What's the first step to defining your market research project?

The critical step for market research is conducting an in-depth research in the perspectives of Target market Competitors & tenure Problem statement Business goals Approach plan Product strategy & launch Identifying the key stakeholders Buyer Persona Pricing strategy Implementation & Execution plan This will help build a clear roadmap for with higher chances of achievement

Before defining the research problem, define the business problem. Don’t assume stakeholders have done that. They often need help in identifying what the business problem is for the decisions they are trying to make. The problem may be a compound problem with many different issues that need to be prioritized and tackled in a systematic way to arrive to meaningful insights. Once the business problem is clear and prioritized, then translate it into a research problem.

It’s important to differentiate between the business and the research problem. The business problem will drive the research one. The business problem is, by nature, action-oriented. So the question “what can we do to increase customer satisfaction?” is a business problem. Managers will ultimately need to decide which research insights they need to take action on. The research problem is focused on information. “What is customer satisfaction right now?” Or “why are our customers dissatisfied?” are research problems - they will help provide those insights that managers need to take action. Researchers need to engage with decision-makers to understand which actions they’re willing to take and what their decision criteria is.

Many times, this becomes formulaic for researchers working with the same client over time. Change up the researcher for different results - even if they’re an expert in X or Y area.

I don't actually think there is anything called a 'research problem' because everything needs to be action orientated. Focused on the business need.

Research objectives should be tied to decision making and hypotheses behind it. For example, ask, why do you need to measure satisfaction level? What will you do with this information? Is the assumption correct that a higher NPS score (a common advocacy metric collected in satisfaction research) will lead to higher customer retention or new customer acquisition? Hypotheses about the value of certain information needed as indicated in research objectives may lead to unnecessary or misleading research. Sometimes, you need to start with exploring the validity of the hypotheses about what is needed to make the right business decisions.

An approach I've found helpful when defining my market research project is to understand the business context, then think from the end to the beginning in reverse order. Thinking about the end first (leveraging my prior experience as an Audit Analyst) helps me connect the study objective, business processes in place (My entrepreneurial experience comes handy here), available data infrastructure or how to find one to the expected project outcome. Put together, what you have is an actionable decision piece as an outcome of well thought-out statistical inquiry.

A common practice is to fill and try to ask more questions,information areas than is possible While market research is expensive and time consuming and hence the tendency, this should be avoided as it is counter productive. It makes the research not have a specific focus. Like when we were doing research on CInemas, we added everything from Food and Beverages to in-cinema experience to competition benchmarking. This made us achieve width and not deoth.

Define Your Research Questions: Formulate specific research questions that need to be answered to achieve your objectives. These questions should be clear, concise, and focused on the information you seek. For example, if your objective is to launch a new product, you might ask, "What are the key features customers desire in a product like ours?"

In context of material handling equipments, are you aiming to discover cost-saving opportunities, evaluate the demand for specific equipment, or assess market trends?

Commit to a budget first. That’s the main factor that will determine the research scope. Adjust expectations to your budget. If the budget is small, expect a small scope and possibly lower quality. Don’t expect to do more for less. If that’s your approach to research you will only do more in one aspect of the project, and will be forced to cut corners in everything else. There will be trade offs. Anybody promising otherwise is lying.

Two considerations are important What are the key questions you want answered? These need to be as objective as possible. The second is how you are going to use the findings? Lot of times I have seen a lot many questions being asked but never reported. This adds to both time and cost. So we need to be clear - if a question is not to be used it is not to be asked (good to know information is redundant unless that is a hypothesis to be proved). So for me it is quality data in time and within cost.

I disagree that budget comes first. Agree that there’s never enough. Figure out what you should do. Determine an appropriate methodology. If you’re not doing it in-house, get multiple competitive bids. You will be surprised how many vendors want your business. They may come up with approaches you hadn’t considered. Take advantage of the free expert advice that’s included in proposals. All proposals are negotiable anyway. Find a small set of vendors who can work within your budget over time. Or one who will give you a discount for a committed body of work. They like to allocate time and staff wisely. Then make a business case for the right project at right time with right budget. It can be the hardest part of the market research job.

Determine Your Target Audience: Identify the group of people or organizations that you want to study. This could be your current customers, potential customers, a specific demographic, or a particular market segment. Understanding your target audience is crucial for designing effective research.

In my opinion, to determine the scope of the project, one should have a comprehensive view of the major factors that affect the consumption of the product. For example, if culture, income, etc. have an effect on the use of a product, then the market research of a country should not be limited to one city, or even if it is limited to one city, it should be sure that that city is a comprehensive example for study.

Depending on the research goals, the order of methodology can be determined. For example, if you wish to first understand the thought process behind using a service, then a qualitative approach, such as an in-depth interview or running an online community could precede the quant. The survey can then be used to validate those thought processes and support them with numbers. While choosing a methodology, other aspects such as time, budget and client's preference should be considered as well.

Regarding research methods, nowadays most people, by default, think of market research as online surveys- create a questionnaire and send people the link. This works fine for most cases, but could be pretty limiting in cases of open ended questions, qualitative responses, and in case the respondent just cannot be bothered with filling out a survey. Just my perspective.

Ideally, use both qualitative and quantitative techniques. They tend to provide different perspectives on the same business and research problem. No research method is perfect. You need triangulation of insights across methods and data sources to solve a problem.

Select the research methods and techniques that will best help you answer your research questions. Common methodologies include surveys, interviews, focus groups, observations, and secondary research (using existing data and sources). The choice of methodology should align with your objectives and target audience.

With the experience of studying the international market, I can say that the study method is not only determined based on the purpose of the study, but also based on the culture or type of thinking and intelligence of a society. For example, in some countries, using an online questionnaire form does not work, and in some countries, it is the best method to collect information in the field of FMCG products consumption.

Make sure to share the research plan with internal stakeholders so they can help you course correct in case of the business problem priorities change. Business decision makers have a bias towards action and will try to move faster than the research making it less valuable if it comes too late. If the research doesn’t confirm what they already decided, it will be discounted, even if the decision is wrong. Egos a hubris will get in the way of accepting the evidence.

Estimate the financial and human resources required for your research project. Consider costs associated with data collection, analysis, and reporting. Determine whether you have the necessary in-house expertise or if you need to hire external researchers.

Remember; - Structure your questions to avoid biases - Don't let your hypothesis give you tunnel vision - Source insights from multiple sources - Mix methodologies, but be mindful of the what comes from where

Ask yourself - what does success look like in outputs of this project? What will ensure it’s findings live and breathe in the business, and what are the chances of it being filed away under the “nice to have” bucket and never actually actioned. If you can’t clearly define how you want to use it and what your utopia scenario outputs look like - then I’d suggest postponing the project whilst you figure that part out :)

Research planning can sometimes be superfluous and just exist as billable padding before real execution kicks in. No one needs 100+ hours of prep in today’s market.

What will be the actions taken based on the results? What are the potential result scenarios and planned actions? If there is no action that will be taken is the research needed at this point in time?

Market research still has important uses, but many companies already sit on a gold mine of data about their customers that can be examined to understand customer perceptions and predict customer behavior on a continuous basis. Market research can be essential for exploring territory that is new to your business, but machine learning can now uncover a continuous stream of critical customer perceptions and potential reactions to changes by analyzing transactions, website navigation, customer reviews, customer service transcripts, etc.