When it comes to market research there are so many roads you can choose. When you work with a market research company, they can help guide you down the right path to help answer the question "where to start with market research?"
Market research often answers many of your key questions but leads to other questions as well. The key is finding a starting point with your market research efforts. If you have a specific objective (e.g. we need to improve the user experience on our website), by all means create a unique study to tackle those objectives. But many organizations know they need to acquire feedback, but aren't exactly sure on what to focus on first.
If you are unsure where to start, we recommend casting a wide net and starting with a broader study to narrow down areas of strengths and weaknesses with your customer experience. Our market research company has provided 3 of those higher-level market research projects in this post.
On your mark. Get set. Go! Here's 3 common projects to get started with if you are interested in dabbling in market research.
Option 1: Customer Survey
These are one of our most favorite methodologies and types of studies at our market research company. A customer survey is not only a good starting point for market research, but a good mid-point, and good end-point. There may not be a better type of study that provides more value or ROI for an organization.
A customer survey can be tackled through email, phone, or mail. Each offer their own unique pros and cons on cost, timeframe, quality of data, etc. A customer survey can tackle customer satisfaction, net promoter score (NPS), drivers to loyalty, competitive usage, customer profiles, and much more. It's an excellent starting point for market research.
Option 2: Image & Awareness Survey
Whereas the customer survey focuses solely on reaching out to gather customer opinions, an image and awareness study or brand equity study casts a wider net to the community or target market as a whole. An I&A study reaches out the general population to understand awareness of your brand, perceptions, word associations, usage of your product or service and competitors, and other key criteria.
This helps your organization better understand the other half of the puzzle: the non-customers. What would it take to get a non-customer to try your brand? What are the barriers to trying your brand? Where do competitors fall short? All of these questions can be answered through a simple I&A study.
Option 3: In-Depth Interviews (IDIs)
Finally, another option is simply conducting a series of in-depth interviews (IDIs) with your customers. This could be 8 to 25 interviews each lasting 15 to 25 minutes each. Whereas a survey is shorter and more direct with little open-ends, an interview conducted in-person or by phone can acquire more depth, details, and conversation around the customer experience.
These can be segmented by specific buckets: new customers, lapsed customers, high value customers, etc. Interviews are summarized and insights are pulled from the in-depth conversations. The IDIs help provide exploratory feedback while a survey is better at measuring.
Contact Our Market Research Company
Drive Research is a market research firm located in Upstate New York. Our team works with clients across the country in a variety of industries. Not sure where to get started with market research? Send us an email at [email protected] or call us at 315-303-2040.