{"id":2616,"date":"2021-09-11T19:57:42","date_gmt":"2021-09-11T19:57:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/porsline.com\/blog\/?p=2616"},"modified":"2021-09-11T19:57:42","modified_gmt":"2021-09-11T19:57:42","slug":"guide-to-conducting-market-research-surveys","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/porsline.com\/en\/blog\/guide-to-conducting-market-research-surveys\/","title":{"rendered":"A Step-by-step Guide to Conducting Market Research Surveys"},"content":{"rendered":"

Market research is the first step in turning the idea of a product or service into an acceptable commercial activity in the market. Companies that know how and when to use market research surveys<\/a> and successfully carry out the key market research stages have a valuable competitive advantage over their competitors in achieving customer awareness, which leads to their organic growth.
\nIn your opinion, what are the similarities between Phillips, Netflix, and Amazon? At first glance, one might say there are not any, as Philips was founded in the 19th century while there is no value to Netflix and Amazon without the internet.
\nHowever, the common factor among these companies is that they have grown because they understood customers\u2019 needs better than their competitors. The main reason for this growth is the strong belief in awareness-raising and the effective use of various tools so that the company can get better answers.
\nA better understanding of customers\u2019 needs is considered a strategic requirement, as the daily needs of clients change with the increasing growth of the markets, new technologies, and changing business models.
\nYet, many companies still spend a huge budget of money on old technologies or forget about this very important part of their work and progress based on assumptions and speculation.
\nIn this article, we will talk about the key market research stages and how to fully analyze the results of marketing research process activity.<\/p>\n

Why market research?<\/h2>\n

\"Why
\nIn his book \u201cMarket Research in Practice<\/a>\u201d, Paul Hague says:
\n\u201cGathering any kind of real information related to decision making can be considered as part of market research<\/strong>\u201d
\nHe also argues that in recent years, with the increasing use of market research, researchers have sought to use models that make their data more valid. Market research approach can be used to assess customer satisfaction<\/a>, customer loyalty to the brand or the NPS index survey<\/a>, advertising test<\/a>, market size, and resource share assessment, also, a new product test survey<\/a> to measure customer use and behavior towards this product, and identify optimal pricing strategies, the brand impact, and effective market division strategies.
\nPaul believes that there is a big difference between doing research on the general public and doing research on the real buyers from the company. He says market research is the intelligence that helps us make the most credible and right marketing decision<\/strong>.
\nIn general, we can say that small and large firms must conduct market research stages before breaking into a new market for the following reasons:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Market research helps you strengthen your position in the market. <\/strong>You must have heard the famous saying: \u201cknowledge is power\u201d. Use market research to better see the future and get a better view of your market and your clients.<\/li>\n
  2. Market research reduces investment risk. <\/strong>The ability to reduce the financial risk of your business is vital and necessary.<\/li>\n
  3. You will recognize potential opportunities and possible career risks. <\/strong>As you can determine your pathway risks in basic and secondary research.<\/li>\n
  4. Market research focuses on clients\u2019 needs and desires. <\/strong>There are many reasons why you put your clients first, as going through market research stages makes you gain a deeper understanding of the personality of your audience<\/a>.<\/li>\n
  5. Market research always keeps you ahead of the competition.<\/strong> With market research, you get to better know your competitors, make important decisions, and implement them before your competitors.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Principles of successful market research<\/h2>\n

    \"Market
    \nMarket research experts usually devote 4 to 8 weeks to market validation. Although this approach is still common in many businesses, this period of time is quite long for startup companies and entrepreneurs using QuickStart methodology, they must complete the full market search in a period of time ranging from 54 hours to a week! This time saving, which can be achieved through the use of a combination of an online survey and face-to-face interview methods has now been welcomed by many marketing managers and market research advisers around the world.
    \nIn a Market Idea Validation Questionnaire and Interview, you have to answer three questions:<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Who are the people included by the target market?<\/li>\n
    2. Is the idea of the product or service required and accepted?<\/li>\n
    3. How much money do people wish to pay for that?<\/li>\n
    4. Target market: You may have in your mind a perception of your clients and the target market even before defining the exact product or service. However, the truth is that you should not rely on intuition, speculation, and hypotheses, but rather you have to know the target market.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      Therefore, you should include in your survey questions to collect demographic information<\/strong> such as income, age, and gender if your company operates on a business-to-consumer model (B2C), or to collect information about the business companies<\/strong> such as the type of business, related industry, business role in business-to-business transactions (B2B), in addition to behavioral questions<\/strong> about the lifestyle or business style of the target market and the objectives of such businesses. This kind of question is called screening questions in market research.
      \nFor example, if your idea is an app, ask how and how long a mobile phone is used, and if your idea is a snack, ask about dietary habits so you can access your major audience while increasing the credibility of the results.
      \nCleverly ask 4 to 5 questions that you think will indicate people\u2019s interest in your idea. While writing questions in this section, think about how you can get to your audience:
      \nAre you doing this in actual social networks spaces? Through influencers? Or by means of stimulus and tempting offers?
      \nWhen the data-gathering phase is completed, you can use this information to classify and divide the market. You can also identify, with the information in the market research survey, individuals or groups who are motivated to do a face-to-face interview and examine the idea of a service or product more closely.
      \nOn Porsline, you can use the \u201c      Advanced Multi-Level Filtering<\/a>\u201d feature for market classification.<\/p>\n

        \n
      1. Demand for a product or service:<\/strong> To measure demand, ask first about a similar product or service and current competitors. Do people use competitive products? What are the weaknesses of these products or services? How and where did they first know about this product or this service?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

        Then describe the idea of your product or service and ask about the initial impact of this idea on the lifestyle or business in the target market. The idea can be described as a video clip or sentence, and people should be able to read your text in 20 seconds or watch the video in 40 seconds<\/strong>. The aim is to verify the validity of the idea and not to study the functional details, so briefly describe the idea of the product or service.
        \nThen ask your audience an evaluation question: How likely is it to buy this product or this service? By using the         \u201cAdd logic<\/a>\u201d feature, ask respondents, who answered \u201cno, absolutely not\u201d, why they did that.<\/p>\n

          \n
        1. Willingness to pay money (WTP): Use the Van Westendorp method to measure people\u2019s willingness to pay, ask four open-ended questions, including:<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n