How to do market research

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Anyone who thinks that market research is a luxury only for large companies that can afford it is mistaken. Every entrepreneur can, and should, conduct research to make assertive decisions about their business . But before you go out there with a notebook in your hand and interview anyone on the street, it is important to clarify a few points:

Market research serves to guide entrepreneurs in making strategic decisions, and should therefore be designed and carried out based on a specific question. It should not be done simply out of curiosity or to “see what the market is like”, as this would be a waste of time and money.
Speaking of wasting time and money, don't conduct research if you won't be able to implement the suggested changes that come from the results obtained.
It is important not to confuse market research with a business plan. Research should not be used alone to determine the viability of a business – this will be answered by the complete business plan, which includes research in one of its stages, but is a much more in-depth and complex study.
Now that you’ve dotted the i’s and crossed the t’s, you must be wondering, what is market research for and how can it be useful to you, right? Let’s go:

Know the customer profile , which can be quantitative , studying the market potential, the company's share in the market, for example; and qualitative , such as consumption habits, lifestyle, behavior, education, income, etc.
Evaluate suppliers regarding pricing and payment policies, distribution, and quality. The goal is to make the best decision about who will supply your products/services or whether it is worth outsourcing.
Understand competitors ' strategies and strengths .
Learn more about the market , such as trends, demand absorption capacity, identify the most profitable segment.
How to do market research

First, you need to clearly define the objective of the research. What do you want to know: what are the consumption habits of your potential customers? How is your brand positioned in the market? How do employees and collaborators perceive the company and its products?

This step will automatically answer who the target audience will be and also what the sample size of your research will be. With this information in mind, it is time to think about the best way to conduct this research.

Let's open a parenthesis here and differentiate the two types of existing data collection: primary data are those collected directly from the consumer through chile phone number data face-to-face interviews or online questionnaires; secondary data are the results of existing research carried out by IBGE or other credible institutions.

If the survey involves a larger number of people, is it worth taking data from Ibope and conducting face-to-face or telephone interviews with some of these people to enrich your information? Or creating an online survey and publishing it on the internet? It could also be a group interview, or a link sent via your customers' registered email.

Remember that the internet can be a very rich source of information and effort. And the best part is that it's all there, ready for you to use for free, such as:

Google Trends: Great for analyzing some related words or your type of product or market and seeing the search volume performed on Google in the last months or years.
Google Analytics: studies the profile of people who access the company's website, how long they stay on each page, which ones have the highest dropout rate, the most common geographic region, and the time of day they access it.
Facebook Insights: allows you to evaluate the profile of the audience that accesses a page and compare it with competitors.
There are also some ready-made online questionnaires, such as SurveyMonkey . However, although they make your life easier, keep in mind that ready-made questions are always too generic to be applied by most companies. Therefore, it is essential that you also formulate your own questions. (Tip: Google Drive has a tool specifically for creating forms!).

When developing your questions, it is important to keep in mind that people need to clearly understand what is being asked and how to respond. Multiple choice, allowing more than one choice, or just one? Disqualifying? Free response?

Important: Think and rethink your questions to make sure they are 100% unbiased. Without realizing it, we can make some questions more biased depending on the answer we expect from them. Do not influence the answers to your survey, or the result will not be genuine.