How to do a well-founded Market Research step by step?

 

How to do market research? This is the main question that arises when deciding to start a business. Good knowledge of the market is indeed essential to the sustainability of a business.

Moreover, this guide aims to answer them by clarifying the 7 main steps to follow before you can launch a market.

Documentation: a step prior to market research

How to do a market study beforehand? The documentation precedes all phases of studies. Conducting studies to detect business opportunities in a market is no exception to this rule. Moreover, the foundation of any business project and all business creation ideas is even based on their feasibility study.

How to do market research based on documentation? The literature review consists of learning about everything related to the market in which you want to position yourself.

Before creating your online business business, therefore, you must collect all the information that can help you better understand the current market. The same goes for everything related to existing competition, the needs and expectations of your targets.

In this case, how to do a preliminary market study to succeed in creating a company and be able to make your project viable? Understanding the market is essential! You need to find out about the sector in which you work to analyze its situation in relation to the market environment in which you want to enter.

The presentation of the contract must also take into account the economic parameter and any other factors likely to influence it, including competition. So, in this case, how to do a complete market study as accurately as possible?

You can conduct this literature review both online and in the field. Note that this step is essential to have a more precise idea of the dynamics of the market and also to identify the expectations of your targets.

Once that's done, you need to ask yourself the right questions. Is the market buoyant? In which geographical areas do you want to operate? What customer profiles will you target? Have you identified their expectations? Are you really able to answer them?

Compared to market tools and existing offers, what additional solutions can you provide? Have you already planned a business plan to ensure the viability of your project?

Analysis of the various parameters likely to influence the market

How to do a market study according to the different parameters that are related to it? There are several factors that influence your market and you can do nothing but anticipate, prevent and control them. The best way to identify new markets and prevent the hazards that may arise from them is to do a PESTEL analysis.

How to carry out a market study according to the PESTEL analysis method? The term PESTEL refers to the top six factors most likely to influence the market.

In reality, it is an abbreviation: PESTEL (Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Ecological, Legal). Thus, a thorough understanding of these six parameters is important to undertake a rational, relevant and reliable market analysis.

How to do market research in relation to political factors? From a political point of view, you know full well that institutional stability is an important factor for the security of your investments. Indeed, as flourishing as they are, your activities as a micro-entrepreneur will not be able to prosper in the long term in a country where the political situation is unstable.

How to do a market study in relation to economic hazards? From an economic point of view, you must also be able to anticipate the hazards that may occur to protect yourself from the risk of bankruptcy. Your sole proprietorship will be able to prosper more easily in a country with a constantly growing economy.

On the social level, it will also be necessary that your business project and the business (see how to create an online business for more experience) that you want to launch respect social ethics. This aspect remains especially fundamental insofar as sooner or later, as a business manager, you will have to recruit staff regardless of the legal status of your future company.

How to do a market study according to the technological parameters?

From a technological point of view, it is necessary to provide all the necessary means to ensure the viability of your project. Technology is constantly changing. As a result, it could be that a project that now seems promising to you is struck by obsolescence after a few years.

This is often due to a compliance problem with the requirements of new technologies. Most business creators are confronted with it at one moment to another. In particular, because a solid and credible business plan has not been drawn up.

You can overcome this as a client. To do this, it is enough that you hire a professional to take care of the permanent technological watch of your business project.

From an ecological point of view, your project will also have to comply with environmental standards. This is imperative as everyone has a duty to limit their impacts to preserve our planet.

Legally, you know that everything must be strictly regulated regardless of the country where you want to start your business. So make sure that everything is in order from a legal, administrative and tax point of view to guarantee the sustainability and reliability of your business! If you have any doubts, ask for the help of a lawyer and an accountant!

Small note: You can also consult our guide which offers career ideas for your professional retraining.

Competitive analysis to understand how to do market research

How to do a market study compared to the competition? Competitive analysis is an indispensable process when conducting market research. Indeed, the competitive study is one of the most important steps in the analysis of the marketing environment in which you want to enter.

How to do primary market research? The primary study allows you to identify all the companies present on the market and more precisely in your sector. This market analysis process consists of two phases. The first is to go online to find out about all the companies that work in the same field as yours.

From this first step, you will already be able to have a global overview of the types of products and services offered respectively by your direct competitors. To be clear, however, you will absolutely have to go down on the ground.

You will certainly ask how to do market research and achieve it? The solution is quite simple, but you have to be resourceful.

First, find out about the trade shows your competitors plan to organize soon! Once this is done, introduce yourself to these shows and fairs as a simple prospect! Act like you're a "mystery shopper"! How to do a market study and succeed in this condition?

Pick up all the sales brochures! Take their surveys and fill out their questionnaire boxes as if you were a real consumer! You will see the result for yourself. Especially after having established a good comparison of offers of products and services. That is pretty much how you have to go about having a reliable and credible competitive study.

The qualitative survey and its importance in market analysis

How to do qualitative market research? Quantitative and qualitative studies are crucial to successful marketing analysis. Often too neglected, the realization of qualitative studies is nevertheless essential to conduct an in-depth analysis and succeed in anticipating many hazards.

Indeed, if you limit your investigation to a simple online search, you risk missing out on different factors that could compromise your project. In addition, the qualitative survey will allow you to clearly identify the needs of the consumers you intend to target.

How to do a market study that is both restrictive and qualitative? Whatever studies need to be carried out, you must have a perfect knowledge of the local market. The existing offers on the market evolve in relation to the needs of your future customers. When carrying out a study oriented in this direction, it will be essential to know the market and all its constraints.

Conducting a qualitative analysis allows you to bring value to your survey. The goal is to develop the market taking into account its constraints and related parameters.

There are a variety of qualitative survey techniques, but only two of them are practical, quick and simple to implement. The first is to conduct qualitative surveys on an individual basis. The second is to conduct a qualitative survey per group. In both cases, remember to target your future customers by segmenting them by profile!

See also: The complete guide to the niche market in detail

Quantitative survey for relevant market research

How to do quantitative market research? Quantitative and qualitative studies go hand in hand when studying the characteristics of a market, its main constraints and all the parameters related to it. Quantitative sampling is essential to establish a representative sample based on relevant statistics.

Moreover, quantitative marketing surveys serve as excellent supports to give relevance to your market research. Concretely, how to do a market study in a more in-depth way? In reality, after conducting extensive quantitative studies, you must be able to measure the impact of your marketing studies.

The main assumptions to be formulated

How to make a market study from the resulting figures? Remember above all to formulate your hypotheses starting from 4 main axes namely:

• The needs of your future customers: "X" % of French people prefer to use one type of product or service over another.
• The relationship between their needs and your offers: "X" % of smartphone users are inclined to make their purchases via my mobile application.
• The size of the market: "X" % of my targeted profiles show a lot of interest in my product or service offering.
• The price criterion: the people I surveyed are predisposed to pay "X" € for my product or service.

In any case, be aware that quantitative surveys condition the success or failure of your project. Thus, you must operate your customer analysis on the basis of several key figures. Similarly, you should develop your case study from a well-established representative sample.

These quantitative surveys will serve as a basis for you to study the products and services you intend to launch and promote. It will also be from these figures that you will be able to develop your questionnaire and divide it into two main parts: control variables and questions.

How to conduct market research while respecting the control variables? These variables result from information collected after sampling. This first phase consists of segmenting your customers by age, gender and profession. With this in mind, you must above all make sure that you have succeeded in targeting your customer profiles.

As for the questions, they must result from the assumptions made from the results of the various marketing studies you have conducted beforehand. Depending on your targeting, you can formulate your questions in three ways. Especially in the form of open-ended questions, closed-ended questions and semi-open questions.

Dissemination of the survey to reach and reach targets

Now that you have successfully refined and finalized your questionnaire, all you have to do is distribute it either online or physically in print. The first approach, however, seems economical and more practical. In addition, a large number of tools now allow you to create surveys for free online to name only:

• GetFeedback
• Google Forms
• SurveyMonkey

Also consider mobilizing your network to expand your distribution by using key channels such as email and social media. The ideal would be to hire a qualified influencer to animate your network and disseminate your online survey through your company Facebook page.

How to do a market study and succeed in easily disseminating your survey? To ensure a flawless implementation of studies, you must remember three points of vigilance:

• Set a response quota target based on your representative sample size.
• Do not complete your survey until you have reached a sufficient number of responses.
• Be careful to target your study markets and qualify your answers.

Analysis of the impact of studies for the development of a viable business plan

How to make a market study from its representative sample? After collecting a sufficient number of qualified responses, you can start analyzing the impact of your marketing surveys. Indeed, your response quotas once filled, you will be able to extrapolate them. Be careful, however, to broaden your representative sample!

How to make a realistic market study from a given sample size? A small sample size will be difficult to extrapolate because of the large discrepancies generated. However, this may make your investigation less relevant.

The problem with a small sample size also lies in the fact that it does not always allow you to carry out a realistic survey only on one condition. It will be necessary that all the answers obtained be qualified.

The extrapolation of your survey results can then allow you to develop a relevant and completely credible business model. From then on, you can also start developing your business plan, build a market, and consider creating a company.

How to do a market study to draw up a concrete business plan?

To be able to materialize everything, you will need to gather three important study variables, namely:

• The potential number of consumers likely to be converted into customers in a given geographical area as a result of your survey and geotechnical study.
• The amount of money (more or less exact) that your future customers are willing to pay to buy your products or services.
• The average frequency with which your future customers will buy these products and services through your store or brand.

How to make a viable and credible market study? Properly studying the viability of a business project is essential to create a promising market in the long term. The best way to do this is to set up relevant and reliable studies. All while taking care to establish several forecast elements in order to reduce the margins of error to the strict minimum.

Indeed, by extrapolating the results of surveys, you will multiply the three study variables to obtain a global overview of the potential of your market. However, in order to obtain a more realistic approach to investigations, you must establish a certain margin. Everything will depend on your extrapolation and the size of your sample.

How to do a sustainable market study? The market in which you want to position yourself will be likely to evolve over time. That's why you need to set these margins on a 5-year scale (at most) in order to get much more realistic revenue forecasts.