How to Research the Market Before Launching a Product or Service
Start by doing some qualitative market research., Based on the results, create a questionnaire in order to ask, confirm or invalidate what you have learnt from the qualitative market research., Then you need to find the respondents.
Step-by-Step Guide
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Step 1: Start by doing some qualitative market research.
You can do it with an agency or on your own.
You only need few people (between 5 and 10) from your target market (potential customers) so it is possible to DIY.
The only important thing is not to choose some people that you know.
This qualitative research has to be done in an objective and neutral way.
This research consists in talking in details about your project.
Its strengthens and weaknesses and the reason of them. -
Step 2: Based on the results
You can ask many different types of question but you have to think about he fact that you will have to analyse them after the administration (eg: open questions are hard to analyse as all answers are different).
This step is important to give you some figures, stats about your target market. , You need to survey a larger number of people from your market depending on their profile.
There is no perfect number of respondents to have but wider your target market is, more people you need to survey.
If your target market represents only a tiny percentage of the population then you don't need to ask many people.
Finding this data (the respondents) could be quite hard because it has to be neutral again and you will probably have to respect some quotas (have as many male as female or not, etc).
It's an essential stage in the business start-up process but many entrepreneurs don't do it
- not least because of the supposed cost.
Producing your quantitative research alongside an agency is a far more objective solution and is at last affordable to those with a small budget thanks to the online method. -
Step 3: create a questionnaire in order to ask
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Step 4: confirm or invalidate what you have learnt from the qualitative market research.
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Step 5: Then you need to find the respondents.
Detailed Guide
You can do it with an agency or on your own.
You only need few people (between 5 and 10) from your target market (potential customers) so it is possible to DIY.
The only important thing is not to choose some people that you know.
This qualitative research has to be done in an objective and neutral way.
This research consists in talking in details about your project.
Its strengthens and weaknesses and the reason of them.
You can ask many different types of question but you have to think about he fact that you will have to analyse them after the administration (eg: open questions are hard to analyse as all answers are different).
This step is important to give you some figures, stats about your target market. , You need to survey a larger number of people from your market depending on their profile.
There is no perfect number of respondents to have but wider your target market is, more people you need to survey.
If your target market represents only a tiny percentage of the population then you don't need to ask many people.
Finding this data (the respondents) could be quite hard because it has to be neutral again and you will probably have to respect some quotas (have as many male as female or not, etc).
It's an essential stage in the business start-up process but many entrepreneurs don't do it
- not least because of the supposed cost.
Producing your quantitative research alongside an agency is a far more objective solution and is at last affordable to those with a small budget thanks to the online method.
About the Author
Jessica Turner
A passionate writer with expertise in hobbies topics. Loves sharing practical knowledge.
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