Marketing research process guide

The Kodak camera should tell you all you need to know about the critical importance of doing effective market research.

For decades, Kodak was synonymous with photography, dominating the market. Just about everyone had a Kodak camera or used a Kodak film. Yet Kodak made the near-fatal mistake of not keeping up with market trends and fast-evolving consumer preferences, which meant it completely missed the move to digital photography. Now, photography has evolved into the digital age, with smartphones transformed into high-quality cameras.

Market research surveys help you identify, understand and ultimately engage with your target customers. They also provide vital insight into the broader market landscape and your competitors, as well as trends affecting your industry and consumers.

Yet the process can be intimidating. Where do you start? What is the quickest and most effective path to success? How can you be sure that your research will be accurate and generate actionable insights?

Success can be found by gaining a greater understanding of marketing research and then following an effective marketing research process to achieve your goals.

Marketing research encompasses a range of activities aimed at gathering information and data to help your company gain a better understanding of its target market. Once you've captured market research data, you can then leverage it to introduce or upgrade products, improve the customer experience, craft a sharper marketing position or help guide business decisions.  

Need help identifying your target market? We’re here to help. 

The marketing research process focuses on collecting insights from your target audience, such as their opinions and attitudes, that would help you evaluate current products and services or test concepts aimed at improving them. It can also gauge customer perceptions about your company. This is best known as brand tracking. 

Good marketing research has myriad benefits. At its core, marketing research replaces assumptions and go-with-your-gut decision-making with data-driven insights to inform smarter strategy and tactics.

The overarching benefit of marketing research is to gain a deep understanding of your customers or prospects so you can take actions that will resonate with them to build greater customer loyalty, increase engagement and, ultimately, grow your business. 

Data captured from surveys, interviews and other methods reveal customer behaviours that indicate why they buy particular products or take certain actions. Typically, most products are designed to solve a customer’s problem. The marketing research process gets to the root of those problems, paving the way to develop new products, services and support that connect with customers and help solve their challenges.

Try this additional resource: How to identify and reach your target market with surveys

A common focus of marketing research is concept testing: the process of determining whether a new product will be a hit with customers. 

Based on analysis of the data and information captured, your company can develop and execute a plan to launch a new product or service more effectively or refine their branding and marketing position.

Dove Soap's early 2000s ‘Campaign for real beauty’ offers a gorgeous example of effective marketing research delivering game-changing results. Relying on their internal research and insights from a global study, ‘The real truth about beauty report’ that found only 2% of respondents claimed to be beautiful.

The subsequent campaign aimed to redefine beauty, moving away from using professional models in their marketing to show women that they are naturally beautiful. The thinking was that if customers could see themselves in Dove's advertising, they would feel a deeper affinity for the company and its products.

The campaign was not only a huge win for Dove but also a catalyst for marketing with ‘real people’ for a wide range of consumer products and services.

Of course, there is a bottom-line benefit to marketing research as well. Marketing research saves time and money on wasted efforts by quantifying what customers want, how much they like the product and whether they intend to use it. And, if done right, it can help drive increased sales and profitability.

Learn how to test products, packaging, messaging, concepts and more. Market Research Solutions make it easy. 

The marketing research process follows a series of sequential steps that allow you to focus your efforts on understanding and addressing customer challenges. 

Market research is only as good as the information it collects. That’s why it’s critical to follow a step-by-step process, each step of which results in you gathering quality data that is accurate and actionable. The following six steps offer the roadmap to success:

1.   Define the problem. Focus on the core customer challenge to solve.

2.   Develop your research plan. Create a roadmap that includes identifying your target audience, as well as determining which research tools to use, and the timeline and resources for the project.

3.   Gather your information. Whether you use surveys, interviews or other methods, you will need to gather and organise your data. And you can rely on qualitative and/or quantitative data to help you get started.

4.   Analyse your data. Review the data for meaningful insights and home in on key points that will help inform your marketing campaigns and strategies.

5.   Develop a strategy. Determine how your business can shape your future products and services with the marketing research you’ve just done.

6.   Take action. Plan those next steps, which may include new product development, further concept testing, a new product launch or a fresh marketing campaign.

Savvy shortcut: SurveyMonkey’s market research resources offer a one-stop shop for key information, tools and resources to expedite your market research efforts.  

When it comes to executing an effective marketing research process, it’s wise to begin with the end in mind. In short, what do you aim to accomplish through your research? Clearly understanding the outcome you're aiming for will help you identify and frame the specific customer problems that you want to study and solve. Ultimately, you need to take a deep dive into the challenges and desires of your target customers so you can design products and position services that fully meet their needs and craft supporting messaging that resonates deeply with them.  

If you frame your problem too broadly, you will get vague a