Market research is a key part of any product development process, including the re-evaluation of pricing, evaluation of member benefits, product launch or market sizing. Determining what kind of market research is most appropriate for your particular circumstances is the first key step in any market research process.

Simon Inger has considerable experience in conducting web surveys, organising telephone surveys (usually executed by a specialist, multilingual telemarketing organisation), and focus groups.

In all market research you have to be clear what the objectives are and devise a set of questions or a script that will allow you to meet the objectives without bringing in any bias. In a web-based or telephone survey that can be achieved through careful wording or survey structure, but in a focus group it is more normally achieved by presenting several alternative plausible and viable scenarios.

Results analysis is another important area, especially where the data are quantifiable. It should be evident from the data and the sample population to what extent a result can be considered certain (a measure of confidence) and by the same token which results should be considered indicative of a behaviour, but not conclusive. This distinction becomes critically more important when trying to attribute behaviours to discrete demographics and has to be guarded against rigorously.