Market research
Finds out who the customers are, what they want and what they think of the brand.
You'll like it if you always ask questions and are interested in psychology.
What it is
Market research is about knowing instead of guessing: who the customers are, what they want, what they think of the brand and its competitors. Whoever does it designs questionnaires and interviews, picks the right people to ask and turns the answers into a few clear decisions for the rest of the company.
Works with
- Product marketing
- Brand manager
- Marketing analytics
- External research agencies
What they actually do
Research question
Clarifies with the team what needs to be known and why, before asking anything.
Questionnaires
Writes neutral, clear questions, one thing at a time, that don't suggest the answer.
Interviews and groups
Talks to customers and non-customers to understand motivations and habits.
Sample
Chooses whom to ask, so the answers truly represent the audience.
Analysis
Reads results carefully and separates what people say from what they do.
Telling the story
Sums everything up in a few clear, useful ideas for the people who decide.
How the work is measured
The indicators (KPIs) they look at most often. The charts are just drawings, not real data.
- Response rate
- How many people complete the questionnaire.
- Sample quality
- Whether the respondents resemble the audience that matters.
- Decisions made
- How many company choices were based on the research.
- Satisfaction indicators
- For example, how likely customers are to recommend the brand.
How to get started
People start at research agencies or in companies' insight teams. Studying statistics, psychology or sociology helps, but above all you need curiosity about people.
1. Skills you need
- Asking questions without leading
- Statistics basics
- Listening
- A critical eye for data
- Summarising
2. Free tools to practise
- Google Forms
- Google Trends
- Google Sheets
Tools by other companies, free or with a free plan: we mention them only as examples.
3. In job ads it's called
- Market research assistant
- Junior insight analyst
- Junior research executive
4. Later you can specialise in
- Consumer insights
- User research
Try it
Exercise 1 · Would bottled iced tea sell?
Marta from Five Leaf writes to you: "Shall we make bottled iced tea?"
4 parts, nothing to type: just choices, with a professional's solution at the end.
What you learn
- writing a questionnaire
- choosing the sample
- reading the results
- using data correctly