Market Research:

Before starting off any project, business, or a study, one of the most
important things to do is research. Every business has its own set of target
users. It’s impossible to understand your users, their habits, expectations
 and behaviours without detailed market research. This article will help you
understand everything about efficient market research.
Table of Contents
• What is market research?
• An understanding of market research
• Information gathered for market research
• Types of market research
o Primary Research
o Secondary Research
• key objectives of market research
• How to Do Market Research
• Steps to conduct market research
o #1 Define your target audience
o #2 Understand their behaviour
o #3 Choose a method to get insights
o #4 Collate the responses
o #5 Form hypothesis & take actions
• A Market Research Example
• History of Market Research
• Conclusion
• Frequently Asked Questions
o What Is a Market Study?
o Why Should You Do Market Research?
o When Should You Conduct Market Research?
o What are the 4 types of marketing research?

What is market research?

Market research is a process that consists of gathering data and information
pertaining to your target audience in a systematic way. It helps in
understanding how viable your product or service would be, before even
entering the market. It also gives you an overview of what is trending in the
industry and what motivates the users to make a decision to convert and
buy. Accordingly, you can plan the roadmap for your product or service.
Listed below are some of the key benefits of market research:
• Increases efficiency: Quality research helps you understand your
customer’s behaviour and habits and tells you the potential focus
areas well in advance
• Competitor overview: Market research is the best way to study the
market or industry you are targeting. By doing this you can make sure
to stay ahead of your competitors by offering varied experience and
services
• Cost-efficient: This process does not cost you dollars. You can simply
choose to use a survey tool or one-on-one meetings within your reach

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 to start with. Shortly put, this is a low investment, high returns
process!
• Productive business investment: Market research is a great
investment for any business. It helps the decision-makers to take the
right path and achieve the targets that are required

An understanding of market research

Market research begins with collecting data via methods such as surveys,
focus groups, interviews, and observation. This data can be both qualitative
and quantitative in nature, and can provide insights into many factors
including consumer behaviour, market trends, competition, and pricing.
Market research is an essential tool for businesses of all sizes.

Information gathered for market research

Market research can involve gathering various types of information,
depending on the objectives of the project. Common types of information
gathered in market research include:
1. Demographic data: Age, gender, income, education, and occupation
2. Psychographic data: Attitudes, values, and lifestyles of the target
audience
3. Behavioral data: Buying behavior such as purchase frequency,
purchase history, and brand loyalty
4. Market trends: Information on emerging technologies, new
competitors, and shifts in consumer behavior
5. Competitor data: Strengths and weaknesses of competitors, like
pricing strategy, marketing tactics and products.
6. Customer feedback: Customer satisfaction, customer pain points,
areas for improvement etc.

Types of market research

By any chance, if you have gotten a chance to read the basics about general
research, you know they are divided into primary and secondary research.
Let’s do a quick recap here, and learn about the ways to conduct both of
them:

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 Primary Research
The data derived from the primary research is ‘first-hand’. This means that
you either collect the data yourself or employ someone you know to conduct
research. Often, online surveys, phone interviews etc are the methods used
for this. In this type of research, you have control over the entire process and
can change the format in between.
Please note: The learnings from this type of research are both qualitative
and quantitative.

Ways to conduct primary market research:

• Ethnographic research+observation: This is in-depth research
conducted in the natural setting of the object. The idea is to make the
respondent totally comfortable in their habitat while the interviewer
adapts themselves to their natural environment. This type of research
can last from a few days to a month. Every minute detail is studied
during the duration.
• Focus groups: Focus group is one of the most commonly used
methods for primary research. Here, a group of about 6-10 people is
told about a particular release/ idea and all of them share their
perceptions, thoughts and views. The best part about this is that it can
be conducted remotely and is cost-effective
• One-to-one interview: As the name suggests, this method involves
interaction with an individual in the form of an interview. The
questions asked to the respondent here are mostly open-ended
questions. This is, however, prone to bring in biased responses and the
end result of this depends a lot on how the interviewer is putting the
questions and their ability to facilitate responses.
• Surveys: Surveys are hugely informative and helpful if conducted the
best way. They can be conducted via phone, in person, on paper or via
online software. It’s a list of questions crafted in a way that gives you
the best possible insight into how a customer feels about your product
or service, your brand and the experience you provide. It can be as
broad or as specific as you want.

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 Secondary Research
Unlike the primary research methodology, secondary research uses
information that is organised by sources like media houses, chambers of
commerce, government agencies, private research firms etc. This
information is published in different formats and shared with the general
public via multiple channels like online forums, websites, newspapers,
magazines, events, etc.

Ways to get secondary research results:

Public sources: Public sources such as a library is an awesome way to

gather information. The best part is the information is well segregated along
with the timelines. However, with the advent of the internet, the visits to the
library have come down. It’s always a good idea to visit one if you have
enough time to find some unique publications.
Commercial sources: Local newspapers, magazines, journals, TV, radio etc.
is what comes under commercial sources. Some of these might get expensive
but they are one of the easiest ways to consume information.
Educational institutions: Not very commonly used, this source of collecting
data can prove to be useful since a number of researchers are carried out by
management and technical institutions which rarely come out.

key objectives of market research

Key objectives of market research include:
1. Identifying customer needs and preferences
2. Assessing market size and potential
3. Evaluating competition
4. Developing effective marketing strategies
5. Monitoring industry trends
6. Mitigating risks

How to Do Market Research

Market research is a process that involves gathering and analyzing
information about a target market to help businesses make informed
decisions. The process typically involves several steps, including identifying
the research objectives, determining the research method, developing the
research instrument, collecting data, analyzing the data, and reporting the

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 findings. The data gathered in market research can include demographic
data, psychographic data, behavioural data, market trends, competitor data,
and customer feedback.

Steps to conduct market research

Now that you know what is market research, its importance and the ways to
conduct research, let’s talk about how to do market research in 6 quick steps.

#1 Define your target audience

Before you start understanding how your customers operate, you need to
quickly understand who your customers are. Create a buyer personaand
keep it handy.
Please note: It’s absolutely okay to have a number of buyer personas!

#2 Understand their behaviour

After knowing well who your target audience is, find out what are the best
ways to get in touch with them to get true answers. Evaluate their active
hours, tonality, preferences and so on.

#3 Choose a method to get insights

Now is the time to take one of the most important decisions: to choose how
to conduct the research. After following step #2, this should get easy. For
example, if you find that your target audience opens their mails regularly and
responds to them, you can choose to run a survey. However, if you find that
the internet penetration to your target audience is very low and they
understand their local dialect, then choosing the ethnographic research
comes in handy.

#4 Collate the responses

This is where all your efforts come down to. It can be an excel sheet, a google
document or a particular software, documenting every fact is a must. Make
sure to protect your data and share it only with the relevant people.

#5 Form hypothesis & take actions

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 After you have a heap of information, it’s time to study the data and build a
hypothesis. There might be instances where you will realise that you need to
change the entire sign-up flow or change the language or take a different
approach. How well you follow this step reflects the success of your business
to a large extent.

A Market Research Example

A market research example could be a study conducted to understand
consumer preferences and purchasing behavior for a new type of
smartphone. The research may involve surveying a representative sample
of potential customers to gather insights on features they prioritize, price
sensitivity, brand perception, and desired functionalities.

The findings can then guide product development, marketing strategies,

and pricing decisions to maximize the chances of success in the market.

History of Market Research

Market research dates back to the early 20th century, evolving from simple
surveys to advanced methodologies, leveraging data analytics, technology,
and consumer insights to drive business decision-making.

Conclusion
Conducting market research can prove to be an eye-opener and a fact-
checker to a number of individuals and organisations. Even if you think you
understand your target audience in and out, a detailed study will likely
uncover new channels and opportunities for you. It is always the best choice
to conduct market research in the initial phase of starting or building
anything as it leaves a lot of room for improvement.