Research and surveys: the (necessary) questions to get to the right answers

Here are all the key questions for a really useful actionable market analysis for your business

Before evaluating whether an answer is correct, one must evaluate whether the question is correct.

Word of the German philosopher Immanuel Kant… Don’t you also agree?

Central Marketing Intelligence ‘s signature market research starts from exactly this assumption (as well as-obviously-the methods of data collection and analysis) to exceed the results obtainable from interviews and surveys of companies’ target customers. We prefer effective, real and indisputable results to opinions and small representative samples.

How? Choosing to get much more information and especially authentic and unconditional information by listening to the Web: so-called Web Listening. By this terine we mean listening to the network as a whole; there are other more specific forms of listening such as Social Listening , which is the monitoring of mentions and comments on all major social platforms such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, etc.

We will talk about this in a moment.

The point is not to prefer this approach over telephone surveys, questionnaires or focus groups but to choose a completely different method for market analysis for our client companies. Not surprisingly, we have already pointed out in other articles that we do not conduct surveys (except in special cases where they can really be useful) but online market research.

But why do we use Web Listening?

Simple. This allows us to get authentic answers to the questions essential for fine-tuning market analysis. Users who express themselves on the web and social networks provide opinions about brands, products, services, and more.

We can analyze these opinions to understand what companies’ winning strategies are, what aspects they should improve on, and what strategies would be best to adopt in the future. Listening to the network provides us with real opportunities for action (not surprisingly, we define our market research as actionable)… But the ideal starting point is to ask the right questions. 

The best way to learn about your market and your customers’ needs is just to ask questions. When we ask the right questions during our market analysis, we can identify opportunities for improvement for your company. Opportunities that allow you to make your mark. 

Speaking of questions, now you are surely wondering what questions we are talking about. 

Read on to find out about them all!

Categories of questions essential during market research.

Every market analysis is completely customized, so the questions you will read in this in-depth study are generic… But they must then be supported by questions tailored to the needs of individual companies. 

However, we can identify 4 key areas to investigate:

• Questions related to your target market
• Dedicated questions for your target customers
• Questions about your brand
• Questions for competitive analysis (competitor analysis)

Analyzing these areas through a series of specific questions allows us to conduct a well-structuredmarket analysis and, most importantly, provide you with the answers you need to change, enhance, or simply better shape your business strategies.

That’s right, because the answers you need are those that lead to actionable results, so that you can use them to attract your target audience, improve your products/services and the way you promote them, outperform your competitors, please your customers to the best of your ability, and above all, make yourself visible (in a totally positive way) in your target market.

Let me explain: you don’t so much need to know what your competitor’s market positioning is, as you need to understand whether your company’s is correct compared to your competitors’ and have the tools to improve this positioning.

Let us now look at the main questions that enable us to provide you with usable answers to make waves with your business. 

Key questions to investigate your target market

Research and market surveys would be really useless if we did not find the answer to the following questions:

• How big is your target market?
• Will it expand or shrink in the future? 
• How is your market changing?
• What are the current and future market trends?
• What innovations are emerging in your market?
• What are the most talked about topics online (hot topics) regarding your target market?
• What products/services are similar to your company’s and which ones are appropriate to focus on?

Web Listening, through the skillful use of dedicated software and tools, enables us to find answers to these and other questions.

Read also: The numbers of racism in Italy in 2020: what we found out

Top questions about your target customers (that help you reach them!)

Do you know your target audience? If the answer is no or uncertain, you should scout the web for the answer to the following questions about your typical customer:

• How old is he?
• What is its gender?
• Where does he live?
• What is your level of education?
• What does he do for a living?
• What is your monthly and annual income?
• How large is your household?
• What are your interests?
• What do you do in your spare time?

Think about this for a moment: you only know all this information if it is about your very close relative or longtime friend. That is, only of very few people than those you know directly. Let alone clients you have never seen….

That’s why the answers to these questions are crucial in drawing up a sketch of your target customer. They are also preparatory to answering other no less important questions to know and understand your target market better…

• What are your customers interested in?
• What do you need to talk about to intercept them and get their attention?
• What are the goals of your typical clients?
• Where do they go for information?
• What are their favorite products?
• What products would they like in the market?
• How can you reach your customers while optimizing your strategies and budget?
• What opinion do your potential customers have about your company?

In the past, many companies have tried to answer these questions with online surveys or interviews but with unsatisfactory results.

Questions about your brand to answer during a market survey.

Your current and potential customers do Google searches every day, express opinions and write reviews, even talk about your brand (for better or worse)… You just often don’t know it. 

Not just you, mind you. You are in “good company” because there are still so many companies that fail to promptly intecect mentions and content that directly or indirectly affects them.

But understand well that knowing exactly what your target customers are talking about is a great tool for getting accurate information to put into practice, such as which products/services you should focus on and push and which ones are less in demand (by understanding why they are less in demand).

It is therefore essential to investigate the web to find answers to the following questions:

• How important is your brand?
• Who is talking about your company on the web?
• What opinions do people have about your brand?
• What do target customers think about your products/services?
• What could you do to be more visible in the marketplace, both online and in the “real” world?

After answering these questions, it is time to take action: spy on the competition. 

Read also: Market analysis? Here is the CMI method

The perfect questions for investigating competition. 

Competitor analysis allows you to discover (in a completely legal way, because only public data is investigated) the most important secrets about your competitors’ communication channels and promotion strategies… And use them in your favor.

Our competition survey answers these (and other) questions:

• Who are your fiercest competitors?
• What are their target customers?
• What are the strategies they use to reach customers?
• Which marketing strategies worked and which, on the other hand, turned out to be mistakes?
• What is their brand positioning?
• How much website and social traffic does the competition have?
• What keywords do they rank for on search engines and how?
• What are the channels that lead customers to find competitors?
• … And which ones does the company use to communicate with customers?
• How many and what backlinks do they bring to their pages?

Can you imagine how much, even some of this information, could be valuable in properly defining and allocating your budget for marketing and communication activities?

You probably also today, like many other managers and entrepreneurs, would not be able to answer each of these questions clearly and accurately with the tools you use. Right?

Final Conclusions. 

The good news is that today you can get the answers to all these questions (and more) through market research with online data. And act accordingly, in a knowledgeable and informed way.

Not only that, we ourselves, when presenting reports related to our market analysis, suggest to our clients through the data what might be the most urgent actions to enhance their business.

By now you will have fully understood how important defining the right questions is in CMI market research to identify the right answers and evolve your company toward a data-driven decision making model.

What are you waiting for? Contact us now to inquire about our Market X-Ray method and get a customized, free, no-obligation quote!