Product market research is essential to the success and growth of an organization. It comes in many shapes and sizes both qualitative and quantitative. Qualitative may include methodologies like in-depth interviews (IDIs), focus groups (both in-person and virtual), or small samples of mobile ethnography. Quantitative options include online surveys, phone surveys, in-home usage tests (IHUTs), and many more.
Objectives or product market research can span far and wide as well. In this post we cover a few of the more common objectives of product market research with some examples of each.
If you are gathering information about product market research and trying to determine whether your organization should pursue or what your next steps might be, continue reading.
Product market research can cover a variety of benefits for an organization.
Product Testing
Is there a project that is more fun than a product test? We think not. Whether you are concept testing a new idea or conducting an in-home usage test (IHUT), market research can provide your organization with key answers.
How does an IHUT project work?
The product testing market research offers answers to questions like:
- How appealing is the concept to target users?
- What are users willing to pay for the concept?
- What are the major motivators to purchasing this concept?
- What would prevent a user from purchasing this concept?
- What are the big likes and dislikes with the concept?
- How does the concept compare to competitive offerings?
These can easily be accomplished through a concept test online survey or an IHUT. With a concept test completed online, the organization uses images and explanation to show the user the benefits and idea behind a product. Whereas with an IHUT, the organizations ships the product to the consumer for them to use in their natural environment. Then a follow-up survey or interview is completed to obtain feedback.
Benefit Testing
The old adage is people buy products and services for the benefits, not the features. If you understand those key differentiators and benefits to your product or service through benefit testing, ultimately makes your marketing campaign that much easier for your organization.
Benefit testing as part of product market research can be accomplished with online surveys sent to your target audience. There are several ways to tackle this including question types like Conjoint, MaxDiff, Ranking, or even basic Likert scales.
Conjoint is a forced choice series of questions. Which is more appealing? Benefit A or Benefit B? Benefit B or Benefit D? Benefit C or Benefit A? This is Simple Conjoint.
MaxDiff is when you ask survey participants the extremes. Which of these 8 benefits is Most Appealing? Which is Least Appealing? MaxDiff is calculated by taking the difference of each benefit. Meaning if 55% said Benefit A is most appealing and 20% said Benefit A is least appealing, your MaxDiff for Benefit A is 35%.
Ranking involves asking the participant to force rank the benefits. If you list of 6 benefits, you would ask the survey respondent to rank the benefits from "1" most appealing to "6" least appealing. Then each survey taker chooses 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 for each of the benefits.
Lastly, the benefit testing can be designed with a simple Likert scale. Use a 1 to 5, 1 to 7, or even 1 to 10 scale to create more variance. Here, you ask the survey taker to rate each benefit on the 1 to 10 scale with "10" being most appealing.
Options. Options.
Product Market Research Process
We follow a streamlined process to our project work here at Drive Research. This involves a step-by-step process to ensure the project runs smoothly and successfully.
① Proposal: this tackles your objectives, approach, timeline, and final costs
② Kickoff: during this 30 to 60-minute meeting we walk you through the project tasks
③ Workplan: within 24 hours of the kickoff we develop this which guides dates and times
④ Recruitment: if we need to find participants, we develop a screener to recruit and secure
⑤ Fieldwork: this is when the market research takes place and feedback is received
⑥ Analysis: once fieldwork is closed, we get to work on the analysis and insights
⑦ Reporting: our report typically includes and executive summary and recommendations
⑧ Debrief: at the conclusion we get together with clients to walk them through the findings
Contact Our Firm
Drive Research is a product market research company located in the U.S. Our company is located in Syracuse but our team works with clients across the country to assist with their product market research needs. Questions? Need advice?
Contact us through our website, by email, or by phone:
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Email us at [email protected]
Call us at 888-725-DATA
Text us at 315-303-2040