how do you write a questionnaire for market research

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Market research questionnaire: examples and complete guide

How to make a market research questionnaire? What questions to ask?  When you do market research, the questionnaire is a must. So much so that  questionnaires and market research are often used interchangeably . However, it is only one step in a  complete process  that allows you to get closer to the truth of the market. In this article, we address all these issues and propose  complete examples in B2B and B2C to download .

For more real-life examples, we refer you to the website  etude-de-marche.online , where we list and comment on the questionnaires we find online. You can also find our guide to  writing your questionnaire here .

All about the market research questionnaire in 30 seconds

• The questionnaire is a market research technique . It aims to obtain a quantitative assessment that complements the qualitative view offered by techniques such as individual interviews or focus groups.
• Questionnaire and market research are too often considered interchangeable terms. It is essential to understand that we must combine several techniques to approach the reality of a market. The administration time for a questionnaire should not exceed 10 minutes . This corresponds to about 25 questions.
• The questionnaire is divided into 3 distinct parts : 1) the introduction, 2) the questions specific to the market research, and 3) the collection of information on the respondent’s profile
• 5 questions are recurrent in any market research questionnaire: screening questions, buying habits, needs, buying intentions, and pricing.
• A B2C market research questionnaire will differ from its B2B counterpart. The latter will focus more on competitive aspects, the decision cycle, and the price currently paid by the company.

What is the place of the questionnaire in global market research?

Duration and number of questions not to exceed, the 3 parts of a market research questionnaire, how to adapt your questionnaire for b2b market research.

• Example of B2C market research questionnaire
• Example of B2B market research questionnaire

Download other examples of market research questionnaires

Understanding a market involves approaching it from several angles. Classically,  market research is done in 3 phases :

• desk research (or documentary research)
• qualitative research
• quantitative research (via questionnaire)

To know more about the market research process, visit our free online guide . You can browse the right infographic, representing the global method we have conceptualized. The questionnaire section is #6.

Most questionnaires are now administered in the form of online surveys. As far as our market research firm is concerned, we have to admit that it has been a long time since a customer asked us to conduct a face-to-face administration (on the street, for example) or by post.

We advise our customers  never to exceed 10 minutes and 25-30 questions . This avoids problems such as:

• Attrition : Respondents give up along the way when the questionnaire is too long.
• Fatigue : questionnaires that are too long will tire respondents, who tend to be more distracted and answer poorly. The quality of the answers will be inferior, and your results will be less reliable at the end of the questionnaire.

Two examples to download are waiting for you at the end of this article.

Questionnaire and market research are too often considered interchangeable terms.

In this paragraph, we propose to go through the ideal structure of a market research questionnaire:

• Introductory text
• Recurring themes
• Respondent profile

Part 1: The introductory text

Your questionnaire can start with a short introduction presenting the purpose of the market research. It should not be too long but clear enough for the respondent to understand:

• what do you want to ask them about
• what they will gain from it
• how much time will it take
• what will be done with their data (on this subject, consider reading this article on the  problems posed by the cloud act in market research questionnaires )

Part 2: questions specific to the market research

In B2C and B2B, some themes are almost always present in all market research questionnaires. There are 5 of them:

• screening of the respondent
• buying habits
• purchase intention

As you can see, these questions follow a certain logic. You will first check that the respondent has the right profile to answer (screening), then ask them about their buying habits (the current situation) before moving on.

We propose the following table to give you an overview.

Part 3: Questions about the respondent’s profile

You will finish your questionnaire by asking questions about the respondent’s profile. Age, sector of activity, gender, etc., are all variables that will allow you to cross-reference the results and better segment your target population. Here is a non-exhaustive list of the control variables we use most often in our research.

B2B (for products or services sold to companies):

• company size
• sector of activity
• hierarchical position of the respondent
• geographical location (postal code, region, country)

B2C (for products or services sold to individuals)

• family status
• level of research
• household income

In a B2B context, a market research questionnaire must undergo certain adaptations.

These concern, of course, the questions on the respondent’s profile . Demographic aspects are little important in B2B. However, the hierarchical position, the company’s size, and its sector of activity must be recorded.

Above all, the questions asked will be different. You will probably have to ask more questions to determine the company’s current practices and gather information on the competition. In this respect, B2B market research will also be interested in the price currently paid by the company if it already has a competing solution. In a B2C context, this price aspect may be less important, especially if it is a regular purchase. Do you remember the price of everything you buy in the supermarket as a consumer?

In the B2B context, you will also have to put more emphasis on decision-making . In B2C, the consumer decides alone most of the time. In B2B, this is never the case because there are procedures to follow within any company.

Example of a B2C market research questionnaire

The questionnaire below concerns research on car purchases by individuals. It is, therefore, B2C market research. It includes 26 questions. You can find the internal instructions (in blue) that we put to check that the programming of our questionnaire is correct.

Example of a B2B market research questionnaire

The questionnaire you will find below concerns research on hygiene in companies. It is therefore intended for a professional audience. You will note that we have provided an explanatory text (in blue) for some questions. This is a good practice when the question is complicated or needs to be contextualized.

Many examples of market research questionnaires are available on our dedicated website,  www.etude-de-marche.online . You can find the complete questionnaire, all the questions, and our explanations and reviews in the video.

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How to conduct your own market research survey (with example)

After watching a few of those sketches, you can imagine why real-life focus groups tend to be pretty small. Even without any over-the-top personalities involved, it's easy for these groups to go off the rails.

So what happens when you want to collect market research at a larger scale? That's where the market research survey comes in. Market surveys allow you to get just as much valuable information as an in-person interview, without the burden of herding hundreds of rowdy Eagles fans through a product test.

Table of contents:

What is a market research survey?

Market surveys are what's known as "primary research"—that is, information that the researching company gathers firsthand. Secondary research consists of data that another organization gathered and published, which other researchers can then use for their own reports. Primary research is more expensive and time-intensive than secondary research, which is why you should only use market research surveys to obtain information that you can't get anywhere else. 

A market research survey can collect information on your target customers':

Experiences

Preferences, desires, and needs

Values and motivations

The types of information that can usually be found in a secondary source, and therefore aren't good candidates for a market survey, include your target customers':

Demographic data

Consumer spending data

Household size

Why conduct market research?

Here are some examples of how market research surveys can be used to fill a wide range of knowledge gaps for companies:

A B2B software company asks real users in its industry about Kanban board usage to help prioritize their project view change rollout.

A B2C software company asks its target demographic about their mobile browsing habits to help them find features to incorporate into their forthcoming mobile app.

A printing company asks its target demographic about fabric preferences to gauge interest in a premium material option for their apparel lines.

A wholesale food vendor surveys regional restaurant owners to find ideas for seasonal products to offer.

Primary vs. secondary market research

Market surveys are what's known as "primary research"—that is, information that the researching company gathers firsthand. Secondary research consists of data that another organization gathered and published, which other researchers can then use for their own reports. 

Primary research is more expensive and time-intensive than secondary research, which is why you should only use market research surveys to obtain information that you can't get anywhere else. 

If you've exhausted your secondary research options and still have unanswered questions, it's time to start thinking about conducting a market research survey.

6 types of market research survey

Depending on your goal, you'll need different types of market research. Here are six types of market research surveys.

1. Buyer persona research

A buyer persona research survey will help you learn more about things like demographics, household makeup, income and education levels, and lifestyle markers. The more you learn about your existing customers, the more specific you can get in targeting potential customers. You may find that there are more buyer personas within your user base than the ones that you've been targeting.

2. Sales funnel research

With a sales funnel research survey, you can learn about potential customers' main drivers at different stages of the sales funnel. You can also get feedback on how effective different sales strategies are. Use this survey to find out:

How close potential buyers are to making a purchase

What tools and experiences have been most effective in moving prospective customers closer to conversion

3. Customer loyalty research

The demographics of your most loyal customers

What tools are most effective in turning customers into advocates

What you can do to encourage more brand loyalty

4. Branding and marketing research

The Charmin focus group featured in that SNL sketch is an example of branding and marketing research, in which a company looks for feedback on a particular advertising angle to get a sense of whether it will be effective before the company spends money on running the ad at scale. Use this type of survey to find out:

Whether a new advertising angle will do well with existing customers

Whether a campaign will do well with a new customer segment you haven't targeted yet

What types of campaign angles do well with a particular demographic

5. New products or features research

What features they wish your product currently had

What they think of a particular product or feature idea

6. Competitor research

Whether your competitors have found success with a buyer persona you're not targeting

Information about buyers for a product that's similar to one you're thinking about launching

Feedback on what features your competitors' customers wish their version of a product had

How to write and conduct a market research survey

Once you've narrowed down your survey's objectives, you can move forward with designing and running your survey.

Step 1: Write your survey questions

A poorly worded survey, or a survey that uses the wrong question format, can render all of your data moot. If you write a question that results in most respondents answering "none of the above," you haven't learned much. 

Categorical questions

Also known as a nominal question, this question type provides numbers and percentages for easy visualization, like "35% said ABC." It works great for bar graphs and pie charts, but you can't take averages or test correlations with nominal-level data.

Multiple choice: Use this type of question if you need more nuance than a Yes/No answer gives. You can add as many answers as you want, and your respondents can pick only one answer to the question. 

Checkbox: Checkbox questions add the flexibility to select all the answers that apply. Add as many answers as you want, and respondents aren't limited to just one. 

Ordinal questions

This type of question requires survey-takers to pick from options presented in a specific order, like "income of $0-$25K, $26K-$40K, $41K+." Like nominal questions, ordinal questions elicit responses that allow you to analyze counts and percentages, though you can't calculate averages or assess correlations with ordinal-level data.

Dropdown: Responses to ordinal questions can be presented as a dropdown, from which survey-takers can only make one selection. You could use this question type to gather demographic data, like the respondent's country or state of residence. 

Ranking: This is a unique question type that allows respondents to arrange a list of answers in their preferred order, providing feedback on each option in the process. 

Interval/ratio questions

For precise data and advanced analysis, use interval or ratio questions. These can help you calculate more advanced analytics, like averages, test correlations, and run regression models. Interval questions commonly use scales of 1-5 or 1-7, like "Strongly disagree" to "Strongly agree." Ratio questions have a true zero and often ask for numerical inputs (like "How many cups of coffee do you drink per day? ____").

Ranking scale: A ranking scale presents answer choices along an ordered value-based sequence, either using numbers, a like/love scale, a never/always scale, or some other ratio interval. It gives more insight into people's thoughts than a Yes/No question. 

Matrix: Have a lot of interval questions to ask? You can put a number of questions in a list and use the same scale for all of them. It simplifies gathering data about a lot of similar items at once. 

Example : How much do you like the following: oranges, apples, grapes? Hate/Dislike/Ok/Like/Love

Textbox: A textbox question is needed for collecting direct feedback or personal data like names. There will be a blank space where the respondent can enter their answer to your question on their own. 

Step 2: Choose a survey platform

Most survey apps today look great on mobile, but be sure to preview your survey on your phone and computer, at least, to make sure it'll look good for all of your users.

If you have the budget, you can also purchase survey services from a larger research agency. 

Step 3: Run a test survey

Before you run your full survey, conduct a smaller test on 5%-10% of your target respondent pool size. This will allow you to work out any confusing wording or questions that result in unhelpful responses without spending the full cost of the survey. Look out for:

Survey rejection from the platform for prohibited topics

Joke or nonsense textbox answers that indicate the respondent didn't answer the survey in earnest

Multiple choice questions with an outsized percentage of "none of the above" or "N/A" responses

Step 4: Launch your survey

If your test survey comes back looking good, you're ready to launch the full thing! Make sure that you leave ample time for the survey to run—you'd be surprised at how long it takes to get a few thousand respondents. 

Even if you've run similar surveys in the past, leave more time than you need. Some surveys take longer than others for no clear reason, and you also want to build in time to conduct a comprehensive data analysis.

Step 5: Organize and interpret the data

Tips for running a market research survey.

You know the basics of how to conduct a market research survey, but here are some tips to enhance the quality of your data and the reliability of your findings.

Find the right audience: You could have meticulously crafted survey questions, but if you don't target the appropriate demographic or customer segment, it doesn't really matter. You need to collect responses from the people you're trying to understand. Targeted audiences you can send surveys to include your existing customers, current social media followers, newsletter subscribers, attendees at relevant industry events, and community members from online forums, discussion boards, or other online communities that cater to your target audience. 

Focus questions on a desired data type: As you conceptualize your survey, consider whether a qualitative or quantitative approach will better suit your research goals. Qualitative methods are best for exploring in-depth insights and underlying motivations, while quantitative methods are better for obtaining statistical data and measurable trends. For an outcome like "optimize our ice cream shop's menu offerings," you may want to find out which flavors of ice cream are most popular with teens. This would require a quantitative approach, for which you would use categorical questions that can help you rank potential flavors numerically.

Establish a timeline: Set a realistic timeline for your survey, from creation to distribution to data collection and analysis. You'll want to balance having your survey out long enough to generate a significant amount of responses but not so long that it loses relevance. That length can vary widely based on factors like type of survey, number of questions, audience size, time sensitivity, question format, and question length.

Market research survey campaign example

Let's say you own a market research company, and you want to use a survey to gain critical insights into your market. You prompt users to fill out your survey before they can access gated premium content.

Survey questions: 

1. What size is your business? 

<10 employees

11-50 employees

51-100 employees

101-200 employees

>200 employees

2. What industry type best describes your role?

3. On a scale of 1-4, how important would you say access to market data is?

1 - Not important

2 - Somewhat important

3 - Very important

4 - Critically important

4. On a scale of 1 (least important) to 5 (most important), rank how important these market data access factors are.

Accuracy of data

Attractive presentation of data

Cost of data access

Range of data presentation formats

Timeliness of data

5. True or false: your job relies on access to accurate, up-to-date market data.

Survey findings: 

63% of respondents represent businesses with over 100 employees, while only 8% represent businesses with under 10.

71% of respondents work in sales, marketing, or operations.

80% of respondents consider access to market data to be either very important or critically important.

"Timeliness of data" (38%) and "Accuracy of data" (32%) were most commonly ranked as the most important market data access factor.

86% of respondents claimed that their jobs rely on accessing accurate, up-to-date market data.

Insights and recommendations: Independent analysis of the survey indicates that a large percentage of users work in the sales, marketing, or operations fields of large companies, and these customers value timeliness and accuracy most. These findings can help you position future report offerings more effectively by highlighting key benefits that are important to customers that fit into related customer profiles. 

Market research survey example questions

Your individual questions will vary by your industry, market, and research goals, so don't expect a cut-and-paste survey to suit your needs. To help you get started, here are market research survey example questions to give you a sense of the format.

Yes/No: Have you purchased our product before?

Multiple choice: How many employees work at your company?

<10 / 10-20 / 21-50 / 51-100 / 101-250 / 250+

Checkbox: Which of the following features do you use in our app?

Push notifications / Dashboard / Profile customization / In-app chat

Dropdown: What's your household income? 

$0-$10K / $11-$35K / $36-$60K / $61K+

Ranking: Which social media platforms do you use the most? Rank in order, from most to least.

Facebook / Instagram / Twitter / LinkedIn / Reddit

Ranking scale: On a scale of 1-5, how would you rate our customer service? 

1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5

Textbox: How many apps are installed on your phone? Enter a number: 

Market research survey question types

Good survey apps typically offer pre-designed templates as a starting point. But to give you a more visual sense of what these questions might look like, we've put together a document showcasing common market research survey question types.

Use automation to put survey results into action

Related reading:

This article was originally published in June 2015 by Stephanie Briggs. The most recent update, with contributions from Cecilia Gillen, was in September 2023.

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Amanda Pell

Amanda is a writer and content strategist who built her career writing on campaigns for brands like Nature Valley, Disney, and the NFL. When she's not knee-deep in research, you'll likely find her hiking with her dog or with her nose in a good book.

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Market Research Survey: The Complete Guide

This process involves gathering primary (self-conducted) and secondary (information already researched and made available) sources, to fully assess how a business will fare within a particular market and audience.

A market research survey is typically a source of primary information that businesses can use as part of their market research campaigns. It can also exist as a secondary source, in which case, its studies and results are published online or in a print publication.

This article will take a close look at the market research survey, so that you can use it to the optimum benefit for your business.

What Can you Achieve with Market Research?

A market research survey, as its name entails, is used for research purposes. Before we dive into all the aspects of this survey, it is apt to learn how you can use market research to your full advantage.

Market research is critical for a variety of purposes, including marketing , advertising , and branding campaigns. 

Aside from providing data-based support for these macro purposes, market research gains you invaluable insight into particular markets. For example, you may consider running a research campaign for the retail market . Market research will help you gather all the relevant information pertaining to this specific market.

Aside from retail, you can conduct market research in a number of verticals, including ecommerce , technology, real estate and many others.

There are plenty of other applications for market research. Here are some of the ways to use market research to your advantage:

• Observe data to prepare for challenges in advance
• Gauge the demand for your product or service
• Learn key market trends and staples
• Discover how your competitors are winning or losing
• Uncover your target market’s desires, preferences, aversions and thoughts

The final point is remarkably crucial for market research and for generally keeping your business afloat. And so, we’ll now dig deep into the market research survey, as this tool is especially useful for this purpose.

Defining a Market Research Survey

This tool is the most commonly used market research method — and for good reason. A market research survey allows you to gather data on your target market. Moreover, it allows businesses to do so by accessing any insights they need, as long as they form corresponding questions to their investigation.

Surveys have a far-reaching history, as they date back to ancient civilizations such as Greece and Rome. There was a surge in survey use in 1930s America, in which the government sought to understand the economic and social state of the nation.

Surveys have taken up a variety of forms, including analog forms, such as paper and mail-in formats . 

Telephone surveys were the medium of choice for survey research during the 1960s-90s. But, as technological advancements would have it, those have declined in usefulness as well.

In the present day, surveys are conducted online, particularly through the use of designated software platforms. This type of software has paved the way for easy access to primary research. 

Businesses can use online survey software and tools and to carry out all their survey research (save for creating the screener and questions). Many such tools available both allow you to build surveys along with deploying them. 

To reiterate, market research surveys are powerful tools, in that they empower businesses to ask any question they choose to better understand their market and consumer base. They also can offer key insights into competitors. 

The Components of a Market Research Survey

This tool contains two major components: the screener and the questionnaire . These form the bulk of the insights your primary research will gather.

There are also two auxiliary components to incorporate to make your survey research successful. These include the call-out (introduction) and the thank you message (conclusion).

Unlike the essential components, the need to use these will vary based on your survey deployment method and campaign. For example, an emailed survey won’t require a call-out, as the email itself serves this purpose.

A web or mobile survey, on the other hand, will need a call-out to get the attention of your respondents. 

Here is a break-down of each component, beginning with the essential elements:

• These conditions often deal with demographics, which is incredibly important, as you would need to first and foremost, survey your target market. The screener will ensure it is only your target market that takes part in the survey.
• The screener is often comprised of 2-3 questions.
• The questionnaire should ask all the necessary questions you need for a particular campaign or sub-campaign. Or, if used in a preliminary stage of your market research, they can deal with questions particularly designed to segment your target market.
• If respondents are contacted via email, the call-out is in the email’s body, inviting participants to take it, listing why it’s important, its length and what it’s used for.
• If the survey exists within a website (either as a banner, or button), the call-out is the clickable element itself (the button/banner to the survey). It too should explain the survey to respondents.
• If the survey is on a website/app, the call-out has to be visible and attractive enough for users to notice it and click on it.
• The survey often routes users to another page with a thank you message. 
• It’s important, as it lets participants know that their survey has in fact been submitted.

How to Create a Market Research Survey

Here are a few steps to take into consideration when starting on a market research survey project.

Step 1: Find a topic your business needs to learn more about.

This is particularly important if it is a topic that has little to no secondary sources. In this case, opting for a survey is the best way to learn more about it firsthand, from the people who matter most: your target market. Pay attention to any problems your business may experience, as surveys should help resolve them. 

Step 2: Consider the topic in regards to your target market

When you’ve narrowed down a problem or two, think about your target market. Do you know who constitutes it? If yes, tailor your survey topic into a subtopic that they’ll be most likely to respond to. For example, if your target market is middle-aged men who watch sports, consider whether your problem/topic will be relevant to them.

If you don’t know your target market, you should conduct some secondary research about it first, then perform market segmentation (surveys can help on this front too).

Step 3: Find the larger application of the survey campaign

Now that you’ve settled on a topic/problem and decided on whether it’s fitting for your target market, consider what the parent campaign of the survey would be. Let’s hypothetically say your topic is related to a product. Would a survey on that topic benefit a branding campaign like finding your next slogan? Would it be better suited to settle on a theme for an advertising campaign? 

Once you find the most appropriate application or macro campaign to house the survey, your market research will be organized and your survey will be better set up for success.

Step 4: Calculate your margin of error

A margin of error , in simple terms, is a measurement of how effective your survey will be. Expressed as a percentage, it measures the difference between survey results and the population value.

You need to measure this unit, as surveys represent a large group of people, but are made up of a much smaller group. Therefore, the larger the margin of error, the less accurate the opinions of the survey represent an entire population. 

Step 5: Create your survey(s)

Now that you’ve calculated the margin of error, start creating your campaign. Decide on how many surveys you would need, in regard to your margin of error and your market research needs. 

Start with a broader topic and get more specific in each question. Or, create multiple surveys focused on different but closely related subtopics to your main topic.

Send out your surveys through a trusted survey platform. 

Questions to Ask for Various Campaigns

The steps laid out above are part of a simple procedure in developing a market research survey. However, there is much more to these steps, especially that of creating the survey. 

Namely, you would need the correct set of questions, as they are the lifeblood of a survey. With so many different survey research campaigns and purposes, brainstorming questions can seem almost counterintuitive. 

To avoid information overload and any confusion that creating a survey may incite, review the below question examples. They are organized per campaign type, so you can discern which questions are most suitable for which corresponding research purpose.

Questions for Branding

Branding campaigns include efforts that build the identity of your business; this includes gathering data-backed ideas on logos, imagery, messaging and core themes surrounding your brand. You can use these when embarking on a new campaign, revamping an existing one or when you’re looking to change your brand’s reputation and style.

• Which of these brands do you know?
• What do you like most/least about this brand?
• Which idea is more important? (Use an idea behind setting up your brand’s image/style)
• Which images do you find the most inspiring? (To compare images you’ll use in your marketing/ definitive to your brand)
• What do you like about [brand]? (Can be open-ended)

Questions for Advertising

Using market research for advertising will help you obtain ideas for new advertising campaigns, testing already established campaign ideas and predicting the success of new ones.

• How would you rate the motivating power of this ad?
• Which of the following ads resonate the most with you?
• Do you remember this ad? (Name and image/video of a popular ad within your industry)
• How do you feel after watching this ad?
• What kind of use do you think this product/service produces?

Questions for Comparing Yourself with Competitors 

Studying your competitors is often associated with secondary research, but you can gain intelligence on this topic through your own survey research. The great thing about surveys is that you don’t have to focus on one competitor when managing these surveys.

• How often do you use this product/service?
• Which brand do you use for this product/service? (Include one open-ended answer).
• Which of the following products (same kind, different brand) do you find the most useful?
• What about [competitor product] would you like to see change?
• Which brand has improved your life? (Include one open-ended question).

Questions for Market Segmentation

This application is possibly the most challenging, as it involves understanding who your target market already is, then further segmenting it. We understand coming to terms with your target market first, before narrowing it any further down.

Here is how to segment your target market; you’ll notice that the questions are much more granular than the typical questions associated with each topic. (Ex: demographics typically ask for race, age, gender, income, etc).

• Demographic segmentation: Which of the following groups do you identify with most closely? (It can involve anything from music, to shopping habits, to lifestyle choices)
• Geographic segmentation: Which of the following areas do you typically spend time in to make physical purchases?
• Psychographic segmentation: How do you feel about retailers who test their products on animals?
• Behavioral segmentation: How often do you buy this kind of product?
• Sentimental segmentation: How do the following [practices, images, actions] make you feel?

Securing the Most Benefits Out of Your Market Research Survey

As we can deduce from this guide, the market research survey is a critical tool for market research . There is so much to discover about your industry, competitors and chiefly, your customers. But before making any hasty decisions, it is vital to peruse all your research documents, not just the primary research ones, such as surveys.

When you combine primary and secondary research sources, you’re setting up any business move for greater success. 

That’s because market research involves studying more than one source. It may appear daunting, but with the right tools, you can design better products, innovate on existing products, appeal to a wider audience and gain more revenue from your marketing efforts. 

Thus, pair your market research survey with other research means for a lucrative market research campaign. Knowledge truly is power. 

Frequently asked questions

What is a market research survey.

A market research survey is a survey used for conducting primary market research and is the most commonly used market research method. Market research surveys help you understand your target market, gathering data necessary to make informed decisions on content creation, product development, and more.

What are the components of a market research survey?

There are 4 major components in a market research survey. First, we have the callout to get digital visitors to participate in a survey. Next is the screener which determines who is eligible to take the survey based on their demographics information and answers to screening questions. Then, there is the questionnaire—-- this is the heart of the survey, containing a set of open-ended or closed-ended questions. Lastly, there’s the callout. This introduces the survey to respondents. Next, there’s the thank you message. This acts as the conclusion to the survey.

How can you create a market research survey?

Creating a market research survey starts with identifying the topics your business needs to learn more about. Next, you consider topics within the context of your target market and find the larger application of the survey campaign. Calculate your margin of error and then create your survey using online software.

What types of questions should you ask on your market research survey?

You can ask branding related questions to gather information on how your identity of your business is perceived. You can also ask questions that spark ideas for new advertising campaigns. To supplement your secondary research on competitors, ask questions about your business’s place in the industry. Questions can also be used for market segmentation. These are questions on demographic, geographic, psychographic, behavioral and sentimental topics.

How can you get the most benefits out of your market research survey?

You can get the most out of your market research survey by using the correct online survey platform-- one with specific audience targeting for real consumers, radius targeting and quality screening questions-- you’ll get relevant answers from the right audience.

Do you want to distribute your survey? Pollfish offers you access to millions of targeted consumers to get survey responses from $0.95 per complete. Launch your survey today.

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How to Develop an Effective Market Research Questionnaire

As a technical editor in market research, I edit and review my fair share of questionnaires. We, as a firm, also spend a lot of time thinking about how to make questionnaires better. If your company is exploring how to conduct market research, you’re probably thinking about this, too.

When conducting customized market research for your organization , quantitative surveys and qualitative discussion guides are among the most effective tools at your disposal.

Surveys will help you collect data to validate or disprove the hypothesis your research was designed to answer with regard to product usage and attitude , channel behavior, brand awareness , and market opportunities. 

Getting the maximum value from a questionnaire, however, hinges on how it is developed. It’s important to tailor not only the focus of the survey but also the style of questions to your focused objective. 

How Long Should a Survey Be?

In assessing how to develop an effective market survey , one of the first decisions you will need to make is in regards to the length. What is the appropriate length for a questionnaire?

It seems logical that once you have gone to the trouble of developing a survey and distributing it to important clients or stakeholders, you would want to gather as much data as possible. However, that’s not always the case. 

Think back to a time when you have been subjected to a long questionnaire. You probably reached a point where you lost focus and then blindly clicked through the remainder of the questionnaire just to get it over with. This is a well-documented phenomenon known as respondent fatigue.

When respondents start to lose motivation and attention during an excessively long survey, their answers no longer reflect their genuine thoughts on a given issue—such as familiarity with certain brands or how they feel about your different product ideas—and, therefore, don’t provide meaningful data. To avoid respondent fatigue and gather quality data, ensure your questionnaire can be completed in 15 minutes or less.

It is far better to have people’s full attention for a short questionnaire than their wavering attention for a long one. Think quality over quantity when it comes to data. A limited survey is also valuable because it informs and guides your organization’s decision-making on one key finding or objective, rather than splitting attention across all issues at all times.  

5 Tips for Creating Effective Market Research Surveys

Beyond length, there are many nuances involved in questionnaire-writing based on what aspect of the building products industry and your company in particular you need answers about, as well as who you are asking to complete the survey. In general, you can improve the quality of your market research survey by abiding by these key principles:

1. Select Your Overarching Research Category

Driving successful strategies as a building materials manufacturer often means gaining deeper insights into four critical areas: customer, brand, product and market. Before you begin to develop your questionnaire , you must identify which category your research falls into, a central question to guide the project, and whether you are in need of qualitative or quantitative data to answer that question. From there, you can create more effective survey questions that get to the heart of the matter and provide truly pertinent data.

You may primarily use open-ended questions or closed-ended questions, or a combination of both. Rating scales are also a popular class of questions to incorporate into a survey when you’re asking participants to rate abstract concepts , such as the reasons they choose a product, the qualities they associate with a certain brand, their likelihood to recommend one of your products or their level of satisfaction with a particular product. If you’re trying to gauge the response to a new product prototype, you might even include a task- or activity-based question that is more interactive.

In general, when conducting quantitative research, which is more numbers-based and definitive, you will want to prioritize closed-ended questions that don’t provide as much leeway for varying interpretations. For qualitative research, which is more descriptive and observational, open-ended questions are highly appropriate.

It also depends on what, exactly, you are researching. For example, if you’re trying to measure unaided brand awareness versus aided brand awareness, you would want to include an open-ended question that asks the respondent to list what brands they are familiar with in regards to a particular product—rather than presenting them with a set list and asking them to choose from it.

2. Focus on One Key Objective For Your Research

A focused questionnaire yields more meaningful results. Before writing a questionnaire, jot down the central questions you want to answer with your research, based on the research category you selected at the start. That question might be, “How do consumers perceive our brand of paint?” or “What is our brand share of the total market?” or “Where are customers going to purchase these products?”

Make a list of the information you need in order to answer your key question. For the above example question about paint brands, this information might include respondent demographics, overall paint brand awareness, the qualities that respondents associate with your paint brand, and the available distribution channels for paint. 

Then, for each item in this list, brainstorm additional questions that will help you gather the information. For brand awareness, you might have respondents list paint brands they can recall or pick brands they recognize in a list.

If you are exploring a question related to market sizing, you would want to include questions about how often the respondent is in the market for your particular product and how much they spend on that product in a given year.

As you review your questions, ask yourself whether each one helps you answer your central question. If a question is not related to the fundamental issue, throw it out. Keeping your questions targeted is the hardest part of designing an effective questionnaire.

3. Write Question Stems that are 20 Words or Less

Respondents’ time and attention are limited. If confronted by a wordy question, people are not likely to read and understand the full question. To that end, keep your questions—whether open-ended or closed-ended—to 20 words or less.

You can often shorten a question by moving parts of it to the answer choices. Here is an example:

First draft of question:

Do you typically select a brand first and then shop at a retailer that carries that brand, or do you select a retailer first, then buy a brand they carry?

a. Select brand first

b. Select retailer first

Revised and simplified question:

Do you typically…?

a. Select a brand first, then shop at a retailer carrying that brand

b. Select a retailer first, then purchase a brand they carry

The revised version of the question is clearer and takes less time to read. It will be easier to understand, with the bonus of cutting down on questionnaire time and preventing respondent fatigue. Using precise language and avoiding compound questions also mitigates the risk of respondents interpreting the question in different ways. This leads to deeper insight and greater accuracy for your market research.

Additionally, writing questions in a conversational tone makes them shorter and easier to understand. One way to write conversationally is to read your questions aloud and ask yourself: If I were asking someone that question in a one-on-one conversation, would I say it that way?

4. Avoid Using Large Grids

Again, this comes down to people’s limited time and attention. Most people don’t have the patience to read every single element in a large grid and provide an authentic response in each row.

Consider this: If you ask respondents to assign each element in a 20-attribute list to one of five brands, you are actually asking them 100 separate questions. Almost no one has time for that.

For the sake of your data (and the sake of respondents), pare down the number of attributes in grids. Maybe there are three attributes and three brands that most pertain to your central question, allowing for a nine-question grid. Using this nine-question grid will yield clearer and more accurate results than the 100-question grid.

5. Clarify Your Units for Quantitative Data

This is simple but important, especially for open-ended questions that seek to gather quantitative data. If you ask on your survey, “How long have you been a general contractor?” some respondents may answer, “Since I was 32,” “Not long,” or “Since February 1989,” rather than quantifying it in years. It’s better to ask, “How many years have you been a general contractor?” instead. This way, everyone will specify a number and refer to the same unit, and the data will be much easier to analyze. Further, your data may correlate into trends by length of time and yield better insights for understanding your buyer personas.

In general, keep in mind that different stakeholders may also have different interpretations of abstract concepts like budget-friendly vs. expensive, what is “often” or “rarely,” or even levels of satisfaction. When you’re trying to measure elements related to price or frequency of purchase and use, it’s good to provide clarity and avoid any phrasing that could be deemed as “subjective.”

Utilize a Partner for Market Research

Another way to improve your questionnaire is to partner with a market research firm . Unless you’re a professional researcher with industry expertise and respondent knowledge, it can be daunting to write an effective questionnaire that gives your company critical insights. If you need help creating an effective questionnaire, and analyzing all the data afterward, The Farnsworth Group can help. 

Whether you’re focused on product development or better understanding current path to purchase trends among DIYers versus Pros, or other questions within the construction and home improvement markets at large, you will gain actionable recommendations based on our decades of building products industry knowledge to address your nuanced business objectives.

Market Research Survey Questions Examples to Include in Your In-App Surveys

Have you ever wondered if you are wasting your resources because you don’t know your customers well enough? Some good market research survey questions examples can help you understand your customers better.

Market research survey questions are the key to thoroughly understanding user sentiment . With the help of market research, industry and company-specific data can be analyzed to obtain valuable insights.

In the article, we’ll discuss how you can create the right market research survey questions and 40+ market research questions you can ask your target audience.

• Market research is an organized effort to collect information about your ideal customers and their needs and preferences.
• Market research questions are questionnaires sent to potential users or existing customers to collect feedback .
• Market research surveys help you better understand your target market , optimize pricing, gain insights, learn about market trends, and do competitive analysis.
• To write survey questions, set clear market research goals, write straightforward questions, and send targeted surveys at the right time.
• The market research survey questions examples discussed here are used for knowing the demography, understanding brand perception, collecting user feedback, doing competitive analysis, prioritizing product development, and analyzing product pricing .
• Userpilot lets you create various in-app surveys code-free, trigger surveys across different stages of the user journey, and analyze responses .

What is market research?

Market research, or marketing research, is an organized activity of collecting information about your ideal customers and their needs and preferences.

Market research helps businesses identify and understand their target audience. It’s crucial for developing business strategies and creating a competitive advantage. For example, user feedback on a new product helps in improving the product’s design.

What are market research questions?

Market research questions are a questionnaire sent to potential users or existing customers to get their feedback on a specific topic.

Whether you want to identify your target market, get customer feedback, or understand user perceptions about your brand or product, market research questions offer the best insights.

Why do you need market research surveys?

Market research surveys offer a multitude of benefits. They allow you to:

• Better understand your existing customers and your target audience: This helps in product development and improvements to boost customer satisfaction.
• Optimize your pricing for your target market: Market research helps you know the expectations of your target market to create optimal pricing strategies .
• Gain customer insights regarding your product or service: Both prospective and existing users provide their feedback on your product or service and may also share their opinions on what needs to be improved.
• Learn about market trends: You can stay updated on relevant trends in the market to upgrade your product and develop marketing campaigns accordingly.
• Perform competitive analysis and work on your unique value proposition: Market research lets you assess your strengths and weaknesses relative to competitors and develop a unique selling point for your product.

How to write market research questions?

If you ever struggle with writing market research questions or need to refresh your memory before getting started, you can always refer to this post. You only have to follow three simple rules.

Set clear market research goals

The first step is to set clear market research goals. Since there are multiple types of market research surveys, it’s imperative to stay aligned with specific research goals for each survey.

Once you identify the problem you want to solve, a goal-setting framework helps to frame how the market research questions are written out.

For example, you may want to get customer feedback and thus create a market research survey to gain customer insights into improvement areas. You ultimately want to increase conversion by 10% by the end of the year.

SMART goals are a highly structured framework for establishing clear, precise goals. It takes a systematic approach to focus your strategies in the right place and improve your productivity.

The SMART acronym stands for specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound.

Write clear market survey questions

Keep your questions short and simple to ensure high response rates. The answer options should also be easy to understand.

Use close-ended and open-ended questions to collect quantitative and qualitative data, respectively.

Don’t use biased or leading questions by designing them in a way where you expect a positive or negative response.

Moreover, it is best to avoid double-barreled questions. Here’s an example: “How do you think this [feature name] improves the usability and competitiveness of this product?”

This reduces the quality of the feedback because people would give the same answer for ‘usability’ and ‘competitiveness’ although they are two different issues.

Ask the right market research questions at the right time

Make sure you ask the right market research questions to the right audience at the right time. Surveys should be contextual so users don’t feel bombarded with questions irrelevant to their use case.

Customer segmentation lets you understand how different users interact with your product. Therefore, segmenting users based on shared characteristics will help you send targeted survey questions at the right time.

Suppose you want to survey your new users. Since they are at the initial stage of the customer lifecycle, it’s best to ask them demographic questions in the welcome survey included in the welcome screen.

In another example, you can ask product experience questions after a specific interaction with the customer support team to measure customer satisfaction.

40+ Market research questions to ask your target audience

Now let’s check out the market research survey questions examples. There are six major types of market research questions.

• For knowing the demography
• To understand brand perception
• For collecting user feedback on your product or service
• For competitive analysis
• To prioritize product development
• For analyzing product pricing

Demographic questions

Demographic questions are used to learn about your target market’s age, gender, occupation, company role, etc. These questions help you segment target customers based on their user persona or jobs to be done.

Here are some examples.

• What is your current occupation?
• What is your job title?
• What is the name of your company?
• Please specify the number of employees that work in your company.
• Please specify your age.

Marketing survey questions to understand brand perception

These questions are needed to gauge brand awareness and how customers perceive the value of your brand. One example is an NPS survey to understand user sentiment and loyalty.

Some examples of marketing survey questions are:

• Describe [brand name] in one sentence.
• How do you feel about this brand?
• Do you currently use the product of this brand?
• Which of the following products have you tried? (Select all that apply)
• How did you hear about us?
• Would you recommend [brand name] to others based on our current features and attributes?
• On a scale of 1 to 10, how likely are you to recommend this brand to colleagues or friends?
• Of all the brands offering similar products, which do you feel is the best brand?
• Please specify what makes it the best brand for you in the category.

Marketing research questions to collect feedback regarding your product or service

These questions help you understand user perception and identify the necessary changes to be made in the product development cycle. This lets you improve your product and in turn, enhance the customer experience .

For instance, you can use a customer satisfaction score (CSAT) survey to know how satisfied customers are with your in-app self-service support.

Examples of marketing research questions include:

• Have you heard of [product name] before?
• How would you feel if [product name] was no longer available?
• What feature did you expect but not find?
• How are you planning to use [product or service]?
• How satisfied are you with the product?
• How disappointed would you be if you could no longer use [product/feature name]?
• Rate our product based on the following aspects:
• Have you faced any problems with the product? Specify below.
• According to you, In which area is this product/service lacking the most? Specify below.
• Please rate the following product features according to their importance to you.
• How often do you use [product name]?
• How long have you been using [product name]?
• When was the last time you used [product name]?
• How does the product run after the update?

Questions to ask existing and potential customers to perform competitive analysis

These market research questions enable you to analyze your relative position to competitors and devise strategies to gain a competitive advantage.

Examples include:

• Which product/service would you consider as an alternative to ours?
• How would you compare our products to our competitors?
• Rate our competitor based on the following:
• Compared to our competitors, is our product quality better, worse, or about the same?
• Have you seen any website/product/app with a similar feature?
• Please list the top three things that persuaded you to use us rather than a competitor.
• Why did you choose to use our [product] over other options?
• Which other options did you consider before choosing [product name]?
• According to you, which brand best fits each of the following characteristics?

Market research questionnaire to prioritize product development

To prioritize product development, you must work on new features your target customers will love. For instance, you can send a feature request survey to know how you need to improve your value proposition and match key consumer trends.

Some examples are:

• Would you purchase this product if it were available today?
• What feature would you like to see in the product?
• Would implementing [this feature] increase the usability of the [product name]?
• Which feature do you think will help improve the product experience for you?
• Please let us know how we can further improve this feature.
• What was your first reaction to the product?
• Of these four options, what’s the next thing you think we should build?
• What feature can we add that would make our product indispensable for you?
• What problem would you like to solve with our product?

Questions to analyze your product pricing

You can ask the following market research questions to analyze your pricing strategy. Thus, you can set optimal, competitive prices for your subscription plans.

• According to you, what should be the ideal price of the [product name]?
• According to you, what is the ideal price range for the product?
• Would you purchase the product at [price]?
• Is our product pricing clear?

How to create market research surveys in-app with Userpilot

Userpilot is a product growth that includes onboarding, product adoption, and product analytics as its major functionalities. So let’s see how you can create in-app market research surveys with Userpilot and get actionable insights.

Create different in-app surveys code-free

Userpilot lets you create a wide variety of in-app surveys , such as CSAT, NPS, PMF, and feature request surveys. You can even customize these surveys to reflect the style and colors of your brand, all code-free.

With Userpilot, you can add both close-ended and open-ended questions. For example, you can add qualitative follow-up questions to NPS surveys to know the reasons behind a particular score.

The image below shows a product-market fit (PMF) survey. You can add different formats to each survey for customization.

Trigger surveys at any point in the customer journey

You can send automated surveys by setting triggers at different stages of the customer journey .

This allows you to identify friction and drop-off points and address these areas to improve customer satisfaction. Moreover, you can analyze user perception at multiple stages, e.g., during awareness, conversion, and loyalty campaigns.

Use custom events to group several events together. It lets you trigger the survey after a custom event has been completed.

Collect feedback and analyze responses

Userpilot lets you tag and analyze qualitative responses in their dashboard. It offers in-depth insights into your target customers.

Below, you can see the various NPS response tags and the score for each of them.

Wrapping up

Want to get started with market research? Get a Userpilot demo and see how you can use these market research survey questions examples to analyze data and create effective marketing strategies.

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How to conduct a market survey that works

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Knowing your audience is the backbone of success whether you’re a small business or a household name. And to know your audience, you need to do some all-important market research. But what’s the best way to go about doing that? Well, the easy answer is to use our market research platform to get on-demand insights into your existing audience and your potential customers.

But, if you want to take the long route, you could conduct a good old fashioned market research survey yourself.

What is a market research survey?

We’re glad you asked. A market research survey is a way of gaining information, insights, and attributes about your target consumers, so you can better understand them and what makes them tick. These surveys are typically conducted by market research companies . More information means more knowledge, which leads to more understanding – helping drive more successful campaigns.

But market research surveys don’t just help you improve your targeting and create campaigns that have impact. They provide valuable insight into the feelings, attitudes, and preferences of your audience – guiding everything from concept testing and launching new products, to brand positioning and customer satisfaction.

But what does it really take to conduct a market survey that works? Let’s get into it.

1. Set a clear goal 2. Know who to survey 3. Get help from survey-savvy people 4. Figure out the best way to get answers 5. Focus on the execution 6. Understand analysis is the answer 7. Uncover the bigger picture

1. Set a clear goal

Start by setting a clear objective of what you want from your market research. This will be determined by your marketing goals. If you’re launching a new product, for example, you’ll want to know what the demand is, how aware people are of your existing products/brand, if they currently use a competitor, and how frequently they buy.

Be precise about the outcome you’re looking for so you can get the answers you need to nail your future marketing campaigns .

• Why are you doing the survey?
• What do you want to find out from your research?
• Is it for product improvements with an existing audience?
• Are you looking to launch a new product into the marketplace and therefore need to know if there’s sufficient demand?
• Are you looking to improve your customer experience?

Knowing what you want to find out will help you identify what information you need. And it’ll help you determine whether a qualitative or quantitative approach works best.

The aim is to find out what your customers are looking for and improve satisfaction with your brand. 

Uncovering consumer attitudes could reveal some invaluable insights that will guide your strategy with the customer at the heart.

2. Know who to survey

Market research starts with identifying which market you’re targeting. Who’s your audience? Are you looking at existing customers? Or are you looking to find out more about potential customers? 

Think back to your goal here. Keeping in mind what you’re looking to achieve from your market research can help guide who you survey. For example, if you want to build on your customer offering by introducing a priority service, you may just want to gather information from people living in a certain area or earning over a certain amount.

Use regional data to attain precise information about the target customer whose data you need, and narrow it down to support your ultimate goal. 

Determine key demographics of your target audience like where they live, their age, gender, or income bracket. You’ll also need to establish the market size of your target market in order to calculate your sample size.

3. Get help from some survey-savvy people

Who knows about surveys? We do. 

We teased this at the start, but turning to an existing, ongoing survey (or multiple) could save you a helluva lot of time – and money. So if you need a faster way to understand digital consumers, we give you an on-demand window into their worlds. All in a few quick clicks, in one reliable audience insights platform.

GWI data spans 53 markets and represents over 2 billion internet users, making it the world’s leading market survey on digital consumers. 

We provide a level of detail you can’t find elsewhere. Survey research is tricky. So why not leave it to the market research experts? And if you want something super bespoke for your business needs, our Custom research offering might be just the thing. 

4. Figure out the best way to get answers

Cast your mind back to steps 1 and 2. Thinking about who you’re looking to survey and what you’re looking to gain will help determine how you get those answers from the right target market. 

Knowing the difference between primary research and secondary research, as well as qualitative and quantitative, can go a long way to helping you figure out the best approach. 

For example, primary market research is where you gather data that hasn’t been collected before – it’s new, essentially. You can gather primary research via surveys or observations. On the other hand, secondary market research is where you gather data that’s already been collected or conducted before by other people. You can find secondary research in published reports or studies. 

Surveys can be carried out in a number of ways, no longer exclusive to telephone surveys and focus groups. The online survey is another option that allows you to take a step away from the time-consuming paper survey. You can also conduct market research in groups or on an individual basis. 

Once again, the optimum approach for your brand will depend on your goals and the information you’re trying to capture, as well as your target audience, market share potential, and overall preferences.

If you want to gather in-depth information from Gen Z , for example, you might want to head over to Instagram. With 28% of Gen Zs saying that Instagram is their favorite social media platform, you’re most likely to find them scrolling here where you can try out polls to get answers, and  ask follow-up questions that dig a little deeper.

Using quantitative panel data to back this up, market researchers can come away with powerful insights and market analysis they can trust.

 5. Focus on the execution

Once you’re clear about your goals, the data you want, the people you need to talk to, and the best way to gather your survey data, it’s important to maximize the sample size. 

This means reaching people at the right time, checking out where they’re likely to be, and setting a realistic timeframe for them to share their thoughts.

You’ve got to really keep your target audience in mind here. If you’re physically interacting with people, think about the places they’re likely to visit, and at what times they’ll be there. There’s no use setting up camp at the mall on a weekday if you’re looking to talk to corporate big fish.

If it’s an online survey, understanding which social media platforms or websites they are likely to hang out on, and at what times they tend to be online is vital to getting those survey form completion numbers to hit the high notes. 

Conducting some data analysis ahead of the survey can go a long way in helping make the survey easier to reach the right audiences. Take the guesswork out of your marketing research.

6. Analysis is the answer

Once you’ve gathered your market survey responses, they need to be analyzed thoroughly to pull out key trends and findings to allow you to gain some tasty, actionable insights from the data. So, what do you need to be looking at?

• Examine qualitative answers for stand-out quotes and detailed feedback about attitudes and behaviors
• Calculate averages from your quantitative answers
• Compare your results against global and local secondary market research

There are plenty of ways to cross-examine and analyze your market research data based on the type of data you’ve collected and what you’re looking for.

7. Uncover the bigger picture

Conducting a single market research survey is invaluable to brands, but when carried out in isolation, market research can lack real-world relevance.  

To get more from your analysis, large-scale market survey data allows you to compare your findings across multiple data points. You can cross-reference it with local subgroups and compare against global averages to clearly see where the value truly lies.

Use case: Identifying affluent consumer behaviors on social media

Here’s a hypothetical example. Let’s say you sell a luxury product. You’ve identified from your own survey results and analytics that social media is prominent in your customers’ lives. 

But you need more detail to target high-earners on the channels where they’re most active.

By using a deep data set to dig down into their activity on social media, you can uncover exactly where they spend their time:

Combining this with questions designed to reveal their motivations for using social media takes your understanding to the next level:

Here, 30% of affluent consumers follow/subscribe to companies and brands they purchase from, so we’re more inclined to say they can be targeted with a good social media strategy from brands to be enticed into buying from them. 

Uncovering insights like this is key to delivering a well-positioned message that sticks. 

Now, you can create a campaign specifically targeted to hit your ideal target market, where they hang out and in a way that speaks to their interests.

Market research surveys are pivotal to success

Market surveys can be used in a variety of ways to help a brand focus more on its target audience and take a more people-based approach.

You can use it to get a better understanding of the perceptions around your brand, test the appetite for a new product, and find customer demographics to accurately pitch an ad campaign. A marketing research survey enables you to gather information about your audience and help to build a buyer persona for each sector of your target audience for more personalized, effective marketing strategies.

Data holds the answers you need to achieve almost every business goal.

But data is powerless without effective analysis. And without effective analysis, no insights can be drawn. So it pays to have third-party survey data sets at your disposal to contextualize your findings. A skillfully-planned market survey that catches customer feedback and experience will deliver findings that could spell the difference between success and failure in a marketing strategy. Leveraging GWI’s data platform means getting clued up on your audience fast, and making decisions you can stand behind.

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How to do market research: The ultimate guide+ survey template

• Sep 11, 2021

Before David Darmanin, CEO of Hotjar, was able to launch his successful start-up company, he had destroyed two other former companies. In both these failed companies, he and his colleagues took months to design and build remarkable products, but every time they would fail. David attributed these successive failures to a lack of understanding of the market needs. When it came to Hotjar, they decided to start doing market research and marketing research and looking at the real needs of consumers from the early stages. Based on the same market research process, they were also able to improve their business continuously. If you are also one of those managers who want to sell their products and have the results of their efforts come to success, you must have a deep understanding of your potential customers, your business market, and your own consumer behavior. That is why you have to implement some marketing research techniques. In this article, you will find the complete guide for the market and marketing research surveys, where many of your questions will be answered. You can start your market research survey right now using the Porsline market research platform and its market research survey templates. To get started, sign up on Porsline !

What is market research? (Market research definition)

Market research , also known as market study , is the process of collecting data about the characteristics of each business, commercial activity, the target audience, and the customer. With this data, you can understand the success of your product or your service. Companies often use this information to better design their products, enhance customer experience, and create a better marketing message so that they can attract more potential customers, and increase their lead-to-customer conversion rate (the proportion of potential customers of a company who turn into actual customers). The design of a market research questionnaire is one of the key things that every company must do. By doing a market research survey you can make logical decisions based on data, avoid intuition, and speculation, and turn your resources into truly practical projects. Companies can use various market research approaches at different stages of their development.

What is marketing research? (Marketing research definition)

Marketing research is the process by which you know in what part of your business market you will succeed, and measure all of the company’s marketing methods and strategies. At first glance, you might think that the first part of the marketing research definition is very similar to the market research definition, but you need to know that in the marketing research plan we look for business marketing activities and small changes in future prospects. Therefore, the market research questionnaire only examines the market while the marketing research questionnaire examines all marketing issues.

The difference between market research and marketing research questionnaires

There are four key factors in marketing a product or service that you need to know in order to understand the difference between a market research questionnaire and a marketing research questionnaire.

• Product (commodity or service)
• Price (costs paid by the customer)
• Place (where we market the product)
• Promotion (publicity and public relationships)

These four factors are known as the marketing mix( Four P’s of Marketing ). Success in the market and marketing can be achieved if these four factors work together properly and ideally for a certain product or commodity. As we mentioned, the market research questionnaire focuses on understanding the target market. Depending on this questionnaire, data on the market and the consumer can be collected. In fact, the market research questionnaire deals with only one element of marketing: Place, which in these cases means a particular market or part of the market. The market research questionnaire or market study collects, analyzes, and eventually explains the following data.

• A particular market.
• A product, service, or the development of a concept that helps to sell in that particular market.
• Clients (current, future, and former).

A market research questionnaire is the first method to study and evaluate a new service or product in the target market. In this process, the clients’ needs and desires are usually disclosed. Whereas, the marketing research questionnaire covers a wider concept. In principle, all four marketing factors can be measured using the marketing research questionnaire. Here we can refer to the following topics regarding sample marketing research questionnaire questions:

• Research for a new product
• Product development
• Advertising research
• Customer research
• Distribution methods
• Public relationships

In fact, marketing research is growing on the concept of a product or service, its development, location, and evaluation, as well as on customer and brand growth. That is to say, by using this type of questionnaire, marketing factors can be measured from the beginning of brand awareness to the particular value of it, so it is fair to say that market research is a subset of marketing research. By looking at the table below, you can compare the most important differences between market research and marketing research. Market research vs. marketing research

Types of marketing research methods

Methods of marketing research are divided into four main categories, each of which helps you extract data and information about your work and use it in different areas of marketing.

1. Primary market research method

Primary research is related to the first category of data or information, and this data is all the information you collected yourself and has no other source. Here are some basic marketing research types:

• Focus Groups

This kind of marketing research plan helps strengthen your marketing strategy with data and information obtained from clients. This data is one of the most valuable types of marketing research because it is specific to your core clients. Besides, this information will help you find the exact details of your strengths and weaknesses in all customer experiences. The best example of primary research is an online market research survey, with which you can get a lot of answers from your customers. There may also be a question to which you have been looking for an answer for a long time and you want to get comments about a particular part of your work, so with the online survey tool , you can ask this question directly to your customers. For this purpose, it is enough to design your questions on Porsline online survey software and distribute the questionnaire to social media networks or send it to your customers via email. Read relevant articles so that you know what the models of online survey questions are and what questions should be asked, also you get to know the types of online questionnaires.

2. Secondary market research method

Secondary research refers to market research data and information obtained from a second or third party. This information can also be obtained from current and pre-market data. In these cases, it is not you who will do the research, but other organizations or companies carry it out. Secondary market research types include:

• Diagrams and charts
• Research papers

This marketing research technique helps you gain a general understanding of the state of your industry in the market. Through secondary research, you can identify your competitors, learn how they behave, extract statistics relevant to your industry and develop a more accurate marketing strategy based on data. By identifying secondary research information, you will understand the problems you may have at every stage. For example, suppose one of your competitors wrote an article that has attracted lots of visits to his site, this way you will realize that you would probably be able to gain more views and numerous visits to your web site by writing a similar article.

3. Qualitative research method

Qualitative marketing research methods are used when data cannot be measured, and they may be primary or secondary. In the primary research, you can use online surveys and questionnaires to understand how customers feel about your product or service. For example, in a customer satisfaction survey , you can obtain full feedback from the customers about a product or a service, as in this questionnaire, you can ask them why they decided to trust your brand. By asking such questions you will find out the best way to build your marketing strategy. The best way to benefit from the marketing research qualitative method is to make a questionnaire for testing a new product as it enters the market. By doing so, you can know customers’ feedback about your product.

4. Quantitative research method

In a quantitative research method, different statistical analyses must be collected, and the quantitative research method can also be primary or secondary. This kind of marketing research helps you get stronger support in your own marketing strategy. Research method statistics are not quantitatively explanatory but must be obtained based on experimental evidence. Some examples of quantitative market research methods are:

• Alexa ranking
• Bounce rate
• Number of page views
• Market share
• Number of followers on social media networks
• Degree of interaction on social media networks

Having this information, you will find out what you should spend your time and money on. When you know where you stand in the market, you can easily build a more precise marketing strategy.

Common methods of data collection in the marketing research process

In general, there are many ways to collect data about customers, competitors, and market research, and it is better not to restrict yourself to a certain method only. There are four common ways to conduct market research using basic research methods, and you can use each one depending on your business position.

1. Survey: The most common method to do marketing research

Research results from HubSpot, which involved 2,000 experts in customer experience, showed that the most common marketing research method in companies is the use of surveys. Online surveys are cheap, available, and easy to use. By using questionnaires, you can collect a lot of data in a short time and at a very low cost. Additionally, you can easily analyze this data. Using web-based questionnaire design tools will also help you move on this path more easily and cost-effectively.

2. Interview: The wisest way to do marketing research

In an interview, you have to talk to your potential customers one by one, so you can dive deeply into the feelings and thoughts of the audience. If you cannot conduct a face-to-face interview, use video chat. By conducting interviews, you will gain a deeper understanding of the market you are targeting and you will feel closer to it.

3. Focus groups: The most dangerous way to do marketing research

In this marketing research approach, you select a group of people who are fully associated with the target market. The trained manager starts a conversation about a product, customer experience, or marketing message until he gets the attention of the audience. Danger! If you are not familiar with the market research process and you are new to it, DO NOT use the market research focus group method as the first step to do marketing research. This is because doing this right requires experience. If you cannot do this properly for any reason, the result of your business marketing research will face lots of mistakes, like excessive bias which is considered one of the mistakes that could occur in this case.

4. Observations: The strongest way to do market research

At the meeting held for observing, you must assign someone to be in charge of reviewing the customer’s behavior point by point. Customers or target audiences may provide feedback during the review and purchase of your new product or a competitor’s product, and knowing this feedback will be a very good source of data and information. This method is a very good alternative to the marketing research focus group technique, as in this method, which is also cheaper, you can see people who are not under the pressure of the meeting so they express their opinions more comfortably. The only problem with this method is that you cannot dwell on their thoughts and opinions. Therefore, it cannot be used as an alternative to the online survey or interview methods.

Types of market research survey templates

If you want to do the most fundamental part of marketing research, you need to know the types of marketing research survey templates and use them according to your purpose.

• New Product Testing Survey
• Buyer Persona Survey
• Brand Name Survey

The product’s name or brand is one of the first characteristics of the brand and marketing. With the product name feedback survey, you can present the name you have already chosen to potential customers and then ask them how they feel about that name.

• Market Segmentation Survey

With the Market Segmentation survey, you can classify your target audience into different groups based on specific and well-known characteristics. Thus, you will find effective ways to identify their needs, vulnerabilities, goals, and expectations.

• Pricing Survey

The pricing survey allows you to know which similar products or services are in the market, what your audience expects to pay for this product, and whether they are willing to pay for it. This way, you can choose a fair price for your product or service and better formulate your pricing strategy.

• Customer Satisfaction Survey
• Brand Awareness Survey
• Advertising Test Survey

How does online marketing research help your business grow?

Now that you know what the market and marketing research questionnaires are and how they are done, you need to know how to use their results to develop your business, and how to use their various data. Now rest assured that, by doing marketing research, you will get the following results:

• You will recognize your specific audience

Surveys and questionnaires provide you with a very good opportunity to get information on the target market. If you know your specific audience very well, you will make sure your efforts are effective.

• You will get a lot of comments about your product

Assume you managed to offer your product in the market after a long time of hard work, but what if the customers do not want this product? If you send the product questionnaire online to the target audience before it is produced and offered in the market, then you can better determine its features.

• Where are you in the market compared to competitors?

If you want to know where you stand in the market, you should send a brand awareness questionnaire to your audience and see how much your potential clients know about you. Just like that, you will know what they think of you.

• You will make better decisions concerning your campaigns and future events

By doing online marketing research, you will discover the weaknesses of your past events and how you should address them now. For example, would your clients know more about you if you showed them an ad on Instagram or if they saw your billboard on the highway? You can find the answer to this question and many others through the advertising test questionnaire.

• You will be able to produce new and original content

The audience personality questionnaire gives you the ability to see your audience from different unknown angles. By using the results you have obtained, you can produce really useful content for the audience and help them achieve their goals.

• Use your position and name to test your brand

You must have heard Nike’s famous slogan: “Just Do It”. What is it that makes some slogans so popular and so common? If you wish to test your slogans, name, and brand and know what words are better to use in order to describe yourself, use the Advertising Test questionnaire or Product Name Feedback Questionnaire to better understand consumer behaviors, motivations, and priorities and perform better than your competitors.

When do you make a marketing research survey?

Every year a large number of companies and businesses enter the business world, every single one of them believes that its idea is unique and that it will shake the world with it. Actually, not as many things happen as they expect, for the following reason. Each start-up company or business company needs to collect reliable data before entering the market. Do not forget that businesses will not strive in the market unless they have reliable data to support their ideas. Only correct data will help you determine whether the idea of this business actually meets the needs of the audience or not. The perfect time to conduct a market study survey is right before establishing a new business or manufacturing a new product. Just at that moment and if the results of the market research are positive, you can break into a new market. After entering the market, this business activity has to go into the second part of the marketing research process. At this point, you have to see how well your audience accepts you. Market research operations must become a permanent plan for any business to permanently keep pace with challenges, competitors, and the business environment.

How do you write market research survey questions?

In order to properly take the key step in any business, you have to figure out how to design the market research survey questions so that you can get the best possible logical and practical outcome and not move forward based on assumptions or theories. There are many things to consider in order to design a perfect and intelligent market research survey. You can also use the market research survey templates from Porsline to get better results. Now it is time to learn the steps of designing an online marketing research survey. Do not forget that you can do the market research process yourself, just think carefully about your questions and create them on the Porsline market research tool.

The First step in designing the marketing research survey: Start with Why and Who

Before you start writing the market study survey model, make sure you do the following:

• Identifying the problem
• Identifying research targets
• Identifying your target audience

Write down all three elements on a paper and go back to them through the entire process of designing a market research questionnaire so that you know exactly what your framework is and make sure you achieve your goals. Define your target audience carefully so you can effectively test your idea, and to do this you can use the audience personality questionnaire to find your core audience more accurately.

The second step in designing the marketing research survey: Do not forget to use brainstorm to find questions

Take some time to categorize everything you know. Challenge yourself so you can tell the difference between right and wrong, but how would you know that? Do you have the data? Are the results of previous research, that you think are reliable, really accurate? If you do this properly, you will find in some cases that your knowledge may not be enough, and you need to complete it through research. If you focus on the following questions, you can do the brainstorm better: Who? What? When? Where? Why? And how? Think about all the questions on your mind including your problems, your goals, and the group you are targeting. Do not leave anything out of your mind and write everything down. Frame all issues on your mind, such as shopping and consumption habits, pricing habits, advertising, and product quality.

The third step in designing the marketing research survey: Choose Your Questions

Now that you know the basic topics, you need to know which ones align with your goals and which ones conflict with them. Get rid of everything that does not serve your goals, choose your most important questions, and rank them in order of priority. Ask more general questions first, then more specific ones. One of the reasons why respondents are reluctant to complete the questionnaire is that it is lengthy, as they may be bored during the completion of the questionnaire, which affects the quality of their responses. Of course, you can make your questions seem more attractive to the respondent by using visual symbols, icons, and some types of conditional questions from Porsline. However, you need to make sure not to increase the number of your questions in order not to reduce the quality of the audience’s response.

The fourth step in designing the marketing research survey: Watch your tone and expressions

Pay close attention to this step, perhaps the questions you have chosen may be very strong and correct, but if they are written in an inappropriate tone or with the use of wrong words, then the data you get will be useless. Follow these points so that you can write questions that are more attractive and easier for the reader to understand and give correct answers to them:

• Stay anonymous : It is better not to mention your brand name until the end, so you will get a better result out of the product research. For example, if you say from the beginning that you are a famous brand, this may affect people’s opinions.
• Keep your sentences short and write them in simple language : Do not write slogans, do not use special technical words and acronyms, also avoid writing in a way that excites the audience.
• Avoid bias : The opinions of respondents in a market research questionnaire are important to you, so do not try to make them biased. If you ask someone what he/she likes about this product, you are actually assuming that he/she likes something, and this kind of question implies bias. Instead of asking this question, you can say, “Do you like something about this product?” This avoids bias.
• Do not make assumptions : If you ask your audience what they would do or think if they were in a certain situation, you will not get an appropriate answer. Try not to put the audience in hypothetical situations.
• Be careful of sensitive questions : When you want to ask demographic questions, you have to be careful of sensitive questions. For example, if you ask your audience about their income, make sure to include the “I prefer not to mention this” option among the choices.

The fifth step in designing the marketing research survey: Show question-answer progress bar

You should design the questionnaire in such a way that respondents are sure that the time spent filling out the questionnaire will be valuable and produce results. To approach this goal, firstly, ask questions that are more general and easier to answer and then move on to questions that require more thinking. Furthermore, make sure to include a question-answer progress bar at the bottom of the page so that the audience is aware to the answering process and the number of questions they still have to answer. Porsline brings this tool to you, so make sure you use it.

The sixth step in designing a marketing research survey: Review the questionnaire carefully before sending it

Now that the questionnaire is ready, you need to publish it. Here you can use social networks, e-mail, or the website, but do not forget to review it once again before publishing. In this step, pay good attention to the following points:

• How long does it take for the respondent to answer this questionnaire? In your letter, make sure you write down how long it takes to complete this questionnaire.
• Make sure your questionnaire works on all kinds of devices.
• Ask some of your friends to fill out a questionnaire for you as a test and ask them for their opinions on the questions. If they have difficulty answering one of the questions, correct that question.

To get the best results of your market study or marketing research process, it is better to use a set of online questionnaires alongside each other to accurately test the various market sectors and then establish your business based on reliable data. On Porsline, you can find types of free market research questionnaire forms and use their templates to customize them to suit your requirements with just a few simple drags and drops. After submitting this questionnaire form via social networks or e-mail, you will be able to display the results and analyses on your panel and make the right decisions.    

Create your free account now and start building your questionnaires.

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100+ Market Research Questions to Ask Your Customers

Expert Writer

Dwayne Charrington shares insights on creating effective surveys, improving navigation, and using A/B testing for smarter decisions. Additionally, he focuses on optimizing mobile experiences and champions privacy-by-design, ensuring users feel satisfied, secure, and valued.

Asking the right market research questions can help you understand your target customers and map their behavior and preferences. 

But what does it actually mean?

Let’s look at a sample from a market research survey report for mapping brand awareness:

From this simple Q&A report, you can:

• Visualize the proportions of demographic segments among your audience.
• Measure how your brand is performing in comparison to others.
• Pick the top preferred brand among the customers, explore what makes it stand out, and apply the same techniques to your brand.
• See how your target market perceives brand advertisements and promotional efforts.

Now imagine if this type of data set is available for different aspects of your business – product development, marketing campaigns, optimization plans, and more.

That’s what market research does for you.

With the evolution of customer interaction points and constantly changing market trends, more and more businesses are fueling efforts to do in-depth market research, as evidenced by the steady increase in the revenue of the market research industry worldwide.

Market research can help you develop essential business strategies and maintain a competitive advantage over other brands to increase conversions and customer base.

And it all starts with asking the right questions to the right audience.

That’s why we have created this collection of 100+ market research questions to ask your target market. Each question aims to uncover a specific attribute about your customers. You can use a combination of these customer research survey questions, interviews, and othe marketing questionnaires for customers.

We have also added key tips to help you write your own effective market analysis questions if the needed.

100+ Great Market Research Questions to Ask Your Customers

The main challenge while designing and conducting research is – “What questions should I ask in my customer research survey?

That’s why we have a carefully curated list of market research questions to help you get started.

To Explore New Product Opportunities

• What was your first reaction to the product?
• Would you purchase this product if it were available today?
• What feature would you like to see on the website/product?
• Which feature do you think will help improve the product experience for you?
• Of these four options, what’s the next thing you think we should build?
• What’s the one feature we can add that would make our product indispensable for you?
• Would implementing [this feature] increase the usability of the [product name]?
• Please let us know how we can further  improve this feature.
• What problem would you like to solve with our product?

To Collect Feedback on Existing Products

• Have you heard of [product name or category] before?
• How would you feel if [product name] was no longer available?
• How disappointed would you be if you could no longer use [Product/feature name?]
• How often do you use [product name]?
• How long have you been using [product name] for?
• When was the last time you used [product name]?
• Please rate the following product features according to their importance to you.
• According to you, In which area is this product/service lacking the most? Specify below.
• How does the product run after the update?
• Rate our product based on the following aspects:
• Have you faced any problems with the product? Specify below.
• What feature did you expect but not find?
• How are you planning to use [product or service]?
• How satisfied are you with the product?

To Segment the Target Market

Please specify your age.

• Please specify your gender.
• Select your highest level of education.
• What is your current occupation?
• What is your monthly household income?
• What is your current marital status?

• What is the name of your company?
• Where is your company’s headquarters located?
• Please specify the number of employees that work in your company.
• What is your job title?
• In which location do you work?
• Which activity do you prefer in your free time?
• Which other physical activities do you take part in?
• Where is your dream holiday destination?
• Please rate the following as per their priority in your life – Family, work, and social life?
• Are you happy with your current work-life balance?
• Do you describe yourself as an optimist or a pessimist?
• How often do you give to charity?
• How do you travel to work?
• How do you do your Holiday shopping?

To Conduct a Competition Analysis

• Which product/service would you consider as an alternative to ours?
• Rate our competitor based on the following:
• Have you seen any website/product/app with a similar feature?
• How would you compare our products to our competitors? 
• Why did you choose to use our [product] over other options?
• Compared to our competitors, is our product quality better, worse, or about the same?
• Which other options did you consider before choosing [product name]?
• Please list the top three things that persuaded you to use us rather than a competitor.
• According to you, which brand best fits each of the following traits.

To Gauge Brand Awareness

• [Your brand name] Have you heard of the brand before?
• How do you feel about this brand?
• How did you hear about us?
• Describe [brand name] in one sentence.
• If yes, please tell us what you like the most about [your brand name]?
• If no, please specify the reason.
• How likely are you to purchase a product from this company again?
• If yes, where have you seen or heard about our brand recently? (Select all that apply)
• Do you currently use the product of this brand?
• Have you purchased from this brand before?
• Of all the brands offering similar products, which do you feel is the best brand?
• Please specify what makes it the best brand for you in the category.
• Which of the following products have you tried? (Select all that apply)
• On a scale of 1 to 10, how likely would you recommend this brand to a friend or colleague?

To Map Customers’ Preferences

• Have you ever boycotted a brand? If so, which brand and why?
• What influences your purchase decision more – price or quality of the item?
• How many hours do you spend on social media like Facebook, Instagram, etc.?
• How do you do your monthly grocery shopping – online or through outlets?
• How do you search for the products you want to buy?
• Rate the factors that affect your buying decision for [product].
• What persuaded you to purchase from us?
• How likely are you to purchase a product from us again?
• Please rate the following aspects of our product based on their importance to you.
• What is the most important value our product offers to you?
• Which of the following features do you use least?
• How well does the product meet your needs?

To Map Customers’ Reservations

• Is there anything preventing you from purchasing at this point?
• What’s preventing you from starting a trial?
• Do you have any questions before you complete your purchase?
• What is the main reason you’re canceling your account?
• What are your main reasons for leaving?
• What was your biggest fear or concern about purchasing from us?
• What is the problem that the product/service helped to solve for you?
• What problems did you encounter while using our [product]?
• How easy did we make it to solve your problem?
• What is your greatest concern about [product]?
• Have you started using other similar products? If yes, what made you choose that product?

To Perform Pricing Analysis

• Would you purchase the product at [price]
• According to you, what should be the ideal price of the [product name]?
• Is our product pricing clear?
• According to you, what is the ideal price range for the product?

To Collect Feedback on Website Copy

• Please rate the website based on the following aspects:
• How well does the website meet your needs?
• Was the information easy to find?
• Was the information clearly presented?
• What other information should we provide on our website?
• How can we make the site easier to use?
• What could we do to make this site more useful?
• Is there anything on this site that doesn’t work the way you expected it to?
• How easy was it to find the information you were looking for?
• Have feedback or an idea? Leave it here!
• Help us make the product better. Please leave your feedback.

To Assess Website/Product Usability

• Are you satisfied with the website layout?
• What features do you think are missing on our website?
• What features do you not like on our website?
• Was our website navigation simple and user-friendly?
• How much time did it take to find what you were looking for on our website?
• Was it easy to find the products you are looking for?
• Was the payment process convenient?

To Uncover Market Trends and Industry Insights

• Did you purchase our product out of peer influence or individual preference?
• How do you form your opinion about our product?
• Do you follow trends of the product, or do you prefer to go with what you know?
• Do discounts or incentives impact your decision-making process?

Market Research Survey Templates

One of the easiest ways to conduct market research is to use survey templates. They can help you save time and effort in creating your own market research surveys.

There are many types of market research survey templates available, depending on your objectives and target audience. Some of the most popular ones are:

• Demographic Templates: These templates help you segment your customers based on their location. It can help you tailor your marketing strategies and offers to different customer groups.

• Consumer Behavior Templates: These templates help you keep your pulse on your target market.

Industry Insights Templates: These templates help you get detailed information about your target industry and business.

Case Study:

Check out how AWA Digital increased revenue per customer for Avis by understanding the market and promoting add-on products.

Read Full Story Here

Breakdown of Different Market Research Questions

The answer choices in a market research survey question can significantly impact the quality and reliability of the response data you collect from the audience.

Some answer types help categorize the audience, while others measure their satisfaction or agreement. 

So, before listing the customer research survey questions to ask your target audience, let’s understand their types:

Multiple Choice

A multiple-choice question type lets users select more than one answer from the given options. These questions are great for collecting multiple data sets using the same question and gauging people’s preferences, opinions, and suggestions .

Single Choice

In a single-choice question, the respondent can select only one answer from the given options. This question type is great for:

• Segregating the users.
• Prioritizing product updates based on user consensus.
• Disqualifying irrelevant respondents by placing the question at the start of your customer research survey.

Matrix Match

A matrix matching grid can combine multiple market research questions into one to make the survey shorter . There is only one condition – the individual questions should have the same response anchors as shown in the image below:

The questions are arranged in rows while the answer options occupy the grid columns.

Ranking Question

A ranking question can help map customers’ preferences and set priorities for product development . This question type asks the respondent to arrange the given options in their decreasing/increasing preference.

Dichotomous

A dichotomous question poses a simple yes or no scenario to the respondent. These question types can help disqualify irrelevant people from the survey and categorize the users into two groups .

Likert Scale

Likert scale market research questions can help you measure the extent of respondents’ agreement/disagreement with the given statement . The answer options are arranged from positive to negative sentiments or vice-versa, with the neutral option in the middle.

There are two types of Likert scales: 5-point and 7-point .

Open-ended market questions let you explore the respondents’ minds without adding any restrictions to the answer . This question type is followed by a blank space for the respondent to add a free-text response.

You can add an open-ended question as a follow-up after the first question to explore the reasons for the customer’s previous answer. It also lets you collect more in-depth information about their issues, pain points, and delights.

Tools like Qualaroo offer tons of different question types for your surveys. Just pick the question and match its answer option type from the drop-down. To make it more effective, you can add branching to the survey.

How to Write Your Marketing Research Questions

It’s imperative to have a dedicated repository of market research questions for your surveys. But nothing’s better than crafting your questions.

For this, you need to sit with your team and discuss what information you require from the customers. It lets you analyze and document how much data you already have in your system, which can help set the market research scope.

We have listed some questions you need to ask yourself before asking market research questions to your potential customers or target market:

Audience Segmentation Questions

Audience segmentation questions help to size up your target market and provide a granular view of the audience . Not all customers are equal, and audience segmentation makes it possible to focus on each group individually to address their issues, fears, and expectations.

Here’s what you need to know before you start writing customer research survey questions to understand your audience:

• Do we understand the demographics of the new market we are trying to target? (Age, location, ethnicity, education, company, annual income, etc.)
• What are the locations that drive the most customers to our business? How are these locations different from others?
• What are the interests, preferences, and fears of people from our new target market? Have we addressed these situations for our current customer base?
• What are the psychographics attributes of the current customers and potential market? Are we targeting these in our campaigns?
• What are the most popular engagement channels for our customers? Which channels drive the most traffic to our website?
• Do we have enough data to perform value segmentation to separate high-value customers from low-value customers? 
• How often do these high-value customers make a purchase?

Product-Based Market Research Questions

Product-based market research questions can produce precious insights to channel into your product development and optimization strategies . You can see how changing technology affects customers’ behavior, what new features they want to see in your product, and how they perceive your products and services over the competition.

Start by gathering information about the following:

• How does our product compare to the competition based on the features?
• What products do our competitors offer?
• What new features do customers want to see in our products? Do we have a product roadmap to deliver these updates?
• What unique solutions do our products offer? What is the value proposition that reflects this offering?
• Does our product incorporate the latest technological advancements?
• What channels do we use to collect product feedback from our users?
• What are customers’ preferences while choosing our products over competitors?

Pricing Market Research Questions

Pricing analysis can help you make your product more affordable to different customer segments while maintaining the desired gross margin. It also lets you restructure the pricing tiers to provide features depending on the customers’ requirements and company size .

Watch: (1/5) Supercharge Your Revenue With Data-Driven Pricing

Your sales and marketing team can help you hone in on the market research questions to ask your customers for running pricing analysis:

• Do the customers ever complain about the difficulty in finding the pricing information?
• What is the pricing structure of our competitors for the same products? What features do they include for a specific price?
• How do customers find our pricing when compared to the competitors?
• Do our products provide value for money to the customers? Does the sales pitch reflect this point?
• Can we restructure the pricing, and how will it affect the revenue?
• Are there any customer segments that have high-value potential but find the current pricing unaffordable? What are the plans for such customers?
• Are we in a situation to offer a basic free plan to encourage customers to try our product before upgrading?
• What promotions can we run to attract more customers?
• Should we target customers based on income, company size, or type of solution to set our product prices?

Brand Reputation Market Research Questions

A brand reputation questionnaire for marketing research gives you information on how well your target market knows about your brand. You can uncover previously unidentified channels to increase brand awareness and find potential customers to promote your brand .

Start by gauging what customers are saying about your brand:

• Which channels receive mentions of our brand? Are these posts positive or negative?
• Do we have a system in place to analyze and monitor these reviews and posts?
• What are the reviews of our brand on different sites? What is the overall impression of our brand in the market?
• How are we currently addressing the negative reviews and complaints? What do our customers think about the handling process?
• What is the impression of our brand in our target market?
• What brand awareness campaigns are our competitors running?
• Is our brand among the top choices of our target customers?

Advertisement & Campaign-Based Questions

These customer research survey questions let you assess the effectiveness of your current value propositions and campaigns . You can channel the customer insights into your advertising strategies to design targeted campaigns for different customer segments to reduce the overall acquisition cost and increase conversions.

Ask the following questions to collect information about the different marketing campaigns that are performing:

• What are the best modes to run the advertisement campaigns to reach our target audience?
• What is the estimated lifetime value of customers acquired from current campaigns? Is it higher or lower than the acquisition costs?
• Which campaigns bring the most ROI and why?
• How well do our advertisements present our value proposition to the customers? Do they address customers’ fears and expectations to attract them?
• Are we running A/B tests to improve our online campaigns? How are we gathering data to build the A/B test hypotheses – surveys, heatmaps, eye tracking, etc.?
• What advertisement campaigns do our competitors run?

7 Question Types to Use in Market Research Surveys

We mentioned earlier that market research questions provide important data for different operations like product development, marketing campaigns, sales pipeline and more.

But to what extent?

Let’s break it down to individual processes and understand how insights from customer research surveys can impact them:

To Know Your Target Market

Understanding your target audience is the fundamental aspect of market research, be it a new target market or existing customers. If you know what marketing research survey questions to ask your target market, you can identify different customer types’ unique traits and preferences.

The data can help you segment the users based on demographic, psychographic, geographic, and other attributes. These include their behavior, purchase preferences, age, location, habits, delights, frustrations, and more.

You can then create various customer personas and fuel your sales strategies to maximize ROI.

Case study – How Avis increased its revenue per customer

Avis, a leading car rental company, was looking to enhance customer experience by offering useful car add-ons like navigation systems, child seats, insurance, etc., to customers with their booking. So, it reached out to AWA Digital to find a way to promote these products and increase their sales.

AWA digital implemented customer research campaigns using targeted surveys to determine which add-ons were popular among the customers and why. 

Using these insights, the team added an interstitial pop-up just before the booking page to show relevant add-ons to the customers.

This simple update dramatically increased the sales of add-on items and helped Avis generate more revenue per customer.

Read the entire case study here .

To Plan the Product Roadmap

A product roadmap is a visual representation of the current status of your product and planned updates over time. It shows a high-level summary of planned activities and priorities for different teams to take the product to the next level. Understanding different types of summary can help you create more effective and concise roadmaps that clearly communicate your vision and strategy.

Steve Jobs famously said – “You’ve got to start with the customer experience and work backward to the technology. You can’t start with the technology then try to figure out where to sell it.”

And market research helps to align your product strategies with the customer demand. Using targeted marketing survey questions, you can gauge what new features or functionality customers want to see in your products.

It helps to plan product development strategies based on customers’ consensus to prioritize the ideas that can have the most impact on customers and replace intuition-based approaches with data-backed decisions.

Customers’ demands change with market trends and technological advancements. That’s why your product map also needs to evolve constantly with time to reflect these changes in your product development cycle.

By designing targeted market research questions to ask the customers, you can uncover their expectations to deliver optimal product solutions. 

That’s what our next case study demonstrates.

Case study – How customer research drives Twilio’s operations  

Twilio, a cloud communications platform places customer discovery and research at the core of their product development strategies. It helps its teams to anticipate customer needs in a constantly changing market.

Lack of time and budget are the two biggest challenges that the company faces in its product development cycle. So, the team uses targeted market research questionnaires for a product to understand the challenges the customers face today and the ones they will face tomorrow. 

With an abundance of ideas and no time to test them all, the feedback data from surveys is used to prioritize the hypotheses to run the tests. It makes the process more efficient and effective in producing positive results. 

This data-backed approach is used across 18 different teams at Twilio to release new functionality every week and deliver optimal solutions to the clients.

Read the complete case study here .

To Reduce Acquisition Costs

Your customer base consists of multiple customer segments with different preferences and purchase potential. That’s why you cannot sell to everyone and need to find the right audience for your products.

If an acquired customer doesn’t bring in more revenue than it costs to acquire them, it will increase your acquisition costs over time.

We don’t want that, do we?

For example, let’s say you are targeting the entire market population using the same campaign. If your acquisition cost per customer is $300 and you acquire 20 customers from one campaign, you need to make more than $6000 to register profits.

The difficulty is you don’t know about these customers’ purchase behavior and capacity, so you cannot be sure if you will reach your goals. It adds unnecessary risks to your marketing ventures.

But, if you were targeting a specific segment with high income, regular shopping habits, or proven history of brand loyalty, You can obtain better results.

Now, the question is – 

How will you separate these potential long-term customers from one-time buyers and high-value targets from other segments?

One way to do this is by building customer personas using the data from the market research survey questions. A buyer persona defines different attributes of a particular customer segment so you can hone in on the right audience to funnel your marketing efforts.

Here’s what a typical persona includes:

• Target regions
• Target demographic (age, marital status, gender)
• Ideal psychographics (hobbies, social channels, activities they indulge in, goals)
• Preferred interaction channels
• Favorite brands and products
• Total revenue till date
• Estimated lifetime value

Once you have a clearer picture of different customers, you can find high-value prospects with the potential to be long-term customers looking for product solutions that your business offers. 

You can then design the correct pitch using the market research data to bring in these customers and control the overall acquisition costs.

For example:

• Plugin the demographic and psychographic data into CRM software like BIGContacts or Salesforce to convert high-value targets.
• Use your CRM to create segmented lists of prospects based on estimated value, location, current status, and more. Then target these groups individually with personalized value propositions to increase conversion rates.
• Identify their preferred mode of communication and technographic inclinations to find the right opportunities to pitch your product offering at the precise moment.

Even if acquiring and retaining such customers costs more, their overall revenue can balance the acquisition costs to deliver higher profits.

To Design Targeted Marketing Campaigns

By knowing how your target audience behaves and interacts with your business, you can find the exact opportunities to target them with personalized campaigns.

• You can use mail campaigns to target website users with app-exclusive offers to encourage them to download your app and improve app adoption.
• Add in-app broadcast messages about upcoming offers, exclusive membership benefits, and other incentives for new users to push them towards the end of the funnel.
• Create multiple landing pages to target different customer types.
• Design location-based ad campaigns with personalized value propositions based on audience preferences and problems at each location. 

Case Study – How Canon’s campaigns generated 700% ROI

AWA digital was tasked by Canon, one of the biggest electronics companies worldwide, to assess and increase the demand for their products in different geographies. So, the AWA team conducted customer research using target market survey questions and discovered the following attributes about customers’ purchase behavior and reservations:

• In some regions, people were reluctant to spend money on a Canon camera as they weren’t sure if Canon was an authoritative brand.
• In other regions, authority was not as important to the users.

Using these insights, AWA optimized the ads campaigns’ messaging for different locations to include what consumers deemed important purchase factors.

The results?

With in-depth customer feedback, Canon generated an overall ROI of 700% in all regions using personalized campaigns to target the audience.

To Improve Brand Awareness

Whether you are into soft drinks or not, You probably would have heard of Coca-Cola’s 2011 Share-A-Coke ad. This single campaign put the Coke brand back on the map and reversed the 10-year steady decline in sales in the US.  

Coke understood what motivates their customers and delivered a product offering that appealed to the masses to increase its brand equity- the excitement to get a Coca-Cola bottle with their name on it.

How did they do it?

In 2011, Coca-Cola rolled out its share-a-coke campaign in Australia. The company debranded the traditional Coke logo from the bottle and replaced it with the phrase “Share a Coke with” followed by a name.

The campaign used the list of the country’s most popular names (nicknames). The purpose was to make people go out and find the Coke bottle with their name on it and share it with their friends. The campaign was subsequently rolled out in 80 countries.

How did it impact Coca-Cola as a brand:

• In Australia, it’s estimated that the campaign increased Coke’s share by 4% and increased consumption among young adults by 7%.
• #ShareACoke became the top trending hashtag on Twitter globally and received over 1 billion impressions.
• In the USA, the campaign increased Coke’s market share by over 2% and brought 11% more sales compared to the previous year.

It’s not limited to big brands only.  

Understanding the customers and placing your product’s value offering along with their habits, lifestyle, and behavior can help you extend your brand’s reach.

Today, there are multiple touchpoints to connect with your customers and map their journey to uncover their issues, motivations, and fears to address in your campaigns.

• Monitor brand mentions on social media and engage with the users to cultivate an online community and promote your brand.
• Reach out to satisfied customers and turn them into your brand ambassadors.
• Use targeted ad campaigns that connect people’s emotions and general behavior to imprint your brand’s image in their minds.

Quick Tips for Writing Awesome Market Research Survey Questions

With the inter-team research complete, you are ready to write your own market research questions to ask your target audience. Keep these general dos and don’ts in mind to ensure that the market survey fulfills the purpose without affecting the data quality or response rate.

Use Mutually Exclusive Response Options

If you are using response anchors with specific ranges like age group or income, check that the options do not overlap . Otherwise, it will produce an irregular data set.

Please specify your age:

In the above example, the respondent lying on either extremity of the given age ranges may get confused on which option to choose. For example, a 28-year-old respondent can choose from both second or third options.

Plus, two different respondents of the same age may select different options, which will skew your demographic data.

You can avoid this confusion by creating mutually exclusive groups as shown below:

Always Add A “Not Applicable” Or “Rather Not Say” Option

Since market research questions extract personal information, some respondents may not want to share such details with you. These include questions about age, income, gender, hobbies, social activities, and more.

Forcing such questions on the customers without allowing them to skip can irate them and lead to survey abandonment .

That’s why you can also use Qualaroo’s skip and branching logic to create smart surveys that only ask relevant questions to your respondents based on their previous answers.

Calculate the Required Sample Size

Sample size plays a vital role in your market research questions to determine the reliability of your response data.

If the response volume is low, the results may not be conclusive to point towards customers’ consensus. On the other hand, a larger sample size than required means a waste of the company’s valuable resources and time.

That’s why it’s important to calculate the required sample size to estimate the number of responses you need for your market research survey questions.

You can use any survey sample size calculator available online to get started. Just fill in the required details to get the required sample size.

For example, to reach a statistical significance of 99%, you need at least 3145 responses to your market research questionnaire.

Consider Adding Incentives

Studies show that incentivized customer research surveys or questionnaires fetch higher response rates than general surveys.

The incentives encourage customers to invest their time in a survey and get something in return.

It means creating a gated questionnaire for market research can help you reach the required sample size quickly . The incentive can be a simple discount code, free shipping coupon, free ebook, or other freebies.

However, there is a possibility that irrelevant respondents may fill out the survey randomly just to get to the offer, which may skew the results. You can use screening questions to filter out unsuitable respondents.

Avoid Double-Barreled Market Research Questions

A double-barreled question poses two questions into one. The problem with such questions is that the respondent may have opposing views about the two statements in the questions. It makes it harder for them to choose one answer from the options .

“Please rate the [product name] on a scale of 1-10 based on overall quality and price?”

Here, the respondent may find the product quality appreciable while thinking it to be overpriced at the same time. In such a case, they may skip the question or select any option randomly.

You can easily sidestep this hurdle by breaking your double-barreled market research question into two to make it less confusing for the respondents.

Importance of Market Research

We mentioned earlier that market research questions provide important data for different operations like product development, marketing campaigns, sales pipeline, and more.

Understanding your target audience is the fundamental aspect of market research, be it a new target market or existing customers. If you know what customer research survey questions to ask your target market, you can identify different customer types’ unique traits and preferences.

AWA Digital implemented research campaigns using targeted customer research surveys to determine which add-ons were popular among the customers and why.

Case study – How customer research drives Twilio’s operations

Twilio, a cloud communications platform, places customer discovery and research at the core of its product development strategies. It helps its teams to anticipate customer needs in a constantly changing market.

Lack of time and budget are the two biggest challenges that the company faces in its product development cycle. So, the team uses targeted market research questionnaires for a product to understand the challenges the customers face today and the ones they will face tomorrow.

With an abundance of ideas and no time to test them all, the feedback data from customer research surveys is used to prioritize the hypotheses to run the tests. It makes the process more efficient and effective in producing positive results.

AWA Digital was tasked by Canon, one of the biggest electronics companies worldwide, to assess and increase the demand for their products in different geographies. So, the AWA team conducted a customer research survey using target market questions and discovered the following attributes about customers’ purchase behavior and reservations:

• In other regions, authority was not so important to the users.

Whether you are into soft drinks or not, you probably would have heard of Coca-Cola’s 2011 Share-A-Coke ad. This single campaign put the Coke brand back on the map and reversed the 10-year steady decline in sales in the US.  

Coke understood what motivates its customers and delivered a product offering that appealed to the masses to increase its brand equity- the excitement to get a Coca-Cola bottle with its name on it.

• In Australia, it’s estimated that the campaign increased Coke’s share by 4% and consumption among young adults by 7%.

It’s not limited to big brands only. 

Market Research: A Key to Your Business’ Success

Market research is a vital process for any business wanting to understand its customers and market better. By asking the right questions and using the right tools like Qualaroo, you can gain valuable insights that can help you improve your products or services, enhance your customer experiences, and grow your business.

In this blog, we have shared some of the best market research questions to ask your customers, as well as some of the best customer research survey templates to find market trends and industry insights. We hope that this blog has helped you learn more about market research and how to conduct it effectively.

About the author

Dwayne Charrington

Dwayne Charrington is an expert writer in customer feedback management, UX design, and user research. He helps businesses understand user intent and enhance the customer experience. Dwayne covers feedback management, lead generation, survey accessibility, and the impact of AI and VR on user interaction. He shares insights on creating effective surveys, improving navigation, and using A/B testing for smarter decisions. Additionally, he focuses on optimizing mobile experiences and champions privacy-by-design, ensuring users feel satisfied, secure, and valued.

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• 50+ Must-ask questions for your market research surveys

Şeyma Beyazçiçek

Market research is an essential part of finding answers to your questions. For this reason, market research surveys have a big importance. So, market study survey questions, too . These types of questions help you get essential data about the target audience, conduct competitive analysis, get new ones, or protect existing customers .

We have gathered the most essential data to help you gather information on the target market or target customer. In this article, you will find 50+ market research survey questions and examples about customers, products, social media, etc. You need to seriously consider these business survey questions for market research and learn more!

• What is a market research survey?

A market research survey is a document that asks demographic questions or any type of market research questions that aim to collect vital customer feedback to make you better in marketing . The critical point of a market research survey is to learn customer experience and make marketing plans according to it.

A report by Statista shows that since 2008 , the market research sector’s global revenue has increased by more than twice, surpassing $81 billion in 2022 . So, the importance of market research is getting more realized, and you need market analysis survey questions. Good survey questions for market research collect data to help you create definite strategies for a better marketing plan.

• 50+ Market research survey questions you must ask in your surveys

Each company has its own unique priorities and needs. For this reason, companies should choose questions carefully for their survey. 50+ market research survey questions might differ according to the needs and requirements of a company. Nevertheless, we have gathered the most essential and basic ones to make you grow faster. 

If you want to access all these privileges we have discussed so far, you need to have a look at these 50+ must-ask questions for your market research surveys:

Customer survey questions for market research questions

The primary reason for selling a product or service is for customers . Finding the target audience for your company is one of the most important parts of your market research survey. For that reason, you need to have a look at these customer survey questions for market research questions: 

1. How often do you shop from us?

• Once a week
• Twice a week
• Once a month
• Twice a month
• Once every two months
• Once every three months
• Once every six months
• Once a year

2. What is your favorite product/service?

3. What is your least favorite product/service?

4. Why do you choose us?

• Your reputation for quality products and services
• Your competitive pricing
• Your commitment to customer service
• Your convenient location
• Your wide selection of products and services
• Your knowledgeable staff
• Your experience in the industry
• Your commitment to innovation
• Your commitment to sustainability

5. Would you recommend us to your friends/family?

6. Since when do you choose us?

• Two Years Ago
• Three Years Ago

7. Overall, from 1-10, how do you rate us?

An opinion scale question example about satisfaction

Market research questions for a product

A market research question for a product is an excellent helper for companies to understand and collect data about existing. If you want to learn how your customers are satisfied with your exciting product, you only need to ask them these questions. Here are your market research questions for a product: 

8. Have you ever heard of this product before?

9. From 1-10, how would you rate this product?

10. Do you believe this product is useful/helpful for you? 

11. What is the likelihood of buying this product again?

• Very Likely
• Very Unlikely

12. What do you like about this product?

• It is easy to use
• It is cost-effective
• It is reliable
• It has great customer service
• It has a wide range of features

13. What do you dislike about this product?

• Functionality

14. Would you recommend this product to your friends or family?

You can replace the word “ product”  with the name of your own product.

A question example about purchasing behavior

New product market research survey questions

New product market research survey questions are perfect for your company if you plan for a new product. Imagine that you are about to launch a new product. You can take fewer risks if you ask questions about the new product before launching it. So you might need these market research questionnaire questions for your new product: 

15. Have you seen a similar product? 

16. How likely are you to use this product for your business activities?

17. What do you think is the best feature of this new product?

18. What do you think is the least favorite feature of this new product?

19. Do you find the price reasonable?

20. Are you excited about this product?

21. Overall, from 1-10, how do you rate this new product?

A question example about later use

Social media survey questions for market research

Social media is an excellent way of collecting helpful data from your customers because, today, nearly everybody has a social media account. You can have insightful data as long as you know which platform to use and how to use it. So, here are your social media survey questions for market research: 

22. Which social media platforms do you use? ( you can choose more than 1 )

23. In which social media platforms do you spend time the most?

24. Do you follow us on your social media accounts?

25. What do you think about our company’s social media account? 

• It's great!
• It could use some improvement.
• I haven't seen it

26. Do you believe we can use social media effectively?

27. What can we do to improve our social media accounts?

• Post regularly
• Run contests and giveaways
• Use relevant hashtags
• Optimize profile information
• Respond to comments
• Collaborate with influencers

28. Which influencers do you relate to us the most?

A market research survey question example about social media

Market research questions to ask potential customers

As much as trying to hold your existing customers, you should also try to find potential customers and expand your network. Because only in this way you can grow your business. When you have good market research questions to ask potential customers, as given below, you can easily get what you need: 

29. Have you ever heard us before?

30. When you think of our brand, what comes to your mind first? 

31. Who is our rival for you?

32. What is your minimum budget?

33. What is your maximum budget?

34. Would you consider choosing our product/service?

35. What are your best aspects, you think?

Market research questions for B2B companies

Just like any sector, B2B companies need to do their best to run market research. As for their market research survey, the questions will be different because they need to aim at businesses directly. If you need them, here are your market research questions for B2B companies: 

36 . Who is your ideal customer?

37. What really matters to your ideal customer?  

38. Do you think you know your customers?

39. How can you know your customers better?

40. What is your customers’ annual income? 

41. What do your customers do in their free time?

42. What attracts your customer?

Demographic questions for your market research survey

Demographic questions allow your company to understand your customer’s background better. Also, if you want to understand the certain characteristics of your target audience, demographic questions are the best option for you. Have a look at these demographic questions for your market research survey: 

43. What gender do you identify as?

• Genderfluid

44. How old are you?

• 65 or Above

45. What is your marital status?

46. Can you please specify your ethnicity?

• African American
• Asian American
• Hispanic/Latino
• Native American
• Pacific Islander
• White/Caucasian

47. Where are you located?

• United States
• United Kingdom

48. What is your education level?

• High School
• Associate's Degree
• Bachelor's Degree
• Master's Degree
• Doctorate Degree

49. What is your annual income?

• $0 - $25,000
• $25,001 - $50,000
• $50,001 - $75,000
• $75,001 - $100,000
• $100,001 - $150,000
• $150,001 - $200,000
• $200,001 and above

50. What is your current employment situation? 

• Employed full-time
• Employed part-time
• Self-employed
• Not looking for work

A market research survey question example about income

• How can I create a market research survey?

In order to collect essential data for your market research, if you want to handle it the fastest way, you will need an online form builder. Also, if you want to build your form with lots of options and create just like you wish and want to do all of them for free, there is only one option left: forms.app .

As long as you follow some basic steps, you can easily create your market research survey and here are the steps: 

1. Login or create an account

Firstly, you should log in to your existing account if you do not have one; no worries, you can easily and quickly create an account . Also, do not forget that you have the opportunity to log in via Google, Facebook, and Apple accounts. 

2. Start from scratch, choose a temple, or generate with AI

You have access to a wide range of options thanks to forms.app . You must begin from scratch if you wish to pick every aspect of your survey. The site offers pre-made market research survey templates if you do not want to spend too much time on it. However, if you stay current with the latest technology, artificial intelligence can create your survey in seconds!

3. Add your market research survey questions

Based on your company’s primary needs and essential requirements, you should choose your market research survey questions very carefully. Each company’s priorities can differ. For that reason, you need to pay attention while adding them. 

4. Customize your survey form

In this step, you can easily change and personalize your online survey . To give an example, you can change the size and type of the font, colors, and order of questions, add your brand’s logo, etc. 

5. Share your market research survey

In the final step, you can share your survey with your target via many platforms . You can choose the link to be public, limited, or private while sharing. Additionally, you can preview the link to see whether it has any meta titles, descriptions, or images. 

• How can I write good market research questions?

One can randomly create market research questions for the survey; however, if you want to be one step ahead of your rivals and be good at writing market research questions, you need to follow the points given below:

• Consider your company’s needs : You need to have a moment and consider what your company needs the most. What are your priorities or urgent needs? Or what are your urgent deficiencies to be covered? After answering these questions, you can create better questions. 
• Think like the customer: The key point is listening to your customers and trying to think like them. When you think like them, you can come up with better market research questions and collect more valuable data for your survey. 
• Be direct: Questions asked directly are definitely better , instead of asking too many indirect questions or long and complex sentences that might be confusing. So, you need to pay attention at this point. 
• Key points to take away

As we have discussed so far, the importance of market research is undeniable. If you want to increase your market share and be more successful in your sector, there are some key points for your company to take away. You should not ignore these points:

• Design of the survey: Do not forget that the more you pay attention to your market research survey design, the more you will seem professional. 
• Pay attention to the context: Design is an important factor, but context is the exact reason you run a survey. So, you need to be careful with your questions. 
• Check the result: At the end of the survey, checking and analyzing the results is a key point. If you will not do that, there is no need to share the survey, isn’t it?

Now that you have read so far, you know all the critical points about the issue and where to start. Take action now and start finding your own effective data collection methods for market research !

Şeyma is a content writer at forms.app. She loves art and traveling. She is passionate about reading and writing. Şeyma has expertise in surveys, survey questions, giveaways, statistics, and online forms.

• Market Research
• Form Features
• Data Collection

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How to write market research questions for humans—not respondents

Need some help writing market research questions for your survey? Don't fret—with these market research question tips you'll be getting the best completion rates you've ever seen.

We’ve got a little secret for you—respondents and target markets don’t exist. But people do.

Imagine you’re on a hot date. You’re sitting across the table from someone who means a lot to you—someone who could be in it for the long haul. You want to impress them with your excellent communication skills, you want to get to know them and you want to understand how they think. Do you:

A. Ask a series of tick-box, closed-ended questions in robotic language? B. Gear open-ended questions around what you’ve already learned about one another?

Opt for A, and the relationship ends there.

But if you go for B, it could be the start of something beautiful.

At the risk of sounding slightly crazy, we’re going to leave that metaphor there. But the message is simple—when someone responds to a market research survey, they want to be treated with the same conversational care and respect that they’d expect from any other human being.

Examples of market research questions

Demographic questions e.g. How old are you? Where do you live?

How likely are you to recommend us to a friend?

Did you consider any of our competitors? Who and why?

What do you wish our product could do?

How would you rate your most recent experience with us?

How long have you been a customer?

How much money do usually spend on X products?

What’s the maximum you’d pay for X?

How to write market research questions

If you’ve struggled with writing questions on market research, or you simply think you have a little room for improvement, bookmark this page.

It’s going to be your go-to guide for how to write marketing research questions that get people talking and tweet-ing. So next time you’re launching a new product, researching a value proposition, or working on a marketing strategy—come back here and get clued up.

With any big project, it’s easy to lose sight of the end goal and accidentally go off on a tangent. Whether your end product lacks continuity or you’re kicking yourself for wasting time, it’s definitely something you’re going to want to avoid.

Luckily, the solution is simple. Before you start, set yourself a SMART goal. It must be:

• Measurable

• Attainable

For instance, you might decide that your goal is—in two weeks time, I need to know which websites my customers go to on a daily basis, so I can help the marketing department distribute its advertising spend most effectively.

As long as it’s SMART, it’ll keep you on track. Write it somewhere visible in your office so you and anyone else involved in the project are constantly referring back to it when making decisions about the market research project.

Keeping surveys short and sweet is key to a high response rate. When it comes to the final draft, you’ll need to be brutal—chopping out any questions that are even slightly unnecessary. You can call yourself Edward Surveyhands.

Defining what you do know is as important as what you don’t know.

By getting lots of different people in a room to brainstorm, you can pool your knowledge about your ideal customers. Having people from different departments will give you a more rounded, true representation of who you’re talking to when you’re communicating via a market research survey .

Here are the questions you’ll need to answer before you begin writing your market research questions:

• Who is our ideal customer (and is it your current customer)?

• What do they struggle with?

• What do they really want?

• What sets us apart from our competitors?

• What benefits do our customers think we can give them?

Some people call this buyer persona development.

We just call it getting to know people.

Once you’ve written down what you do know, it’ll spark off lots of thoughts about the gaps in your knowledge.

Because of this, it’s likely that you’ll come out of the brainstorm with a list of questions as long as your arm.

But as your final survey should be as short as possible, now is the time to get brutal. Splitting your questions into topics will help you decipher which questions essentially provide you with the same information, while also helping you get as much information from as few questions as possible.

A general rule of thumb in market research is to start general and get more specific later on. Cover the biggest, broadest question first, before zooming in on more detailed questions.

You could also consider doing multiple  surveys  in this way. If you still had a long list of questions that needed answering, you could send out weekly or monthly surveys.

If you do this, make the first one as broad as possible. After that, you can pick and choose who to send which detailed question to.

Think of your survey as a one-to-one dialogue.

Once you’ve got your final draft, read it out loud to another person.

Do the questions seem self-serving? Have you used conversational language? If someone asked you this question in real life, how would you feel?

To get the most valuable information, you’ll need to avoid any kind of leading language. At the same time, to inspire the most thoughtful responses, you’ll want to give them an emotive reason to answer the question.

This can be a tricky balance—but working with another person helps to ensure that your survey is just part of the bigger conversation you’re having with your customers.

A lot of the time, people assume that all of their customers would ideally take part in their market research survey. That’s certainly not the case.

It may sound counterproductive, but you should actually send your survey to as few people as possible. That way, you’ll end up with the most hyper-focused think-group possible—allowing for some truly insightful information from key questions that have the power to drive effective change in your organization.

If a customer hasn’t purchased your product or interacted with product features in a long time, they’re ideal for a survey that aims to re-engage previous customers in order to increase customer satisfaction. They won’t be quite so suited to a survey that looks to get feedback from a recent tweak in the product.

Similarly, think outside your immediate audience. If you’re hoping to get insight on how to reach a new demographic, there’s not a whole lot you can gain from sending a customer survey that targets your existing demographic—you want potential customers, not existing ones.

Get SMART with your market research survey questions

There are lots of ways to come up with truly SMART market research questions.

One thing they all have in common? They’re the right questions for the right people.

Forget the respondent, and start thinking about the person. Consider them as important as any other human being in your life and it really could be the start of something beautiful.

How you ask is everything.

Market Research: A How-To Guide and Template

Discover the different types of market research, how to conduct your own market research, and use a free template to help you along the way.

MARKET RESEARCH KIT

5 Research and Planning Templates + a Free Guide on How to Use Them in Your Market Research

Published: 02/21/24

Today's consumers have a lot of power. As a business, you must have a deep understanding of who your buyers are and what influences their purchase decisions.

Enter: Market Research.

Whether you're new to market research or not, I created this guide to help you conduct a thorough study of your market, target audience, competition, and more. Let’s dive in.

Table of Contents

What is market research?

Primary vs. secondary research, types of market research, how to do market research, market research report template, market research examples.

Market research is the process of gathering information about your target market and customers to verify the success of a new product, help your team iterate on an existing product, or understand brand perception to ensure your team is effectively communicating your company's value effectively.

Market research can answer various questions about the state of an industry. But if you ask me, it's hardly a crystal ball that marketers can rely on for insights on their customers.

Market researchers investigate several areas of the market, and it can take weeks or even months to paint an accurate picture of the business landscape.

However, researching just one of those areas can make you more intuitive to who your buyers are and how to deliver value that no other business is offering them right now.

How? Consider these two things:

• Your competitors also have experienced individuals in the industry and a customer base. It‘s very possible that your immediate resources are, in many ways, equal to those of your competition’s immediate resources. Seeking a larger sample size for answers can provide a better edge.
• Your customers don't represent the attitudes of an entire market. They represent the attitudes of the part of the market that is already drawn to your brand.

The market research services market is growing rapidly, which signifies a strong interest in market research as we enter 2024. The market is expected to grow from roughly $75 billion in 2021 to $90.79 billion in 2025 .

Free Market Research Kit

• SWOT Analysis Template
• Survey Template
• Focus Group Template

Download Free

All fields are required.

You're all set!

Click this link to access this resource at any time.

Why do market research?

Market research allows you to meet your buyer where they are.

As our world becomes louder and demands more of our attention, this proves invaluable.

By understanding your buyer's problems, pain points, and desired solutions, you can aptly craft your product or service to naturally appeal to them.

Market research also provides insight into the following:

• Where your target audience and current customers conduct their product or service research
• Which of your competitors your target audience looks to for information, options, or purchases
• What's trending in your industry and in the eyes of your buyer
• Who makes up your market and what their challenges are
• What influences purchases and conversions among your target audience
• Consumer attitudes about a particular topic, pain, product, or brand
• Whether there‘s demand for the business initiatives you’re investing in
• Unaddressed or underserved customer needs that can be flipped into selling opportunity
• Attitudes about pricing for a particular product or service

Ultimately, market research allows you to get information from a larger sample size of your target audience, eliminating bias and assumptions so that you can get to the heart of consumer attitudes.

As a result, you can make better business decisions.

To give you an idea of how extensive market research can get , consider that it can either be qualitative or quantitative in nature — depending on the studies you conduct and what you're trying to learn about your industry.

Qualitative research is concerned with public opinion, and explores how the market feels about the products currently available in that market.

Quantitative research is concerned with data, and looks for relevant trends in the information that's gathered from public records.

That said, there are two main types of market research that your business can conduct to collect actionable information on your products: primary research and secondary research.

Primary Research

Primary research is the pursuit of first-hand information about your market and the customers within your market.

It's useful when segmenting your market and establishing your buyer personas.

Primary market research tends to fall into one of two buckets:

• Exploratory Primary Research: This kind of primary market research normally takes place as a first step — before any specific research has been performed — and may involve open-ended interviews or surveys with small numbers of people.
• Specific Primary Research: This type of research often follows exploratory research. In specific research, you take a smaller or more precise segment of your audience and ask questions aimed at solving a suspected problem.

Secondary Research

Secondary research is all the data and public records you have at your disposal to draw conclusions from (e.g. trend reports, market statistics, industry content, and sales data you already have on your business).

Secondary research is particularly useful for analyzing your competitors . The main buckets your secondary market research will fall into include:

• Public Sources: These sources are your first and most-accessible layer of material when conducting secondary market research. They're often free to find and review — like government statistics (e.g., from the U.S. Census Bureau ).
• Commercial Sources: These sources often come in the form of pay-to-access market reports, consisting of industry insight compiled by a research agency like Pew , Gartner , or Forrester .
• Internal Sources: This is the market data your organization already has like average revenue per sale, customer retention rates, and other historical data that can help you draw conclusions on buyer needs.
• Focus Groups
• Product/ Service Use Research
• Observation-Based Research
• Buyer Persona Research
• Market Segmentation Research
• Pricing Research
• Competitive Analysis Research
• Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty Research
• Brand Awareness Research
• Campaign Research

1. Interviews

Interviews allow for face-to-face discussions so you can allow for a natural flow of conversation. Your interviewees can answer questions about themselves to help you design your buyer personas and shape your entire marketing strategy.

2. Focus Groups

Focus groups provide you with a handful of carefully-selected people that can test out your product and provide feedback. This type of market research can give you ideas for product differentiation.

3. Product/Service Use Research

Product or service use research offers insight into how and why your audience uses your product or service. This type of market research also gives you an idea of the product or service's usability for your target audience.

4. Observation-Based Research

Observation-based research allows you to sit back and watch the ways in which your target audience members go about using your product or service, what works well in terms of UX , and which aspects of it could be improved.

5. Buyer Persona Research

Buyer persona research gives you a realistic look at who makes up your target audience, what their challenges are, why they want your product or service, and what they need from your business or brand.

6. Market Segmentation Research

Market segmentation research allows you to categorize your target audience into different groups (or segments) based on specific and defining characteristics. This way, you can determine effective ways to meet their needs.

7. Pricing Research

Pricing research helps you define your pricing strategy . It gives you an idea of what similar products or services in your market sell for and what your target audience is willing to pay.

8. Competitive Analysis

Competitive analyses give you a deep understanding of the competition in your market and industry. You can learn about what's doing well in your industry and how you can separate yourself from the competition .

9. Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty Research

Customer satisfaction and loyalty research gives you a look into how you can get current customers to return for more business and what will motivate them to do so (e.g., loyalty programs , rewards, remarkable customer service).

10. Brand Awareness Research

Brand awareness research tells you what your target audience knows about and recognizes from your brand. It tells you about the associations people make when they think about your business.

11. Campaign Research

Campaign research entails looking into your past campaigns and analyzing their success among your target audience and current customers. The goal is to use these learnings to inform future campaigns.

• Define your buyer persona.
• Identify a persona group to engage.
• Prepare research questions for your market research participants.
• List your primary competitors.
• Summarize your findings.

1. Define your buyer persona.

You have to understand who your customers are and how customers in your industry make buying decisions.

This is where your buyer personas come in handy. Buyer personas — sometimes referred to as marketing personas — are fictional, generalized representations of your ideal customers.

Use a free tool to create a buyer persona that your entire company can use to market, sell, and serve better.

4. List your primary competitors.

List your primary competitors — keep in mind listing the competition isn't always as simple as Company X versus Company Y.

Sometimes, a division of a company might compete with your main product or service, even though that company's brand might put more effort in another area.

For example, Apple is known for its laptops and mobile devices but Apple Music competes with Spotify over its music streaming service.

From a content standpoint, you might compete with a blog, YouTube channel, or similar publication for inbound website visitors — even though their products don't overlap with yours at all.

For example, a toothpaste company might compete with magazines like Health.com or Prevention on certain blog topics related to health and hygiene even though the magazines don't actually sell oral care products.

Identifying Industry Competitors

To identify competitors whose products or services overlap with yours, determine which industry or industries you're pursuing.

Start high-level, using terms like education, construction, media & entertainment, food service, healthcare, retail, financial services, telecommunications, and agriculture.

You can build your list the following ways:

• Review your industry quadrant on G2 Crowd. G2 Crowd aggregates user ratings and social data to create “quadrants,” where you can see companies plotted as contenders, leaders, niche, and high performers in their respective industries.
• Download a market report. Companies like Forrester and Gartner offer both free and gated market forecasts every year on the vendors who are leading their industry.
• Search using social media. Social networks make great company directories. On LinkedIn, for example, select the search bar and enter the name of the industry you're pursuing. Then, under “More,” select “Companies” to narrow your results.

Identifying Content Competitors

Search engines are your best friends in this area of secondary market research.

To find the online publications with which you compete, take the overarching industry term you identified in the section above, and come up with a handful of more specific industry terms your company identifies with.

A catering business, for example, might generally be a “food service” company, but also consider itself a vendor in “event catering,” “cake catering,” or “baked goods.” Once you have this list, do the following:

• Google it. Don't underestimate the value in seeing which websites come up when you run a search on Google for the industry terms that describe your company. You might find a mix of product developers, blogs, magazines, and more.
• Compare your search results against your buyer persona. If the content the website publishes seems like the stuff your buyer persona would want to see, it's a potential competitor, and should be added to your list of competitors.

5. Summarize your findings.

Feeling overwhelmed by the notes you took? We suggest looking for common themes that will help you tell a story and create a list of action items.

To make the process easier, try using your favorite presentation software to make a report, as it will make it easy to add in quotes, diagrams, or call clips.

Feel free to add your own flair, but the following outline should help you craft a clear summary:

• Background: Your goals and why you conducted this study.
• Participants: Who you talked to. A table works well so you can break groups down by persona and customer/prospect.
• Executive Summary : What were the most interesting things you learned? What do you plan to do about it?
• Awareness: Describe the common triggers that lead someone to enter into an evaluation. (Quotes can be very powerful.)
• Consideration: Provide the main themes you uncovered, as well as the detailed sources buyers use when conducting their evaluation.
• Decision: Paint the picture of how a decision is really made by including the people at the center of influence and any product features or information that can make or break a deal.
• Action Plan: Your analysis probably uncovered a few campaigns you can run to get your brand in front of buyers earlier and/or more effectively. Provide your list of priorities, a timeline, and the impact it will have on your business.

Within a market research kit, there are a number of critical pieces of information for your business‘s success. Let’s take a look at these elements.

Pro Tip: Upon downloading HubSpot's free Market Research Kit , you'll receive editable templates for each of the given parts of the kit, instructions on how to use the kit, and a mock presentation that you can edit and customize.

9 Best Marketing Research Methods to Know Your Buyer Better [+ Examples]

SWOT Analysis: How To Do One [With Template & Examples]

28 Tools & Resources for Conducting Market Research

What is a Competitive Analysis — and How Do You Conduct One?

TAM, SAM & SOM: What Do They Mean & How Do You Calculate Them?

How to Run a Competitor Analysis [Free Guide]

5 Challenges Marketers Face in Understanding Audiences [New Data + Market Researcher Tips]

Causal Research: The Complete Guide

Total Addressable Market (TAM): What It Is & How You Can Calculate It

What Is Market Share & How Do You Calculate It?

Free Guide & Templates to Help Your Market Research

Marketing software that helps you drive revenue, save time and resources, and measure and optimize your investments — all on one easy-to-use platform

A Complete Guide to Market Research: Methods, Templates, How to do it and a lot more

Johnny Tong

Jan 19, 2021

Table of Contents

What is Market Research?

Why is market research so important, market research methods, focus groups, observation, types of market research, market segmentation, brand awareness and reach, pricing research, how to do market research, market research report & analysis templates, swot analysis template, market survey template, 15 common and effective market survey questions, demographic questions, psychographic questions, questions about your product/service., 10 best market research software.

• 1. Surveybot
• 2. Google analytics
• 3. Question Pro
• 4. Make My Persona
• 5. SurveyMonkey

Dos and Don’ts of Market Research

Do focus on your purpose, do use multiple tools, do make necessary changes according to the reports, do use user-friendly survey, do define a budget, don’t stop doing it again, don’t rely on internet information alone, don’t go for professional respondents, market research faqs.

• What is market research?
• Why is market research so important?
• Types of market research
• How to do market research?
• 5 best market research software
• Dos and don’ts of market research
• Market research FAQs

• Keep a definite purpose
• Identify the target audience
• Relationship status
• Education level
• Study your industry
• Prepare survey questions
• Record and analyze your findings

• How old are you?
• What is your gender?
• What is your employment status?
• What do you do?
• What are your hobbies, interests, attitudes?
• What are your challenges, goals?
• How satisfied are you with our product?
• Would you recommend our product to a friend?
• How appealing is our website/store?
• Do you think our prices are high?
• How satisfied are you with our customer service?
• Was it easy to find the right product from our store/website?
• How did you know about our product?
• What attracted you to our brand?
• How often do you come across our advertisements online?

1.  Surveybot

2.  google analytics, 3.  question pro, 4.  make my persona, 5.  surveymonkey.

• How long will it take to carry out market research?
• How to choose the best market research software for my business?
• How many questions should be there in my survey?
• Can I trust the research results to make business decisions?

Chief Human @ Surveybot

🔥 Upgrade to a new style of analyzing VoC with sentiment checks, video clips, custom reports & more!

Product Management

80 Market Research Questions for More Valuable Insights (+tips)

Content Writer

Created on:

April 15, 2024

Updated on:

Transform Insights into Impact

Build Products That Drive Revenue and Delight Customers!

There are different types of market research, with 85% of researchers regularly using online surveys as their go-to tool , allowing them to reach broad target audiences in a cost-effective way.

Online surveys can break down geographical barriers and uncover profound customer insights, but only if you come up with the right market research questions.

Your questions shape the data you get, influencing your understanding of customer behavior and key consumer trends.

In this article, you'll find many examples of market research questions organized by categories, followed by tips for creating and analyzing your own market research survey.

80 market research questions to ask for more valuable insights

Demographic questions.

Learning more about your existing customer base can help you identify your ideal customers and adjust your marketing strategy accordingly. During the process, you may also discover that you have different customer personas, and you can later segment your audience.

Also, having detailed demographic data allows you to create targeted marketing campaigns that will convert better.

Here are some questions to explore your target audience:

• What is your age and gender?
• Where do you live?
• Do you have a partner or children?
• What is your highest level of education?
• In what industry do you work?
• What is your current job title?
• What is your annual income?
• What's the category you spend the most money on (e.g., groceries, technology, clothes)?
• What's the average amount you spend on _____ (mention a particular category relevant to your industry)?
• What websites, newspapers or magazines do you use to stay informed?

Product opportunities

Almost half of the startups fail because they're building products for which there's no real market need . That's why it's essential to do a product opportunity assessment before you invest time and money into building a product that may not have a big enough target market.

The following market research interview questions will help you discover burning issues and problems that your new product or service can solve.

• What challenges and problems do you currently face in _____ (name specific area) that you can't find an adequate solution for?
• Are there any existing products that you find close to meeting your needs but still fall short in some aspects, and which?
• How do you currently cope with the absence of a dedicated solution for that problem?
• Hypothetically speaking, what would an ideal solution for that problem look like?
• What features would you like this product to include?
• Would you purchase this product if it was available today? If not, why?
• What is the one feature that would make our product a must-have for you?
• Are there any untapped market segments or niches where our product could solve the existing problems?
• If you were to brainstorm about a product that anticipates future needs in your industry, what would be its main features?
• How would you prioritize the importance of the following features? (you can provide them with a list of features they need to rank from the most important to the least important)

If you've already started developing your product, read this article on how to get feedback for early-stage products and validate your product.

Customer feedback

If you've already launched a product or service, you should ask your existing customers for feedback and suggestions for improvement. This is an essential component of continuous product discovery , which is the best way to increase customer satisfaction by anticipating their needs.

Here are some questions you can use:

• How long have you been using our product?
• How often do you use our product?
• What made you decide to purchase our product?
• Describe how you use our product and what problems it solves for you.
• Which features of our product do you use the most?
• Which features of our product do you use the least or not at all?
• What is the best feature of our product in your opinion?
• What might be the weakest feature or the biggest area for improvement in our product?
• Have you had any issues or problems with our product?
• What would you miss the most if our product was no longer available?

Click here to discover 13 proven ways to collect customer feedback . Also, here are some additional questions for your product feedback survey .

Brand awareness

Market research surveys can help you see how existing and potential customers perceive your brand and whether you need to raise brand awareness or adjust your brand image.

• Have you heard about our brand before?
• How did you hear about us?
• What is the first thing that comes to mind when someone mentions our brand?
• What emotions or feelings do you associate with our brand?
• How would you describe our brand in one sentence?
• Are you currently using our products, and how often?
• How likely are you to purchase our products again?
• Are you aware that we also offer _____? (this can be an excellent opportunity for up-selling)
• How often do you see our posts or ads on social media?
• You can also calculate the Net Promoter Score by asking your current customers: On a scale of 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend our product to a friend or colleague?

Pricing analysis

The following market research survey questions will help you explore the balance between product quality, features, and cost and assess the perceived value of your product.

• What is more important to you: product quality or price?
• In your opinion, what's a fair and reasonable price for a product like this?
• What is the price range within which you'd feel comfortable purchasing this product?
• What is the maximum amount you'd be willing to spend on this product?
• If you think the price is too high, what additional features or improvements would justify the current price of our product?
• Are there specific payment options or financing plans that would make you consider purchasing our product?
• Do you find our pricing information clear and easy to understand?

Customer preferences

This set of questions will help you learn more about consumer preferences and their purchasing habits so that you can adjust your strategy accordingly.

• What factors are influencing your purchasing decisions the most?
• Where do you look for products you want to buy?
• Do you prefer offline or online shopping, and why?
• Do you read customer reviews, and on which websites?
• Are you looking for recommendations from your friends and family?
• Do you use social media to follow brand accounts, and which platforms do you use the most?
• What is your preferred way to receive information and updates about a brand (e.g., social media, email newsletter, SMS)?
• How do you prefer to consume information: through video, audio or reading?

Customer concerns

Understanding why people are not buying from you is essential for adjusting your offer and marketing. This set of questions will help you uncover potential objections you can address on your website.

• Is there anything that's preventing you from buying our product?
• What would need to happen for you to purchase our product today?
• If now is not the right time to buy it, why is that?
• Do you have any doubts or questions about our product?
• What was your biggest concern before purchasing our product?
• What is the main reason for canceling your subscription / not ordering again?
• Did you encounter any problems or challenges when using our product?
• If there was one thing about our product that would have made your decision-making process faster, what would it be?

Competitive analysis

It's important to research your competitors and learn both about their unique selling points and their weaknesses from users’ perspectives, which can help you discover your own competitive advantage and do a thorough market opportunity analysis.

• How are you currently dealing with the problem that our product solves?
• Are you already using a product with similar features?
• Which products or brands would you consider as an alternative to ours?
• Why did you choose our product over other options?
• Did you consider any other options?
• Does our product miss some features that our competitors' products have?
• Are our prices higher, lower or similar to those of other companies?
• Which of these products have you tried? (provide a list of your competitors' products)
• What is your preferred brand?
• If our product was no longer available, what other product would you choose instead?

The following market research questions can be applied to your website, landing page, social media platforms or any other channel you use to share information about your product or service or communicate with your customers.

• Was it easy to find information on our website?
• Is our website easy to navigate and user-friendly?
• Is some information missing on our website?
• Is product information clear and transparent?
• Do you think we should add any features to our website, and which ones?
• What kind of content would you like to see on our blog?
• Did you have any difficulties using our website?

Market research questions: Best practices

Here are a few tips to consider when creating your own market research questions:

• Define clear objectives: Before starting, you have to be clear on what you want to get out of the market research. Learning more about your potential customers? Identifying your competition? Evaluating a new product idea? Identifying different customer segments?
• Use neutral language: If you want to get unbiased results to drive customer-led product growth , use neutral language to avoid leading participants toward a particular response.
• Use different types of questions: You should combine multiple-choice questions, Likert scales and open-ended questions, as each of them helps you gather different types of data. While close-ended questions are great for collecting and analyzing large amounts of quantitative data, the open-ended format can be better when creating interview questions for market research as it provides you with deeper customer insights .

Writing questions and conducting market research is just the first step. The second and even more important step is to analyze the data you've gathered so you can uncover insights and patterns.

The best way to do so is through a customer feedback platform like Zeda.io, which provides you with a centralized workspace to collect and manage feedback and analyze data from all customer interaction points in one place.

Our platform helps you transform customer feedback into actionable insights that can help you decide which product to build or how to prioritize product features .

Thanks to advanced AI algorithms, we can help you spot product opportunities by uncovering the features users desire the most.

It can also help you analyze customer feedback to detect issues and frustrations reported by users so that you can enhance customer experience by promptly fixing them.

We can also spot trends in user feedback and calculate a potential revenue impact from adding new features.

We hope you were able to pick some ideas for creating your next customer survey or interview questions for market research.

After conducting research, it's crucial to thoroughly analyze your market research questionnaire using the right user feedback tools .

Zeda.io is an AI-powered tool that transforms raw customer data into actionable insights, helping you better understand your customers and spot emerging trends before competitors.

It helps you take the guesswork out of product discovery and confidently create products your target market will love.

Sign up today, and let's uncover burning issues and market gaps together.

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How do you write a good market research question?

Good market research questions are the ones that are clear, concise, specific and aligned with your goals. To get unbiased data, avoid leading questions and suggesting particular answers to your target audience.

What questions should I ask for market research for a new product?

You should ask target customers about their pain points, struggles, challenges and desires. See how they're currently solving those problems, whether they're using any other similar product and whether some features of that product could be added or improved.

What are the 7 basic questions in market research?

Here are the key market research questions: What problem is our product solving? Who is our target audience? What product features are the most important for them? What influences their purchasing decisions? How much are they willing to pay? What's preventing potential customers from buying our product? Who are our main competitors?

What are the elements of market research?

The main elements of market research are researching your target audience, their needs and problems, doing a competitor analysis and spotting market trends.

IN THIS ARTICLE:

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How to Do Market Research: The Complete Guide

Learn how to do market research with this step-by-step guide, complete with templates, tools and real-world examples.

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Market research is the systematic process of gathering, analyzing and interpreting information about a specific market or industry.

What are your customers’ needs? How does your product compare to the competition? What are the emerging trends and opportunities in your industry? If these questions keep you up at night, it’s time to conduct market research.

Market research plays a pivotal role in your ability to stay competitive and relevant, helping you anticipate shifts in consumer behavior and industry dynamics. It involves gathering these insights using a wide range of techniques, from surveys and interviews to data analysis and observational studies.

In this guide, we’ll explore why market research is crucial, the various types of market research, the methods used in data collection, and how to effectively conduct market research to drive informed decision-making and success.

What is market research?

The purpose of market research is to offer valuable insight into the preferences and behaviors of your target audience, and anticipate shifts in market trends and the competitive landscape. This information helps you make data-driven decisions, develop effective strategies for your business, and maximize your chances of long-term growth.

Why is market research important? 

By understanding the significance of market research, you can make sure you’re asking the right questions and using the process to your advantage. Some of the benefits of market research include:

• Informed decision-making: Market research provides you with the data and insights you need to make smart decisions for your business. It helps you identify opportunities, assess risks and tailor your strategies to meet the demands of the market. Without market research, decisions are often based on assumptions or guesswork, leading to costly mistakes.
• Customer-centric approach: A cornerstone of market research involves developing a deep understanding of customer needs and preferences. This gives you valuable insights into your target audience, helping you develop products, services and marketing campaigns that resonate with your customers.
• Competitive advantage: By conducting market research, you’ll gain a competitive edge. You’ll be able to identify gaps in the market, analyze competitor strengths and weaknesses, and position your business strategically. This enables you to create unique value propositions, differentiate yourself from competitors, and seize opportunities that others may overlook.
• Risk mitigation: Market research helps you anticipate market shifts and potential challenges. By identifying threats early, you can proactively adjust their strategies to mitigate risks and respond effectively to changing circumstances. This proactive approach is particularly valuable in volatile industries.
• Resource optimization: Conducting market research allows organizations to allocate their time, money and resources more efficiently. It ensures that investments are made in areas with the highest potential return on investment, reducing wasted resources and improving overall business performance.
• Adaptation to market trends: Markets evolve rapidly, driven by technological advancements, cultural shifts and changing consumer attitudes. Market research ensures that you stay ahead of these trends and adapt your offerings accordingly so you can avoid becoming obsolete. 

As you can see, market research empowers businesses to make data-driven decisions, cater to customer needs, outperform competitors, mitigate risks, optimize resources and stay agile in a dynamic marketplace. These benefits make it a huge industry; the global market research services market is expected to grow from $76.37 billion in 2021 to $108.57 billion in 2026 . Now, let’s dig into the different types of market research that can help you achieve these benefits.

Types of market research 

• Qualitative research
• Quantitative research
• Exploratory research
• Descriptive research
• Causal research
• Cross-sectional research
• Longitudinal research

Despite its advantages, 23% of organizations don’t have a clear market research strategy. Part of developing a strategy involves choosing the right type of market research for your business goals. The most commonly used approaches include:

1. Qualitative research

Qualitative research focuses on understanding the underlying motivations, attitudes and perceptions of individuals or groups. It is typically conducted through techniques like in-depth interviews, focus groups and content analysis — methods we’ll discuss further in the sections below. Qualitative research provides rich, nuanced insights that can inform product development, marketing strategies and brand positioning.

2. Quantitative research

Quantitative research, in contrast to qualitative research, involves the collection and analysis of numerical data, often through surveys, experiments and structured questionnaires. This approach allows for statistical analysis and the measurement of trends, making it suitable for large-scale market studies and hypothesis testing. While it’s worthwhile using a mix of qualitative and quantitative research, most businesses prioritize the latter because it is scientific, measurable and easily replicated across different experiments.

3. Exploratory research

Whether you’re conducting qualitative or quantitative research or a mix of both, exploratory research is often the first step. Its primary goal is to help you understand a market or problem so you can gain insights and identify potential issues or opportunities. This type of market research is less structured and is typically conducted through open-ended interviews, focus groups or secondary data analysis. Exploratory research is valuable when entering new markets or exploring new product ideas.

4. Descriptive research

As its name implies, descriptive research seeks to describe a market, population or phenomenon in detail. It involves collecting and summarizing data to answer questions about audience demographics and behaviors, market size, and current trends. Surveys, observational studies and content analysis are common methods used in descriptive research. 

5. Causal research

Causal research aims to establish cause-and-effect relationships between variables. It investigates whether changes in one variable result in changes in another. Experimental designs, A/B testing and regression analysis are common causal research methods. This sheds light on how specific marketing strategies or product changes impact consumer behavior.

6. Cross-sectional research

Cross-sectional market research involves collecting data from a sample of the population at a single point in time. It is used to analyze differences, relationships or trends among various groups within a population. Cross-sectional studies are helpful for market segmentation, identifying target audiences and assessing market trends at a specific moment.

7. Longitudinal research

Longitudinal research, in contrast to cross-sectional research, collects data from the same subjects over an extended period. This allows for the analysis of trends, changes and developments over time. Longitudinal studies are useful for tracking long-term developments in consumer preferences, brand loyalty and market dynamics.

Each type of market research has its strengths and weaknesses, and the method you choose depends on your specific research goals and the depth of understanding you’re aiming to achieve. In the following sections, we’ll delve into primary and secondary research approaches and specific research methods.

Primary vs. secondary market research

Market research of all types can be broadly categorized into two main approaches: primary research and secondary research. By understanding the differences between these approaches, you can better determine the most appropriate research method for your specific goals.

Primary market research 

Primary research involves the collection of original data straight from the source. Typically, this involves communicating directly with your target audience — through surveys, interviews, focus groups and more — to gather information. Here are some key attributes of primary market research:

• Customized data: Primary research provides data that is tailored to your research needs. You design a custom research study and gather information specific to your goals.
• Up-to-date insights: Because primary research involves communicating with customers, the data you collect reflects the most current market conditions and consumer behaviors.
• Time-consuming and resource-intensive: Despite its advantages, primary research can be labor-intensive and costly, especially when dealing with large sample sizes or complex study designs. Whether you hire a market research consultant, agency or use an in-house team, primary research studies consume a large amount of resources and time.

Secondary market research 

Secondary research, on the other hand, involves analyzing data that has already been compiled by third-party sources, such as online research tools, databases, news sites, industry reports and academic studies.

Here are the main characteristics of secondary market research:

• Cost-effective: Secondary research is generally more cost-effective than primary research since it doesn’t require building a research plan from scratch. You and your team can look at databases, websites and publications on an ongoing basis, without needing to design a custom experiment or hire a consultant. 
• Leverages multiple sources: Data tools and software extract data from multiple places across the web, and then consolidate that information within a single platform. This means you’ll get a greater amount of data and a wider scope from secondary research.
• Quick to access: You can access a wide range of information rapidly — often in seconds — if you’re using online research tools and databases. Because of this, you can act on insights sooner, rather than taking the time to develop an experiment. 

So, when should you use primary vs. secondary research? In practice, many market research projects incorporate both primary and secondary research to take advantage of the strengths of each approach.

One rule of thumb is to focus on secondary research to obtain background information, market trends or industry benchmarks. It is especially valuable for conducting preliminary research, competitor analysis, or when time and budget constraints are tight. Then, if you still have knowledge gaps or need to answer specific questions unique to your business model, use primary research to create a custom experiment. 

Market research methods

• Surveys and questionnaires
• Focus groups
• Observational research
• Online research tools
• Experiments
• Content analysis
• Ethnographic research

How do primary and secondary research approaches translate into specific research methods? Let’s take a look at the different ways you can gather data: 

1. Surveys and questionnaires

Surveys and questionnaires are popular methods for collecting structured data from a large number of respondents. They involve a set of predetermined questions that participants answer. Surveys can be conducted through various channels, including online tools, telephone interviews and in-person or online questionnaires. They are useful for gathering quantitative data and assessing customer demographics, opinions, preferences and needs. On average, customer surveys have a 33% response rate , so keep that in mind as you consider your sample size.

2. Interviews

Interviews are in-depth conversations with individuals or groups to gather qualitative insights. They can be structured (with predefined questions) or unstructured (with open-ended discussions). Interviews are valuable for exploring complex topics, uncovering motivations and obtaining detailed feedback. 

3. Focus groups

The most common primary research methods are in-depth webcam interviews and focus groups. Focus groups are a small gathering of participants who discuss a specific topic or product under the guidance of a moderator. These discussions are valuable for primary market research because they reveal insights into consumer attitudes, perceptions and emotions. Focus groups are especially useful for idea generation, concept testing and understanding group dynamics within your target audience.

4. Observational research

Observational research involves observing and recording participant behavior in a natural setting. This method is particularly valuable when studying consumer behavior in physical spaces, such as retail stores or public places. In some types of observational research, participants are aware you’re watching them; in other cases, you discreetly watch consumers without their knowledge, as they use your product. Either way, observational research provides firsthand insights into how people interact with products or environments.

5. Online research tools

You and your team can do your own secondary market research using online tools. These tools include data prospecting platforms and databases, as well as online surveys, social media listening, web analytics and sentiment analysis platforms. They help you gather data from online sources, monitor industry trends, track competitors, understand consumer preferences and keep tabs on online behavior. We’ll talk more about choosing the right market research tools in the sections that follow.

6. Experiments

Market research experiments are controlled tests of variables to determine causal relationships. While experiments are often associated with scientific research, they are also used in market research to assess the impact of specific marketing strategies, product features, or pricing and packaging changes.

7. Content analysis

Content analysis involves the systematic examination of textual, visual or audio content to identify patterns, themes and trends. It’s commonly applied to customer reviews, social media posts and other forms of online content to analyze consumer opinions and sentiments.

8. Ethnographic research

Ethnographic research immerses researchers into the daily lives of consumers to understand their behavior and culture. This method is particularly valuable when studying niche markets or exploring the cultural context of consumer choices.

How to do market research

• Set clear objectives
• Identify your target audience
• Choose your research methods
• Use the right market research tools
• Collect data
• Analyze data 
• Interpret your findings
• Identify opportunities and challenges
• Make informed business decisions
• Monitor and adapt

Now that you have gained insights into the various market research methods at your disposal, let’s delve into the practical aspects of how to conduct market research effectively. Here’s a quick step-by-step overview, from defining objectives to monitoring market shifts.

1. Set clear objectives

When you set clear and specific goals, you’re essentially creating a compass to guide your research questions and methodology. Start by precisely defining what you want to achieve. Are you launching a new product and want to understand its viability in the market? Are you evaluating customer satisfaction with a product redesign? 

Start by creating SMART goals — objectives that are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound. Not only will this clarify your research focus from the outset, but it will also help you track progress and benchmark your success throughout the process. 

You should also consult with key stakeholders and team members to ensure alignment on your research objectives before diving into data collecting. This will help you gain diverse perspectives and insights that will shape your research approach.

2. Identify your target audience

Next, you’ll need to pinpoint your target audience to determine who should be included in your research. Begin by creating detailed buyer personas or stakeholder profiles. Consider demographic factors like age, gender, income and location, but also delve into psychographics, such as interests, values and pain points.

The more specific your target audience, the more accurate and actionable your research will be. Additionally, segment your audience if your research objectives involve studying different groups, such as current customers and potential leads.

If you already have existing customers, you can also hold conversations with them to better understand your target market. From there, you can refine your buyer personas and tailor your research methods accordingly.

3. Choose your research methods

Selecting the right research methods is crucial for gathering high-quality data. Start by considering the nature of your research objectives. If you’re exploring consumer preferences, surveys and interviews can provide valuable insights. For in-depth understanding, focus groups or observational research might be suitable. Consider using a mix of quantitative and qualitative methods to gain a well-rounded perspective. 

You’ll also need to consider your budget. Think about what you can realistically achieve using the time and resources available to you. If you have a fairly generous budget, you may want to try a mix of primary and secondary research approaches. If you’re doing market research for a startup , on the other hand, chances are your budget is somewhat limited. If that’s the case, try addressing your goals with secondary research tools before investing time and effort in a primary research study. 

4. Use the right market research tools

Whether you’re conducting primary or secondary research, you’ll need to choose the right tools. These can help you do anything from sending surveys to customers to monitoring trends and analyzing data. Here are some examples of popular market research tools:

• Market research software: Crunchbase is a platform that provides best-in-class company data, making it valuable for market research on growing companies and industries. You can use Crunchbase to access trusted, first-party funding data, revenue data, news and firmographics, enabling you to monitor industry trends and understand customer needs.

• Survey and questionnaire tools: SurveyMonkey is a widely used online survey platform that allows you to create, distribute and analyze surveys. Google Forms is a free tool that lets you create surveys and collect responses through Google Drive.
• Data analysis software: Microsoft Excel and Google Sheets are useful for conducting statistical analyses. SPSS is a powerful statistical analysis software used for data processing, analysis and reporting.
• Social listening tools: Brandwatch is a social listening and analytics platform that helps you monitor social media conversations, track sentiment and analyze trends. Mention is a media monitoring tool that allows you to track mentions of your brand, competitors and keywords across various online sources.
• Data visualization platforms: Tableau is a data visualization tool that helps you create interactive and shareable dashboards and reports. Power BI by Microsoft is a business analytics tool for creating interactive visualizations and reports.

5. Collect data

There’s an infinite amount of data you could be collecting using these tools, so you’ll need to be intentional about going after the data that aligns with your research goals. Implement your chosen research methods, whether it’s distributing surveys, conducting interviews or pulling from secondary research platforms. Pay close attention to data quality and accuracy, and stick to a standardized process to streamline data capture and reduce errors. 

6. Analyze data

Once data is collected, you’ll need to analyze it systematically. Use statistical software or analysis tools to identify patterns, trends and correlations. For qualitative data, employ thematic analysis to extract common themes and insights. Visualize your findings with charts, graphs and tables to make complex data more understandable.

If you’re not proficient in data analysis, consider outsourcing or collaborating with a data analyst who can assist in processing and interpreting your data accurately.

7. Interpret your findings

Interpreting your market research findings involves understanding what the data means in the context of your objectives. Are there significant trends that uncover the answers to your initial research questions? Consider the implications of your findings on your business strategy. It’s essential to move beyond raw data and extract actionable insights that inform decision-making.

Hold a cross-functional meeting or workshop with relevant team members to collectively interpret the findings. Different perspectives can lead to more comprehensive insights and innovative solutions.

8. Identify opportunities and challenges

Use your research findings to identify potential growth opportunities and challenges within your market. What segments of your audience are underserved or overlooked? Are there emerging trends you can capitalize on? Conversely, what obstacles or competitors could hinder your progress?

Lay out this information in a clear and organized way by conducting a SWOT analysis, which stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Jot down notes for each of these areas to provide a structured overview of gaps and hurdles in the market.

9. Make informed business decisions

Market research is only valuable if it leads to informed decisions for your company. Based on your insights, devise actionable strategies and initiatives that align with your research objectives. Whether it’s refining your product, targeting new customer segments or adjusting pricing, ensure your decisions are rooted in the data.

At this point, it’s also crucial to keep your team aligned and accountable. Create an action plan that outlines specific steps, responsibilities and timelines for implementing the recommendations derived from your research. 

10. Monitor and adapt

Market research isn’t a one-time activity; it’s an ongoing process. Continuously monitor market conditions, customer behaviors and industry trends. Set up mechanisms to collect real-time data and feedback. As you gather new information, be prepared to adapt your strategies and tactics accordingly. Regularly revisiting your research ensures your business remains agile and reflects changing market dynamics and consumer preferences.

Online market research sources

As you go through the steps above, you’ll want to turn to trusted, reputable sources to gather your data. Here’s a list to get you started:

• Crunchbase: As mentioned above, Crunchbase is an online platform with an extensive dataset, allowing you to access in-depth insights on market trends, consumer behavior and competitive analysis. You can also customize your search options to tailor your research to specific industries, geographic regions or customer personas.

• Academic databases: Academic databases, such as ProQuest and JSTOR , are treasure troves of scholarly research papers, studies and academic journals. They offer in-depth analyses of various subjects, including market trends, consumer preferences and industry-specific insights. Researchers can access a wealth of peer-reviewed publications to gain a deeper understanding of their research topics.
• Government and NGO databases: Government agencies, nongovernmental organizations and other institutions frequently maintain databases containing valuable economic, demographic and industry-related data. These sources offer credible statistics and reports on a wide range of topics, making them essential for market researchers. Examples include the U.S. Census Bureau , the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Pew Research Center .
• Industry reports: Industry reports and market studies are comprehensive documents prepared by research firms, industry associations and consulting companies. They provide in-depth insights into specific markets, including market size, trends, competitive analysis and consumer behavior. You can find this information by looking at relevant industry association databases; examples include the American Marketing Association and the National Retail Federation .
• Social media and online communities: Social media platforms like LinkedIn or Twitter (X) , forums such as Reddit and Quora , and review platforms such as G2 can provide real-time insights into consumer sentiment, opinions and trends. 

Market research examples

At this point, you have market research tools and data sources — but how do you act on the data you gather? Let’s go over some real-world examples that illustrate the practical application of market research across various industries. These examples showcase how market research can lead to smart decision-making and successful business decisions.

Example 1: Apple’s iPhone launch

Apple ’s iconic iPhone launch in 2007 serves as a prime example of market research driving product innovation in tech. Before the iPhone’s release, Apple conducted extensive market research to understand consumer preferences, pain points and unmet needs in the mobile phone industry. This research led to the development of a touchscreen smartphone with a user-friendly interface, addressing consumer demands for a more intuitive and versatile device. The result was a revolutionary product that disrupted the market and redefined the smartphone industry.

Example 2: McDonald’s global expansion

McDonald’s successful global expansion strategy demonstrates the importance of market research when expanding into new territories. Before entering a new market, McDonald’s conducts thorough research to understand local tastes, preferences and cultural nuances. This research informs menu customization, marketing strategies and store design. For instance, in India, McDonald’s offers a menu tailored to local preferences, including vegetarian options. This market-specific approach has enabled McDonald’s to adapt and thrive in diverse global markets.

Example 3: Organic and sustainable farming

The shift toward organic and sustainable farming practices in the food industry is driven by market research that indicates increased consumer demand for healthier and environmentally friendly food options. As a result, food producers and retailers invest in sustainable sourcing and organic product lines — such as with these sustainable seafood startups — to align with this shift in consumer values. 

The bottom line? Market research has multiple use cases and is a critical practice for any industry. Whether it’s launching groundbreaking products, entering new markets or responding to changing consumer preferences, you can use market research to shape successful strategies and outcomes.

Market research templates

You finally have a strong understanding of how to do market research and apply it in the real world. Before we wrap up, here are some market research templates that you can use as a starting point for your projects:

• Smartsheet competitive analysis templates : These spreadsheets can serve as a framework for gathering information about the competitive landscape and obtaining valuable lessons to apply to your business strategy.
• SurveyMonkey product survey template : Customize the questions on this survey based on what you want to learn from your target customers.
• HubSpot templates : HubSpot offers a wide range of free templates you can use for market research, business planning and more.
• SCORE templates : SCORE is a nonprofit organization that provides templates for business plans, market analysis and financial projections.
• SBA.gov : The U.S. Small Business Administration offers templates for every aspect of your business, including market research, and is particularly valuable for new startups. 

Strengthen your business with market research

When conducted effectively, market research is like a guiding star. Equipped with the right tools and techniques, you can uncover valuable insights, stay competitive, foster innovation and navigate the complexities of your industry.

Throughout this guide, we’ve discussed the definition of market research, different research methods, and how to conduct it effectively. We’ve also explored various types of market research and shared practical insights and templates for getting started. 

Now, it’s time to start the research process. Trust in data, listen to the market and make informed decisions that guide your company toward lasting success.

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• Survey & Questionnaire Introduction: Examples + [5 Types]

Whether online or offline, you need to politely approach survey respondents and get them excited to fill your questionnaire when carrying out a research survey. Therefore, before going into the questions you want to ask, you need to kickstart your data collection process with a compelling survey or questionnaire introduction.  

Generally, only a few people would even listen to you if you shoved your survey in their faces without a simple introduction first. Survey introductions in online questionnaires help you prepare the minds of your respondents ahead of time and gather the best responses. 

What is a Survey Introduction?

A survey introduction is a concise description with relevant information about a survey. It is the first part of the survey that prospective respondents interact with and it helps them decide whether to fill your questionnaire or not. 

Think of survey introductions as abstracts that communicate the entire essence of the data collection process. Without a good abstract, your thesis gets delayed or unapproved. 

Following through with this thought means that the more exciting your survey introduction is, the higher your chances of collecting the right number of quality survey responses.

Features of a Survey Introduction

A good survey introduction must answer these 5 questions: 

• Who is conducting the survey?

Here, you should include the name of the person or organization that is carrying out the research. 

• What is the research about?

Survey respondents need to understand the aims and objectives of your research. This shows them why your survey is important and why they need to be part of it.  

• How long will the survey take?

Prepare their minds ahead of time by adding an estimated survey-completion time. While shorter surveys are likely to have more respondents, don’t give a false estimation to bait people to fill your survey. 

• Is my data safe?

Data privacy and protection is a huge concern for everyone. Since you plan to collect data from respondents, you need to tell them how you will use this information. You can include a link to your company’s privacy policy.

• How will I fill the survey?

Include instructions on how to fill the survey. Include information about relevant documents for the survey too.  

Your survey should be written in simple language your audience understands. It should be friendly, human and show the respondents how much impact they’ll make by taking part in the survey. Always include a nice “thank you” note in your survey introduction. 

Types of Survey Introduction  

Market survey introduction.

If you’re conducting market research using a survey , then you need a market survey introduction. To get more information about your customers/ target market, you need to conduct a market research survey. A market survey introduction gives your target audience a clear picture of what you want to achieve and how their participation is an important part of it.

Market research serves multiple purposes—sometimes, it is all about getting real-time data to inform product launches. Other times, it is for business expansion or product improvement. With a market survey introduction, you can get your audience on the same page and let them know the exact information you need from them. 

A market survey introduction should answer all the questions we looked at when we discussed the features of a survey introduction. After naming your organization, you should also introduce your product or product idea for brand awareness. 

Because of the type of information, market surveys are longer than other types of surveys ; sometimes, they have multiple sections. So, in your market survey introduction, give respondents a heads-up and let them know completing your survey will take more time than the average. You can add a nice reward they can claim after filling the survey. 

Example of Market Survey Introduction  

At Formplus, we are working to improve online data collection for you. We’d really like to know what you feel about online data gathering tools . Take this 20-minute survey and win a free 1-month Formplus premium subscription. Your data will be collected anonymously and only used for this research. Thank You! 

Student Survey Introduction

A student survey is a method of sampling students’ opinions about the school, teachers, and overall learning experiences. From measuring student satisfaction to evaluating courses, student surveys help you to make the right changes to your school. 

A student survey introduction is the first step in getting the best responses from your students. Encourage students to provide objective feedback and let them know how the information will be used.

In the survey introduction, indicate that all responses will be recorded anonymously. Students need to be sure that they can provide honest feedback in the survey without getting harassed or victimized. 

Example of Student Survey Introduction  

Thank you for being one of our students at Salthill College. Please complete this short 3-minutes survey to let us know how satisfied you are with your overall student experience at our college. All responses are recorded anonymously so feel free to provide honest feedback. Your responses will help us improve our teaching and learning environment. 

Research Questionnaire Introduction  

You need a good research questionnaire introduction during the data-collection phase of your research. People are more likely to fill your questionnaire when they clearly understand what you want to achieve and why your research is important. 

In the research questionnaire introduction, you can include facts, data, or statistics about the research problem. Then, show how the data collected via the questionnaire will contribute to solving the problem. The introduction should also address data privacy, data protection, and participant’s consent. 

Even if you plan to share the questionnaire physically, a good research questionnaire introduction will help collect responses faster and save time. 

Example of Research Questionnaire Introduction  

Hello, I am a postgraduate researcher at the London School of Tropical Medicine. I am conducting a study on effective treatment options for communicable diseases in West Africa and I would like to know your experiences with the signs, symptoms, and treatment of communicable diseases. Please complete this 30-minute survey. Your responses are anonymous and you can skip any questions you are not comfortable with. Thank you for your participation. 

Customer Satisfaction Survey Introduction  

Your customer satisfaction survey introduction should communicate 2 things—appreciation and brevity. First, you should let your customers know how much you love their patronage. Next, tell them that the survey will take just a few minutes. 

Throw in an honorary mention of your brand and then, go through some of the information you’ll need from them in the survey. To increase response rates, you can reward respondents with a gift, discount, or special offer. 

Example of Customer Satisfaction Survey Introduction  

Thank you for shopping at Wreaths and Flowers! We’ll like to ask you a few questions about your shopping experience. Your responses will help us make shopping more enjoyable for you. This will only take 1 minute and you get 30% off your next order when you complete the survey! 

Importance of Survey Introduction

• It outlines the most important information about your survey

People need to know what they are getting into before filling your survey or questionnaire, and that’s exactly why you need a great survey introduction. 

• It’s a great way to welcome respondents

You wouldn’t just walk up to someone to ask for something without a proper introduction so why would you want to do this with your survey or questionnaire ? A questionnaire welcome page sets the mood for requesting responses from your respondents. 

• Quality survey introductions help you gain respondents’ trust

Many people are not excited about filling surveys and questionnaires, which is why they need a push. A survey or questionnaire introduction helps respondents to trust you and heightens their interest in filling your survey. 

A survey introduction answers all the questions participants may have about the questionnaire. Think of it as some sort of FAQs that allows respondents to have a full grasp of your data collection process. 

A questionnaire welcome page boosts survey participation and reduces survey dropout rates. 

It helps survey participants to feel like an important part of the overall data gathering process. Survey introductions show participants that you value their opinions. 

Survey introductions build the participants’ interest in your survey or questionnaire. 

Why Use Formplus to Create Surveys?

• Pre and Post Submission Page

Formplus allows you to add exciting survey introductions to your questionnaire. On the form’s intro page, you can provide a brief description of your survey, information on data privacy, and any other thing they need to know before filling the form. 

You can also customize the form’s post-submission page and include a nice “thank you” note for respondents after they complete the survey or questionnaire. Learn more about our intro and post-submission pages here:

• Intuitive Easy to Use Survey Maker  

The Formplus builder is easy to use and you can build surveys and questionnaires from scratch in no time without writing a single line of code. It has a drag-and-drop feature that allows you to add more than 30 different fields to your form seamlessly. 

• Conditional Logic

Survey participants do not have to see or fill out all the fields in your form. With conditional logic, you can show or hide form fields and pages based on answers provided by respondents. This means survey respondents only have to fill the fields that are relevant to them. 

Conditional logic helps you collect the right type of information from different survey participants. This way, you can avoid extra clutter and collect as much data as you want. 

• Offline Surveys

Formplus supports offline data collection and this means you can collect data in areas with poor or no internet access. Survey participants can fill and submit your questionnaire when they are offline. The data they provide will be automatically synced with our servers or your preferred cloud storage when internet access is restored. 

• Customized Surveys and Questionnaires

Formplus allows you to create beautiful and unique surveys with zero design experience. With the flexible design options, you can change the questionnaire’s background, colors, fonts, and create visually appealing designs. You can also add images and your organization’s logo. 

• Share Forms Easily

With multiple form-sharing options, you can send out your survey and collect responses in many ways. Apart from adding your questionnaire to your website, you can also share it using the social media direct sharing buttons and via email invitations. 

• Google Sheets Integration

With Google sheets integration, you can automatically update form responses in your spreadsheet and keep all form collaborators up to date. This makes it easy for you to import and export data, and collaborate with multiple people at the same time. 

• Custom Subdomain

Sharing your questionnaire via a custom subdomain adds an air of professionalism to your overall data collection process. When creating your custom URL, you can include the name of your organization as a means of promoting your brand. 

Custom subdomains are simple and easy to remember too. Hosting your survey on a custom subdomain also serves as an extra layer of security; especially when you share the link via email. 

• Autoresponder Emails  

After receiving a new response to your questionnaire, you can send out an automated automatic confirmation email to the survey participant in the form of autoresponder messages. In your autoresponder email, you should include a thank you message and any links to special offers and rewards. 

• Mobile-Friendly Forms

Many people fill out surveys and questionnaires on their mobile devices and this is why all Formplus forms are mobile-friendly. Participants can complete the survey right on their mobile devices without having to bother about pinching out or zooming in on your form. Formplus forms can be viewed and filled out on any smartphone, tablet, or internet-enabled mobile device. 

In this article, we’ve looked at different survey introductions for different types of questionnaires and surveys including customer satisfaction surveys and research questionnaires. Whether you are collecting data online or offline, the right survey introduction will boost participants’ interest in completing your survey. 

With Formplus, you can add unique survey introductions to your form before sharing it with respondents. On the post-submission page, you can include a beautiful “thank you” note for respondents who complete your survey. Try out the pre and post-submission page option as well as other exciting features when you sign up for a free Formplus account. 

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How to do market research in 4 steps: a lean approach to marketing research

From pinpointing your target audience and assessing your competitive advantage, to ongoing product development and customer satisfaction efforts, market research is a practice your business can only benefit from.

Learn how to conduct quick and effective market research using a lean approach in this article full of strategies and practical examples. 

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A comprehensive (and successful) business strategy is not complete without some form of market research—you can’t make informed and profitable business decisions without truly understanding your customer base and the current market trends that drive your business.

In this article, you’ll learn how to conduct quick, effective market research  using an approach called 'lean market research'. It’s easier than you might think, and it can be done at any stage in a product’s lifecycle.

How to conduct lean market research in 4 steps

What is market research, why is market research so valuable, advantages of lean market research, 4 common market research methods, 5 common market research questions, market research faqs.

We’ll jump right into our 4-step approach to lean market research. To show you how it’s done in the real world, each step includes a practical example from Smallpdf , a Swiss company that used lean market research to reduce their tool’s error rate by 75% and boost their Net Promoter Score® (NPS) by 1%.

Research your market the lean way...

From on-page surveys to user interviews, Hotjar has the tools to help you scope out your market and get to know your customers—without breaking the bank.

The following four steps and practical examples will give you a solid market research plan for understanding who your users are and what they want from a company like yours.

1. Create simple user personas

A user persona is a semi-fictional character based on psychographic and demographic data from people who use websites and products similar to your own. Start by defining broad user categories, then elaborate on them later to further segment your customer base and determine your ideal customer profile .

How to get the data: use on-page or emailed surveys and interviews to understand your users and what drives them to your business.

How to do it right: whatever survey or interview questions you ask, they should answer the following questions about the customer:

Who are they?

What is their main goal?

What is their main barrier to achieving this goal?

Pitfalls to avoid:

Don’t ask too many questions! Keep it to five or less, otherwise you’ll inundate them and they’ll stop answering thoughtfully.

Don’t worry too much about typical demographic questions like age or background. Instead, focus on the role these people play (as it relates to your product) and their goals.

How Smallpdf did it: Smallpdf ran an on-page survey for a couple of weeks and received 1,000 replies. They learned that many of their users were administrative assistants, students, and teachers.

Next, they used the survey results to create simple user personas like this one for admins:

Who are they? Administrative Assistants.

What is their main goal? Creating Word documents from a scanned, hard-copy document or a PDF where the source file was lost.

What is their main barrier to achieving it? Converting a scanned PDF doc to a Word file.

💡Pro tip: Smallpdf used Hotjar Surveys to run their user persona survey. Our survey tool helped them avoid the pitfalls of guesswork and find out who their users really are, in their own words. 

You can design a survey and start running it in minutes with our easy-to-use drag and drop builder. Customize your survey to fit your needs, from a sleek one-question pop-up survey to a fully branded questionnaire sent via email. 

We've also created 40+ free survey templates that you can start collecting data with, including a user persona survey like the one Smallpdf used.

2. Conduct observational research

Observational research involves taking notes while watching someone use your product (or a similar product).

Overt vs. covert observation

Overt observation involves asking customers if they’ll let you watch them use your product. This method is often used for user testing and it provides a great opportunity for collecting live product or customer feedback .

Covert observation means studying users ‘in the wild’ without them knowing. This method works well if you sell a type of product that people use regularly, and it offers the purest observational data because people often behave differently when they know they’re being watched. 

Tips to do it right:

Record an entry in your field notes, along with a timestamp, each time an action or event occurs.

Make note of the users' workflow, capturing the ‘what,’ ‘why,’ and ‘for whom’ of each action.

Don’t record identifiable video or audio data without consent. If recording people using your product is helpful for achieving your research goal, make sure all participants are informed and agree to the terms.

Don’t forget to explain why you’d like to observe them (for overt observation). People are more likely to cooperate if you tell them you want to improve the product.

💡Pro tip: while conducting field research out in the wild can wield rewarding results, you can also conduct observational research remotely. Hotjar Recordings is a tool that lets you capture anonymized user sessions of real people interacting with your website. 

Observe how customers navigate your pages and products to gain an inside look into their user behavior . This method is great for conducting exploratory research with the purpose of identifying more specific issues to investigate further, like pain points along the customer journey and opportunities for optimizing conversion .

With Hotjar Recordings you can observe real people using your site without capturing their sensitive information

How Smallpdf did it: here’s how Smallpdf observed two different user personas both covertly and overtly.

Observing students (covert): Kristina Wagner, Principle Product Manager at Smallpdf, went to cafes and libraries at two local universities and waited until she saw students doing PDF-related activities. Then she watched and took notes from a distance. One thing that struck her was the difference between how students self-reported their activities vs. how they behaved (i.e, the self-reporting bias). Students, she found, spent hours talking, listening to music, or simply staring at a blank screen rather than working. When she did find students who were working, she recorded the task they were performing and the software they were using (if she recognized it).

Observing administrative assistants (overt): Kristina sent emails to admins explaining that she’d like to observe them at work, and she asked those who agreed to try to batch their PDF work for her observation day. While watching admins work, she learned that they frequently needed to scan documents into PDF-format and then convert those PDFs into Word docs. By observing the challenges admins faced, Smallpdf knew which products to target for improvement.

“Data is really good for discovery and validation, but there is a bit in the middle where you have to go and find the human.”

3. Conduct individual interviews

Interviews are one-on-one conversations with members of your target market. They allow you to dig deep and explore their concerns, which can lead to all sorts of revelations.

Listen more, talk less. Be curious.

Act like a journalist, not a salesperson. Rather than trying to talk your company up, ask people about their lives, their needs, their frustrations, and how a product like yours could help.

Ask "why?" so you can dig deeper. Get into the specifics and learn about their past behavior.

Record the conversation. Focus on the conversation and avoid relying solely on notes by recording the interview. There are plenty of services that will transcribe recorded conversations for a good price (including Hotjar!).

Avoid asking leading questions , which reveal bias on your part and pushes respondents to answer in a certain direction (e.g. “Have you taken advantage of the amazing new features we just released?).

Don't ask loaded questions , which sneak in an assumption which, if untrue, would make it impossible to answer honestly. For example, we can’t ask you, “What did you find most useful about this article?” without asking whether you found the article useful in the first place.

Be cautious when asking opinions about the future (or predictions of future behavior). Studies suggest that people aren’t very good at predicting their future behavior. This is due to several cognitive biases, from the misguided exceptionalism bias (we’re good at guessing what others will do, but we somehow think we’re different), to the optimism bias (which makes us see things with rose-colored glasses), to the ‘illusion of control’ (which makes us forget the role of randomness in future events).

How Smallpdf did it: Kristina explored her teacher user persona by speaking with university professors at a local graduate school. She learned that the school was mostly paperless and rarely used PDFs, so for the sake of time, she moved on to the admins.

A bit of a letdown? Sure. But this story highlights an important lesson: sometimes you follow a lead and come up short, so you have to make adjustments on the fly. Lean market research is about getting solid, actionable insights quickly so you can tweak things and see what works.

💡Pro tip: to save even more time, conduct remote interviews using an online user research service like Hotjar Engage , which automates the entire interview process, from recruitment and scheduling to hosting and recording.

You can interview your own customers or connect with people from our diverse pool of 200,000+ participants from 130+ countries and 25 industries. And no need to fret about taking meticulous notes—Engage will automatically transcribe the interview for you.

4. Analyze the data (without drowning in it)

The following techniques will help you wrap your head around the market data you collect without losing yourself in it. Remember, the point of lean market research is to find quick, actionable insights.

A flow model is a diagram that tracks the flow of information within a system. By creating a simple visual representation of how users interact with your product and each other, you can better assess their needs.

You’ll notice that admins are at the center of Smallpdf’s flow model, which represents the flow of PDF-related documents throughout a school. This flow model shows the challenges that admins face as they work to satisfy their own internal and external customers.

Affinity diagram

An affinity diagram is a way of sorting large amounts of data into groups to better understand the big picture. For example, if you ask your users about their profession, you’ll notice some general themes start to form, even though the individual responses differ. Depending on your needs, you could group them by profession, or more generally by industry.

We wrote a guide about how to analyze open-ended questions to help you sort through and categorize large volumes of response data. You can also do this by hand by clipping up survey responses or interview notes and grouping them (which is what Kristina does).

“For an interview, you will have somewhere between 30 and 60 notes, and those notes are usually direct phrases. And when you literally cut them up into separate pieces of paper and group them, they should make sense by themselves.”

Pro tip: if you’re conducting an online survey with Hotjar, keep your team in the loop by sharing survey responses automatically via our Slack and Microsoft Team integrations. Reading answers as they come in lets you digest the data in pieces and can help prepare you for identifying common themes when it comes time for analysis.

Hotjar lets you easily share survey responses with your team

Customer journey map

A customer journey map is a diagram that shows the way a typical prospect becomes a paying customer. It outlines their first interaction with your brand and every step in the sales cycle, from awareness to repurchase (and hopefully advocacy).

The above  customer journey map , created by our team at Hotjar, shows many ways a customer might engage with our tool. Your map will be based on your own data and business model.

📚 Read more: if you’re new to customer journey maps, we wrote this step-by-step guide to creating your first customer journey map in 2 and 1/2 days with free templates you can download and start using immediately.

Next steps: from research to results

So, how do you turn market research insights into tangible business results? Let’s look at the actions Smallpdf took after conducting their lean market research: first they implemented changes, then measured the impact.

Implement changes

Based on what Smallpdf learned about the challenges that one key user segment (admins) face when trying to convert PDFs into Word files, they improved their ‘PDF to Word’ conversion tool.

We won’t go into the details here because it involves a lot of technical jargon, but they made the entire process simpler and more straightforward for users. Plus, they made it so that their system recognized when you drop a PDF file into their ‘Word to PDF’ converter instead of the ‘PDF to Word’ converter, so users wouldn’t have to redo the task when they made that mistake. 

In other words: simple market segmentation for admins showed a business need that had to be accounted for, and customers are happier overall after Smallpdf implemented an informed change to their product.

Measure results

According to the Lean UX model, product and UX changes aren’t retained unless they achieve results.

Smallpdf’s changes produced:

A 75% reduction in error rate for the ‘PDF to Word’ converter

A 1% increase in NPS

Greater confidence in the team’s marketing efforts

"With all the changes said and done, we've cut our original error rate in four, which is huge. We increased our NPS by +1%, which isn't huge, but it means that of the users who received a file, they were still slightly happier than before, even if they didn't notice that anything special happened at all.”

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Market research (or marketing research) is any set of techniques used to gather information and better understand a company’s target market. This might include primary research on brand awareness and customer satisfaction or secondary market research on market size and competitive analysis. Businesses use this information to design better products, improve user experience, and craft a marketing strategy that attracts quality leads and improves conversion rates.

David Darmanin, one of Hotjar’s founders, launched two startups before Hotjar took off—but both companies crashed and burned. Each time, he and his team spent months trying to design an amazing new product and user experience, but they failed because they didn’t have a clear understanding of what the market demanded.

With Hotjar, they did things differently . Long story short, they conducted market research in the early stages to figure out what consumers really wanted, and the team made (and continues to make) constant improvements based on market and user research.

Without market research, it’s impossible to understand your users. Sure, you might have a general idea of who they are and what they need, but you have to dig deep if you want to win their loyalty.

Here’s why research matters:

Obsessing over your users is the only way to win. If you don’t care deeply about them, you’ll lose potential customers to someone who does.

Analytics gives you the ‘what’, while research gives you the ‘why’. Big data, user analytics , and dashboards can tell you what people do at scale, but only research can tell you what they’re thinking and why they do what they do. For example, analytics can tell you that customers leave when they reach your pricing page, but only research can explain why.

Research beats assumptions, trends, and so-called best practices. Have you ever watched your colleagues rally behind a terrible decision? Bad ideas are often the result of guesswork, emotional reasoning, death by best practices , and defaulting to the Highest Paid Person’s Opinion (HiPPO). By listening to your users and focusing on their customer experience , you’re less likely to get pulled in the wrong direction.

Research keeps you from planning in a vacuum. Your team might be amazing, but you and your colleagues simply can’t experience your product the way your customers do. Customers might use your product in a way that surprises you, and product features that seem obvious to you might confuse them. Over-planning and refusing to test your assumptions is a waste of time, money, and effort because you’ll likely need to make changes once your untested business plan gets put into practice.

Lean User Experience (UX) design is a model for continuous improvement that relies on quick, efficient research to understand customer needs and test new product features.

Lean market research can help you become more...

Efficient: it gets you closer to your customers, faster.

Cost-effective: no need to hire an expensive marketing firm to get things started.

Competitive: quick, powerful insights can place your products on the cutting edge.

As a small business or sole proprietor, conducting lean market research is an attractive option when investing in a full-blown research project might seem out of scope or budget.

There are lots of different ways you could conduct market research and collect customer data, but you don’t have to limit yourself to just one research method. Four common types of market research techniques include surveys, interviews, focus groups, and customer observation.

Which method you use may vary based on your business type: ecommerce business owners have different goals from SaaS businesses, so it’s typically prudent to mix and match these methods based on your particular goals and what you need to know.

1. Surveys: the most commonly used

Surveys are a form of qualitative research that ask respondents a short series of open- or closed-ended questions, which can be delivered as an on-screen questionnaire or via email. When we asked 2,000 Customer Experience (CX) professionals about their company’s approach to research , surveys proved to be the most commonly used market research technique.

What makes online surveys so popular?  

They’re easy and inexpensive to conduct, and you can do a lot of data collection quickly. Plus, the data is pretty straightforward to analyze, even when you have to analyze open-ended questions whose answers might initially appear difficult to categorize.

We've built a number of survey templates ready and waiting for you. Grab a template and share with your customers in just a few clicks.

💡 Pro tip: you can also get started with Hotjar AI for Surveys to create a survey in mere seconds . Just enter your market research goal and watch as the AI generates a survey and populates it with relevant questions. 

Once you’re ready for data analysis, the AI will prepare an automated research report that succinctly summarizes key findings, quotes, and suggested next steps.

An example research report generated by Hotjar AI for Surveys

2. Interviews: the most insightful

Interviews are one-on-one conversations with members of your target market. Nothing beats a face-to-face interview for diving deep (and reading non-verbal cues), but if an in-person meeting isn’t possible, video conferencing is a solid second choice.

Regardless of how you conduct it, any type of in-depth interview will produce big benefits in understanding your target customers.

What makes interviews so insightful?

By speaking directly with an ideal customer, you’ll gain greater empathy for their experience , and you can follow insightful threads that can produce plenty of 'Aha!' moments.

3. Focus groups: the most unreliable

Focus groups bring together a carefully selected group of people who fit a company’s target market. A trained moderator leads a conversation surrounding the product, user experience, or marketing message to gain deeper insights.

What makes focus groups so unreliable?

If you’re new to market research, we wouldn’t recommend starting with focus groups. Doing it right is expensive , and if you cut corners, your research could fall victim to all kinds of errors. Dominance bias (when a forceful participant influences the group) and moderator style bias (when different moderator personalities bring about different results in the same study) are two of the many ways your focus group data could get skewed.

4. Observation: the most powerful

During a customer observation session, someone from the company takes notes while they watch an ideal user engage with their product (or a similar product from a competitor).

What makes observation so clever and powerful?

‘Fly-on-the-wall’ observation is a great alternative to focus groups. It’s not only less expensive, but you’ll see people interact with your product in a natural setting without influencing each other. The only downside is that you can’t get inside their heads, so observation still isn't a recommended replacement for customer surveys and interviews.

The following questions will help you get to know your users on a deeper level when you interview them. They’re general questions, of course, so don’t be afraid to make them your own.

1. Who are you and what do you do?

How you ask this question, and what you want to know, will vary depending on your business model (e.g. business-to-business marketing is usually more focused on someone’s profession than business-to-consumer marketing).

It’s a great question to start with, and it’ll help you understand what’s relevant about your user demographics (age, race, gender, profession, education, etc.), but it’s not the be-all-end-all of market research. The more specific questions come later.

2. What does your day look like?

This question helps you understand your users’ day-to-day life and the challenges they face. It will help you gain empathy for them, and you may stumble across something relevant to their buying habits.

3. Do you ever purchase [product/service type]?

This is a ‘yes or no’ question. A ‘yes’ will lead you to the next question.

4. What problem were you trying to solve or what goal were you trying to achieve?

This question strikes to the core of what someone’s trying to accomplish and why they might be willing to pay for your solution.

5. Take me back to the day when you first decided you needed to solve this kind of problem or achieve this goal.

This is the golden question, and it comes from Adele Revella, Founder and CEO of Buyer Persona Institute . It helps you get in the heads of your users and figure out what they were thinking the day they decided to spend money to solve a problem.

If you take your time with this question, digging deeper where it makes sense, you should be able to answer all the relevant information you need to understand their perspective.

“The only scripted question I want you to ask them is this one: take me back to the day when you first decided that you needed to solve this kind of problem or achieve this kind of a goal. Not to buy my product, that’s not the day. We want to go back to the day that when you thought it was urgent and compelling to go spend money to solve a particular problem or achieve a goal. Just tell me what happened.”

— Adele Revella , Founder/CEO at Buyer Persona Institute

Bonus question: is there anything else you’d like to tell me?

This question isn’t just a nice way to wrap it up—it might just give participants the opportunity they need to tell you something you really need to know.

That’s why Sarah Doody, author of UX Notebook , adds it to the end of her written surveys.

“I always have a last question, which is just open-ended: “Is there anything else you would like to tell me?” And sometimes, that’s where you get four paragraphs of amazing content that you would never have gotten if it was just a Net Promoter Score [survey] or something like that.”

What is the difference between qualitative and quantitative research?

Qualitative research asks questions that can’t be reduced to a number, such as, “What is your job title?” or “What did you like most about your customer service experience?” 

Quantitative research asks questions that can be answered with a numeric value, such as, “What is your annual salary?” or “How was your customer service experience on a scale of 1-5?”

 → Read more about the differences between qualitative and quantitative user research .

How do I do my own market research?

You can do your own quick and effective market research by 

Surveying your customers

Building user personas

Studying your users through interviews and observation

Wrapping your head around your data with tools like flow models, affinity diagrams, and customer journey maps

What is the difference between market research and user research?

Market research takes a broad look at potential customers—what problems they’re trying to solve, their buying experience, and overall demand. User research, on the other hand, is more narrowly focused on the use (and usability ) of specific products.

What are the main criticisms of market research?

Many marketing professionals are critical of market research because it can be expensive and time-consuming. It’s often easier to convince your CEO or CMO to let you do lean market research rather than something more extensive because you can do it yourself. It also gives you quick answers so you can stay ahead of the competition.

Do I need a market research firm to get reliable data?

Absolutely not! In fact, we recommend that you start small and do it yourself in the beginning. By following a lean market research strategy, you can uncover some solid insights about your clients. Then you can make changes, test them out, and see whether the results are positive. This is an excellent strategy for making quick changes and remaining competitive.

Net Promoter, Net Promoter System, Net Promoter Score, NPS, and the NPS-related emoticons are registered trademarks of Bain & Company, Inc., Fred Reichheld, and Satmetrix Systems, Inc.

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Market research templates: what they are and how to use them.

18 min read Interested in market research but need some templates to start with? In this guide, we unpack market research, survey planning best practice and share some of our best templates for brand, customer, product and employee research.

What is a market research template?

While you’re no doubt familiar with the concept of market research and how it can help you to reach your target audiences and improve your product or service , the real challenge is designing a market research plan that is conducive to excellent results.

All of this starts with the right market research template(s) to help you analyze specific target audiences, collect the right data and uncover insights that can drive actionable change.

In this article, we’re going to:

• talk about market research and its use cases,
• provide you with a standard template that allows you to plan your research,
• and share several other templates to help you with specific types of market research

You can also check out our free template library.

But first, let’s revisit market research.

What is market research?

Market research is the process of determining the viability of a new service or product through surveys and questionnaires with prospects and/or customers. It involves gathering information about market needs and prospect/customer preferences .

Through market research, you can discover and/or refine your target market, get opinions and feedback on what you provide to them and uncover further prospect/customer pain points and expectations of your service or product .

Market research can be conducted in-house, either by you and your research team, or through a third-party company that specializes in it (they will typically have their own research panels or be capable of creating a research panel to suit your requirements).

The four common types of market research

There are lots of different ways to conduct market research to collect customer data and feedback , test product concepts , and do brand research, but the four most common are:

The most commonly used form of market research, surveys are a form of qualitative research that asks respondents a series of open or closed-ended questions , delivered either as an on-screen questionnaire or email.

Surveys are incredibly popular because they’re cheap, easy to produce, and can capture data very quickly, leading to faster insights.

2) Focus groups

Why not bring together a carefully selected group of people in your target market using focus groups? Though more expensive and complex than surveys and interviews, focus groups can offer deeper insight into prospect and customer behavior – from how users experience your products and services to what marketing messages really resonate with them.

Of course, as a market research method that’s reliant on a moderator to steer conversation, it can be subject to bias (as different moderators might have preferred questions or be more forceful) and if you cut corners (not asking all the necessary questions or making assumptions based on responses), the data could get skewed.

3) Observation

As if you were a fly-on-the-wall, the observation market research method can be incredibly powerful. Rather than interviewing or surveying users, you simply take notes while someone from your target market/target audience engages with your product . How are they using it? What are they struggling with? Do they look as though they have concerns?

Observing your target audience/target market in this fashion is a great alternative to the other more traditional methods on this list. It’s less expensive and far more natural as it isn’t guided by a moderator or a predefined set of questions. The only issue is that you can’t get feedback directly from the mouth of the user, so it’s worth combining this type of research with interviews, surveys, and/or focus groups.

4) Interviews

Interviews allow for face-to-face discussions (both in-person and virtually), allowing for more natural conversations with participants.

For gleaning deeper insights (especially with non-verbal cues giving greater weight to opinions), there’s nothing better than face-to-face interviews. Any kind of interview will provide excellent information, helping you to better understand your prospects and target audience/target market.

Use cases for market research

When you want to understand your prospects and/or customers, but have no existing data to set a benchmark – or want to improve your products and services quickly – market research is often the go-to.

Market research (as mentioned above), helps you to discover how prospects and customers feel about your products and services, as well as what they would like to see .

But there are more use cases and benefits to market research than the above.

Reduce risk of product and business failure

With any new venture, there’s no guarantee that the new idea will be successful. As such, it’s up to you to establish the market’s appetite for your product or service. The easiest way to do this is through market research – you can understand the challenges prospects face and quickly identify where you can help. With the data from your market survey, you can then create a solution that addresses the needs and expectations of would-be customers.

Forecast future trends

Market research doesn’t just help you to understand the current market – it also helps you to forecast future needs. As you conduct your research and analyze the findings, you can identify trends – for example, how brands and businesses are adopting new technology to improve customer experiences or how sustainability is becoming a core focus for packaging. Whatever it is you’re looking to understand about the future of business in your market, comprehensive market research can help you to identify it.

Stay ahead of the competition

Understanding your market and what prospects and customers want from you will help to keep you ahead of the competition . The fact is that the top businesses frequently invest in market research to get an edge, and those that don’t tap into the insights of their audience are missing low-hanging fruit.

As well as helping you to stay in front, you can also use market research to identify gaps in the market, e.g. your competitors’ strengths and weaknesses . Just have participants answer questions about competitor products/services – or even use the products/services – and work out how you can refine your offerings to address these issues.

Plan more strategically

What’s the foundation of your business strategy? If it’s based on evidence, e.g. what people expect of your products and services, it’ll be much easier to deliver something that works. Rather than making assumptions about what you should do, market research gives you a clear, concrete understanding of what people want to see.

Check out our guide to market research for a more comprehensive breakdown.

How do you write a market research plan/template?

A market research plan is very similar to a brief in that it documents the most vital information and steps about your project. Consider it a blueprint that outlines your main objective (summary), key questions and outcomes, target audience and size, your timeline, budget, and other key variables.

Let’s talk about them in more detail.

Elements of a great market research plan

1) overview or summary.

Use the first section of your market research plan to outline the background to the problem that you are attempting to solve (this is usually your problem statement or problem question). Include background information on the study’s purpose and the business to provide context to those who would read the report, as well as the need for the research. Keep the overview simple and concise; focus on the most salient elements.

2) Objectives

What is it that you hope to achieve with this survey? Your objectives are the most important part of the survey. Make sure to list 3-5 of the decisions or initiatives that the research will influence.

For example:

Understand the most-used channels for customer engagement and purchasing to decide where to prioritize marketing and sales budget in Q1 2022. Determine what’s causing customer churn at the later stages of the buyer journey and implement a new retention and sales strategy to address it.

Your objectives should be smart, that is: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Timely.

3) Deliverables (or outcomes)

This section should focus on what you expect to have at the end of the project. How many responses are you looking for? How will the data be presented? Who will the data be shared with? (Stakeholders, executives) What are your next steps? Make sure you state how you will collect and analyze the data once it’s available.

Products such as Qualtrics CoreXM make this process fast and incredibly easy to do, drastically reducing the time to insights so you can make more meaningful changes, faster.

4) Target audience

Not to be confused with your market research sample, your target audience represents who you want to research. Of course, your sample may include ideal buyers from your target audience. Here you want to define the main variables or factors of your audience: demographic , age, location , product interaction, experience, and so on. It’s worth building out your buyer personas (if you haven’t already) and including a quick breakdown of them here.

5) Sample plan

How many participants do you want to research and what kind of groups do you want to reach? Depending on these two variables, you may have to use qualitative, quantitative , or multi-method approaches.

6) Research methods

What methods will you use in your market research project? The insights (and the granularity of those insights) will depend on the methods and tools you choose. For example, and as mentioned earlier, surveys are often the go-to for many organizations as they’re affordable and straightforward, but if you want to get more personal views from your respondents, one-to-one interviews might be more applicable. You might even want to take a hands-off approach and simply observe participants as they use your products, or try a combination of research methods. Make sure to outline what methods you will use as part of your research plan.

7) Timeline

How long will your research project run? It’s worth putting together a Gantt chart to highlight key milestones in the project, along with dependencies, and to break down tasks as much as possible. Schedule in contingency time in case some tasks or research runs over – or you need more responses.

Set a budget for the overall program and list it in your plan. Though this might be the most difficult aspect of any research plan, it helps you to be more strategic about tasks and hold people accountable at each stage of the process. If costs go over, that’s good to know for future market research. If costs are lower than anticipated, you then have the opportunity to do further research or prop up other areas of the study.

9) Ethical concerns or conflicts of interest

One of the most important parts of your market research plan, you should highlight any ethical concerns. To begin with, it’s your duty to state whether or not responses will be kept confidential and anonymous as part of the study. It’s also important to allow participants to remain anonymous and ensure you protect their privacy at all times.

Another issue to consider is stereotyping. Any analysis of real populations needs to make approximations and place individuals into groups, but if conducted irresponsibly, stereotyping can lead to undesirable results.

Lastly, conflicts of interest – it may be that researchers have interests in the outcome of the project that lead to a personal advantage that might compromise the integrity of your market research project. You should clearly state in your market research report that any potential conflicts of interest are highlighted and addressed before continuing.

But I want a faster solution!

Well, there’s a quicker and far easier way to do all of the above and get the data you need – just use a market research survey template. In our next section, we’re going to share a whole list of templates that you can use.

Free market research survey templates

No matter what kind of research you want to conduct, we have templates that will remove the complexity of the task and empower you to get more from your data. Below we’ve compiled a list of templates for four key experience areas: Brand , Customer , Employee , and Product .

All of our research templates are free. All you need to do is sign up for a free Qualtrics account to access them.

Brand experience market research templates:

• Logo testing : Collect feedback to help you evaluate and iterate on your logo designs and concepts
• Brand awareness : Track the level of brand awareness in your target market, including current and potential future customers
• Ad testing : Evaluate your consumers’ reaction to an advertisement so you know which campaigns to deploy before you invest
• A/B testing : Quickly and easily compare to versions or options in a study, whether it’s a design, headline, color palette or a mock-up of your latest ad campaign

Customer experience market research templates

• Student satisfaction : Gather feedback on how your institution is delivering on the student experience
• Net promoter score (NPS) : Measure customer loyalty and understand how they feel about your product or service using one of the world’s best-recognized metrics
• Customer satisfaction : Evaluate how satisfied your customers are with your company, including the products and services you provide, and how they are treated when they buy from you
• Customer service : Gain insights into the contact center experience, so you can achieve and maintain optimum levels of customer experience (CX) performance
• Event feedback : Measure the effectiveness of your events and how well they meet attendee expectations so that you can continuously improve your offering
• IT help desk : Understand how satisfied your employees and customers are with your IT help desk experience
• Website suggestion box : Collect visitor feedback on how your website can be improved
• Website satisfaction : Find out how satisfied visitors are with your website’s design, usability, and performance
• Store purchase feedback : Capture customer experience data at the point of purchase to help you improve the in-store experience
• Online purchase feedback : Find out how well your online shopping experience performs against customer needs and expectations

Employee experience market research templates

• Employee satisfaction : Get an overview of your current employee experience
• Manager feedback : Improve your skills as a leader with valuable feedback from your team
• Employee engagement : Find out how employees find the current experience at your workplace with this entry-level engagement survey
• Employee exit interview : Understand why your employees are leaving and how they’ll speak about your company once they’re gone with this survey template
• Employee onboarding : Improve your onboarding program by understanding what’s working and what’s not
• Team event planning : Collect inputs from employees to plan a team event that works for everyone
• Meeting feedback : Check-in with team members after a meeting to see how well your company is running and what improvements can be made
• Interview feedback : Improve your candidate experience by gathering actionable insights about the interview process
• Employee suggestion box : Gather anonymous data to help address concerns and improve the employee experience in your organization
• Candidate experience : Improve your candidate experience to increase brand perception, offer acceptance rates, and hiring process efficiency with this single-touchpoint survey template
• Employee suggestion action : Take employee feedback a step further by working with your staff to quantify solutions based on their experience data

Product experience market research templates

• Product research : Evaluate your consumers’ reaction to a new product or product feature across every stage of the product development journey
• Pricing : Understand how to set the exact price point for your product or service, according to your target consumers
• Feature prioritization : Compare and contrast product features using conjoint analysis to find the optimal mix for your customers
• Product package testing : Collect feedback on your product packaging to see how well it meets the needs and expectations of your customers

Armed with the right market research templates, getting the information you need across brand, product, customer and employee disciplines — as well as beyond — is significantly easier.

But if you want help putting together complex market research and scaling your in-house research team to get agile insights, check out our guide to building an agile research function.

Insights are more important than ever, especially during times of change, but building a great team takes a lot of time and money.

In our eBook, we’ll explain how you can:

• Scale your research team
• Build a smart partner strategy
• Ensure you have the right technology for market research and data analysis

Tackle your market research with our agile market research eBook

Related resources

Market intelligence 10 min read, marketing insights 11 min read, ethnographic research 11 min read, qualitative vs quantitative research 13 min read, qualitative research questions 11 min read, qualitative research design 12 min read, primary vs secondary research 14 min read, request demo.

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• Knowledge Base

Methodology

• Survey Research | Definition, Examples & Methods

Survey Research | Definition, Examples & Methods

Published on August 20, 2019 by Shona McCombes . Revised on June 22, 2023.

Survey research means collecting information about a group of people by asking them questions and analyzing the results. To conduct an effective survey, follow these six steps:

• Determine who will participate in the survey
• Decide the type of survey (mail, online, or in-person)
• Design the survey questions and layout
• Distribute the survey
• Analyze the responses
• Write up the results

Surveys are a flexible method of data collection that can be used in many different types of research .

Table of contents

What are surveys used for, step 1: define the population and sample, step 2: decide on the type of survey, step 3: design the survey questions, step 4: distribute the survey and collect responses, step 5: analyze the survey results, step 6: write up the survey results, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions about surveys.

Surveys are used as a method of gathering data in many different fields. They are a good choice when you want to find out about the characteristics, preferences, opinions, or beliefs of a group of people.

Common uses of survey research include:

• Social research : investigating the experiences and characteristics of different social groups
• Market research : finding out what customers think about products, services, and companies
• Health research : collecting data from patients about symptoms and treatments
• Politics : measuring public opinion about parties and policies
• Psychology : researching personality traits, preferences and behaviours

Surveys can be used in both cross-sectional studies , where you collect data just once, and in longitudinal studies , where you survey the same sample several times over an extended period.

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Before you start conducting survey research, you should already have a clear research question that defines what you want to find out. Based on this question, you need to determine exactly who you will target to participate in the survey.

Populations

The target population is the specific group of people that you want to find out about. This group can be very broad or relatively narrow. For example:

• The population of Brazil
• US college students
• Second-generation immigrants in the Netherlands
• Customers of a specific company aged 18-24
• British transgender women over the age of 50

Your survey should aim to produce results that can be generalized to the whole population. That means you need to carefully define exactly who you want to draw conclusions about.

Several common research biases can arise if your survey is not generalizable, particularly sampling bias and selection bias . The presence of these biases have serious repercussions for the validity of your results.

It’s rarely possible to survey the entire population of your research – it would be very difficult to get a response from every person in Brazil or every college student in the US. Instead, you will usually survey a sample from the population.

The sample size depends on how big the population is. You can use an online sample calculator to work out how many responses you need.

There are many sampling methods that allow you to generalize to broad populations. In general, though, the sample should aim to be representative of the population as a whole. The larger and more representative your sample, the more valid your conclusions. Again, beware of various types of sampling bias as you design your sample, particularly self-selection bias , nonresponse bias , undercoverage bias , and survivorship bias .

There are two main types of survey:

• A questionnaire , where a list of questions is distributed by mail, online or in person, and respondents fill it out themselves.
• An interview , where the researcher asks a set of questions by phone or in person and records the responses.

Which type you choose depends on the sample size and location, as well as the focus of the research.

Questionnaires

Sending out a paper survey by mail is a common method of gathering demographic information (for example, in a government census of the population).

• You can easily access a large sample.
• You have some control over who is included in the sample (e.g. residents of a specific region).
• The response rate is often low, and at risk for biases like self-selection bias .

Online surveys are a popular choice for students doing dissertation research , due to the low cost and flexibility of this method. There are many online tools available for constructing surveys, such as SurveyMonkey and Google Forms .

• You can quickly access a large sample without constraints on time or location.
• The data is easy to process and analyze.
• The anonymity and accessibility of online surveys mean you have less control over who responds, which can lead to biases like self-selection bias .

If your research focuses on a specific location, you can distribute a written questionnaire to be completed by respondents on the spot. For example, you could approach the customers of a shopping mall or ask all students to complete a questionnaire at the end of a class.

• You can screen respondents to make sure only people in the target population are included in the sample.
• You can collect time- and location-specific data (e.g. the opinions of a store’s weekday customers).
• The sample size will be smaller, so this method is less suitable for collecting data on broad populations and is at risk for sampling bias .

Oral interviews are a useful method for smaller sample sizes. They allow you to gather more in-depth information on people’s opinions and preferences. You can conduct interviews by phone or in person.

• You have personal contact with respondents, so you know exactly who will be included in the sample in advance.
• You can clarify questions and ask for follow-up information when necessary.
• The lack of anonymity may cause respondents to answer less honestly, and there is more risk of researcher bias.

Like questionnaires, interviews can be used to collect quantitative data: the researcher records each response as a category or rating and statistically analyzes the results. But they are more commonly used to collect qualitative data : the interviewees’ full responses are transcribed and analyzed individually to gain a richer understanding of their opinions and feelings.

Next, you need to decide which questions you will ask and how you will ask them. It’s important to consider:

• The type of questions
• The content of the questions
• The phrasing of the questions
• The ordering and layout of the survey

Open-ended vs closed-ended questions

There are two main forms of survey questions: open-ended and closed-ended. Many surveys use a combination of both.

Closed-ended questions give the respondent a predetermined set of answers to choose from. A closed-ended question can include:

• A binary answer (e.g. yes/no or agree/disagree )
• A scale (e.g. a Likert scale with five points ranging from strongly agree to strongly disagree )
• A list of options with a single answer possible (e.g. age categories)
• A list of options with multiple answers possible (e.g. leisure interests)

Closed-ended questions are best for quantitative research . They provide you with numerical data that can be statistically analyzed to find patterns, trends, and correlations .

Open-ended questions are best for qualitative research. This type of question has no predetermined answers to choose from. Instead, the respondent answers in their own words.

Open questions are most common in interviews, but you can also use them in questionnaires. They are often useful as follow-up questions to ask for more detailed explanations of responses to the closed questions.

The content of the survey questions

To ensure the validity and reliability of your results, you need to carefully consider each question in the survey. All questions should be narrowly focused with enough context for the respondent to answer accurately. Avoid questions that are not directly relevant to the survey’s purpose.

When constructing closed-ended questions, ensure that the options cover all possibilities. If you include a list of options that isn’t exhaustive, you can add an “other” field.

Phrasing the survey questions

In terms of language, the survey questions should be as clear and precise as possible. Tailor the questions to your target population, keeping in mind their level of knowledge of the topic. Avoid jargon or industry-specific terminology.

Survey questions are at risk for biases like social desirability bias , the Hawthorne effect , or demand characteristics . It’s critical to use language that respondents will easily understand, and avoid words with vague or ambiguous meanings. Make sure your questions are phrased neutrally, with no indication that you’d prefer a particular answer or emotion.

Ordering the survey questions

The questions should be arranged in a logical order. Start with easy, non-sensitive, closed-ended questions that will encourage the respondent to continue.

If the survey covers several different topics or themes, group together related questions. You can divide a questionnaire into sections to help respondents understand what is being asked in each part.

If a question refers back to or depends on the answer to a previous question, they should be placed directly next to one another.

Before you start, create a clear plan for where, when, how, and with whom you will conduct the survey. Determine in advance how many responses you require and how you will gain access to the sample.

When you are satisfied that you have created a strong research design suitable for answering your research questions, you can conduct the survey through your method of choice – by mail, online, or in person.

There are many methods of analyzing the results of your survey. First you have to process the data, usually with the help of a computer program to sort all the responses. You should also clean the data by removing incomplete or incorrectly completed responses.

If you asked open-ended questions, you will have to code the responses by assigning labels to each response and organizing them into categories or themes. You can also use more qualitative methods, such as thematic analysis , which is especially suitable for analyzing interviews.

Statistical analysis is usually conducted using programs like SPSS or Stata. The same set of survey data can be subject to many analyses.

Finally, when you have collected and analyzed all the necessary data, you will write it up as part of your thesis, dissertation , or research paper .

In the methodology section, you describe exactly how you conducted the survey. You should explain the types of questions you used, the sampling method, when and where the survey took place, and the response rate. You can include the full questionnaire as an appendix and refer to it in the text if relevant.

Then introduce the analysis by describing how you prepared the data and the statistical methods you used to analyze it. In the results section, you summarize the key results from your analysis.

In the discussion and conclusion , you give your explanations and interpretations of these results, answer your research question, and reflect on the implications and limitations of the research.

If you want to know more about statistics , methodology , or research bias , make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples.

• Student’s  t -distribution
• Normal distribution
• Null and Alternative Hypotheses
• Chi square tests
• Confidence interval
• Quartiles & Quantiles
• Cluster sampling
• Stratified sampling
• Data cleansing
• Reproducibility vs Replicability
• Peer review
• Prospective cohort study

Research bias

• Implicit bias
• Cognitive bias
• Placebo effect
• Hawthorne effect
• Hindsight bias
• Affect heuristic
• Social desirability bias

A questionnaire is a data collection tool or instrument, while a survey is an overarching research method that involves collecting and analyzing data from people using questionnaires.

A Likert scale is a rating scale that quantitatively assesses opinions, attitudes, or behaviors. It is made up of 4 or more questions that measure a single attitude or trait when response scores are combined.

To use a Likert scale in a survey , you present participants with Likert-type questions or statements, and a continuum of items, usually with 5 or 7 possible responses, to capture their degree of agreement.

Individual Likert-type questions are generally considered ordinal data , because the items have clear rank order, but don’t have an even distribution.

Overall Likert scale scores are sometimes treated as interval data. These scores are considered to have directionality and even spacing between them.

The type of data determines what statistical tests you should use to analyze your data.

The priorities of a research design can vary depending on the field, but you usually have to specify:

• Your research questions and/or hypotheses
• Your overall approach (e.g., qualitative or quantitative )
• The type of design you’re using (e.g., a survey , experiment , or case study )
• Your sampling methods or criteria for selecting subjects
• Your data collection methods (e.g., questionnaires , observations)
• Your data collection procedures (e.g., operationalization , timing and data management)
• Your data analysis methods (e.g., statistical tests  or thematic analysis )

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25 Qualitative market research questions (and how to write your own)

25 examples of qualitative research questions, how to write your own insightful qualitative market research questions, ask the right qualitative market research questions to the correct audience.

There’s something very satisfying about being asked a great question that really gets you thinking. And in qualitative market research, it’s especially valuable.

If you ask the right person the right question, you’ll be able to uncover next steps — both small ones and big leaps — that will lead you to a better brand.

If you approach qualitative research right, you can get rich and valuable insights into your customers’ behaviors, and how to play into them.

You’ll learn about how customers interact, their motivations, and how to be there when they need you. And, you’ll uncover things about your brand that are difficult to find out from the inside.

We’re about to show you 25 qualitative research questions across six categories, that will allow you to take a deep dive into your target customers’ brain. These research questions are perfect to use in focus groups or with Attest’s Video Responses feature .

Qualitative research questions come in all shapes and sizes. We’ve split them up in several categories to inspire you to mix it up in your next survey or interview and make them work for your choice of qualitative research question types and methods.

Descriptive qualitative research questions

Descriptive questions are effective qualitative research questions that allow participants to describe experiences, opinions and more.

• Describe how this product/service has changed the way you approach [specific task/activity]. This question digs into the tangible impacts of your product on daily life, revealing how it reshapes routines or approaches to tasks.It’s a great way to highlight the practical value and possibly discover unexpected benefits that your product brings to the table.
• If you were to introduce this product/service to a friend, what would you say? Asking this encourages users to put their experience into their words, almost like a personal pitch. It’s a fun and low barrier approach to find out what stands out to them and what they value most about your offering.
• What three words would you use to describe this product/service after your first use? If you’re looking for immediate, instinctive reactions, qualitative research questions like these work best.They allow the user to give a quick snapshot and not have to think long and hard about an answer. Encourage them to respond with the first thing that comes to mind — no wrong answers.
• What aspect of this product/service do you think is underrated? This seeks to uncover hidden gems within your product that may not be getting the spotlight they deserve — even internally.It’s a clever way to find out about features or benefits that might be flying under the radar but have the potential to be major selling points.

Understand the nuance in your audience’s behaviors

Getting that nuance through qual research will help you explain thy why to your quant ‘whats’, and give you much-needed inspiration during ideation

Comparative qualitative research questions

Using comparative qualitative research questions you can invite respondents to talk about your brand, product or services in comparison to others. It can help you understand the differences between you and your competitors, from your consumers’ perspective.

These qualitative research questions are a great addition to numbers, scores and other numerical data derived from quantitative research questions in a quantitative study.

• What differences do you notice between this brand and its competitors in terms of value provided? This question invites customers to think critically about the unique advantages or shortcomings of your product compared to the competition.It’s insightful because it can highlight what customers value most about your brand and whether you are doubling down on the right USPs according to them.
• In what situation would you prefer this competitors’ product/service over ours? Asking this might seem a bit daring, but it’s a golden opportunity to gain honest feedback on where your product may fall short for certain users or use cases.Research questions like this can uncover specific features, price points, or scenarios where competitors have an edge, offering you clear directions for strategic improvements or innovations.
• How does the ease of use of this product/service compare to others you have used in the past? This question zeros in on usability, a crucial aspect of customer satisfaction. It offers direct feedback on how user-friendly your product is compared to others, highlighting areas where you excel or need improvement.
• When choosing between this product/service and others, what factor weighs most heavily on your decision? Understanding the key factors that influence choice can help you fine-tune your offerings and marketing messages to better meet customer needs and preferences.If you look at the answers and compare the marketing efforts of your own brand and main competitors, you’ll be able to spot where you could make improvements.
• Can you identify a feature in a competing product/service that you wish ours had? Sometimes asking what feature they’d love is tricky: it might be hard to dream up. But if you give users the opportunity to shop from your competitors’ features, it might be easier.Qualitative research questions like these are therefore a smart and straightforward way to identify gaps in your product from a user perspective.

Exploratory qualitative research questions

Exploratory qualitative research questions are used in qualitative methods to tap into potential opportunities, and uncover insights that haven’t been previously considered. Add these research questions to your qualitative research studies if you’re on the hunt for new ideas.

• What challenges are you currently facing that this product/service does not address? This question is a gem in qualitative studies because it shines a light on the gaps between what your product offers and what your users actually need.By understanding these challenges, you’re not just guessing; you’re directly addressing the needs that matter most to your users, making every feature more aligned with their real-world problems.
• If you could add any premium features to this product/service, big or small, while the price remains the same, what would it be? Research questions like these open up a playground for users’ imaginations, allowing you to peek into their deepest wishes.It’s a creative way to use qualitative research to uncover independent variables (new features) that could make your product indispensable.
• What would make you stop using this product/service tomorrow? This one might sound a bit scary, but it’s crucial. It helps you pinpoint the deal breakers that could push your users away.Think of it as a preventive measure; by understanding these thresholds, you can steer clear of them in your future updates or service improvements. This question is a cornerstone in crafting a research design that seeks to minimize risks and maximize satisfaction.
• What’s a feature you never knew you needed until you started using this product/service? These insights are gold for marketing and product development, revealing the unexpected delights that can turn casual users into loyal fans.Plus, it’s a great way to highlight the qualitative words or phrases that resonate most with your audience, giving you a direct line to what makes your product stand out.
• If this product/service no longer existed, what would be the biggest gap in your routine or activities? This qualitative question helps to understand the role your product plays in users’ lives, emphasizing its importance and potential areas for highlighting in marketing efforts.Knowing what would replace you also tells you a great deal about the value your product offers.

Experience-based qualitative research questions

These qualitative research questions focus on the personal experiences of your users, and try to understand their journey and interactions with the product or service deeply.

• Describe a situation where this product/service met or exceeded your expectations. The feedback from this research question can reveal the “wow” factors that differentiate your offering in the market. It’s a great way to identify the elements of your product or service that surprise and delight customers.These qualitative questions will also highlight the specific words they use for this will also be great to fine-tune your communications and choice of words. You might be describing the right benefits already, but maybe not in the words they relate to most.
• What’s missing from your experience with this product/service? This research question is a direct line to understanding your customers’ unmet needs and desires. It encourages them to share their thoughts on how your product or service could be more useful, enjoyable, or relevant to their lives.
• What was your initial impression of this product/service, and how has it evolved? A classic, but nonetheless a valuable qualitative research question. If peoples’ experiences with your product change their impression of it over time, it’s crucial you dig into what those experiences are, to better match your marketing to the real world.Especially if impressions tend to take a more negative turn after some experiences, but also when it’s the other way around — don’t undersell your product!

Behavioral qualitative research questions

Behavioral qualitative research questions seek to understand the actions and behaviors of consumers, particularly in relation to your product or service. Adding these to your qualitative study will make it more relevant to daily life applications.

• Have you been using products/services like ours in ways that you didn’t think you would initially? This is a good qualitative research question to learn about unconventional or alternative use cases of your product. Of course, it doesn’t mean you immediately need to pivot, but it can help you map out uncharted or ignored territory and find fans in niche parts of your market.
• Has this product/service replaced something else you used to rely on? If so, what? We’re going there: ask about the ”ex”. Knowing who or what came before you and why things didn’t work out will help you be better in many ways. So, make sure to follow up this question with another one digging into the reasons for the break-up.
• What activity or task do you most frequently pair with this product/service? This might not seem immediately relevant, but it can tell you a great deal about your customer’s behavior. Knowing what place you have in their routine or what products they combine yours with can help you uncover big possibilities for innovations or even partnerships.
• How has this product/service influenced your daily habits or routines? This question doesn’t just focus on the functional benefits of your product, but also how those manifest in someone’s daily life. Do people highlight time they won back, or pleasure gained? Have they made any other changes that are relevant to you? There’s a lot to learn from small habit changes!

Emotional qualitative research questions

These qualitative questions explore the emotional connections and reactions participants have towards a particular topic, product, service, or brand. The qualitative questions examples below specifically bring a human side to quantitative research.

• How does this product/service fit into the moments that matter most to you? This might not be interesting for every product or brand, but if your brand is aiming to significantly impact people’s lives and important moments, this is a must-ask. Are they taking your products along to big moments in their lives? Does it provide them with comfort, confidence or something else when they need it? Research questions like this go way beyond functionality and tap into emotional significance — which is great for brands who really want to integrate with people’s lives.
• How does using this product/service make you feel compared to not using it at all? Are people frustrated when they run out of your product? Sad? Do they miss it at all? This question can reveal some powerful feelings around your product.
• How does this product/service affect your mood? This is a fun question to ask and can give you a great insight into what emotions your product evokes in general. Maybe some people don’t think about how they feel with your product, but others might get a confidence boost out of it, or chuckle every time they read your product copy. This question can reveal teeny tiny details that could matter a lot.

How this team aced their pitch with qual insights

Qual research helped Barrows understand glasses wearers’ pain points and wow a prospective client.

Got a burning question? Here’s how to make it part of a successful qualitative research project.

1. Set clear objectives

Knowing why you’re asking something is what helps you ask it the right way. Ask yourself what your general research objective is and how each of your qualitative research questions helps you get to the main answer.

For every qualitative research question you ask, find out IF it leads you closer to your goals, and make sure you can explain HOW it does so.

2. Ask open-ended questions the right way

There’s an art in asking great open-ended questions. Here’s an example of both seemingly similar open-ended, qualitative research questions, but one’s good, and one’s not:

“Why do you think people say this new smartwatch is better than others on the market?”

“What feedback are you hearing about this smartwatch in comparison to other smartwatches you know?”

The first one already works with the assumption and bias that your product is great. You’re practically putting words into your respondent’s mouth/answer box. The next one lets them come up with their own, unbiased response.

Good qualitative research questions should be:

• Unbiased: avoid qualitative research questions that are leading or show any form of bias whatsoever.
• Clear: only ask one thing at a time, and make it clear what that actually is.
• Relevant: make sure your question makes sense. Not just in the whole qualitative research, but also in the place it has in your survey or interview.
• Truly open: some quantitative research questions are sometimes disguised as qualitative research questions. Make sure yours is truly open and qualitative.

If you tick these boxes, your respondents will feel encouraged to express their opinions and motivations freely, which in turn will add depth and context to your research findings.

3. Balance between structured questions and flexibility

Let’s talk about flow. Imagine the panic that would set in if your first question in a job interview would be ”and how do you tackle problems with coworkers?”

Timing matters. Mixing up the question matters. This will create a great flow and keep respondents engaged and enthusiastic, and will avoid confusion.

Make sure to give respondents space to add comments or feedback where needed, but do so in a structured way, so your data remains easy to analyze.

4. Take measures to avoid survey bias

We’re circling back to bias for a second, but just because there’s more to be said and done. Avoiding bias in your surveys and qualitative research questions isn’t just about avoiding certain words or biased language, it also helps to choose a well-mixed and representative audience. On top of that, make sure your survey churns out high-quality data, not just high-volume. Read more about how we work on keeping your data in great shape.

5. Conduct pilot testing before launching large surveys

Do a mic-check before you send your qualitative research survey out to thousands of people. With pilot testing, you make sure your survey’s research questions are as-to-the-point as you hoped it to be. Send it to a small slice of your total audience, but make sure that the pilot group is just as representative as the total one will be.

When you hit that sweet spot of the right qualitative research questions and a perfectly represented audience , the feedback you receive from qualitative research isn’t just data—it’s a roadmap to deeper understanding and connection with your audience. For those looking to dive into the rich world of conducting qualitative research, Attest offers the market research tools and audience reach you need to make every question count. Check out how Attest can help bring your qualitative research to life.

VP Customer Success 

Sam joined Attest in 2019 and leads the Customer Research Team. Sam and her team support brands through their market research journey, helping them carry out effective research and uncover insights to unlock new areas for growth.

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How to do market research for branding and positioning

Last updated

10 August 2024

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When you launch a company or begin to seriously market an existing one, it’s important to understand the concept of brand positioning. It can be key to reaching the consumers who are most likely to become your customers.

A well-positioned brand makes it easy to convert those potential customers into paying ones and makes your brand more memorable. This improves your marketing efforts’ return on investment (ROI). It will even give you the tools you need to refine your message and increase conversions.

• What is brand positioning?

Brand positioning is when a business establishes and maintains a distinctive image and identity for its brand. This is typically thought of in relation to the brand’s competitors.

A brand’s positioning is the unique attributes, values, and benefits it offers that set it apart in the marketplace. When done correctly, brand positioning can help your business create a lasting impression on customers, increasing their loyalty and driving business growth.

So, what makes brand positioning effective?

Target audience: the specific group of consumers your brand aims to reach

Market segmentation: segmenting potential customers into distinct groups with similar needs and characteristics

Value proposition: the unique benefit and value you offer your customers

Brand promise: a concise message that communicates your brand’s commitment to customers and keeps employees focused

Differentiation: the elements of your business that stand apart from other competitors in your space

• Why is brand positioning important?

When starting a business or growing one, there’s a lot to do and even more to think about. Brand positioning can impact many decisions you make, so it should be one of the top things on your mind.

Effective brand positioning is key as it allows you to differentiate yourself from your competitors. Unless you’re in a non-competitive industry, standing out from all the other options your potential customers could choose is difficult. Brand positioning requires you to think about what makes your business unique. This unique value proposition can form the backbone of your marketing efforts, positioning your brand as the go-to choice.

Another part of brand positioning is determining who your target audience is, the values you have in common with them, and how these customers think. This knowledge is what allows you to position yourself as the best option for that audience, establishing a loyal customer base.

• Examples of effective brand positioning

Before we go into any more detail, let’s take a moment to look at some examples of successful brand positioning. This will help you better understand what it means to position a brand and how you can use it to bring in a specific customer segment.

Apple: innovation and premium quality

From Apple’s first days developing home computers to the continually evolving iPhone, Apple has positioned itself as a company that innovates, creates products with a sleek design, and offers a premium user experience. As a result, they are positioned as the brand of choice for consumers who are both tech-savvy and design-conscious.

Nike: inspiration and motivation

With the introduction of Nike’s slogan: “Just Do It,” they established themselves as a brand that inspires and motivates athletes of all backgrounds and abilities.

The company emphasizes athletic performance and achievement, positioning itself as the brand of choice for athletic consumers—from backyard warriors to professional athletes.

Tesla: sustainability and innovation

As one of the first successful electric vehicle manufacturers, Tesla is a leader in sustainable energy and automotive technology. They have positioned themselves to appeal to environmentally conscious tech enthusiasts. To bridge those two demographics, Tesla ensures that the technology in their vehicles is state-of-the-art.

Airbnb: belonging and community

Airbnb first launched with a unique business model. Allowing homeowners to rent their homes to travelers provided a unique vacation experience that feels more like staying at home.

They positioned themselves as a brand that believes in the power of community and embraces the idea of belonging anywhere. In doing so, they were able to attract customers looking for unique experiences.

• How market research helps improve branding

You won’t be able to position yourself effectively in the market if you don’t understand it. Only then can you know how you compare to your competitors and what unique value propositions to offer.

Understanding the market also requires you to gather customer insights and preferences, which can further aid your branding efforts.

Here are some of the advantages of market research for branding and positioning:

It can help you avoid mistakes

As you evaluate the market and the trends associated with your industry, you’ll gather data that can help you avoid mistakes.

For example, you may identify problems that your competitors have experienced themselves, such as products that didn’t take off or pricing models that weren’t profitable. The data you gather throughout the process will give you insights to make more informed decisions and avoid these issues yourself.

It can help you create a customer-centric brand

Ultimately, building a business focused on customers’ needs and desires supports long-term relationships with those who purchase from you.

It helps when launching a new product or service

Sometimes, you might think you have a great product or service idea only to find out that it doesn’t work as well as you’d hoped once it hits the market.

Perhaps there wasn’t enough market demand for the product. Perhaps you didn’t position your product effectively and the people who wanted to buy it didn’t receive the message that would have prompted them to do so.

Whatever the cause, when you deep dive into the market and its customer base before launching your product or service, you’ll know what customers are looking for and how to craft targeted messages that reach them.

It improves brand perception

The way customers perceive your brand will change over time. If you’re careful, your brand perception will improve. If you don’t monitor brand sentiment, the opposite could occur.

Part of market research is monitoring how customers perceive your own brand and your competitors’ brands. With this information, you can respond to negative feedback about your brand promptly and reinforce positive attributes in your messaging. You’ll also be able to take advantage of negative sentiment that develops around your competitors.

• How to conduct market research for branding

It’s easy to see how using market research to drive branding decisions can play a major role in your business’s success. This section will detail the six steps of the process, telling you everything you need to know to start planning your own market research.

1. Define what you want to research

The first step is setting clear objectives. Don’t get started before you precisely define what you will be researching.

You’ve seen many examples of what market research can illuminate for you. Rather than trying to catch all of them in a large net, break your research down into logical groupings and approach them one at a time.

2. Decide on your research questions

Next, determine the key research questions you’ll be asking. These should be informed by the goal you established in the first step.

For example, if you want to research how you compare to competitors, define the key metrics you’ll be using for the comparison. Remember, if you plan to collect feedback from potential customers, take care to define who your target audience is so that you’re gathering the information that is most relevant to your business.

3. Talk to the people who matter

Many of the market research topics we’ve discussed involve talking to customers—your customers, other brands’ customers, or potential customers of both. Regardless of who they are, you need to give them a convenient way to answer your questions and provide as much detail as you need.

Sometimes, surveys may be enough to get the information you’re looking for—but if this data requires more of a back-and-forth than a survey allows for, one-on-one interviews and focus groups are a good approach. With these methods, you can get deeper insights into consumers’ minds.

You can also engage directly with your customers on social media. Keeping an eye on what people are saying on your competitors’ social feeds can also provide useful information.

4. Test your branding

Large brands that have been around for a while have typically had several different logos and branding strategies over the years. They have adapted to market forces, and you can do the same. You want your brand to resonate with your target audience as much as possible.

One approach to finding the branding that works best for your business and its customers is A/B testing.

A/B testing involves one group of customers being shown one version of your branding and another group being shown a secondary version. When you see which version of branding works best, you’ll know which is the most profitable. You can repeat this process until you’re happy with the metrics. Repeat it regularly so your appeal remains relevant to changing consumer preferences.

In addition to A/B testing, you need to be proactively listening to what consumers are saying. When you get feedback about your branding or your brand’s perception, respond to it and adapt your strategies. Regularly ask for feedback about your branding so you can gather useful data without waiting for your customers to say something.

5. Be consistent and check in on your brand awareness

Consumer preferences change over time, and successful companies adapt to them. Your company must do the same.

By conducting regular brand audits that test for things like brand recognition and brand perception, you’ll be able to stay ahead of a changing market landscape and remain as relevant as possible to your target audience.

Perform regular brand audits and record the key metrics you use to track your branding efforts. This will reveal a set of trend lines that allow you to see how your brand awareness and perception are shifting—information that will help you determine when a change is needed and how well it works.

Building a coherent brand identity requires consistency across all channels. Every interaction your customers have with your company should feature messaging with the same tone and values. This will establish a more cohesive and memorable brand identity and ensure that the metrics you track are relevant to a particular message and tone.

6. Use market research tools to be in control of your research

Technology has provided businesses with a wealth of tools for gathering and analyzing market research and customer data.

Online survey tools will help you collect data from your customers or target audience easily and in a way that’s convenient to them.

Social listening platforms will help you monitor and respond to online feedback.

Detailed customer feedback tools like Dovetail provide you with deep analysis of the data you gather to help you develop actionable insights from customer interviews, product feedback, and everything in between.

As you develop your market research strategy, look at the tools available to you and see which ones best fit into your goals. By utilizing these tools, you’ll be able to streamline your tasks, keep them better organized, and get deeper insights into the data you have collected.

• How to leverage brand positioning research

As you plan out your messaging strategy, follow the tips below to help you make the most of the data you gather.

Identify core benefits in your customers’ own words

Your messaging will be most effective when you align it with the tone your customers use to convey their needs and opinions.

Analyzing customer feedback will unlock this language and enable you to discover the aspects of your business that existing customers like the most and find most valuable. You can use this to craft your key value propositions so your messaging aligns with their needs.

Avoid testing “shades of gray”

Many people make the mistake of asking overly broad questions in surveys. Without further clarification, these questions don’t always provide actionable insights.

With surveys and other non-interactive forms of feedback, you must be careful to ask questions with clear and distinct options from the beginning. Ensure they are phrased unambiguously so the answers are as direct and relevant as possible.

In focus groups or interviews, you can pivot on the fly and ask for these clarifications.

Get the “why” as well as the “what”

Make sure that the feedback you’re getting is as actionable as possible.

People may tell you how they feel about something, but unless they tell you why , your solution might not actually align with their needs. This is why it’s important to conduct in-depth qualitative research that drills down into your target audience’s underlying motivations and emotional drivers.

Agree on what success looks like

Improving your brand alongside its reputation and positioning all require continuous effort. However, you should approach this process in stages.

As you begin to act upon the market research you’ve conducted, you should have a clear set of goals to shoot for. These goals must be realistic and attainable.

Should you be using a customer insights hub?

Do you want to discover previous research faster?

Do you share your research findings with others?

Do you analyze research data?

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How to cite ChatGPT

Use discount code STYLEBLOG15 for 15% off APA Style print products with free shipping in the United States.

We, the APA Style team, are not robots. We can all pass a CAPTCHA test , and we know our roles in a Turing test . And, like so many nonrobot human beings this year, we’ve spent a fair amount of time reading, learning, and thinking about issues related to large language models, artificial intelligence (AI), AI-generated text, and specifically ChatGPT . We’ve also been gathering opinions and feedback about the use and citation of ChatGPT. Thank you to everyone who has contributed and shared ideas, opinions, research, and feedback.

In this post, I discuss situations where students and researchers use ChatGPT to create text and to facilitate their research, not to write the full text of their paper or manuscript. We know instructors have differing opinions about how or even whether students should use ChatGPT, and we’ll be continuing to collect feedback about instructor and student questions. As always, defer to instructor guidelines when writing student papers. For more about guidelines and policies about student and author use of ChatGPT, see the last section of this post.

Quoting or reproducing the text created by ChatGPT in your paper

If you’ve used ChatGPT or other AI tools in your research, describe how you used the tool in your Method section or in a comparable section of your paper. For literature reviews or other types of essays or response or reaction papers, you might describe how you used the tool in your introduction. In your text, provide the prompt you used and then any portion of the relevant text that was generated in response.

Unfortunately, the results of a ChatGPT “chat” are not retrievable by other readers, and although nonretrievable data or quotations in APA Style papers are usually cited as personal communications , with ChatGPT-generated text there is no person communicating. Quoting ChatGPT’s text from a chat session is therefore more like sharing an algorithm’s output; thus, credit the author of the algorithm with a reference list entry and the corresponding in-text citation.

When prompted with “Is the left brain right brain divide real or a metaphor?” the ChatGPT-generated text indicated that although the two brain hemispheres are somewhat specialized, “the notation that people can be characterized as ‘left-brained’ or ‘right-brained’ is considered to be an oversimplification and a popular myth” (OpenAI, 2023).

OpenAI. (2023). ChatGPT (Mar 14 version) [Large language model]. https://chat.openai.com/chat

You may also put the full text of long responses from ChatGPT in an appendix of your paper or in online supplemental materials, so readers have access to the exact text that was generated. It is particularly important to document the exact text created because ChatGPT will generate a unique response in each chat session, even if given the same prompt. If you create appendices or supplemental materials, remember that each should be called out at least once in the body of your APA Style paper.

When given a follow-up prompt of “What is a more accurate representation?” the ChatGPT-generated text indicated that “different brain regions work together to support various cognitive processes” and “the functional specialization of different regions can change in response to experience and environmental factors” (OpenAI, 2023; see Appendix A for the full transcript).

Creating a reference to ChatGPT or other AI models and software

The in-text citations and references above are adapted from the reference template for software in Section 10.10 of the Publication Manual (American Psychological Association, 2020, Chapter 10). Although here we focus on ChatGPT, because these guidelines are based on the software template, they can be adapted to note the use of other large language models (e.g., Bard), algorithms, and similar software.

The reference and in-text citations for ChatGPT are formatted as follows:

• Parenthetical citation: (OpenAI, 2023)
• Narrative citation: OpenAI (2023)

Let’s break that reference down and look at the four elements (author, date, title, and source):

Author: The author of the model is OpenAI.

Date: The date is the year of the version you used. Following the template in Section 10.10, you need to include only the year, not the exact date. The version number provides the specific date information a reader might need.

Title: The name of the model is “ChatGPT,” so that serves as the title and is italicized in your reference, as shown in the template. Although OpenAI labels unique iterations (i.e., ChatGPT-3, ChatGPT-4), they are using “ChatGPT” as the general name of the model, with updates identified with version numbers.

The version number is included after the title in parentheses. The format for the version number in ChatGPT references includes the date because that is how OpenAI is labeling the versions. Different large language models or software might use different version numbering; use the version number in the format the author or publisher provides, which may be a numbering system (e.g., Version 2.0) or other methods.

Bracketed text is used in references for additional descriptions when they are needed to help a reader understand what’s being cited. References for a number of common sources, such as journal articles and books, do not include bracketed descriptions, but things outside of the typical peer-reviewed system often do. In the case of a reference for ChatGPT, provide the descriptor “Large language model” in square brackets. OpenAI describes ChatGPT-4 as a “large multimodal model,” so that description may be provided instead if you are using ChatGPT-4. Later versions and software or models from other companies may need different descriptions, based on how the publishers describe the model. The goal of the bracketed text is to briefly describe the kind of model to your reader.

Source: When the publisher name and the author name are the same, do not repeat the publisher name in the source element of the reference, and move directly to the URL. This is the case for ChatGPT. The URL for ChatGPT is https://chat.openai.com/chat . For other models or products for which you may create a reference, use the URL that links as directly as possible to the source (i.e., the page where you can access the model, not the publisher’s homepage).

Other questions about citing ChatGPT

You may have noticed the confidence with which ChatGPT described the ideas of brain lateralization and how the brain operates, without citing any sources. I asked for a list of sources to support those claims and ChatGPT provided five references—four of which I was able to find online. The fifth does not seem to be a real article; the digital object identifier given for that reference belongs to a different article, and I was not able to find any article with the authors, date, title, and source details that ChatGPT provided. Authors using ChatGPT or similar AI tools for research should consider making this scrutiny of the primary sources a standard process. If the sources are real, accurate, and relevant, it may be better to read those original sources to learn from that research and paraphrase or quote from those articles, as applicable, than to use the model’s interpretation of them.

We’ve also received a number of other questions about ChatGPT. Should students be allowed to use it? What guidelines should instructors create for students using AI? Does using AI-generated text constitute plagiarism? Should authors who use ChatGPT credit ChatGPT or OpenAI in their byline? What are the copyright implications ?

On these questions, researchers, editors, instructors, and others are actively debating and creating parameters and guidelines. Many of you have sent us feedback, and we encourage you to continue to do so in the comments below. We will also study the policies and procedures being established by instructors, publishers, and academic institutions, with a goal of creating guidelines that reflect the many real-world applications of AI-generated text.

For questions about manuscript byline credit, plagiarism, and related ChatGPT and AI topics, the APA Style team is seeking the recommendations of APA Journals editors. APA Style guidelines based on those recommendations will be posted on this blog and on the APA Style site later this year.

Update: APA Journals has published policies on the use of generative AI in scholarly materials .

We, the APA Style team humans, appreciate your patience as we navigate these unique challenges and new ways of thinking about how authors, researchers, and students learn, write, and work with new technologies.

American Psychological Association. (2020). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.). https://doi.org/10.1037/0000165-000

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