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Everyone tells you to 'research your market' -- but how do you do that?

Written by: Julie Stanford

Article Overview: We are always being asked to explain what marketing research is, and how you go about doing it. Here’s a round-up of some different types of research and what they’re good for.

Everyone tells you to 'research your market' -- but how do you do that?

Secondary research
This is research using information that already exists.

You can often find out a lot by searching on the internet, in libraries or in Government reports. Often this is free, but be careful: the research may be out of date, biased, or not specific to the questions you need to answer.

For some types of information, you might be able to use observation: watching traffic flows (cars or people), seeing how people behave or what they buy.

Or you could become a mystery shopper, ordering competitors’ brochures and using their services to compare them with those of your business.

Primary research
This is research designed specifically by or for you.

Questionnaires are best for simple questions with closed answers (yes/no or a simple scale). For example, you might ask:

1 Do you ever buy a daily newspaper?
Yes No

2 How often do you buy The Daily Recorder?

Every day, More than once a week, Weekly, More than once a month, Less than once a month

Questionnaires can be used for large numbers of responses. If you use simple questions, they are easy to analyse. Think carefully about what you are planning to do with the answers before deciding on your questions. In our example above, our business owner runs a small store and she wants to know whether it is worth continuing to stock The Daily Recorder newspaper, so she needs clear numbers to help her decide -- numbers of people buying a daily newspaper at all, then how many of those people buy The Daily Recorder.

Work from your end result backwards -- ask yourself, ‘What do I need to know?’, then ‘What questions can I ask that will help me find out?’ and, more importantly, make sure that your questions are phrased to avoid any confusion -- both to the person filling in the questionnaire, and to you when you have to analyse the responses!

You will get the highest response by questioning people face-to-face, and the lowest by sending your questionnaire by post. Telephone questionnaires are cheaper and quicker than face-to-face, but don’t expect such a high response rate.

Interviews and focus groups are better for more complex questions, such as:
• How do our customers feel about our after-sales service?
• How do customers perceive the quality of our product compared to those of our competitors?

For these ‘touchy-feely’ questions, it is best to talk in more depth to a few people, either
individually or as an informal group discussion.

You often need a combination of different types of research to give you all the information you need. It is often a good idea to start by exploring all the secondary research that already exists, because this is usually quite quick and cheap. You can then fill the gaps in your information with some primary research. Often this will also help to check whether the secondary research information you have found was valid and accurate.

Related Articles
  Why Competitive Research is the Backbone of Any Successful Marketing Campaign
  Market Research – What’s That Then?
  Understanding Your Evolving Markets
  Missing Sales Research and Sales Superstars
  Is the Customer Always Right?

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Related Forum Posts
Re: Best Internet Marketing Strategies - [quote="christew":latsmlgi]Plus a niche is not a bunch of keywords, it is a demographic interested in a particular topic. You need to learn about the people in this demographic. Keyword research tells you their search habits and gives clues to competitiveness and potential profit, but you are looking at through a very narrow window of a much bigger picture.[/quote:latsmlgi] Good point. Knowing about both the group and the keywords they tend to use is of course the best combination, but if you thoroughly understand your niche market and your products, the content you write for your website and the articles you post elsewhere will almost certainly include natural "keyword phrases" even if you don't research the keywords - and if your niche is tightly defined, that will probably suffice. I am not saying you should ignore keyword research, but knowing your products and market is more important.
Re: Before you spend all your money on a prototype - [quote="TheRainmaker":2du8jhy9] Find a need and fill it. while this still remains true, market research does not mean asking 10 friends what they think. Stay tuned for my step by step market research guide. If I can save one person the headache...my job will be done. [/quote:2du8jhy9] Rainmaker, Did you complete the market research guide?
Re: Best Internet Marketing Strategies - I'd disagree with the first point. Keyword research is important, but it should not be the complete focus when doing niche research. A niche is typically made up of thousands of keywords, and researching them all is very difficult, because the keyword tools won't tell you what most of them are. Plus a niche is not a bunch of keywords, it is a demographic interested in a particular topic. You need to learn about the people in this demographic. Keyword research tells you their search habits and gives clues to competitiveness and potential profit, but you are looking at through a very narrow window of a much bigger picture.
Re: Due Diligence, Market Research.. Ahead of the curve. - Congrats! A few months ago I wrote extensively on market research. Check in the Inventors corner for the posts. Let me know if I can help further! Dont spend a dime on a protype or advertising until you do some research! Jude
WSI Franchise - I haven't done much research on WSI, however, a quick peek at Franchisegator.com tells me that they have trained over 1500 franchisees, this is a good sign... but doing your 'due diligence' will get you the answers that will make or break the deal. I haven't seen them on any top 25 lists.


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