Here are the handouts for the first Market Research for Beginners tutorial. The Market Research Process

1. Market Research For Beginners
Tutorial Series
Lesson One – The Market Research Process
By Sara Dobson

2. Overview – What are the 8 Steps in the Market Research Process
1. Define your business objectives
2. Define your market research objectives
3. Plan your approach
4. Define your target sample
5. Determine sample size
6. Design your questionnaire
7. Gather data
8. Analyse data and prepare your report.

3. Step One – Define your Business Objectives
• Start by defining the problem facing your business e.g.
• The number of customer complaints are rising
• Think about the strategic business decisions you need to make in order to address the
issues. An example of these could be
• Which changes should we make to our service options to improve the experience of
our customers.
• Try to sum up your business objectives in one or two sentences, for example
• To improve the satisfaction of our customers, and decrease the number of complaints
we get.

4. Step Two – Define Your Market Research Objectives
To ensure you collect all the data you need to make strategic decisions your research
objectives should be clearly defined.
Refer to your business objectives, and decide what information you require to make
your decision.
Example: The business objective: To improve the satisfaction of our customers,
and decrease the number of complaints we get
May translate into the following research objectives:
What drives customer satisfaction?
What service attributes are most important to our customers?
How well are we performing on these attributes?

5. Step Three – Plan Your Approach
• Think about what information is already available to you
• What information is still missing?
• What is the best way to obtain this information
• Do you need to start with a qualitative study?
• Do you need to do follow up quantitative research?

6. Step Four– Define your Target Sample
Start thinking about who you need to talk to, are they:
Your customers?
Competitor customers?
Potential customers?
How old are they?
Where do they live?
What channels do they buy through?
Where can you find them?

7. Step Five – Determine Sample Size
In order to determine the ideal sample size you need to consider the following:
• The margin of error you are willing to tolerate
• How many ways you want to cut the data, i.e. which subgroups do you want to compare
• Male vs. females
• 25 – 35, 35-45
• By State etc
• The budget you have available
Use one of the many free survey calculators available on the web.

8. Step Six – Design your Questionnaire
Five Steps to Designing a Questionnaire
1. Review your research objectives
2. Make a list of the questions you need to ask
3. Refine your questions
4. Ensure questions are in a logical sequence
5. Test your questionnaire
6. Pilot your questionnaire
7. Full launch using methodology of choice

9. Step Seven – Gather Data
Gather data using your chosen methodology.
• If you are carrying out your survey by telephone
send it to whoever is doing the interviewing
• If you are doing your own online study, program
your survey in a online survey tool and distribute
your link.

10. Step Seven – Analyse Data and Report Findings
Analysing Results
• The types of analysis you do depends very much on the way you collected
your data.
• Think about the way you want data to be grouped, i.e. how many subgroups you
want to look at or compare.
• Use a good software package such as SPSS, or excel.
Reporting your Findings
• Understand your audience
• Decide on the best format
• Refer back to your business and research objectives, and ensure all objectives are
answered in your presentation

11. Further Resources and Next Steps
Visit my website for more for more great hints and tips for setting up and running your own
surveys.
http://www.marketresearchforbeginners.com
For specific ideas on how to determine the ideal sample size go to
http://www.marketresearchforbeginners.com/how-to-determine-the-correct-sample-size/
Send me your comments and questions:
sara@marketresearchforbeginners.com
Follow me on twitter
@SaraDobson