2. The Market Research Process

How do companies design a suitable market research plan? We explore how you can plan, start, and identify the research question that will best guide your market research. Identifying the “right” question is difficult, but we provide several strategies and suggestions to help you quickly identify and formulate a market research process. In addition, we provide a practical overview of the different types of research, including exploratory, descriptive, and causal research; the different research goals and the needs they fulfil, and discuss their different uses and potential research outcomes. We offer guidelines that will help you determine the optimal match between the research question and the type of research design.