Market research is the act of gathering information about your target market, customers, and competitors. With that data in hand, you are able to make more informed business decisions in some capacity. The global market research industry size was valued at $76.37 billion in 2021 and is projected to reach $108.57 billion by 2026, according to The Business Research Company. If you’re looking to take your marketing research game to the next level, it’s helpful to be aware of the most common methods and best practices. Whether you’re about to launch a new product, expand into a new market, or just want to provide your customers with the best experience, there is a market research approach to help you reach your goals. After all, what goes in, must come out, right? If your research is garbage, your resulting insights are garbage and your business will suffer.
Primary vs. secondary research: The fundamentals
Market research can be broken down into two main categories; primary and secondary research. Primary means you collect information directly from your target audience, while secondary means you’ll use data that someone else has already collected.
The benefits of primary market research:
Full control over the research process, questions, and data
Tailor the research to your specific needs
Access to the most current, relevant information
Flexibility to follow-up and pivot based on responses
No need to verify or trust third-party data sources
The benefits of secondary market research:
Cheaper, by a long shot, than conducting your own primary research
Access to industry benchmarks, trends, and knowledge
Ability to cross-reference and analyze multiple data sets
Ideal for background information before primary studies
Most sources are easy to access online for free
When to use primary or secondary market research: Secondary research is your starting point to gain context and identify research gaps, while primary research is ideal for answering specific questions unique to your business model.
Qualitative methods: The “why” behind the data
Qualitative methods are designed to understand people’s motivations, attitudes, and perceptions through open-ended, subjective, and descriptive analysis. These methods are perfect for when you’re early in your research and need some depth and context. Sample sizes tend to be on the smaller side between 4-12 participants for focus groups or 1-on-1 for in-depth interviews (IDIs) and interviews are conducted over the phone or via video calls lasting between 30-90 minutes.
The most common qualitative methods are:
Focus groups: 4-12 participants meet for moderated group discussions that reveal group dynamics and produce creative insights
In-depth interviews (IDIs): 1-on-1 conversations that are perfect for B2B research with decision-makers, delving into executive mindsets, and uncovering sensitive topics that respondents may be less willing to share in a group setting
Observational research: Capturing actual human behavior (digital, such as website heatmaps, or physical, such as in brick-and-mortar environments) rather than relying on self-reported actions and motivations
Content analysis: Examining existing communication, online reviews, and social media to study customer sentiment, especially for publicly discussed topics
The primary advantages:
Emotional drivers and unconscious preferences that surveys don’t detect
Ability to ask follow-up questions and explore new topics that arise in real-time
Context that explains the reasoning behind people’s decisions
Authentic reactions when one participant builds on another’s ideas
To learn more about how to understand customer reasoning, check out my article on psychographics in marketing.
Example: The Domino’s Pizza comeback story
As Business Sage reports, Dominoes Pizza chain used focus groups in 2009 when sales began to slump. Customers told them their pizza was “the worst excuse for pizza,” had a “cardboard crust,” and sauce that “tastes like ketchup.” The company took those insights and overhauled their recipes and also admitted fault in their advertising. Sales jumped 14.3% in Q1 of 2010, the largest gain in company history, by using customer insights to inform their strategy.
Quantitative methods: Measuring the market
Quantitative techniques are used to collect numerical information that can be statistically analyzed and projected to larger populations. These methods have large sample sizes (ranging from hundreds to thousands of respondents), but you can glean measurable and defend-able results that you can use for data-driven decision-making. Modern technology has also made quantitative research faster and more accessible than ever before.
Essential quantitative methods:
Online surveys: The lowest-cost mass-audience option, with 10-15 percent response rates being the average
Phone surveys: More in-depth and qualitative with probing questions with active two-way conversations
Mail surveys: The obvious choice for industries with strict privacy or access restrictions (banks, healthcare, etc.), often achieving 10-15 percent response rates
Intercept surveys: Capturing in-the-moment responses at specific locations using tablets and manual input for top-of-mind feedback
Experiments and A/B tests: Providing actual behavior rather than relying on stated preferences through controlled tests of specific variables or tactics
The main advantages:
Statistical rigor to project findings to entire market segments
Speed, with results coming in days rather than weeks or months
Eliminating interviewer bias, as respondents are completing the research themselves
Simple analysis with automated data collection and tabulation
The most effective market research approach combines qualitative and quantitative methods, using qualitative research during the exploratory phase to develop hypotheses which are then tested with quantitative research methods.
Other specialized research methods
In addition to the foundational techniques outlined above, there are several specialized methods that address specific business challenges. We recommend layering multiple methods and data sources to get a more comprehensive view.
High-impact specialized methods:
Social media listening: Monitoring and analyzing conversations about your brand, competitors, and industry in real-time
Mystery shopping: Sending trained evaluators out to assess customer service quality, employee knowledge, and in-store experience from the customer’s perspective
Feasibility studies: Predicting the success or failure of new ventures by analyzing products, services, or locations before making major investments
Internal data analysis: Examining your own customer behavior using existing data such as sales numbers, website stats, product ratings, and product or service usage patterns (Netflix famously uses viewing data to not only personalize the content shown to users but also to develop original programming like House of Cards)
When to deploy specialized methods
Use social listening for ongoing brand sentiment monitoring and competitive intelligence gathering, mystery shopping when you need to evaluate customer service quality or compliance in real-world environments, feasibility studies when considering new products or entering new markets, and internal data analysis for ongoing conversion rate optimization, personalization, and UX improvement.
The future of market research is increasingly digital-first, AI-powered analytics, and continuous instead of one-time. The move to webcam interviews has been the biggest shift with many researchers reporting regularly using webcam IDIs as 1 of their top 3 data collection methods (far cheaper than in-person research). Plus, more and more are moving from periodic studies to an ongoing, continuous, and integrated approach.
Which market research method is right for you?
Selecting the best method depends on research objectives, budget, timeline, and specific insights. As usual, start by defining SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound) and knowing your target audience by creating detailed buyer personas.
Decision framework:
Need a quick result? Online surveys, social listening, or existing secondary research
Want more context and understanding? In-depth interviews, focus groups, or ethnographic observations
Need to validate on a larger scale? Quantitative surveys, experiments, or cross-sectional studies
Optimizing the experience? Internal data analysis, A/B testing, and website analytics
Budget considerations
Secondary research and online surveys are the cheapest, while focus groups, in-depth interviews, and feasibility studies are the most expensive. Research by Insights by Pointer Pro shows that the average customer survey response rate is 33 percent, while B2B survey response rates are typically much lower at 10-30 percent, an important factor to consider when budgeting for sample sizes and timelines.
What is the future of market research?
The best market research strategy for 2025 is the one where you combine traditional methods with modern technology. Success is less about which methods you use and more about matching research methods to specific goals, using continuous monitoring vs. point-in-time studies, and ensuring all data collected drives actionable business decisions. After all, 67 percent of organizations don’t even have a clear market research strategy at all. The businesses that take a systematic approach to gathering and acting on customer insights have a huge leg up on their competition.
Whether you’re trying to understand needs, develop new products, or optimize your digital experience, strategic market research turns guesswork into data-backed decisions that minimize risk and maximize growth. The key is to start with specific objectives, choose the most appropriate research methods, and build an ongoing process to keep you in touch with evolving customer needs and market dynamics.
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