both parents.

Nine-months-old

On 1 September, this same 15-hour offer will be extended to working parents of children aged from nine months. From 12 May, those whose children will be at least nine months old on 31 August can apply to received the 15 hours of care from September.

From September 2025

The final change to the childcare offer in England will be rolled out in September 2025, when eligible working parents of all children under the age of five will be able to claim 30 hours of free childcare a week.

In some areas of Wales, the Flying Start early years programme offers 12.5 hours of free childcare for 39 weeks, for eligible children aged two to three. The scheme is based on your postcode area, though it is currently being expanded.

All three and four-year-olds are entitled to free early education of 10 hours per week in approved settings during term time under the Welsh government's childcare offer.

Some children of this age are entitled to up to 30 hours per week of free early education and childcare over 48 weeks of the year. The hours can be split - but at least 10 need to be used on early education.

To qualify for this, each parent must earn less than £100,000 per year, be employed and earn at least the equivalent of working 16 hours a week at the national minimum wage, or be enrolled on an undergraduate, postgraduate or further education course that is at least 10 weeks in length.

All three and four-year-olds living in Scotland are entitled to at least 1,140 hours per year of free childcare, with no work or earnings requirements for parents. 

This is usually taken as 30 hours per week over term time (38 weeks), though each provider will have their own approach.

Some households can claim free childcare for two-year-olds. To be eligible you have to be claiming certain benefits such as Income Support, Jobseeker's Allowance or Universal Credit, or have a child that is in the care of their local council or living with you under a guardianship order or kinship care order.

Northern Ireland

There is no scheme for free childcare in Northern Ireland. Some other limited support is available.

Working parents can access support from UK-wide schemes such as tax credits, Universal Credit, childcare vouchers and tax-free childcare.

Aside from this, all parents of children aged three or four can apply for at least 12.5 hours a week of funded pre-school education during term time. But over 90% of three-year-olds have a funded pre-school place - and of course this is different to childcare.

What other help could I be eligible for?

Tax-free childcare  - Working parents in the UK can claim up to £500 every three months (up to £2,000 a year) for each of their children to help with childcare costs. 

If the child is disabled, the amount goes up to £1,000 every three months (up to £4,000 a year).

To claim the benefit, parents will need to open a tax-free childcare account online. For every 80p paid into the account, the government will top it up by 20p.

The scheme is available until the September after the child turns 11.

Universal credit  - Working families on universal credit can claim back up to 85% of their monthly childcare costs, as long as the care is paid for upfront. The most you can claim per month is £951 for one child or £1,630 for two or more children.

Tax credits -  People claiming working tax credit can get up to 70% of what they pay for childcare if their costs are no more than £175 per week for one child or £300 per work for multiple children.

By  Sarah Taaffe-Maguire , business reporter

It's likely to be one of the last few days that Burberry is included in the list of 100 most valuable companies on the London Stock Exchange - the FTSE 100 - and this morning the British fashion retailer is the biggest loser of the index.

Its share price is down 1.69%, the most of any of the 100 companies, as it's expected to be booted out next week due to share price tumbles. It had been a stalwart of the FTSE 100 for 15 years.

Oil is ending the week back above $80 - higher than most of the past few days - at $80.42 for a barrel of the benchmark Brent crude.

The pound has stayed high, or more accurately the dollar has stayed weak, with one pound falling just about below the more than two-year high of $1.32. Currently a pound buys $1.31.

In an update to our previous post, NatWest says the issue with its banking app that left customers unable to access some services this morning has been fixed.

A NatWest spokesperson said: "Some customers experienced difficulty in making payments via the mobile app this morning. 

"This has been resolved and customers can make payments as normal. We're sorry for any inconvenience caused."

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