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Extract intel mined by data collection companies

Unlike creating cross-tabulated data tables, data mining sifts through massive volumes of raw data to find behavioral patterns. Cash register transactions, orders from the Internet or company extranet sales channels or coupon redemptions, can be tracked over time and analyzed to provide a blueprint how consumers are shopping-what they are actually doing-and point to most likely future transactions.

I recommend: Far more than compiling TV show ratings, The Nielsen Company is the world’s largest market research data provider for media, business-to-business marketing and retail. Nielsen’s primary competitor, Information Resources (IRI) provides market research data for manufacturing, retail, health care and vertical markets.

Take it to the Web by conducting a market research survey on the Internet

When you need to ask for opinions on a new product or get feedback on service received, take advantage of the speed and efficiency of the Internet. Internet research most commonly involves market research data companies managing a panel of participants, who have been contacted and pre-screened for eligibility, then sent questionnaires through the Internet from time to time. Well-managed panels do not get 'burned out' from constantly filling out surveys, and are carefully screened to ensure respondents are matched with the subjects under study.

I recommend: Harris Interactive, creator of the Harris Poll Online, maintains it services one of the world’s largest respondent panels. Infosurv develops and conducts web-based survey research for government and private enterprise.

Explore in-depth market research going eye to eye with qualitative study

While jokes abound about one-way mirrors and free sandwiches, focus groups remain a powerful method to explore new territory or sensitive topics. Resist the urge to pack the house, either in the room or behind the viewing mirror. You'll obtain better results by hosting a series of small groups. Six to eight participants in a 90-minute discussion promotes a more intimate setting, where people can have the time and emotional space to open up and carry a conversation further than they would with a two-hour summit of a dozen or so strangers facing off over a conference table.

I recommend: The CEO of Applied Marketing Research moderates AMR’s focus groups himself, whether traditional in-person groups, teleconference groups or e-groups though Internet chat rooms. The Marketing Workshop (MWI) provides custom research in focus group, ATI, and IT venues.

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  Think backward when designing your data collection in market research process. Do you have any expectations-particular ways you think people will respond, specific answers you'd like to see? Literally put together some dummy charts and graphs, to visualize the final answers. Then, use that dummy report to help you structure the questions and response categories or scales to fit.

Guide to Conducting Your Own Market Research

Your customers can guide you to success if you ask the right questions

By Barbara Whitaker, freelance writer, none

The work can be broken into four areas:

1. Establish your objectives. Analyzing the competition in an area, for example, will require a different approach than introducing a new product or adapting current advertising or marketing strategies.
2. Choose the the research method. Qualitative research relies on subjective information like customer surveys and focus groups. Quantitative builds on existing information like census demographics or industry analysis.
3. Conduct surveys or focus groups.
4. Analyze the information.

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Set your objectives

Are you looking to launch a new product or repair a bad public image? You'll need to clarify objectives, create a budget and a timetable for completion.

I recommend: The Small Business Administration's intro to marketing goes through the steps to refine your target and set up your research project. The American Marketing Association covers the same ground with an an emphasis on inexpensive approaches to market research such as providing customers with a feedback form in your store, gathering neighbors to test new products, offering a discount on a product or service in return for an hour of a customer's time for an in-depth interview; or doing a direct mail survey of your customers.

Scope the marketplace

Whether you want to gauge whether your business idea will fly or why a product isn't doing better, it's important to understand your marketplace. Visit your competitions' places of business, if possible, and their Web sites. Check government and trade group information. But stay focused. If you're determining whether there's a market for your consumer product, for example, start by researching local census demographics. But if you're looking at existing competition, you will want census breakdowns that provide businesses by zip code.

I recommend: An online tutorial on KnowThis shows you where to find market research from government and industry. The section on government statistics is particularly valuable for wading through the vast amount of available material. If you're exploring government sites on your own, FedStats is a good place to start and the SBA Office of Advocacy keeps small business statistics. For a breakdown of businesses by zip code, check out an excellent national database offered by the Missouri Census Data Center or visit the Census Bureau's ZIP business page. For industry information, check Hoovers Online and Bizstats, but only basic information is free.

Survey customers

Surveys give you valuable insight into what consumers want. Keep surveys simple. Ask clear, precise questions and be sure they are not biased or leading.

I recommend: SurveyMonkey sets up small-scale Web-based surveys (fewer than 100 respondents) for free and changes $20 a month subscription for those wanting to do larger, more complicated screenings. If you want to go it on your own, StartUpNation makes recommendations on how to create market surveys and conduct focus groups. Microsoft Small Business Center provides dos and don'ts of focus groups.

Hire a pro

If you've got the bucks, marketing firms will package customized research for you.

I recommend: Look in the Market Research Association's online Blue Book directory or use the American Marketing Association's searchable directory.

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  The key to finding the right market research is figuring out what you want to know and then methodically gathering the information that will provide the answer.
• •  Ask for help from small business centers and librarians when initiating a search
• •  When conducting surveys and focus groups, keep it simple.
• •  Consider giving a stipend of some sort to those who participate in your surveys.
• •  Use multiple sources of information when doing your research.

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Exercise your taxpayer rights while market research data gathering

How does free sound? Employ Uncle Sam, one of the largest data collection companies, for your market research. The federal government supplements its decennial census with numerous surveys as frequently as every month. While it's limited to national data, regional, state, and local affiliates can break data down to areas closer to home, and it provides a solid baseline to work from.

I recommend: The Consumer Expenditure Survey program combines the quarterly Interview Survey with the Diary Survey to provide information on consumer buying habits, including income and expenditures for both family and individuals. You also can look up the US Census Bureau's Q&A center to quickly find the more popular census searches.

Delve deep with exploratory market research

When you're unsure how to even frame a question, start by exploring the issue with qualitative research. The most cost-effective form of qualitative research is the focus group, as you can recruit in a relatively short time frame and get decent results in as little as two groups, often scheduled in one evening. Costs depend on the audience: general consumer groups cost the least both for recruiting and providing participation incentives, while executives and professionals like doctors or lawyers cost the most. Certain topics dealing with sensitive issues might be more difficult to recruit, driving field costs up. Also, don't skimp on the moderator; be willing to pay more for a thoroughly trained moderator.

I recommend: The name Focus 25 derives from the 25 different research strategies they’ve used to help clients find answers. They quote from $3,500 to $7,500 per group, excluding any travel fees. Established in 1985, Market Trends Research conducts both in-person and online focus groups ranging from a base of $4,000 for consumer groups to $5,000 for professional groups.

Listen to the customer's voice through data collection in market research

Once you've explored the topic and caught the audience's vocabulary, build a questionnaire and test these findings in the general population under study. Costs vary the most in quantitative research, depending on several factors such as how many people you want to talk to (fewer if you want to survey the general population, more if you want to drill down into segments) or the complexity of the topic you want to talk about. Quantitative surveys can cost as little as $5,000 and run over $150,000. Budget five figures for a comprehensive survey using a full-service firm to include professional hours for up-front consultation, analysis and final presentation. If you desire to write your own survey, provide the contact information of the people you want to talk to, and analyze the results on your own, you can save money by shopping out the questionnaire and target list to a market research data collection company that focuses exclusively on the interview process.

I recommend: Directions In Research offers CATI, online and an IVR survey for business and consumer surveys. C&C Market Research has 30 locations across the country for focus groups, in-depth personal interviews, mall intercepts and product testing.

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  Market research data companies at times quote a project on a Cost Per Interview (CPI) basis. Don't extrapolate from that figure if you change specifications. If you add on eligibility requirements or even ask for more completed interviews without a corresponding sample increase to draw from, the effort and labor hours required to execute these change orders will affect the CPI.

Guide to Market Research Data Key Terms

Understand the terms you need for conducting market research

By Lesley Graybeal

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Market research

Market research, often used interchangeably with marketing research, is the process by which companies design studies of their consumer base. Often, market research focuses on a specific segment of the market and attempts to determine the consumer characteristics of that group. Market research is the basis of product design, marketing and advertising techniques.

I recommend: KnowThis.com offers a detailed definition of market research and the importance of research to the field of marketing.

Validity

Validity is the term used to describe the extent to which any piece of research accurately answers the question it was designed to answer. For any research study, there are a number of types of validity, including construct validity (the extent to which the study accurately defines the subject of study) and content validity (the extent to which the study measures what it says it will measure).

I recommend: Brigham Young University publishes a useful page on several types of validity used in market research and other types of statistical research.

Reliability

Reliability, which is similar to validity, describes the extent to which the results found in a research study are replicable, or would be found to be true if repeated in a different setting. Reliability also has several varieties, including inter-rater reliability (the level of agreement found between respondents on a survey) and test-retest reliability (the similarity of results when a survey is repeated multiple times).

I recommend: Changing Minds offers a definition of reliability, along with the ways it is distinguished from validity.

Consumer unit

The consumer unit is important to market research because it is the unit of analysis used when designing a study and analyzing results. The consumer unit is defined as the household body that makes decisions about what to buy.

I recommend: Read a concise definition of the consumer unit from Quirk's Marketing Research Review.

Focus group

A focus group is defined as a small group of research participants that fall within a specific target market brought together to answer several questions in a market research study. Focus groups usually consist of five to 10 people and last for about one or two hours. Researchers ask a number of interview questions and record the group responses and interactions.

I recommend: Global Market Insite offers a useful definition of the focus group for conducting market research.

Qualitative research

Qualitative research, as opposed to quantitative or statistical research, focuses on the subjectivity of individual people and attempts to reflect in-depth responses of the research participants. Qualitative research consists primarily of interviewing and observing; the focus group is one technique for qualitative market research.

I recommend: Market Research World provides a detailed definition of qualitative research as it is used by market researchers.