How to do market research

Steps and methods needed for market research

Although the division of market research steps by different researchers is "similar to tinkering around the edges", the differences can reflect the lack of understanding of market research by researchers. There are still some cognitive biases that I think need to be corrected in time.

It is misleading to divide such a complicated work as market research into several steps simply and clearly. But in order to communicate in writing, we have to do so. As for the division of work steps, it is also normal. However, I found that there are various deviations in the division of market research steps. When these deviations are common in newspapers and books, their misleading effect can not be ignored, and I think they should be corrected quickly. The following are the deviations of investigative steps in several markets:

One of the deviations: in order to pursue the concreteness of the steps, the steps of a special research method are regarded as general market research steps.

The most common way is to concretize the steps of questionnaire survey, which is called the steps of market research. It is easy for readers and colleagues who have just entered the business to mistakenly think that questionnaire interview is market research.

Common market research methods include secondary research, investigation and experimental research. Questionnaire interview is just one of the interview methods. If we are more serious, in fact, visiting relatives is just a technology to collect information, and there are already more research technologies that can be equal to it, such as observation, attitude scale, projection technology and in-depth interviews.

Colleagues with this cognitive bias may not have a comprehensive understanding of market research and know little about advanced research methods and technologies.

Deviation 2: elaborate on minor links and abandon important steps.

I have seen such a research scheme design. The first step is to "design and submit a research plan". I have seen such a research program. The first step is "customer demand", and the second step is "submitting plan proposal". I think these operators are people who do research on the basis of research, and they ignore the real purpose of market research.

The purpose of market research is to provide managers with effective information in order to make better decisions. The lack of "understanding the background" and "clarifying the research problems" in the design of the research scheme precisely reflects the reason why a large number of studies can not help managers make decisions at this stage.

I think the correct market investigative steps should be designed as follows:

1. Clarify the management decision-making problems faced by customers, that is, the understanding of the background.

This step is especially important when managers can't clearly understand and express their problems. Sometimes customers seem to have raised their own decision-making problems, but they still need to analyze them according to the background.

A famous automobile manufacturer in country H wants to invest in building a motorcycle factory in China. At first, their decision-making question was "Where is a good investment environment?" Taking Xiaoshan, Zhejiang as the research object, it is a research scheme of field investigation. But at the beginning of the investigation, it was found that their decision-making question should be "What is the motorcycle policy of the central and local governments in China?" , thus becoming a problem that can only be solved through second-hand data collection.

2. Turn the management decision-making problem into a market research problem, that is, the research problem is clear.

Management decision-making problem refers to the decision that managers have to make, while research problem refers to providing information that can help better decision-making.

A software developer in Zhejiang launched a tutor software, and at the same time began to face the decision-making problem of how much money to invest in market development. What information should the market research company help him collect? The question of this survey is: What is the number of home computers in China? What percentage of people are willing to buy tutoring software? What is the acceptable price of this software?

However, you may have found the problem. The first question should be changed to: How many home computers in China are using and equipped with supporting software? The second question should be changed to: What percentage are willing to buy genuine counseling software?

The clarity of research questions determines whether the research data is accurate and effective, and the operator who omits this important link in research design is the initiator of invalid research reports.

3. Design of research scheme.

Here, we should estimate the value of research information, determine what kind of accurate information to provide, choose the methods and measurement techniques for collecting information, determine the location, objects and sampling rules according to the research methods, and also determine the data analysis methods and report submission methods. Of course, time, cost and personnel arrangement are also indispensable. Finally, write all these contents into the research proposal.

4. Collect information on the spot.

The scene can be not only the home of the respondent, but also the business district, the monitoring room of our company, or even any suitable place.

5. Information processing and analysis.

It refers to the processing procedure of all information from the site to the project research manager before writing the report, and there will be different steps according to different research methods. For example, symposiums include reviewing, classifying, coding, sorting out audio and video tapes, supplementing, counting (semi-automatically), making charts, printing and archiving. Questionnaire methods include auditing, classification, coding, recording, missing detection, dimension statistics, making charts, printing and filing.

6. Formation and submission of reports.

The formation of analysis report is not immutable, especially many customers will submit interim reports after the completion of field work and before data processing. Some clients will ask the project manager to give an explanation speech, so they need a speech. These forms of reports are completely different from our traditional final reports.

7. Summarize the feedback.

This step is also the object that many colleagues "omit". It seems that the report was solved as soon as it was submitted, regardless of whether the real purpose of the survey was achieved or not, and regardless of the customer's opinions and suggestions on the survey. This not only makes you lose the opportunity for further promotion, but also often loses customers' orders.

Finally, I want to make it clear that we care so much about the design and division of market research steps, in order to let colleagues correctly understand that "the purpose of market research is to help enterprises solve problems, not to conduct research for the sake of research".