Market Research Methods

There are two primary types of market research: quantitative and qualitative.

Quantitative research is conducted with a large enough number of people to provide statistically accurate measurement and analysis. 

       Learn about these types of quantitative researchmethods for marketing:

• Customer satisfaction surveys
• Market research surveys that are done with 100 or more people.  
• Ad testing is specialized research to assess how effective an ad concept or finished ad is.  
• Usability research is generally considered projectable and statistically valid.
• Opinion polls. 
• Market tracking studies that measure ad and brand recall and brand popularity.

Qualitative market research is conducted with a small number of people, generally either through 1:1 interviews, focus groups, or by observing people to gather directional insights from customers and prospects. 

• Qualitative research is not statistically projectable because only a small number of people are part of these studies.  It’s used to generate ideas, understand answers to “how” and “why” questions and guide decision making. 
• Unlike quantitative research, qualitative research is less structured.  The interviewer, moderator or observer uses a discussion guide to explore and record various issues in-depth.  The discussion between the interviewer and the respondent is a conversation.  The respondents answers are recorded in a report and may also be audio or videotaped. 
• After interviewing (or observing) research participants, the researcher writes a summary of the insights gleaned and action recommendations.  This is not statistically projectable.  It’s consulting informed by the customer interviews or observations. 

        How-to guides on qualitative market research:

• Focus groups.  These are discussion groups made up of six to eight participants with a research moderator whose role is to guide the discussion.  Typically these are done in a research facility with one-way mirrors for clients to watch.  They can also be done in offices, conference rooms, trade shows or restaurants and bars. 
• 1:1 interviews are generally conducted in a research facility or in the participant’s home or office.  Other in-depth interview techniques include a paired interview (two people), a triad (three respondents) or a mini group of three to five people. 
• Mystery shopping where someone pretends to be a prospect or buyer and records their experiences.  
• Ethnography research is done by observing people’s behaviors (the human equivalent of what Jane Goodall did as an animal behaviorist with her observations of chimpanzees in their natural habitat). 

Newer market research methods

• This research is conducted online with specialized software. 
  
• It’s conducted with a large number of people (so it’s quantitative and projectable) but it uses more “open end” questioning techniques (vs. multiple choice). 
• It takes longer to analyze because someone needs to read all the answers people have given and determine what the key insights and action recommendations are. 
• To be done well, it requires people with expertise in both quantitative and qualitative research. 

TIP:  Messaging Research explains how different types of market research can be used to understand how to position (or "message") a product, service or company.  Since messaging is the foundation for all marketing and sales activities, this type of research is an excellent investment. 

There is also an emerging area of social media monitoring

This involves listening, learning and analyzing what people share and say about companies, products, brands, competitors on sites like Facebook, Yelp, MySpace, LinkedIn, CraigsList, YouTube, Twitter and all the hundreds of sites where people can post reviews and comments and participate in online forums. 

• Social Media Monitoring How-to Guide

What type of market research is best?

• That depends on your answers to these questions: 
  • What do you want to learn? 
  • What actions will you take based on the research?
  • How statistically valid does the research need to be? 

• If you are looking to “evaluate” and decide something that you will be spending a lot of money on (product design, advertising TV commercials, store location, packaging, new marketing campaign, how satisfied customers are) where there is high financial risk, invest in quantitative research.  In most situations you’ll want to do qualitative research first so you are using words and terms customers understand.    And that your multiple choice answers are the best ones (you haven’t missed something important). 

• If you want to get customer input, start with qualitative research (focus groups or 1:1 interviews) or a simple open-ended answer survey (qualy-quant). 

From our experience: “qual-quant” research is often the most actionable market research because it is both predictive and insightful about the “whys” and words people use.  The words customers and prospects use to describe the benefits of a product or service; why they like a brand; and what information they need to make a purchase decision is very actionable if these words and information are used in advertising and marketing campaigns.   And since this data is quantitative and gathered online, you will be able to analyze the findings by different target audience groups to further tailor your messaging and marketing programs.  Top Online Survey Suppliers lists the top companies that offer these services and their costs.

Know this: the biggest challenge in conducting quantitative research will be getting enough “sample” (a market research industry term for contact information for people who are qualified and who will respond to market research surveys).  The industry average is that only 1% of people contacted will complete market research surveys so you need a very large list of qualified respondents to complete a quantitative research study.  There are companies that specialize in recruiting people to participate in research and sell access to these people.  Finding Market Research Participants explains how this works and recommends reputable suppliers. 

 

TIP:  Research about what your customers and prospects think and want is always a good investment.  Best to start with some open-ended type of research and then learn from that what more you need to know. 

These articles should help you with market research methods