Designing a Market Research Plan

Designing a Market Research Plan

Often, we’re asked about market research.  The research idea is usually tied to an initiative that brings something new to a firm’s clients.  That initiative can be a new investment vehicle, marketing message, Web site, or something else.

I sat down with a career researcher recently to share perspectives on the best and worst client engagements.  Though her experience is exclusively with consumer products and ours is traditionally with intermediaries, we agreed wholeheartedly on three dimensions to great research:

  1. Think Small. Web agreed that the best engagements addressed 1, maybe 2, topics.  Too often, different teams within the firm hear about a market research project and try to cram in a question or two.  Before too long, the market research has 8 or 10 new questions unrelated to the original research need and creating an unwieldy experience (for both the participants and the research end-users).
  2. Degrees of Data. Too often, firms request massive research endeavors with sophisticated data analysis, only to be unable to process that internally.  We’d both seen too many clients buy much more data and analysis than in-house teams can reasonably internalize.  Too often, the research feels “too complicated” and ends up becoming a binder on someone’s shelf that nobody reads.
  3. Use Industry Experts. A great questionnaire or focus group guide can seem perfect until the research is in-field.  Then a participant asks an intelligent question that the moderator can’t answer.   The moderator’s natural but destructive pause can sink the research endeavor.  She gave an example of a NYC-based moderator asking laundry questions outside of Kansas City.  It became clear to the attendees that this moderator does not do his own laundry and they began to shut down.  (I have a similar story from a client that hired a research firm to speak with TPAs, only to realize too late that the research firm thought that meant CPAs.)

We encourage clients to use market research in the most targeted manner possible.  Focus on single initiatives, less expense, and shorter timeframes.  Clients get actionable answers to critical questions that way.