Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Cover the ground rules with market research associations

While no government policy regulates the market research industry directly, legislation such as 'do not call' lists and the exemption of cell phone numbers from phone directories do impact its execution, specifically, how effectively a market research company can collect data. Market research associations keep its constituents and the public informed about trends generated by and affecting the industry, and serve as liaison between the public policy makers and private enterprise.

I recommend: Founded in 1975, the Council of American Survey Research Organizations (CASRO) currently comprises over 300 market research companies, and has developed the CASRO Code of Standards as the quality control benchmark for the industry. Four trade associations established the Council for Marketing & Opinion Research (CMOR) in 1992 to act as the industry’s leading public promoter and legislative advocate. The American Marketing Association promotes market research conferences and educational links as part of its broader offering to the marketing community.

Access market information quickly and economically with syndicated reports

Secondary research makes up roughly one-third of the multi-billion dollar pie. A market research analyst compiles data and writes a report for general publication. Use these reports to ease your progress over a learning curve about industry trends and issues, market demographics or basic competitive intelligence.

I recommend: With over 160,000 reports, MarketResearch.com provides the world’s largest collection of market research intelligence, including market research reports about market research. Search out and buy market research reports on general markets or specific companies from Report Buyer.

Dive deep with primary market research surveys

While secondary research gives you quick access to inexpensive intelligence, you typically won't get in-depth information or specific answers. Primary research enables you to discover specific information tailored to your organization's needs. Plus, by definition, it's your own information undisclosed to anyone else, to help uncover and exploit hidden opportunities in the market or weak spots in your competition.

I recommend: Ipsos in North America covers advertising, customer loyalty, marketing, media and public affairs research. Walker focuses primarily on customer satisfaction and loyalty research.

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  If you're new to market research, look up the associations' websites first to get a helpful impression of the industry's scope and capabilities before moving ahead with a market research plan.

Guide to Creating a Market Research Plan

Tools on the Web make market research easier than ever

By Barbara Whitaker, freelance writer, none

To get answers to these questions, you'll need a market research plan, which you can create yourself or pay a specialist to create for you. A market research plan should provide a thorough examination of how your product or service will fare in a defined area. It should include:

1. An examination of the current marketplace and an analysis of the need for your product or service
2. An assessment of competition
3. Data about customers
4. Direction for marketing in the upcoming year
5. Goals to be met

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Create a step-by-step research plan

Market research plans are typically broken down by task and start by defining the problem or opportunity. Your plan should include objectives and the methods that you'll use to meet them, along with a time frame for completing the work.

I recommend: The Small Business Administration's useful step-by-step guide to marketing research will help you define your needs, create a budget and timetable, select your techniques, collect your data and analyze your results.

Find the information you need

A marketing research plan is only as good as the information on which it's based.

I recommend: Check tips for Getting Started. Also check out Missouri Small Business Development Centers' Market Research Notebook, which offers sources for information to include in your report. In a similar offering, Ohio State University includes questions to ask consumers when doing research.

Let someone else do the work

If the thought of trying to create you own market research plan seems daunting or just too time-consuming, there are plenty of other people willing to do the work for you. Market research firms can charge into the thousands of dollars for a market research plan, but there are ways to get help more affordably.

I recommend: If you want to save money, experts recommend looking to independent consultants, which typically charge $75 to $150 an hour, or to local business schools where professors or students might be looking for projects to work on. If hiring a firm, look for those with expertise in the area you're exploring. The American Marketing Association and Marketing Research Association, two trade groups, can provide a starting point for finding consultants and firms in your area.

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  Outline your plans carefully and spell out objectives.
• •  Examine as many sources as possible.
• •  Before paying for any information, check with librarians, small business development centers or market research professors to ensure that it's not available free.
• •  You may think you'll need to spend a hefty sum to create a market research plan. Not so: There are plenty of free and low-cost sources available, especially through university business schools that will guide you through the process.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Know what to measure with market information

Survey responses revolve around scales. Work with the market research companies to determine the best scale for a given question in particular and the survey in general. Be consistent in the type and size of scales throughout the survey; don't use five-point scales for one question and 10-point scales in another. It confuses the respondent and increases the difficulty for data analysis, especially in comparing responses from one set of questions to another.

I recommend: Market Directions crafts surveys with the right mix of questions, scales and venues to custom fit each project. Polaris Marketing Research can craft transaction-based customer service measurements to improve service operations or attitude-based customer satisfaction research surveys to explore relationships with your customers.

Secure certainty in your sample with market research suppliers

When you conduct your survey, you'll pull out a few people at random from everyone you could have talked to. The confidence level of that survey sample has less to do with how self-assured you feel, and more to do with how closely the group you talked to matches the real population. So, a 95% confidence level means the odds are five out of 100, or in 20, that the answers given by the group you questioned would not reflect the real world. The confidence interval, or margin of error, is that 'plus or minus' you see at the bottom of a chart. What that tells you is that if you repeated the survey again and again, the answers would probably fluctuate by that many percentage points.

I recommend: MaCorr Research Solutions provides sample size information and includes a sample size calculator. B2B International helps clients navigate the even more difficult terrain of industrial sampling, which usually is much smaller than general consumer sampling, because the total population is so much smaller to begin with.

Map the success of your business market research with the right tables

Market research firms count up the answers from the survey participants and summarize them in data cross-tabulations, or 'crosstabs.' The power derives from the 'cross' part, where the tables show one set of questions broken out by another set of questions-most commonly, market demographics. So, you can look at a table that compares the response percentage of two groups side by side. Furthermore, statistical analysis shows if the difference between these two groups is 'significant,' or more than you would expect from talking to a group at random.

I recommend: Lieberman Research Worldwide offers its cross tabulation capabilities online, so you can access results anywhere via the Internet. Survey Tabulations and Research Systems (STARS) also allows you access to your survey results via the Internet, and can send data in table or chart form ready for PowerPoint presentations.

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  Ask the project staff or market research analyst you're working with for their definition of terms you're unsure of, so you both operate from the same assumptions during the project. Furthermore, if they are unwilling or unable to answer you concisely, you may want to shop elsewhere for your market research surveys.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Connect with marketing and research companies that provide educational or training products

Join forces with companies that lead the industry in business market research. Search for businesses with a history of providing trusted market research intelligence. Ask for references from others who have used their products or services to confirm the research is timely and accurate.

I recommend: Contact MarketResearch.com for in-depth public sector data such as analyses about school related products, including books and other types of material for education. They provide constantly updated intelligence for more than 200,000 market research reports from more than 600 global publishers. Get in touch with Polaris Marketing Research, a company that offers extensive marketing research services for a broad variety of research industries.

Interact with other market research company professionals

Team up with a market research analyst on a discussion board or forum. Exchange ideas about a market research plan through associations for industry professionals. Enhance your education and training by networking with others in the field. Look for communities that support the diverse needs of the entire marketing research profession.

I recommend: Connect with the forum discussion group at Market Research World. Gain insight on data and market research findings, general marketing questions and career discussions. Peruse their news section for national and global market research news. Contact Marketing Research Association, a resource for marketing research professionals. Join their community to network with peers and industry experts.

Review articles about marketing and research companies

Read literature to stay abreast of innovative developments, articles from industry experts, new advances in market research applications, updates in qualitative and quantitative techniques, and other emerging technologies. Market research journals offer professionals in-depth articles about the field.

I recommend: Study the International Journal of Market Research (IJMR) for the latest developments in the field of market research. The IJMR serves industry professionals with peer-reviewed comprehensive coverage of marketing and social research. Peruse an international journal about qualitative market research at Emerald Group Publishing Limited. Their articles cover research design processes, new product developments and international market research.