How to Conduct Market Research?

Have you been throwing spaghetti at the wall and hoping it sticks when it comes to business decisions? Do you want to know what your customers want or need?

Then it’s time to conduct market research. Market research involves gathering information about your target market and customers to help you with informed decision-making.

It’s like having a crystal ball that tells you the following;

• What your customers want.
• What your competitors are up to.
• What trends are emerging in your industry.

But where do you start?

Do you have to be a mind reader? Do you have to conduct interviews with people on the street? Or do you need to hire a research firm?

Don’t worry.

With the right tools and techniques, you can uncover valuable insights. Consequently, deliver unique value to your customers and stay ahead of the competition.

Table of Contents:

1. What is Market Research?
2. Why do Market Research?
3. How Market Research Works?
4. Types of Market Research
5. How to Conduct Market Research?
6. Example of Market Research
7. Benefits of Conducting Market Research
8. How to Create Market Research Analysis Report?
9. Wrap Up

What is Market Research?

Definition: Market research is the art of deciphering customers’ hidden desires, needs, and preferences. It’s a process of finding the missing puzzle piece that connects businesses and their target audience. Allowing them to understand each other better.

Why do Market Research?

Market research is essential for businesses and organizations as it provides valuable insights into consumer preferences, industry trends, and competitive landscapes.

Let’s discuss why do we need to do market research:

1. To Understand Customer Needs: Market research helps businesses gain a deep understanding of their target audience, including preferences, behaviors, and pain points.
2. To Identify New Opportunities: By analyzing market trends and gaps, organizations can identify new opportunities for product development, innovation, or service improvements.
3. For Competitive Analysis: Conducting competitive analysis allows businesses to benchmark their offerings, understand industry benchmarks, and develop strategies to stand out in the market.
4. To Optimize Marketing Strategies: Understanding consumer preferences enables businesses to tailor their marketing efforts effectively, ensuring a more significant impact on their target audience.
5. Customer Holding: By addressing customer needs and concerns proactively, businesses can enhance customer satisfaction, loyalty, and long-term retention.
6. Innovation and Adaptation: Continuous market research fosters innovation, helping businesses adapt to changing consumer expectations and maintain a competitive edge.

Market research is a powerful tool that empowers businesses to make informed decisions, stay competitive, and build lasting relationships with their target audience.

How Market Research Works?

Market research involves various methods such as online surveys, interviews, focus groups, and data analysis techniques. It plays a vital role in informing strategic business decisions, product development, marketing campaigns, and overall market positioning.

Types of Market Research

Market research involves various types of methodologies to gather information about consumers, competitors, and the overall business environment. Here are four key types of market research methods:

1. Exploratory research
2. Descriptive research
3. Causal research
4. Predictive research

Furthermore, let’s discuss the methods involve in doing above market research methods:

Face-to-Face Interviews

Conducted in person, this method involves direct interaction between researchers and participants. Face-to-Face Interviews helps in doing questioning and clarification of responses.

Focus Groups

Involves a small group of participants discussing a product, service, or concept under the guidance of a moderator.

Phone Research

Surveys and interviews conducted over the phone. They are effective for reaching a broad audience, especially for collecting opinions and feedback.

Survey Research

Administered through structured questionnaires to gather quantitative data. Surveys can be conducted online, in-person, or over the phone.

Online Market Research

Surveys, polls, and questionnaires conducted through online platforms. They provides a cost-effective and efficient way to reach a large audience.

Customer Feedback Surveys

Gathering opinions and feedback directly from customers. Offers insights into satisfaction, preferences, and areas for improvement.

These different types of market research methods can be used individually or in combination, depending on the specific goals, resources, and context of the research.

Benefits of Conducting Market Research

• Understanding the Target Market

Market research provides valuable insights into the target market, including demographics, preferences, and purchasing behaviors. By leveraging a marketing analytics platform, this understanding helps you tailor your offerings and marketing strategies to meet customer needs better.

• Identifying Opportunities

Market research helps identify new market opportunities and untapped segments. You can discover niche markets or emerging trends by analyzing market trends and consumer demands. Consequently, capitalize on these opportunities and gain a competitive advantage.

• Assessing Market Viability

Market research is vital before launching a new product or entering a new market. It helps assess the feasibility and potential success of the venture.

How?

It provides information on market size, competition, pricing, and customer acceptance, enabling informed decision-making and risk mitigation.

• Improving Decision-Making

Market research equips decision-makers with reliable data and insights, reducing the guesswork and uncertainty of business decisions. It provides a factual basis for strategic planning, product development, marketing campaigns, and overall business growth.

• Monitoring and Adapting to Market Changes

Markets are dynamic, and consumer preferences evolve with time. Market research informs you about market trends, customer expectations, and competition. This empowers you to adjust strategies, foster innovation, and maintain a competitive edge.

• Enhancing Customer Satisfaction

By understanding customer needs and preferences through market research, you can improve your offerings and customer experiences. This leads to increased customer satisfaction, loyalty, and positive word-of-mouth, which drives business growth.

• Mitigating Risks

Market research helps identify potential risks and challenges within a market. By understanding competitors, market dynamics, and customer behavior, you can anticipate and prepare for potential obstacles. Consequently, minimize risks and maximize opportunities.

How to Conduct Market Research?

The old saying goes, “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.” And when it comes to business, a solid plan begins with conducting thorough market research.

How do you go about this?

Let me help you navigate the choppy waters of the market research process with an example.

Example of Market Research

Let’s say you want to launch a hair salon. Therefore, you have to conduct market research to know what customers want. For this, you can conduct a market research survey consisting of the following questions.

• How important is the cleanliness and hygiene of the hair salon to you?
• How important is the overall ambiance and atmosphere of the hair salon to you?
• How important is the professionalism and friendliness of the hair salon staff to you?
• How important are the pricing and value for money of the services offered by the hair salon to you?

Then map the response scale below to each question.

1. Extremely Unimportant
2. Unimportant
3. Not Sure
4. Important
5. Extremely Important

Use Google Forms to create an efficient market research survey template by following the steps below.

• Log in to Google Forms using your Google account.
• Click the “Blank” button to open a new form.

• Select the type of question you want to use, such as multiple-choice, checkbox, or short answer.
• Type your Questions in the “Untitled Question” section. Write “Option 1” and choose “Add option” for more options.

• Click the “Send” button to share the form with the target audience.

• When you have collected sufficient responses, click the three vertical dots next to “Link to Sheets.”

• Select the option to download the responses as a.csv file.

How to Create Market Research Analysis Report?

Are you ready to unleash the power of Excel and transform your market research data into insightful charts?

Look no further than ChartExpo for Excel. The ultimate tool for creating dynamic and insightful visualizations that breathe life into your data.

With ChartExpo’s intuitive interface and powerful features, you can effortlessly transform raw data into captivating visual representations. Then glean valuable insights.

Say goodbye to tedious manual charting and hello to efficient data analysis with ChartExpo. Your gateway to unlocking the full potential of your market research endeavors.

Benefits of Using ChartExpo

• ChartExpo’s range of visualizations is so vast that you can choose the most suitable one for your data. This streamlines data analysis and presentation for maximum effectiveness.
• Thanks to ChartExpo’s intuitive user interface, creating insightful visualizations is a breeze, even without coding experience. Creating insightful, appealing survey charts has never been easier.
• ChartExpo’s customization options let you create unique visualizations with ease. You can personalize your visuals by tweaking colors, fonts, and styles to fit your preferences.
• ChartExpo is a cost-effective solution for your visualization needs. With a free 7-day trial and a $10 monthly plan, ChartExpo gives you great value for money.

How to Install ChartExpo in Excel?

1. Open your Excel application.
2. Open the worksheet and click the “Insert” menu.
3. You’ll see the “My Apps” option.
4. In the office Add-ins window, click “Store” and search for ChartExpo on my Apps Store.
5. Click the “Add” button to install ChartExpo in your Excel.

ChartExpo charts and graphs are available both in Google Sheets and Microsoft Excel. Please use the following CTAs to install the tool of your choice and create beautiful visualizations with a few clicks in your favorite tool.

Let’s say your survey yields the results table below.

How important is the cleanliness and hygiene of the hair salon to you?	How important is the overall ambiance and atmosphere of the hair salon to you?	How important is the professionalism and friendliness of the hair salon staff to you?	How important are the pricing and value for money of the services offered by the hair salon to you?
Extremely Important	Important	Extremely Important	Not Sure
Important	Extremely Important	Not Sure	Important
Important	Extremely Unimportant	Unimportant	Extremely Important
Important	Extremely Important	Extremely Unimportant	Extremely Unimportant
Unimportant	Important	Unimportant	Not Sure
Extremely Important	Extremely Important	Extremely Important	Unimportant
Unimportant	Extremely Unimportant	Extremely Unimportant	Important
Unimportant	Important	Not Sure	Unimportant
Extremely Important	Important	Unimportant	Extremely Unimportant
Extremely Important	Not Sure	Unimportant	Extremely Important
Important	Unimportant	Important	Unimportant
Extremely Unimportant	Unimportant	Not Sure	Extremely Unimportant
Not Sure	Important	Unimportant	Important
Not Sure	Extremely Important	Important	Unimportant
Unimportant	Not Sure	Unimportant	Extremely Important
Not Sure	Extremely Unimportant	Extremely Unimportant	Extremely Unimportant
Extremely Important	Extremely Unimportant	Important	Not Sure
Unimportant	Not Sure	Extremely Important	Extremely Important
Unimportant	Extremely Unimportant	Extremely Unimportant	Extremely Important
Extremely Important	Unimportant	Unimportant	Extremely Important

This table contains example data. Expect many responses and questions in real life.

• To get started with ChartExpo, install ChartExpo in Excel.
• Now Click on My Apps from the INSERT menu.

• Choose ChartExpo from My Apps, then click Insert.

• Once it loads, choose the “Likert Scale Chart” from the charts list.

• Click “Create Chart From Selection” button after selecting the data from the sheet, as shown.

• When you click the “Create Chart From Selection” button, you have to map responses with numbers manually. The Likert scale has this arrangement:

• • Extremely Unimportant = 1
  • Unimportant = 2
  • Not Sure = 3
  • Important = 4
  • Extremely Important = 5
• Once all is set, click the “Create Chart” button.

• ChartExpo will generate the visualization below for you.

• If you want to have the title of chart, click on Edit Chart, as shown in the above image.
• To change the title of the chart, click on the pencil icon that is available very next to Chart Header.
• It will open the properties dialog. Under the Text section, you can add a heading in Line 1 and enable the Show Give the appropriate title of your chart and click on Apply button.

• Let’s say you want to add text responses instead of numbers against every emoji.
• Click the pencil icon next to the respective emoji. Expand the “Label” properties and write the required text. Then click the “Apply All” button.

• Click the “Save Changes” button to persist the changes.

• The final chart will look as below.

Insights

• 50% of respondents consider cleanliness and hygiene crucial when choosing a hair salon, while 35% consider it unimportant. 15% are unsure if it matters to them.
• Regarding the atmosphere and ambiance, 45% say it is important, while 40% say it is unimportant.
• The professionalism and friendliness of the staff are deemed important by 30% of respondents. 55% do not consider it a significant factor.
• 45% value the pricing and value for money, while 40% do not.
• Overall, 43% find these factors essential in their decision-making process, while the same percentage do not.

FAQs

How do you conduct a research market?

To conduct market research, start by defining your objectives and target audience. Then, gather relevant data through surveys, interviews, and secondary research.

Lastly, analyze the collected information, identify patterns and trends, and draw insights to inform decision-making.

What are the essential skills required to conduct effective market research?

The essential skills for conducting effective market research include data analysis, survey design, research methodology, and critical thinking. Tools like Google Forms simplify survey creation and data collection.

Additionally, ChartExpo for Excel facilitates visually appealing data visualization for better analysis and presentation of research findings.

Wrap Up

Conducting market research is crucial for businesses and organizations seeking to thrive in today’s competitive landscape. It helps with adapting strategies, developing offerings that meet customer expectations, and staying ahead of the competition.

How to conduct market research?

Following a systematic approach, you can gather valuable insights into the target market, industry trends, and competition.

The process involves defining research objectives, selecting appropriate methodologies, and collecting relevant data through surveys and interviews. Ultimately analyzing the data and drawing actionable conclusions.

Effective market research requires various skills, including data analysis, survey design, research methodology, and critical thinking.

Fortunately, there are tools available to simplify the process. Google Forms streamlines survey creation and data collection, providing a user-friendly platform for creating surveys and gathering responses.

ChartExpo in Excel offers powerful visualization capabilities for presenting the findings in visually appealing and impactful ways.

Do not hesitate.

Get started with ChartExpo and take your market research data analysis to the next level.