conduct research for you and to present and interpret the results.
• Trawling the internet and other sources, such as a business library, to see if there is any published research data that you can make use of – whether for free or by buying it.
• Conducting your own market research. You can, of course, employ a combination of these methods.
‘Use a professional market researcher, find published data or undertake your own.’
Using professional market
researchers Market research companies not only conduct research according to established principles and statistical criteria, but they can also advise on the appropriate strategies you could take for gathering the right information. The advantage of seeking such
professional help is that the results ought to be more robust and accurate than if a do-it-yourself approach is adopted. Another advantage is that a favourable report from a recognised market research company may well help convince a bank or investor to support your business proposition. The fact that you have taken market research so seriously will help show them that you are taking a commercial approach. Also, a report from a recognised market research company is likely to carry more weight than home produced research. The downside, of course, is that turning
to the professionals will cost money and the larger the scope of research, the more expensive it will be. In the start-up phase of a business or at the project development stage where cash is tight, it may not be practical to incur such costs.
Using existing market research By trawling the internet or visiting a
➤ Briefing a market research agency
The first thing you need to do is find some possible agencies or professionals to approach. The Market Research Society (MRS) and the Research Buyer’s Guide (RBG) are good starting points for identifying suitable candidates. Once you have identified two or three agencies that you want to work with, have
a meeting with each one to brief the agency about your product or service so they can understand and advise on what exactly is needed. This initial meeting should, if possible, be free of charge and without obligation. You may also need to ask the agency to sign a non-disclosure agreement if there is a risk of your passing them information of a confidential nature. After the meeting, each agency should produce a costed proposal, possibly to be
implemented in a number of stages. At that point you have to decide whether to go with any of them or not.
business library it may be possible to dig out statistical and other research data that could support what you are doing. For example, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has a wealth of information available free online (see below). You can even drill down into detailed statistics for individual postcode areas and boroughs from their website. In addition to free information available
in libraries and over the internet, you can also pay for reports or market research data published by private bodies. These include organisations such as Global TGI, an international network of market and media research surveys (see below). The obvious danger of relying too heavily
on information viewed or bought ‘off the shelf’ is that it may not be wholly relevant to the particular product or service you are proposing to start offering. But it is likely to be cheaper than commissioning your own professional research from scratch.
Carrying out your own research Although it is unlikely that you will be able
to achieve the kind of national coverage, sophistication or statistical purity of a professional agency, if money will not allow you to use one, there is no reason why you cannot go out and conduct some useful market research of your own. Indeed, in practice, this will often be the only option
For more information about market research see the Market Research Society website at
www.mrs.org.uk and the Research Buyer’s Guide at
www.rbg.org.uk. The website of the Office for National Statistics is
www.statistics.gov.uk and for Global TGI visit
www.tgisurveys.com
for the budding inventor or would-be entrepreneur. At its most basic, you can conduct
research on your family, friends and work colleagues. But you will almost certainly need to get out there and work harder than that. There is nothing to stop you taking your clipboard out on the streets and trying to do your own basic fieldwork, but if you do, you need to think carefully about what it is that you want to achieve from the research. If you are going to ask people questions
by means of a survey, then you need to make sure that you ask them the right questions.
Making your own market
research count If you are going to do your own market research and design a survey, you need to think carefully about what it is that you want to achieve. Otherwise, the whole exercise may be a waste of time or – worse – give you a false result and raise false hopes that there is a market for what you are doing. The key point with market research
surveys of this type is to think carefully about the information you want to find out from your research and to design questions that will hopefully elicit the right information – but without distorting the results or “leading” the respondents to their answers.
Researching competitors Another aspect of any business plan you
prepare will be the part showing that you know who your competitors are and what they are doing. It is very rare that you will be entering into any kind of market where there
TODAY’S BUSINESS WOMAN 21
© ISTOCKPHOTO: CATHERINE YEULET
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