ENGAGE

TARGETS
WITH MARKET
RESEARCH

HOW-TO GUIDE
 Engage Targets with Market Research
HOW-TO GUIDE

This report has been designed to provide practical advice for gaining insight from market research
initiatives.

Read this brief report to learn:

Market Research Defined

Benefits of Market Research
Primary vs. Secondary Research
Common Market Research Projects
Market Research Tools & Best Practices

Read this report to learn how to leverage your information assets to support decision-making,
identify connections between actions and outcomes, and listen to your customers.

Market Research Defined

Market research is the process of systematically gathering, recording, and analyzing data regarding
customers, competitors, and market conditions, to help organizations make better business deci-
sions about the development and marketing of new or existing products and services.

Benefits of Market Research

Market research is the process of systematically gathering, recording, and analyzing data regarding
customers, competitors, and market conditions, to help organizations make better business deci-
sions about the development and marketing of new or existing products and services.

Drive Customer-Centricity - use our Customer Centricity Checklist to learn 12 proven strategies.

Identify Market Opportunities - read our report: Market Segmentation, Targeting, & Positioning,
to learn how to identify new opportunities.

Reduce Time-to-Market - leveraging the “voice-of-the-customer” streamlines the product develop-

ment, testing, and marketing processes, increasing velocity.

2 ENGAGE TARGETS WITH MARKET RESEARCH

 Monitor Competitive Advantages - regular competitive analysis ensures that your organization
will not lose or fail to communicate key advantages.

Provide Decision-Making Insights - making decisions without adequate market intelligence

can be disastrous. Base your decisions on facts, not gut instinct.

Better Allocation of Resources - by analyzing which products, programs, channels, and markets
are most lucrative, organizations can focus their precious resources on profitable activities.

Increase Profitability & Growth - having a solid understanding of market needs is critical for
meeting and exceeding customer expectations, and leads to customer retention, increased
profitability, and growth.

Primary vs. Secondary Research

There are two categories of market research: primary research and secondary research. Primary
research involves the collection of data that does not currently exist or is unavailable to an organ-
ization. Secondary research involves the collection, analysis, and summarization of existing data
derived from third-party research firms or other sources.

Many organizations do not have the resources in-house to conduct effective primary research
campaigns, and glean insights from full-service research firms such as Gartner, Inc., IDC, Forrester,
Harris Interactive, AC Nielsen, Datamonitor, Dun and Bradstreet, Millward Brown, NPD Group, or TNS.

Common Market Research Projects

Following are a list of common market research projects designed to test or validate assumptions
made by the business:

Market Sizing & Segmentation - how large is our target market? How should we segment our
market? What are our customer profiles? Use our Market Segmentation and Analysis Tool to
analyze market sizing, market segments and customer profiles

Competitive Analysis - who are our direct/indirect competitors? What products/services are
eroding our market share? What messages are competitors sending? Who is growing quickly
and needs to be watched?

Product Positioning - how much price power do we have? Where do customers position us?
What is our price elasticity of demand?

Product Penetration - what is our market share? Are we gaining or losing share of wallet? What
geographies are not penetrated?

3 ENGAGE TARGETS WITH MARKET RESEARCH

 Brand Awareness & Preferences - what brand attributes are most important? How aware is our
market of our brand?

Consumer Behavior - how do our customers use our products? What products are usually
purchased together? How does placement affect sales?

Customer Analysis - how many customers do we have? What customers are most profitable?
What is our customer lifetime value?

Customer Satisfaction - what is our retention rate? How does customer satisfaction affect profit-
ability? Are we getting referrals?

Demand Forecasting - what were our previous sales by product line? What staffing will we need
to deliver on sales? What is our sales forecast?

Distribution Channels - which channels are not producing results? How can we increase promo-
tion of our products?

Decision-Making Process - how do our customers prefer to buy? What are the top buying criteria?
Is our sales process aligned?

Marketing Effectiveness - how effective was our last campaign? Where do the majority of our
leads come from? What is the ROI from marketing?

4 ENGAGE TARGETS WITH MARKET RESEARCH

 Action Plan
STEP 1 - Responsibilities

1 Responsibilities
Define Responsibilities

2 Identify Use our Marketing Analyst

Job Description to define key
responsibilities and set the
3 Objectives direction for this function.

4 Timelines

5 Select
Marketing Analyst Job Description

6 Requirements VIEW RESOURCE

7 Resources

8 Method

9 Analyze

10 Report

5 ENGAGE TARGETS WITH MARKET RESEARCH

 Action Plan
STEP 2 - Identify

1 Responsibilities
Identify the Problem

2 Identify A clear statement of the

problem is the key to effective
market research. Examples
3 Objectives of common research problem
questions are:
What competitive

4 Timelines advantages do we have?

Who is our target market?
What makes them unique?
Where do our prospects
5 Select
position us in the market?
What is our market share? Is
it being eroded?
6 Requirements
How likely are customers to
refer us business?
Which sales channels are
7 Resources most effective?
How can we improve our
sales process?
8 Method What new products should
we develop?
How effective are our
9 Analyze marketing campaigns?
What is the optimal price for
our products?
10 Report

6 ENGAGE TARGETS WITH MARKET RESEARCH

 Action Plan
STEP 3 - Objectives

1 Responsibilities
Establish Research
Objectives
2 Identify

Set objectives that once

3
achieved provide the
Objectives information required to solve
the problem.

Generally, your objective

4 Timelines
is to validate a working
hypothesis. For example,
your objective may be to test
5 Select a cause-effect relationship
such as: if we reduce our
price, what will the impact
be on sales volume and
6 Requirements
profitability?

7 Resources

8 Method

9 Analyze

10 Report

7 ENGAGE TARGETS WITH MARKET RESEARCH

 Action Plan
STEP 4 - Timelines

1 Responsibilities
Set Research Project
Timelines
2 Identify
Based on your problem
and objectives, develop a
3 Objectives project charter to schedule
resources and set timelines
for execution.

4 Timelines

5 Select

Project Charter Template

6 Requirements

VIEW RESOURCE

7 Resources

8 Method

9 Analyze

10 Report

8 ENGAGE TARGETS WITH MARKET RESEARCH

 Action Plan
STEP 5 - Select

1 Responsibilities
Select Research Design

2 Identify There are three main types of

research design: exploratory,
descriptive, and causal.
3 Objectives Exploratory research involves
collecting information in an
unstructured and informal

4 Timelines way, such as reviewing

competitors. websites to gain
further understanding of their

5
offerings.
Select Descriptive research
refers to methods that
analyze marketing variables
6 Requirements like consumer attitudes,
behaviors, and intentions.
Customer satisfaction and

7 Resources brand perception surveys

are examples of descriptive
studies.
Causal research is conducted
8 Method
by controlling various factors
to identify cause-effect
relationships that affect the
9 Analyze problem. Testing the effect
of marketing campaigns on
sales in a specific geographic

10 Report region is an example of

causal research.

9 ENGAGE TARGETS WITH MARKET RESEARCH

 Action Plan
STEP 6 - Requirements

1 Responsibilities
Determine Data
Requirements
2 Identify

Determine what information

you will need to solve
3 Objectives the research problem
and estimate the cost of
gathering that data.
4 Timelines
Primary research data is
typically more expensive
and time-consuming than
5 Select secondary research data,
but provides much more
accurate insight.

6 Requirements Depending on your timelines,

budgets, and resources,
decide if purchasing an

7 Resources industry benchmarking report

from an analyst firm will
provide a better cost/benefit
than conducting primary
8 Method research for your project.

9 Analyze

10 Report

10 ENGAGE TARGETS WITH MARKET RESEARCH

 Action Plan
STEP 7 - Resources

1 Responsibilities
Download Tools &
Templates
2 Identify
Following are some market
research reports, tools,
3 Objectives and templates that you can
download and quickly customize
to suit your specific needs:

4 Timelines Advertisement Evaluation Matrix

Business Requirements Template

Brand Perception Survey

5 Select
Competitive Ad vs.
PR Analysis Tool

Competitive Analysis Tool

6 Requirements
Competitive Product
Positioning Map

7
Competitive Website
Resources Analysis Tool

Customer Profile Template

Customer Satisfaction Survey

8 Method
Market Requirements Document

Market Research

9 Analyze Report Template

Marketing Analyst
Job Description

10 Report Market Segmentation,

Targeting, & Positioning

11 ENGAGE TARGETS WITH MARKET RESEARCH

 Action Plan
STEP 8 - Method

1 Responsibilities
Choose a Research
Method
2 Identify
There are two methods
for gathering information:
3 Objectives observation or asking
questions. The most common,
and cost-effective tool is the
questionnaire or survey.
4 Timelines
Structured surveys are
quantitative and list close-end

5 Select questions, such as multiple-

choice, yes/no, or scale
rankings. Unstructured surveys
gather qualitative data and
6 Requirements allow respondents to answer
in their own words. Depending
on your research objectives
7 Resources and problem, either type of
survey can be effective.

Some organizations find that

8 Method mixing these types provides

both measureable results and
real-world insights that can

9 Analyze be missed by setting specific

questions.

10 Report

12 ENGAGE TARGETS WITH MARKET RESEARCH

 Action Plan
STEP 9 - Analyze

1 Responsibilities
Collect & Analyze Data

2 Identify Once you have selected

your research method, built
your data-collection tool, and
3 Objectives performed the study, gather
all the data together to glean
insights.

4 Timelines The first step is the ensure data

quality and accuracy; verify
that raw data was correctly
entered into the data-collection
5 Select
form and that there are no
respondents who are looking to
skew results.
6 Requirements
Next, aggregate the data to
determine averages, slice-and-
dice by demographics, and do
7 Resources other statistical analysis.

Ensure that there is a large

enough sample size to provide
8 Method a real statistical representation
and determine the margin
of error. For a survey of 100

9 Analyze people, expect a margin of

error of +/- 10%. For a sample
size of 600, expect +/- 4%.

10 Report

13 ENGAGE TARGETS WITH MARKET RESEARCH

 Action Plan
STEP 10 - Report

1 Responsibilities
Report to Senior
Management
2 Identify
Based on your findings, create a
report summarizing the research
3 Objectives problem, objectives, research
design & methods, information
sources, and results.

4 Timelines Focus on providing a high-level

overview rather than getting
into the low-level findings.

5 Select Assess the implications of

your results on business
opportunities and risks, and
make recommendations for
6 Requirements improving business operations.

Send your Market Research

Report to the relevant
7 Resources
stakeholders, and invite them
to meet to discuss further.

8 Method

9 Analyze

Market Research Report

10 Report VIEW RESOURCE

14 ENGAGE TARGETS WITH MARKET RESEARCH

 About ANA

The ANA (Association of National Advertisers) makes a difference for

individuals, brands, and the industry by driving growth, advancing the
interests of marketers and promoting and protecting the well-being of the
marketing community.

Founded in 1910, the ANA provides leadership that advances marketing

excellence and shapes the future of the industry. The ANA’s membership
includes more than 1,000 companies with 15,000 brands that collectively
spend or support more than $400 billion in marketing and advertising annu-
ally. The membership is comprised of more than 750 client-side marketers
and 300 associate members, which include leading agencies, law firms,
suppliers, consultants, and vendors.

Further enriching the ecosystem is the work of the nonprofit ANA

Educational Foundation (AEF), which has the mission of enhancing the
understanding of advertising and marketing within the academic and
marketing communities.
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