What is market research?

September 17, 2021

Welcome to Attest Explains! In this series we explore the wonderful world of market research, to help you better understand it, use it and ultimately grow your business as a result of it.

So, what is market research?

For brand leaders, marketers and insights professionals, it’s the process of speaking directly to consumers at large, asking them key questions about their preferences, needs, and behaviours, so that you and your business can make better decisions about your future activities, products and services.

To compare market research to something tangible, imagine you’re planning a holiday, but you don’t know where to go. Now imagine you could easily and quickly ask a group of five hundred holidaymakers where they think you should go to get the best experience. That would be your own version of market research.

Why do I need market research, you may ask?

Think of any business. Let’s use Nike as an example. Whenever Nike launches something new, they need to know beforehand what people want, how it’s going to be received, and how successful it could be.

That’s why a successful brand like Nike will do extensive market research before, during and after launch.

So how does it work?

It’s all about finding out information directly from your target audience.

There are two main types of research: qualitative and quantitative research.

Through quantitative research you get insights from a much larger group of people, through things like surveys.

With qualitative research, you get a smaller amount of more original information, in the consumers’ own language, often through focus groups or personal interviews.

Once you’ve selected your type of research, you write your questions according to what you’re hoping to find out, you select the type of audience you want to speak to, conduct the research and wait for the results to come flying in.

Once your research is complete you can then analyse your results and take the insights back to your team. This is great because the insight you have is real, reliable knowledge directly from, and about, your target market.

The information you learn from your market research may or may not give you the answer you originally wanted or predicted, but it’s a surefire way to get the insights you need.