research on marketing strategies

Research in marketing strategy

• Review Paper
• Published: 18 August 2018
• Volume 47 , pages 4–29, ( 2019 )

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• Neil A. Morgan 1 ,
• Kimberly A. Whitler 2 ,
• Hui Feng 3 &
• Simos Chari 4  

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Marketing strategy is a construct that lies at the conceptual heart of the field of strategic marketing and is central to the practice of marketing. It is also the area within which many of the most pressing current challenges identified by marketers and CMOs arise. We develop a new conceptualization of the domain and sub-domains of marketing strategy and use this lens to assess the current state of marketing strategy research by examining the papers in the six most influential marketing journals over the period 1999 through 2017. We uncover important challenges to marketing strategy research—not least the increasingly limited number and focus of studies, and the declining use of both theory and primary research designs. However, we also uncover numerous opportunities for developing important and highly relevant new marketing strategy knowledge—the number and importance of unanswered marketing strategy questions and opportunities to impact practice has arguably never been greater. To guide such research, we develop a new research agenda that provides opportunities for researchers to develop new theory, establish clear relevance, and contribute to improving practice.

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We follow Varadarjan’s (2010) distinction, using “strategic marketing” as the term describing the general field of study and “marketing strategy” as the construct that is central in the field of strategic marketing—just as analogically “strategic management” is a field of study in which “corporate strategy” is a central construct.

Following the strategic management literature (e.g., Mintzberg 1994 ; Pascale 1984 ), marketing strategy has also been viewed from an “emergent” strategy perspective (e.g. Hutt et al. 1988 ; Menon et al. 1999 ). Conceptually this is captured as realized (but not pre-planned) tactics and actions in Figure 1 .

These may be at the product/brand, SBU, or firm level.

These strategic marketing but “non-strategy” coding areas are not mutually exclusive. For example, many papers in this non-strategy category cover both inputs/outputs and environment (e.g., Kumar et al. 2016 ; Lee et al. 2014 ; Palmatier et al. 2013 ; Zhou et al. 2005 ), or specific tactics, input/output, and environment (e.g., Bharadwaj et al. 2011 ; Palmatier et al. 2007 ; Rubera and Kirca 2012 ).

The relative drop in marketing strategy studies published in JM may be a function of the recent growth of interest in the shareholder perspective (Katsikeas et al. 2016 ) and studies linking marketing-related resources and capabilities directly with stock market performance indicators. Such studies typically treat marketing strategy as an unobserved intervening construct.

Since this concerns integrated marketing program design and execution, marketing mix studies contribute to knowledge of strategy implementation–content when all four major marketing program areas are either directly modeled or are controlled for in studies focusing on one or more specific marketing program components.

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Morgan, N.A., Whitler, K.A., Feng, H. et al. Research in marketing strategy. J. of the Acad. Mark. Sci. 47 , 4–29 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11747-018-0598-1

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Received : 14 January 2018

Accepted : 20 July 2018

Published : 18 August 2018

Issue Date : 15 January 2019

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/s11747-018-0598-1

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How to do market research: The complete guide for your brand

Written by by Jacqueline Zote

Published on  April 13, 2023

Reading time  10 minutes

Blindly putting out content or products and hoping for the best is a thing of the past. Not only is it a waste of time and energy, but you’re wasting valuable marketing dollars in the process. Now you have a wealth of tools and data at your disposal, allowing you to develop data-driven marketing strategies . That’s where market research comes in, allowing you to uncover valuable insights to inform your business decisions.

Conducting market research not only helps you better understand how to sell to customers but also stand out from your competition. In this guide, we break down everything you need to know about market research and how doing your homework can help you grow your business.

Table of contents:

What is market research?

Why is market research important, types of market research, where to conduct market research.

• Steps for conducting market research
• Tools to use for market research

Market research is the process of gathering information surrounding your business opportunities. It identifies key information to better understand your audience. This includes insights related to customer personas and even trends shaping your industry.

Taking time out of your schedule to conduct research is crucial for your brand health. Here are some of the key benefits of market research:

Understand your customers’ motivations and pain points

Most marketers are out of touch with what their customers want. Moreover, these marketers are missing key information on what products their audience wants to buy.

Simply put, you can’t run a business if you don’t know what motivates your customers.

And spoiler alert: Your customers’ wants and needs change. Your customers’ behaviors today might be night and day from what they were a few years ago.

Market research holds the key to understanding your customers better. It helps you uncover their key pain points and motivations and understand how they shape their interests and behavior.

Figure out how to position your brand

Positioning is becoming increasingly important as more and more brands enter the marketplace. Market research enables you to spot opportunities to define yourself against your competitors.

Maybe you’re able to emphasize a lower price point. Perhaps your product has a feature that’s one of a kind. Finding those opportunities goes hand in hand with researching your market.

Maintain a strong pulse on your industry at large

Today’s marketing world evolves at a rate that’s difficult to keep up with.

Fresh products. Up-and-coming brands. New marketing tools. Consumers get bombarded with sales messages from all angles. This can be confusing and overwhelming.

By monitoring market trends, you can figure out the best tactics for reaching your target audience.

Not everyone conducts market research for the same reason. While some may want to understand their audience better, others may want to see how their competitors are doing. As such, there are different types of market research you can conduct depending on your goal.

Interview-based market research allows for one-on-one interactions. This helps the conversation to flow naturally, making it easier to add context. Whether this takes place in person or virtually, it enables you to gather more in-depth qualitative data.

Buyer persona research

Buyer persona research lets you take a closer look at the people who make up your target audience. You can discover the needs, challenges and pain points of each buyer persona to understand what they need from your business. This will then allow you to craft products or campaigns to resonate better with each persona.

Pricing research

In this type of research, brands compare similar products or services with a particular focus on pricing. They look at how much those products or services typically sell for so they can get more competitive with their pricing strategy.

Competitive analysis research

Competitor analysis gives you a realistic understanding of where you stand in the market and how your competitors are doing. You can use this analysis to find out what’s working in your industry and which competitors to watch out for. It even gives you an idea of how well those competitors are meeting consumer needs.

Depending on the competitor analysis tool you use, you can get as granular as you need with your research. For instance, Sprout Social lets you analyze your competitors’ social strategies. You can see what types of content they’re posting and even benchmark your growth against theirs.

Brand awareness research

Conducting brand awareness research allows you to assess your brand’s standing in the market. It tells you how well-known your brand is among your target audience and what they associate with it. This can help you gauge people’s sentiments toward your brand and whether you need to rebrand or reposition.

If you don’t know where to start with your research, you’re in the right place.

There’s no shortage of market research methods out there. In this section, we’ve highlighted research channels for small and big businesses alike.

Considering that Google sees a staggering 8.5 billion searches each day, there’s perhaps no better place to start.

A quick Google search is a potential goldmine for all sorts of questions to kick off your market research. Who’s ranking for keywords related to your industry? Which products and pieces of content are the hottest right now? Who’s running ads related to your business?

For example, Google Product Listing Ads can help highlight all of the above for B2C brands.

The same applies to B2B brands looking to keep tabs on who’s running industry-related ads and ranking for keyword terms too.

There’s no denying that email represents both an aggressive and effective marketing channel for marketers today. Case in point, 44% of online shoppers consider email as the most influential channel in their buying decisions.

Looking through industry and competitor emails is a brilliant way to learn more about your market. For example, what types of offers and deals are your competitors running? How often are they sending emails?

Email is also invaluable for gathering information directly from your customers. This survey message from Asana is a great example of how to pick your customers’ brains to figure out how you can improve your quality of service.

Industry journals, reports and blogs

Don’t neglect the importance of big-picture market research when it comes to tactics and marketing channels to explore. Look to marketing resources such as reports and blogs as well as industry journals

Keeping your ear to the ground on new trends and technologies is a smart move for any business. Sites such as Statista, Marketing Charts, AdWeek and Emarketer are treasure troves of up-to-date data and news for marketers.

And of course, there’s the  Sprout Insights blog . And invaluable resources like The Sprout Social Index™  can keep you updated on the latest social trends.

Social media

If you want to learn more about your target market, look no further than social media. Social offers a place to discover what your customers want to see in future products or which brands are killin’ it. In fact, social media is become more important for businesses than ever with the level of data available.

It represents a massive repository of real-time data and insights that are instantly accessible. Brand monitoring and social listening are effective ways to conduct social media research . You can even be more direct with your approach. Ask questions directly or even poll your audience to understand their needs and preferences.

The 5 steps for how to do market research

Now that we’ve covered the why and where, it’s time to get into the practical aspects of market research. Here are five essential steps on how to do market research effectively.

Step 1: Identify your research topic

First off, what are you researching about? What do you want to find out? Narrow down on a specific research topic so you can start with a clear idea of what to look for.

For example, you may want to learn more about how well your product features are satisfying the needs of existing users. This might potentially lead to feature updates and improvements. Or it might even result in new feature introductions.

Similarly, your research topic may be related to your product or service launch or customer experience. Or you may want to conduct research for an upcoming marketing campaign.

Step 2: Choose a buyer persona to engage

If you’re planning to focus your research on a specific type of audience, decide which buyer persona you want to engage. This persona group will serve as a representative sample of your target audience.

Engaging a specific group of audience lets you streamline your research efforts. As such, it can be a much more effective and organized approach than researching thousands (if not millions) of individuals.

You may be directing your research toward existing users of your product. To get even more granular, you may want to focus on users who have been familiar with the product for at least a year, for example.

Step 3: Start collecting data

The next step is one of the most critical as it involves collecting the data you need for your research. Before you begin, make sure you’ve chosen the right research methods that will uncover the type of data you need. This largely depends on your research topic and goals.

Remember that you don’t necessarily have to stick to one research method. You may use a combination of qualitative and quantitative approaches. So for example, you could use interviews to supplement the data from your surveys. Or you may stick to insights from your social listening efforts.

To keep things consistent, let’s look at this in the context of the example from earlier. Perhaps you can send out a survey to your existing users asking them a bunch of questions. This might include questions like which features they use the most and how often they use them. You can get them to choose an answer from one to five and collect quantitative data.

Plus, for qualitative insights, you could even include a few open-ended questions with the option to write their answers. For instance, you might ask them if there’s any improvement they wish to see in your product.

Step 4: Analyze results

Once you have all the data you need, it’s time to analyze it keeping your research topic in mind. This involves trying to interpret the data to look for a wider meaning, particularly in relation to your research goal.

So let’s say a large percentage of responses were four or five in the satisfaction rating. This means your existing users are mostly satisfied with your current product features. On the other hand, if the responses were mostly ones and twos, you may look for opportunities to improve. The responses to your open-ended questions can give you further context as to why people are disappointed.

Step 5: Make decisions for your business

Now it’s time to take your findings and turn them into actionable insights for your business. In this final step, you need to decide how you want to move forward with your new market insight.

What did you find in your research that would require action? How can you put those findings to good use?

The market research tools you should be using

To wrap things up, let’s talk about the various tools available to conduct speedy, in-depth market research. These tools are essential for conducting market research faster and more efficiently.

Social listening and analytics

Social analytics tools like Sprout can help you keep track of engagement across social media. This goes beyond your own engagement data but also includes that of your competitors. Considering how quickly social media moves, using a third-party analytics tool is ideal. It allows you to make sense of your social data at a glance and ensure that you’re never missing out on important trends.

Email marketing research tools

Keeping track of brand emails is a good idea for any brand looking to stand out in its audience’s inbox.

Tools such as MailCharts ,  Really Good Emails  and  Milled  can show you how different brands run their email campaigns.

Meanwhile, tools like  Owletter  allow you to monitor metrics such as frequency and send-timing. These metrics can help you understand email marketing strategies among competing brands.

Content marketing research

If you’re looking to conduct research on content marketing, tools such as  BuzzSumo  can be of great help. This tool shows you the top-performing industry content based on keywords. Here you can see relevant industry sites and influencers as well as which brands in your industry are scoring the most buzz. It shows you exactly which pieces of content are ranking well in terms of engagements and shares and on which social networks.

SEO and keyword tracking

Monitoring industry keywords is a great way to uncover competitors. It can also help you discover opportunities to advertise your products via organic search. Tools such as  Ahrefs  provide a comprehensive keyword report to help you see how your search efforts stack up against the competition.

Competitor comparison template

For the sake of organizing your market research, consider creating a competitive matrix. The idea is to highlight how you stack up side-by-side against others in your market. Use a  social media competitive analysis template  to track your competitors’ social presence. That way, you can easily compare tactics, messaging and performance. Once you understand your strengths and weaknesses next to your competitors, you’ll find opportunities as well.

Customer persona creator

Finally, customer personas represent a place where all of your market research comes together. You’d need to create a profile of your ideal customer that you can easily refer to. Tools like  Xtensio  can help in outlining your customer motivations and demographics as you zero in on your target market.

Build a solid market research strategy

Having a deeper understanding of the market gives you leverage in a sea of competitors. Use the steps and market research tools we shared above to build an effective market research strategy.

But keep in mind that the accuracy of your research findings depends on the quality of data collected. Turn to Sprout’s social media analytics tools to uncover heaps of high-quality data across social networks.

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Reimagining marketing strategy: driving the debate on grand challenges

Ko de ruyter.

1 King’s College, London, London, UK

Debbie Isobel Keeling

2 University of Sussex, Brighton, UK

Kirk Plangger

Matteo montecchi, maura l. scott.

3 Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL USA

Darren W. Dahl

4 University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada

Associated Data

A little less conversation….

A little more action, please. There is no record of Elvis Presley's views on responsible marketing, but his 1968 song, “A Little Less Conversation,” could have been written as a reflection on the global marketing community’s current progress in transforming our field. At the United Nations (UN) General Assembly in 2015, the leaders of 193 nations adopted an ambitious set of 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) combatting poverty, inequality, and discrimination. Since then, it has been an imperative for organizations to reimagine their marketing strategy with an eye towards global impact. This is not only a matter of international policy; important shifts in stakeholder views on responsible marketing are also starting to emerge. For example, supply chain partners and end-customers across many industries are increasingly interested in end-of-life cycle initiatives, product-emission rates, product provenance, and transparency of production. These stakeholders are steadily demanding more environmentally-friendly packaging and lower carbon footprints. Further, stakeholders expect human dignity to be respected along this process. Consequently, long-term supply chain strategies are being redefined to acknowledge climate change and human rights issues in strategy formulation and execution.

In turn, marketing scholars have increasingly become concerned with responsible marketing, and although these issues have not always been the focus of our scholarship, it is evident from current work that they are now. There is a growing, rich conversation involving notions of responsibility within marketing in the current scholarship base. The past decade has witnessed an expansion of concepts and empirical evidence regarding the challenges of environmental sustainability, social responsibility, (mental) health and social care, wealth disparities and poverty, nationalism and its impact on global trade, identity loss, and a wide array of unintended consequences of digitization (Hensen et al., 2016 ). As an academic marketing community we are well-placed to lead on relevant change across the social, economic, environmental, and political landscapes; doing so will provide further opportunities for novel contributions to marketing strategy knowledge. Moreover, there is a wider call for societal and political action through purposeful engagement with the world’s grand challenges, thereby inspiring scholars and industry to work together as partners to reimagine the very definition of effective marketing strategy.

Key to successfully transforming marketing strategy is the creation of forward-looking intellectual frameworks, which can serve as springboards for future research that can inform creative and critical scholarship and practice. At this point, marketing scholars are primed to develop sustainable solutions by aligning the interests of principal stakeholders, not just shareholders, and by balancing longer-term and shorter-term benefits. The conversation about reimagining marketing strategy started with a fundamental and paradigmatic shift away from the discipline’s earlier focus on agency and transaction costs. A fruitful lens through which to continue this conversation is the emerging theorizing on stewardship (c.f., Mick et al., 2012 ), which can simultaneously be aligned with sustaining contributions to (or even reimagining) the bottom-line. Furthermore, and in the spirit of stewardship thinking, we recognize that the strength of extant marketing scholarship lies in its knowledge exchange and co-creation with stakeholders. This collaborative approach during the various stages of research design and execution can, and does, bring about meaningful change. It also involves consideration of the interplay between customers/consumers, firms, governmental policies, and society.

We begin by introducing the notion of stewardship as a basis for identifying three complementary principles to guide the continued transformation of marketing strategy (i.e., becoming responsible, respectful, and resilient), which we discuss and integrate with the 17 UN SDGs ( https://sdgs.un.org/goals ). Importantly, we argue that the application of these principles to the grand challenges faced by society today will be an effective way to frame marketing investigations and achieve substantive contributions that meet these challenges. Subsequently, we take stock of the current marketing scholarship through the lens of these three principles by applying them directly to the results of a bibliometric analysis of the marketing literature. We conclude by reflecting on the opportunities for academic practice in marketing with respect to meeting the grand challenges that the world faces.

Responsible, resilient, and respectful principles

Central to stewardship theory is recognizing the importance of balancing personal goals with goals of a larger entity (Hernandez, 2008 ). We feel that stewardship provides a robust basis for reimagining marketing strategy for three reasons. First, if individuals are to assume responsibility to support the greater good, they do so based on the development of an ideological and relational commitment. There is an opportunity for marketing scholars to both identify business practices that can promote collective solutions that benefit both society and the firm, and also quantify benefits to firms and customers of taking a broader collective focus in business practices. This may encourage managers and decision-makers to strive for equilibrium between personal and collective interests. For example, how a store manager values collective welfare (e.g., environmental responsibility) can inspire sales associates to engage in selling green products while managing their sales targets, or can shape how novel product attributes, such as recyclability, biodegradability, and ethical sourcing, can best be promoted. Second, the notion of stewardship implies that people may not fully realize the longer-term consequences of near-term actions. Marketing research on self-control and self-regulation can offer insights into the trade-offs between near-term actions and longer-term consequences of such decisions. This underlines marketing’s unique capacity to conceive solutions that are both resilient and sustainable to collective interests across time; this could involve intergenerational product positioning, and potentially influence environmentally-friendly behaviors across different stakeholders. Third, stewardship affords an equitable distribution of rewards, which indicates the integrity and respect of a shared value approach to contributors to economic and social activity. Marketing’s deep understanding of value can inform facilitation of shared value(s) between stakeholders in multiple domains. This is, perhaps, particularly the case in complex services, which are often characterized by complex power, knowledge, and experiential asymmetries (Keeling et al., 2021 ). Based on this foundation from the stewardship literature, we identify three principles to guide the transformation of marketing strategy in becoming increasingly responsible , resilient, and respectful .

The Responsible principle requires giving voice to all marketing stakeholders for a shared vision of what constitutes a well-balanced and sustainable offering. This principle can be advanced by being approached in a manner that is mutually beneficial to other long-term organizational goals, especially when these offerings challenge conventional thinking or center on short-term benefits. For example, marketing scholars can collaborate with organizations to understand how service firms can adapt to support refugees, and how novel approaches can also strengthen relationships with existing customers. This approach requires extending the focus of scholarly marketing research to include themes that are traditionally not considered to be ‘marketing’, as well as articulating social benefits alongside economic ones. For example, marketing scholarship can make a substantive contribution to public health policy by addressing such issues as how to combat stigmatization in mental health campaigns and how to heighten engagement in health communities among stigmatized patients. Conversely, it also involves taking a fresh look at traditional topics of academic inquiry and revisiting them with a responsibility perspective, in which balancing the needs of individuals and societal concerns are in fact key priorities of the organization. For example, the Responsible Research in Business and Management network encourages research that aligns with this principle ( www.rrbm.network ). Thus, marketing scholarship can help to advance UN SDGs, such as promoting good health and wellbeing (SDG 3), and responsible consumption and production (SDG 12).

The Resilient principle is based on continuous improvement through self and group reflections. Here, the focus is on ensuring and enculturating operational effectiveness and sustainability. This is achieved through establishing world class infrastructure and supply chains, and appropriately harnessing innovation and entrepreneurship. The Covid-19 crisis has exposed the vulnerability of international supply chains, as well as cash and information flows; firms need to develop resilience strategies to deal with this moving forward. Firms are currently revisiting their (ethical) sourcing and procuring (e.g., support of local suppliers), and manufacturing and contactless delivering systems (e.g., Amazon’s last mile concept) to fulfil the changing needs of channel partners and end-consumers. Furthermore, the pandemic-driven surge in peer-to-peer home delivery services (e.g., Instacart, UberEats) has introduced novel dilemmas for firms in terms of product safety, brand management and uniformity, and developing a sustainable workforce. Resilience could also be viewed in terms of marketing’s contribution to alleviating poverty and addressing potential issues associated with climate change, natural resource sustainability, and social instability.

The Respectful principle focuses on enabling different levels of aspiration within a fair society. Equality, diversity, and social inclusion underpin this principle to ensure that vulnerable, disadvantaged, and previously marginalized communities are empowered to make their own meaningful contributions in marketplaces. Mars (a manufacturer of confectionery, pet food, and other food products) revised its advertising code based on the principle of respect, pledging to facilitate casting that ‘ reflects the true diversity of the consumer base that we sell to, as determined by gender, race, sexuality, age, ability, class’ and to portray people as ‘empowered actors and full personalities, rather than using stereotypes ’ (Whiteside, 2021 ). There is a plethora of research themes stemming from the respectful principle, such as implicit gender bias in conversational AI-agents, and rebranding and advertising in times of increased social-political movements (e.g., MeToo, Black Lives Matter). Conversely, uncovering research themes from cases like The Wine Noire, an African American women-owned wine collective organized around an equitable and sustainable supply chain and logistic services for female winemakers and winemakers of color, might inform an agenda of research action.

Mapping the conversation

To further the discussion of the Responsible, Resilient, and Respectful principles, we illustrate current scholarly conversations using a bibliometric approach. This approach organizes the literature by identifying important contributors, contributions, and knowledge structures (Zupic & Čater, 2015 ). Informed by past JAMS editorials, four authors debated and selected keywords relevant to the three principles. 1 We used this curated set of keywords to identify and select articles published in the six leading marketing journals listed in the FT 50 journal ranking. 2 An initial search and article extraction performed on Scopus ( www.scopus.com ) resulted in a sample of 536 articles. We examined each article’s title, keywords, and abstract to determine its relevance to the three principles and retained a final sample of 254 articles.

Annual scientific production (in terms of publications) in our sample has increased substantially over the period considered (1973 to May 2021), exhibiting a compound annual growth of 6.12%. The first production peak is in 1997 with nine articles that broadly examine pro-environmental and pro-social marketing strategies, as well as the impact of these strategies on consumers’ perceptions of firms. The annual scholarly outputs have grown steadily every year since 2011, as evidenced by the 18 articles already published by May 2021. Among the six leading marketing journals we selected, the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science dominates this literature domain (86 articles), followed by the Journal of Marketing (57 articles) and the Journal of Consumer Psychology (51 articles). We assessed authors’ influence by examining the total number of articles published and citations accumulated by each author. Julie Irwin (McCombs School, University of Texas) is the most prolific author in our sample with a total of seven articles, whereas CB Bhattacharya (Katz Graduate School of Business, University of Pittsburg) leads the citations ranking with 5012 total citations across five publications.

To identify the intellectual structure of this literature domain, we constructed a bibliometric network with VOS Viewer using bibliographic coupling (Fig.  1 3 ). Bibliographic coupling examines similarities between articles in a collection by considering the number of cited references that the articles share (Zupic & Čater, 2015 ). This analysis revealed seven clusters of articles representing distinctive lines of inquiry. We named these clusters to reflect the substantive focus of the scholarly contributions included therein, and then grouped them according to the principles (Table ​ (Table1 1 ).

Bibliometric visualization of the literature according to the Responsible, Resilient, and Respectful principles

Responsible, Respectful, and Resilient principles literature clusters

Notes: a The table includes the top three articles in each cluster by normalized number of citations. The normalization takes into consideration that more recent articles had less time to accumulate citations. The formula is as follows: N o r m a l i z e d - c i t a t i o n s - f o r - a n - a r t i c l e = T o t a l - c i t a t i o n s - o f - a n - a r t i c l e A v e . - c i t a t i o n s - f o r - a l l - a r t i c l e s - p u b l i s h e d - i n - t h e - s a m e - y e a r - i n c l . - i n - s a m p l e   

b Key: JM = Journal of Marketing; JCP = Journal of Consumer Psychology; JCR = Journal of Consumer Research; JMR = Journal of Marketing Research; JAMS = Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science

The conceptual building blocks of the Responsible principle are reflected in Clusters A, B, and C. Articles in the largest cluster (A – Green consumption) examine factors leading to consumer preferences for environmentally-friendly and ethically sourced products, as well as associated persuasion strategies. Taking a broader perspective, contributions in the second largest cluster (B – Responses to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) strategies) examine how consumers’ react to firms’ CSR associations. The articles within these clusters are closely connected with the research in Cluster C (Stakeholder relationships) that explores how CSR contributes to corporate reputation among external firm’s stakeholders. In short, despite the extensive conversations regarding corporate responsibility issues, further research needs to focus on how marketing approaches the CSR agenda to encourage even more sustainable behaviors that appeal to a wider range of stakeholders.

The Resilience principle is well represented by Clusters D and E. Cluster D’s (Sustainable marketing strategies) research revolves around green approaches that inoculate marketing from environmental challenges, including enviropreneurialism, corporate environmentalism, and organizational capabilities for resilience. Articles in Cluster E (CSR strategies and firm performance) examine strategic outcomes of CSR investments, including firm market value, firm idiosyncratic risk, and customers’ product and brand evaluations. In sum, the Resilience principle incorporates seminal conceptualizations of sustainability and CSR marketing strategies as drivers of firms’ competitive advantage. However, recent external challenges (e.g., the COVID pandemic) call for a re-examination of these ideas to re-imagine marketing capabilities that will increase the resilience of firms.

The Respectful principle is represented by Clusters F and G. Cluster F’s (Ethical consumption) research concentrates on ethical consumer choices in the context of environmental sustainability, cause-related initiatives, stakeholder collaborations, and other ethical initiatives. Articles in Cluster G (Ethical marketing strategies) includes contributions elucidating the relationship between marketing strategy and CSR initiatives to achieve organizational effectiveness and ethical managerial decision making. As depicted in Fig.  1 , research on the Respectful principle is somewhat more dispersed and often disparate from other conversations. However, research inspired by the Respectful principle has the potential for many substantive future contributions that will shape how organizations interact with diverse, vulnerable, and underrepresented stakeholder groups.

A little more impact please …

Current societal expectations set within the broader context of the UN SDGs, recognition of the individual value of research endeavors (San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment, DORA, https://sfdora.org/ ), and the move towards wide-scale Open Access of research, mean that the position, nature, and value of academic research in society is being reexamined. This is also the case for business research. For instance, the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB, www.aacsb.edu/ ) has expanded its accreditation standards to include ‘engagement and social impact’, a change which is directly tied to the UN SDGs. In parallel, the traditional academic role is changing within Higher Education, as distinct career pathways develop that recognize differing, yet complementary, expertise in research, education, and enterprise. Together, these drivers offer opportunities for further innovation in the field of marketing, integral to which is a change in how marketing scholars and practitioners understand, discuss, and measure research ‘impact’ and how changes in our academic environment offer further channels for development.

With respect to research impact, marketing, as an applied discipline, has consistently examined the ‘fitness’ of research as defined by its relevance and robustness in today’s dynamic environment. The Responsible, Resilient, and Respectful principles that we outline can provide a guide toward articulating impactful contributions to knowledge and practice. As a discipline, marketing is well-placed to develop the opportunities within each of these principles with respect to marketing strategy. We offer Table ​ Table2, 2 , which identifies example research questions that connect each of the stewardship principles to the UN SDGs, as an initial template in framing research impact for marketing strategy moving forward.

Examples of future marketing research questions at the intersection of stewardship principles and United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs)

With respect to the changing academic environment, like many other disciplines, the marketing discipline’s application of impact metrics is in flux and will continue to change in the coming years. The current assessment of output impact based on output levels (typically published journal articles) and using mainly numerical indicators is being challenged (e.g., through institutions committing to the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment). Instead, applying the Responsible principle, there is now a demand for broader (e.g., AltMetrics) and more qualitative evaluations of research impact. This demand will drive change in the types of output that articulate how marketing scholars undertake research that generates value for multiple stakeholders. In developing a cohesive narrative of the impact value of scholarly marketing research, there is an opportunity to broaden the definition of impact to include impactful outcomes , in addition to impactful outputs . For example, impactful outcomes due to changes in the marketing strategies that promote electric vehicle adoption will bring a corresponding positive change in the quality of life of consumers by improving air quality. Or consider the example of altering marketing strategies to combat youth obesity by restricting when and where sugary drinks and other junk food can be advertised. At the same time, marketing scholars can also examine the thresholds and timeframes for reasonable expectations about the impact that marketing strategy can achieve.

Furthermore, researchers often navigate the tension between generating research that addresses the need for academic relevance and robustness alongside the need for societal relevance and robustness. Academic relevance (in how contributions and implications are framed) and robustness (in how methodological approaches are framed) are familiar building blocks in the literature. However, due to a broad scope, the marketing discipline has less clarity and consensus on societal relevance and societal robustness . Societal relevance directly asks: ‘What societal challenge does this research contribute to?’ Societal robustness demands not only value for money, but also, more fundamentally, research accessibility and usefulness. An impact framework that integrates outcomes valued by multiple stakeholders can help guide the marketing discipline’s pursuit of high impact research with a societal focus. Such a framework can readily be devised in directly linking the reimagining of marketing strategy to the UN SDGs (such as in Table ​ Table2) 2 ) to enable researchers to articulate the value of their research in terms of mutual relevance, robustness and value.

The Resilient principle calls into question the longevity of what marketing research and practice offers, and how this contributes to sustainable solutions for society. The nature of published content undoubtedly needs to be more diversified to effectively meet the demands of differing audiences. Journal articles are an important means of mobilizing knowledge in academia and for other ‘users’ of research who are able to access such sources. However, journal articles are one part of a wider portfolio of content and services that could fulfil the different needs and purposes of society. Many universities and academics are already diversifying their research portfolios, both in terms of the content produced and services offered (e.g., professional development opportunities directly extending from research), alongside the approaches to communication of outcomes (e.g., podcasts, open access toolkits). This trend will help develop sustainable solutions, especially with respect to the UN SDGs. For example, creating health communications in collaboration with the intended audiences can result in tools that are readily accepted by those audiences, in terms of language, format and content, to bring about the intended impact.

The existing tension is often a simple one: How might we best develop and share proven methods or tools to embed them in practice, and in such a way that this effort is also recognized as a valuable scholarly activity? Companies and communities want to work with academics, but the outcomes they value are not always easily aligned with the outputs valued by academia. This is by no means a new challenge, but the conversation about impact potentially changes the perspective of said challenge. One promising development, in our view, to meet this challenge is the current change in emergent specialist career pathways. These pathways will broaden the way in which academic work is conducted and delivered, thus, impacting traditional research portfolios (i.e., in terms of outputs and outcomes). That is, marketing academics specializing in education are updating pedagogical approaches for future academics and practitioners to aid marketing strategy in coping with global challenges. Those specializing in knowledge exchange are innovating how knowledge about developing marketing strategy is mobilized in multiple formats to reach wider and more diverse user groups. Finally, those specializing in relevant enterprise are driving practical changes in marketing strategy through the commercialization of academic research into valuable products to society. The emergence of these new pathways provides opportunities to not only better address the questions laid out in Table ​ Table2, 2 , but also presents exciting opportunities for academics to further develop new capabilities, for example, their entrepreneurial skills, that complement existing academic skillsets.

More fundamentally, the move towards embracing representatives of a broader society as both co-creators and drivers of the research process is completely changing the conversation between marketing and society. The Respectful principle assumes co-creation. A distinctive strength that marketing strategy scholars bring to the literature is their experience and expertise in working with stakeholders in the field (e.g., consumer groups, nonprofits, companies, governmental agencies). Thus, marketing strategy can leverage these insights to support the development of rigorous research focused on pursuing the grand challenges that are more directly linked to those who are most impacted. The concept here is that outputs and outcomes are not delivered to ‘users’, but rather co-created with stakeholders in society. There are multiple emerging co-creation processes across disciplines and sectors. In healthcare, for example, the principle of respect is embedded within the process of co-production (e.g., https://www.nihr.ac.uk/documents/co-production-in-action-number-three/26382 ). Engaging non-academic partners as co-creators means being respectful of their lived experiences and how it shapes their active creator roles, as well as rebalancing power structures to allow multiple voices to be heard.

At the same time, it is important to respectfully acknowledge and accommodate individual or group heterogeneity in terms of motivation, knowledge and ability to co-create. New approaches (that are to be celebrated in our estimation) involve training non-academic co-creators in research methods. Conversely, in the future, non-academic co-creators can also train academics in this manner. As marketing scholars are aware, the integration of resources in the form of knowledge, skills, experience, enterprise, and networks creates connections and builds awareness between stakeholders to heighten impact. This connectivity is especially valuable where stakeholders have not had an opportunity to meet, discuss, and share ideas previously. Using the UN SDGs, it is possible to identify situations in which stakeholder groups have not had this opportunity, especially groups who are perceived as more vulnerable. An additional benefit of building co-creation opportunities with vulnerable groups is increased transparency and trust between the academic and wider communities. Conflicts can emerge during such collaboration, especially where there has been little previous interaction, but facilitating resolution of this conflict is impactful in its own right. Marketing, with its keen understanding of stakeholder perspectives, can empower groups of stakeholders to move away from normalized or entrenched expert knowledge and solutions. In doing so, groups of co-creation partners can truly deliver outcomes that are very much ‘fit for purpose’ (e.g., in relation to innovative solutions to address aspects of the UN SDGs). We see marketing as a discipline that is well-positioned to take the lead in developing and fostering diverse multi-disciplinary groups to bring about this shift.

Embracing the broader changes in academia, the outcome we seek here is a renewed call for the facilitation of better marketing strategy that will boldly address society’s grand challenges, and contribute to tackling the UN SDGs through responsible, resilient, and respectful research collaborations with stakeholders.

Supplementary Information

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

1 Our selection of keywords included: societal, corporate social responsibility, social responsibility, CSR, sustainability, sustainable, ethics, ethical, cause-related, environmental, stewardship, vulnerable, disenfranchise, equality, diversity, inclusivity, morality, empowerment . This set of keywords allowed us to extract a comprehensive literature sample that delineates the core themes in marketing strategy relevant to the three principles. We acknowledge that this set of keywords is not comprehensively conclusive. Within the context of this editorial, our analysis is intended as a conversation and action starter.

2 Journals included: Journal of Consumer Psychology, Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Marketing, Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Marketing Science .

3 To reduce visual complexity and aid interpretation, we set the minimum number of article citations to five and excluded articles without links in the collection. This resulted in a total of 196 articles that were visualized in the figure by normalized number of citations.

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How to Do Market Research: The Complete Guide

Learn how to do market research with this step-by-step guide, complete with templates, tools and real-world examples.

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What are your customers’ needs? How does your product compare to the competition? What are the emerging trends and opportunities in your industry? If these questions keep you up at night, it’s time to conduct market research.

Market research plays a pivotal role in your ability to stay competitive and relevant, helping you anticipate shifts in consumer behavior and industry dynamics. It involves gathering these insights using a wide range of techniques, from surveys and interviews to data analysis and observational studies.

In this guide, we’ll explore why market research is crucial, the various types of market research, the methods used in data collection, and how to effectively conduct market research to drive informed decision-making and success.

What is market research?

Market research is the systematic process of gathering, analyzing and interpreting information about a specific market or industry. The purpose of market research is to offer valuable insight into the preferences and behaviors of your target audience, and anticipate shifts in market trends and the competitive landscape. This information helps you make data-driven decisions, develop effective strategies for your business, and maximize your chances of long-term growth.

Why is market research important? 

By understanding the significance of market research, you can make sure you’re asking the right questions and using the process to your advantage. Some of the benefits of market research include:

• Informed decision-making: Market research provides you with the data and insights you need to make smart decisions for your business. It helps you identify opportunities, assess risks and tailor your strategies to meet the demands of the market. Without market research, decisions are often based on assumptions or guesswork, leading to costly mistakes.
• Customer-centric approach: A cornerstone of market research involves developing a deep understanding of customer needs and preferences. This gives you valuable insights into your target audience, helping you develop products, services and marketing campaigns that resonate with your customers.
• Competitive advantage: By conducting market research, you’ll gain a competitive edge. You’ll be able to identify gaps in the market, analyze competitor strengths and weaknesses, and position your business strategically. This enables you to create unique value propositions, differentiate yourself from competitors, and seize opportunities that others may overlook.
• Risk mitigation: Market research helps you anticipate market shifts and potential challenges. By identifying threats early, you can proactively adjust their strategies to mitigate risks and respond effectively to changing circumstances. This proactive approach is particularly valuable in volatile industries.
• Resource optimization: Conducting market research allows organizations to allocate their time, money and resources more efficiently. It ensures that investments are made in areas with the highest potential return on investment, reducing wasted resources and improving overall business performance.
• Adaptation to market trends: Markets evolve rapidly, driven by technological advancements, cultural shifts and changing consumer attitudes. Market research ensures that you stay ahead of these trends and adapt your offerings accordingly so you can avoid becoming obsolete. 

As you can see, market research empowers businesses to make data-driven decisions, cater to customer needs, outperform competitors, mitigate risks, optimize resources and stay agile in a dynamic marketplace. These benefits make it a huge industry; the global market research services market is expected to grow from $76.37 billion in 2021 to $108.57 billion in 2026 . Now, let’s dig into the different types of market research that can help you achieve these benefits.

Types of market research 

• Qualitative research
• Quantitative research
• Exploratory research
• Descriptive research
• Causal research
• Cross-sectional research
• Longitudinal research

Despite its advantages, 23% of organizations don’t have a clear market research strategy. Part of developing a strategy involves choosing the right type of market research for your business goals. The most commonly used approaches include:

1. Qualitative research

Qualitative research focuses on understanding the underlying motivations, attitudes and perceptions of individuals or groups. It is typically conducted through techniques like in-depth interviews, focus groups and content analysis — methods we’ll discuss further in the sections below. Qualitative research provides rich, nuanced insights that can inform product development, marketing strategies and brand positioning.

2. Quantitative research

Quantitative research, in contrast to qualitative research, involves the collection and analysis of numerical data, often through surveys, experiments and structured questionnaires. This approach allows for statistical analysis and the measurement of trends, making it suitable for large-scale market studies and hypothesis testing. While it’s worthwhile using a mix of qualitative and quantitative research, most businesses prioritize the latter because it is scientific, measurable and easily replicated across different experiments.

3. Exploratory research

Whether you’re conducting qualitative or quantitative research or a mix of both, exploratory research is often the first step. Its primary goal is to help you understand a market or problem so you can gain insights and identify potential issues or opportunities. This type of market research is less structured and is typically conducted through open-ended interviews, focus groups or secondary data analysis. Exploratory research is valuable when entering new markets or exploring new product ideas.

4. Descriptive research

As its name implies, descriptive research seeks to describe a market, population or phenomenon in detail. It involves collecting and summarizing data to answer questions about audience demographics and behaviors, market size, and current trends. Surveys, observational studies and content analysis are common methods used in descriptive research. 

5. Causal research

Causal research aims to establish cause-and-effect relationships between variables. It investigates whether changes in one variable result in changes in another. Experimental designs, A/B testing and regression analysis are common causal research methods. This sheds light on how specific marketing strategies or product changes impact consumer behavior.

6. Cross-sectional research

Cross-sectional market research involves collecting data from a sample of the population at a single point in time. It is used to analyze differences, relationships or trends among various groups within a population. Cross-sectional studies are helpful for market segmentation, identifying target audiences and assessing market trends at a specific moment.

7. Longitudinal research

Longitudinal research, in contrast to cross-sectional research, collects data from the same subjects over an extended period. This allows for the analysis of trends, changes and developments over time. Longitudinal studies are useful for tracking long-term developments in consumer preferences, brand loyalty and market dynamics.

Each type of market research has its strengths and weaknesses, and the method you choose depends on your specific research goals and the depth of understanding you’re aiming to achieve. In the following sections, we’ll delve into primary and secondary research approaches and specific research methods.

Primary vs. secondary market research

Market research of all types can be broadly categorized into two main approaches: primary research and secondary research. By understanding the differences between these approaches, you can better determine the most appropriate research method for your specific goals.

Primary market research 

Primary research involves the collection of original data straight from the source. Typically, this involves communicating directly with your target audience — through surveys, interviews, focus groups and more — to gather information. Here are some key attributes of primary market research:

• Customized data: Primary research provides data that is tailored to your research needs. You design a custom research study and gather information specific to your goals.
• Up-to-date insights: Because primary research involves communicating with customers, the data you collect reflects the most current market conditions and consumer behaviors.
• Time-consuming and resource-intensive: Despite its advantages, primary research can be labor-intensive and costly, especially when dealing with large sample sizes or complex study designs. Whether you hire a market research consultant, agency or use an in-house team, primary research studies consume a large amount of resources and time.

Secondary market research 

Secondary research, on the other hand, involves analyzing data that has already been compiled by third-party sources, such as online research tools, databases, news sites, industry reports and academic studies.

Here are the main characteristics of secondary market research:

• Cost-effective: Secondary research is generally more cost-effective than primary research since it doesn’t require building a research plan from scratch. You and your team can look at databases, websites and publications on an ongoing basis, without needing to design a custom experiment or hire a consultant. 
• Leverages multiple sources: Data tools and software extract data from multiple places across the web, and then consolidate that information within a single platform. This means you’ll get a greater amount of data and a wider scope from secondary research.
• Quick to access: You can access a wide range of information rapidly — often in seconds — if you’re using online research tools and databases. Because of this, you can act on insights sooner, rather than taking the time to develop an experiment. 

So, when should you use primary vs. secondary research? In practice, many market research projects incorporate both primary and secondary research to take advantage of the strengths of each approach.

One rule of thumb is to focus on secondary research to obtain background information, market trends or industry benchmarks. It is especially valuable for conducting preliminary research, competitor analysis, or when time and budget constraints are tight. Then, if you still have knowledge gaps or need to answer specific questions unique to your business model, use primary research to create a custom experiment. 

Market research methods

• Surveys and questionnaires
• Focus groups
• Observational research
• Online research tools
• Experiments
• Content analysis
• Ethnographic research

How do primary and secondary research approaches translate into specific research methods? Let’s take a look at the different ways you can gather data: 

1. Surveys and questionnaires

Surveys and questionnaires are popular methods for collecting structured data from a large number of respondents. They involve a set of predetermined questions that participants answer. Surveys can be conducted through various channels, including online tools, telephone interviews and in-person or online questionnaires. They are useful for gathering quantitative data and assessing customer demographics, opinions, preferences and needs. On average, customer surveys have a 33% response rate , so keep that in mind as you consider your sample size.

2. Interviews

Interviews are in-depth conversations with individuals or groups to gather qualitative insights. They can be structured (with predefined questions) or unstructured (with open-ended discussions). Interviews are valuable for exploring complex topics, uncovering motivations and obtaining detailed feedback. 

3. Focus groups

The most common primary research methods are in-depth webcam interviews and focus groups. Focus groups are a small gathering of participants who discuss a specific topic or product under the guidance of a moderator. These discussions are valuable for primary market research because they reveal insights into consumer attitudes, perceptions and emotions. Focus groups are especially useful for idea generation, concept testing and understanding group dynamics within your target audience.

4. Observational research

Observational research involves observing and recording participant behavior in a natural setting. This method is particularly valuable when studying consumer behavior in physical spaces, such as retail stores or public places. In some types of observational research, participants are aware you’re watching them; in other cases, you discreetly watch consumers without their knowledge, as they use your product. Either way, observational research provides firsthand insights into how people interact with products or environments.

5. Online research tools

You and your team can do your own secondary market research using online tools. These tools include data prospecting platforms and databases, as well as online surveys, social media listening, web analytics and sentiment analysis platforms. They help you gather data from online sources, monitor industry trends, track competitors, understand consumer preferences and keep tabs on online behavior. We’ll talk more about choosing the right market research tools in the sections that follow.

6. Experiments

Market research experiments are controlled tests of variables to determine causal relationships. While experiments are often associated with scientific research, they are also used in market research to assess the impact of specific marketing strategies, product features, or pricing and packaging changes.

7. Content analysis

Content analysis involves the systematic examination of textual, visual or audio content to identify patterns, themes and trends. It’s commonly applied to customer reviews, social media posts and other forms of online content to analyze consumer opinions and sentiments.

8. Ethnographic research

Ethnographic research immerses researchers into the daily lives of consumers to understand their behavior and culture. This method is particularly valuable when studying niche markets or exploring the cultural context of consumer choices.

How to do market research

• Set clear objectives
• Identify your target audience
• Choose your research methods
• Use the right market research tools
• Collect data
• Analyze data 
• Interpret your findings
• Identify opportunities and challenges
• Make informed business decisions
• Monitor and adapt

Now that you have gained insights into the various market research methods at your disposal, let’s delve into the practical aspects of how to conduct market research effectively. Here’s a quick step-by-step overview, from defining objectives to monitoring market shifts.

1. Set clear objectives

When you set clear and specific goals, you’re essentially creating a compass to guide your research questions and methodology. Start by precisely defining what you want to achieve. Are you launching a new product and want to understand its viability in the market? Are you evaluating customer satisfaction with a product redesign? 

Start by creating SMART goals — objectives that are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound. Not only will this clarify your research focus from the outset, but it will also help you track progress and benchmark your success throughout the process. 

You should also consult with key stakeholders and team members to ensure alignment on your research objectives before diving into data collecting. This will help you gain diverse perspectives and insights that will shape your research approach.

2. Identify your target audience

Next, you’ll need to pinpoint your target audience to determine who should be included in your research. Begin by creating detailed buyer personas or stakeholder profiles. Consider demographic factors like age, gender, income and location, but also delve into psychographics, such as interests, values and pain points.

The more specific your target audience, the more accurate and actionable your research will be. Additionally, segment your audience if your research objectives involve studying different groups, such as current customers and potential leads.

If you already have existing customers, you can also hold conversations with them to better understand your target market. From there, you can refine your buyer personas and tailor your research methods accordingly.

3. Choose your research methods

Selecting the right research methods is crucial for gathering high-quality data. Start by considering the nature of your research objectives. If you’re exploring consumer preferences, surveys and interviews can provide valuable insights. For in-depth understanding, focus groups or observational research might be suitable. Consider using a mix of quantitative and qualitative methods to gain a well-rounded perspective. 

You’ll also need to consider your budget. Think about what you can realistically achieve using the time and resources available to you. If you have a fairly generous budget, you may want to try a mix of primary and secondary research approaches. If you’re doing market research for a startup , on the other hand, chances are your budget is somewhat limited. If that’s the case, try addressing your goals with secondary research tools before investing time and effort in a primary research study. 

4. Use the right market research tools

Whether you’re conducting primary or secondary research, you’ll need to choose the right tools. These can help you do anything from sending surveys to customers to monitoring trends and analyzing data. Here are some examples of popular market research tools:

• Market research software: Crunchbase is a platform that provides best-in-class company data, making it valuable for market research on growing companies and industries. You can use Crunchbase to access trusted, first-party funding data, revenue data, news and firmographics, enabling you to monitor industry trends and understand customer needs.

• Survey and questionnaire tools: SurveyMonkey is a widely used online survey platform that allows you to create, distribute and analyze surveys. Google Forms is a free tool that lets you create surveys and collect responses through Google Drive.
• Data analysis software: Microsoft Excel and Google Sheets are useful for conducting statistical analyses. SPSS is a powerful statistical analysis software used for data processing, analysis and reporting.
• Social listening tools: Brandwatch is a social listening and analytics platform that helps you monitor social media conversations, track sentiment and analyze trends. Mention is a media monitoring tool that allows you to track mentions of your brand, competitors and keywords across various online sources.
• Data visualization platforms: Tableau is a data visualization tool that helps you create interactive and shareable dashboards and reports. Power BI by Microsoft is a business analytics tool for creating interactive visualizations and reports.

5. Collect data

There’s an infinite amount of data you could be collecting using these tools, so you’ll need to be intentional about going after the data that aligns with your research goals. Implement your chosen research methods, whether it’s distributing surveys, conducting interviews or pulling from secondary research platforms. Pay close attention to data quality and accuracy, and stick to a standardized process to streamline data capture and reduce errors. 

6. Analyze data

Once data is collected, you’ll need to analyze it systematically. Use statistical software or analysis tools to identify patterns, trends and correlations. For qualitative data, employ thematic analysis to extract common themes and insights. Visualize your findings with charts, graphs and tables to make complex data more understandable.

If you’re not proficient in data analysis, consider outsourcing or collaborating with a data analyst who can assist in processing and interpreting your data accurately.

7. Interpret your findings

Interpreting your market research findings involves understanding what the data means in the context of your objectives. Are there significant trends that uncover the answers to your initial research questions? Consider the implications of your findings on your business strategy. It’s essential to move beyond raw data and extract actionable insights that inform decision-making.

Hold a cross-functional meeting or workshop with relevant team members to collectively interpret the findings. Different perspectives can lead to more comprehensive insights and innovative solutions.

8. Identify opportunities and challenges

Use your research findings to identify potential growth opportunities and challenges within your market. What segments of your audience are underserved or overlooked? Are there emerging trends you can capitalize on? Conversely, what obstacles or competitors could hinder your progress?

Lay out this information in a clear and organized way by conducting a SWOT analysis, which stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Jot down notes for each of these areas to provide a structured overview of gaps and hurdles in the market.

9. Make informed business decisions

Market research is only valuable if it leads to informed decisions for your company. Based on your insights, devise actionable strategies and initiatives that align with your research objectives. Whether it’s refining your product, targeting new customer segments or adjusting pricing, ensure your decisions are rooted in the data.

At this point, it’s also crucial to keep your team aligned and accountable. Create an action plan that outlines specific steps, responsibilities and timelines for implementing the recommendations derived from your research. 

10. Monitor and adapt

Market research isn’t a one-time activity; it’s an ongoing process. Continuously monitor market conditions, customer behaviors and industry trends. Set up mechanisms to collect real-time data and feedback. As you gather new information, be prepared to adapt your strategies and tactics accordingly. Regularly revisiting your research ensures your business remains agile and reflects changing market dynamics and consumer preferences.

Online market research sources

As you go through the steps above, you’ll want to turn to trusted, reputable sources to gather your data. Here’s a list to get you started:

• Crunchbase: As mentioned above, Crunchbase is an online platform with an extensive dataset, allowing you to access in-depth insights on market trends, consumer behavior and competitive analysis. You can also customize your search options to tailor your research to specific industries, geographic regions or customer personas.

• Academic databases: Academic databases, such as ProQuest and JSTOR , are treasure troves of scholarly research papers, studies and academic journals. They offer in-depth analyses of various subjects, including market trends, consumer preferences and industry-specific insights. Researchers can access a wealth of peer-reviewed publications to gain a deeper understanding of their research topics.
• Government and NGO databases: Government agencies, nongovernmental organizations and other institutions frequently maintain databases containing valuable economic, demographic and industry-related data. These sources offer credible statistics and reports on a wide range of topics, making them essential for market researchers. Examples include the U.S. Census Bureau , the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Pew Research Center .
• Industry reports: Industry reports and market studies are comprehensive documents prepared by research firms, industry associations and consulting companies. They provide in-depth insights into specific markets, including market size, trends, competitive analysis and consumer behavior. You can find this information by looking at relevant industry association databases; examples include the American Marketing Association and the National Retail Federation .
• Social media and online communities: Social media platforms like LinkedIn or Twitter (X) , forums such as Reddit and Quora , and review platforms such as G2 can provide real-time insights into consumer sentiment, opinions and trends. 

Market research examples

At this point, you have market research tools and data sources — but how do you act on the data you gather? Let’s go over some real-world examples that illustrate the practical application of market research across various industries. These examples showcase how market research can lead to smart decision-making and successful business decisions.

Example 1: Apple’s iPhone launch

Apple ’s iconic iPhone launch in 2007 serves as a prime example of market research driving product innovation in tech. Before the iPhone’s release, Apple conducted extensive market research to understand consumer preferences, pain points and unmet needs in the mobile phone industry. This research led to the development of a touchscreen smartphone with a user-friendly interface, addressing consumer demands for a more intuitive and versatile device. The result was a revolutionary product that disrupted the market and redefined the smartphone industry.

Example 2: McDonald’s global expansion

McDonald’s successful global expansion strategy demonstrates the importance of market research when expanding into new territories. Before entering a new market, McDonald’s conducts thorough research to understand local tastes, preferences and cultural nuances. This research informs menu customization, marketing strategies and store design. For instance, in India, McDonald’s offers a menu tailored to local preferences, including vegetarian options. This market-specific approach has enabled McDonald’s to adapt and thrive in diverse global markets.

Example 3: Organic and sustainable farming

The shift toward organic and sustainable farming practices in the food industry is driven by market research that indicates increased consumer demand for healthier and environmentally friendly food options. As a result, food producers and retailers invest in sustainable sourcing and organic product lines — such as with these sustainable seafood startups — to align with this shift in consumer values. 

The bottom line? Market research has multiple use cases and is a critical practice for any industry. Whether it’s launching groundbreaking products, entering new markets or responding to changing consumer preferences, you can use market research to shape successful strategies and outcomes.

Market research templates

You finally have a strong understanding of how to do market research and apply it in the real world. Before we wrap up, here are some market research templates that you can use as a starting point for your projects:

• Smartsheet competitive analysis templates : These spreadsheets can serve as a framework for gathering information about the competitive landscape and obtaining valuable lessons to apply to your business strategy.
• SurveyMonkey product survey template : Customize the questions on this survey based on what you want to learn from your target customers.
• HubSpot templates : HubSpot offers a wide range of free templates you can use for market research, business planning and more.
• SCORE templates : SCORE is a nonprofit organization that provides templates for business plans, market analysis and financial projections.
• SBA.gov : The U.S. Small Business Administration offers templates for every aspect of your business, including market research, and is particularly valuable for new startups. 

Strengthen your business with market research

When conducted effectively, market research is like a guiding star. Equipped with the right tools and techniques, you can uncover valuable insights, stay competitive, foster innovation and navigate the complexities of your industry.

Throughout this guide, we’ve discussed the definition of market research, different research methods, and how to conduct it effectively. We’ve also explored various types of market research and shared practical insights and templates for getting started. 

Now, it’s time to start the research process. Trust in data, listen to the market and make informed decisions that guide your company toward lasting success.

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HYPOTHESIS AND THEORY article

Research on the impact of marketing strategy on consumers’ impulsive purchase behavior in livestreaming e-commerce.

• 1 School of Foreign Languages for Business, Guangxi University of Finance and Economics, Nanning, China
• 2 School of Business, Guilin University of Electronic Technology, Guilin, China
• 3 School of Economics, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics, Islamabad, Pakistan

Livestreaming e-commerce has emerged as a highly profitable e-commerce that has revolutionized the retail industry, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, research on livestreaming e-commerce is still in its infancy. This study sheds new light on impulsive purchase behavior in livestreaming e-commerce. Based on stimulus-organism-response (SOR) theory, this study introduces the “People-Product-Place” marketing strategy for livestreaming e-commerce from the perspective of consumer perception and aims to understand the impact of marketing strategy on impulsive purchase behavior in e-commerce livestreaming shopping scenes, and to examine the mediating effect of involvement. The study conducted SEM analysis, in Amos, on 437 response sets from an online anonymous survey. The results show that perceived e- commerce anchor attributes , perceived scarcity , and immersion positively influence impulsive purchase behavior; that “People-Product-Place” marketing strategy is important; and that effective marketing triggers impulsive purchase. Perceived e-commerce anchor attributes, perceived scarcity , and immersion positively influence involvement , which positively influences impulsive purchase. Involvement mediates between perceived e- commerce anchor attributes , perceived scarcity and immersion , and impulsive purchase. These findings guide marketers to improve the profitability of livestreaming e-commerce and provide some references of economic recovery for many other countries that also suffered from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Introduction

New consumption patterns derived from the Internet, network, and information systems technology have emerged in recent years ( Corcoran and Andrae, 2013 ). These developments have led to changes in individuals’ concepts of consumption and their consumption habits. After the web portal era of Web 1.0 and the social media era of Web 2.0, we have entered the scene media era of Web 3.0 ( Zhang, 2020 ). The emergence of online shopping has greatly improved consumers’ shopping experience ( Helm et al., 2020 ). Online shoppers are not restricted by time, location, or travel/transportation. However, in “traditional” online shopping, shoppers receive information only through images, text, and prerecorded video ( Wongkitrungrueng and Assarut, 2020 ). Thus, in the Web 3.0 era the development of this e-commerce has entered a bottleneck ( Wu Q. et al., 2020 ). Intentionally designed promotional videos and excessively beautified images of online products make it difficult for consumers to obtain true information. This “asymmetry of information” between online consumers and merchants contributes to consumer doubt and distrust in purchase decision-making ( Demaj and Manjani, 2020 ; Lamr and Dostál, 2022 ; Utz et al., 2022 ). Lagging customer consultation services further frustrate the online shopping experience ( Othman et al., 2020 ). Thus, innovation that emphasizes a comprehensively good consumer experience is needed.

China is the largest Internet market in the world ( Akram et al., 2018a ). In 2016, a new online retailing model integrating e-commerce with online livestreaming shopping emerged in China ( Rui and Kang, 2016 ). This marketing model is based on e-commerce, uses livestreaming as a marketing tool ( Ding et al., 2020 ), and provides direct and efficient communication to minimize information asymmetry ( Wongkitrungrueng et al., 2020 ). This enables online shoppers to get a real three-dimensional experience in the virtual network environment and increases adhesion and trust between users, merchants, and platforms ( Li, 2020 ). Professional selection of products, anchor persona, live product display, and real-time interaction is integrated into a retailing model that attracts users to watch, interact, and purchase ( Liu L. et al., 2020 ). The COVID-19 pandemic has driven rapid change in product consumption patterns ( Liu L. et al., 2020 ; Zwanka and Buff, 2021 ). Since 2020, the “home economy” trend has further stimulated the growth of livestreaming e-commerce. In 2020, China’s livestreaming e-commerce market exceeded ¥1.2 trillion, with an annual growth of 197.0% ( IResearch, 2021 ). Livestreaming shopping has become a new engine of economic growth in China ( Ma, 2021 ). According to CNNIC (2022) , there were 1.032 billion Chinese netizens at the end of 2021, and 99.7% of these netizens were mobile device users. By the end of 2020, there were 388 million e-commerce livestreaming users, accounting for 39.2% of the total netizens ( China Live E-Commerce Industry Research Report, 2021 ). A large number of netizens provides a vigorous driving force for the development of e-commerce. The sales volume during the “618” promotion period (1–18 June) of Jingdong livestreaming increased by 161% year-on-year ( CNNIC, 2022 ). The first-hour sales volume on Taobao livestreaming on 1 June 2021 exceeded the whole-day sales volume for the same day in 2020 ( Sina, 2021 ). The Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) of major B2C e-commerce platforms in China during the Double 11 period in 2021 was ¥952.3 billion, to which livestreaming shopping contributed over ¥73 billion ( Syntun, 2021 ).

According to eMarketer’s Global E-Commerce Report, China continued to lead the global e-commerce market in 2021 with 792.5 million digital buyers (33.3% of the global total) and $2.779 trillion e-commerce sales (56.8% of the global total). The e-commerce share of total retail sales in China is the highest compared to other countries. China has become the first country to account for more than 50% of total transactions through e-commerce retail sales ( Ethan Cramer-Flood, Global Ecommerce Update, 2021 ). Live commerce or live video shopping generated sales of $171 million in 2020 in China ( Utsi, 2022 ). Compared to China, the United States and Europe are taking baby steps in the expansion of livestreaming commerce. Amazon and YouTube advanced capabilities of their websites and reviewing consumers’ reaction toward livestream shopping ( Ryan, 2020 ). Livestreaming e-commerce generated $60 billion sales in 2019 globally, but the US market contributed less than $1 billion ( Kharif and Townsend, 2020 ). However, the US market is growing fast, especially in certain products, for instance, apparel, makeup, and alcoholic beverages ( Kharif and Townsend, 2020 ). In the European market, few consumers understand the concept of live video shopping, which is one of the main reasons why live commerce is not as popular as in the Chinese market ( Andersson and Pitz, 2021 ). Live video service providers Zellma and Bambuser 1 suggest that companies in Europe need education on how to apply livestreaming e-retailing into their business, and they are confident that European consumers are ready to embrace new online shopping forms ( Andersson and Pitz, 2021 ). In 2021, an online survey conducted in Poland, Spain, France, and the United Kingdom reported that 7,261 respondents were interested in livestreaming on e-commerce website/app and 6,602 were interested in social media livestreaming ( Forrester, 2021 ). Hence, investigation would provide insight into how e-tailers promote featured products on live commerce platforms in China, and how consumers perceive this marketing.

E-commerce livestreaming shopping re-establishes the relationship between merchants, commodities, and consumers ( Liu, 2021 ). In a livestreaming shopping room, the anchor creates an immersive experience for consumers ( Luo et al., 2020 ) and stimulates impulsive purchase through a series of strategies ( Xu et al., 2020 ). In e-commerce livestreaming shopping, it takes only a moment for consumers to be attracted by live product promotion introduced by anchors regardless of whether consumers are hedonistic or utilitarian in outlook ( Xu et al., 2020 ). Triggered consumption behavior is mostly impulsive purchase ( Li, 2020 ). According to the iMedia Research report “User Research and Analysis of China’s Live Streaming E-commerce in the First Half of 2020,” 65.2% of livestreaming viewers purchased goods in the livestreaming shopping room, and 49.5% admitted that their purchases were impulsive ( IMedia Research, 2020 ). A recent study on online purchase intention in China asserts that online shopping in the social commerce setting is driven more by hedonistic than utilitarian motivation ( Akram et al., 2021 ), and that impulsive buying contains hedonic features ( Akram et al., 2018b ). IMedia Research (2020) considered that the most direct support for the incremental performance of e-commerce is to trigger more consumers to purchase impulsively for unplanned needs when watching livestreaming. Awakening unplanned consumption is a long-term and deep driving force for e-tailers using livestreaming. Thus, this study investigated the practical significance of impulse purchase behavior in e-commerce live broadcasts to inform marketing strategy aimed at impulsive buying.

Good sales performance is inseparable from effective marketing strategy ( Akram et al., 2018a ; Varadarajan, 2020 ). The continuing growth of livestreaming shopping makes it important for e-commerce investors and managers to understand influencing factors for impulse buying in livestreaming shopping. Livestreaming e-commerce aims to sell products and services to consumers ( Hu and Chaudhry, 2020 ; Wongkitrungrueng et al., 2020 ). This business model contains the basic elements of the “People-Product-Place” theory essential in retailing ( Guo and Xu, 2021 ), but in different forms. E-commerce livestreaming shopping reconstructs a retail scenario comprising “People-Product-Place” to realize the real-time, situationalization and visualization of communication in the entire process of e-commerce livestreaming shopping, and to bring remarkable features of strong interactivity and authenticity ( Duan, 2020 ). Researchers have suggested that anchor promotion, product promotion, and livestreaming atmosphere are likely to trigger strong emotions in consumers, leading to impulsive purchases ( Xu et al., 2019 , 2020 ; Lee and Chen, 2021 ; Ming et al., 2021 ). Empirical studies find that online consumers are easily triggered by marketing stimuli to make impulsive purchases, and rich marketing methods help consumers avoid monotony and frustration, thus enhancing the shopping experience ( Sundström et al., 2019 ).

Purchase behavior in live-broadcast shopping rooms has become a popular research topic. Researchers have investigated external stimuli such as atmosphere clues ( Gong et al., 2019 ), IT affordances ( Dong and Wang, 2018 ), discounted prices and scarcity ( Wang S. Q., 2021 ; Yan, 2021 ); and inherent characteristics of livestreaming marketing, including the attributes of anchors ( Han and Xu, 2020 ), their communication styles ( Wu N. et al., 2020 ), their identity and information source characteristics ( Liu F. J. et al., 2020 ), relationship ties and customer commitment ( Peng et al., 2021 ); opinion leaders ( Yin, 2020 ; Lakhan, 2021 ); interaction ( Wang S. Q., 2021 ; Yan, 2021 ); perceived enjoyment ( Lakhan, 2021 ; Lee and Chen, 2021 ); and perceived product usefulness ( Lee and Chen, 2021 ). There are few studies on the impact of livestreaming marketing strategies on impulsive purchase. Livestreaming is jointly constructed by various stakeholders, including those from the three retail marketing elements “People-Product-Place.” Clearly, effective multiparty relationships are central to any effective livestreaming marketing strategy.

In this context, based on stimulus-organism-response (SOR) theory, this study introduced the “People-Product-Place” marketing strategies for livestreaming from the perspective of consumer perception, to study how livestreaming influences impulsive purchasing. This study aimed to more comprehensively explain the perspective for research on the impact of consumer impulsive purchase behavior. As well as to enhance the understanding of the “People-Product-Place” marketing model of e-commerce livestreaming, guide marketers to improve the profitability of livestreaming e-commerce, and provide reference for the healthy and sustainable development of e-commerce livestreaming industry. Then, hopefully to provide reference of economic recovery under the impact of the normalization of the COVID-19 epidemic for many other countries.

The rest of the article is structured as follows: the theoretical framework and hypothesis development are discussed in the following section. Research design and methodology, and data analysis and hypotheses testing are described in the subsequent sections. The findings and their implications, study limitations, and further research are discussed in the final section.

Theoretical Framework and Hypothesis Development

Theoretical framework.

SOR theory ( Mehrabian and Russell, 1974 ) underpins the study. Stimulus refers to external stimuli; Organism represents the internal state of an individual when that individual perceives a stimulus; and Response is the behavior of the individual in response to stimuli. The SOR model is a mediation model in which a stimulus provokes a response through the mediating effects of the organism. The SOR model has been applied to studies of online purchasing behavior ( Hashmi et al., 2019 ; Huang and Suo, 2021 ; Karim et al., 2021 ; Lee and Chen, 2021 ; Ming et al., 2021 ). Impulse purchases are unplanned and occur when consumers are stimulated internally and/or externally ( Rook, 1987 ; Lim et al., 2017 ). Piron (1991) believed that stimuli can come from products, the shopping environment, or the people who accompany you for shopping. This is consistent with the elements “People-Product-Place.” Stimuli in livestreaming have some similar and some different characteristics with traditional online and offline shopping ( Gong et al., 2019 ). This study used “People-Product-Place” as the stimulus factor (S), involvement as internal state of an individual (O), and explored the effect on impulsive purchase behavior (R).

Hypothesis Development

Impulsive purchase behavior.

Impulse buying is a popular subject in the domain of consumer decision-making. Researchers claim that impulse buying accounts for 40–80% of all purchases ( Rodrigues et al., 2021 ). Lee and Chen (2021) stress that instant reactivity and convenience trigger impulsive purchase in mobile commerce. Studies have identified products that are bought impulsively, including groceries ( Inman et al., 2009 ; Bellini et al., 2017 ), financial products ( Lučić et al., 2021 ), milk tea ( Guo et al., 2017 ; Wu et al., 2021 ), necessities during COVID-19 pandemic ( Islam et al., 2021 ), “unhealthy” foods ( Verplanken et al., 2005 ), and brand-related user-generated content products ( Kim and Johnson, 2016 ). Some studies are keen to discover how different purchase channels influence impulsive buying, for instance, online markets ( Kim and Johnson, 2016 ; Guo et al., 2017 ; Aragoncillo and Orus, 2018 ; Pal, 2021 ; Rejikumar and Asokan-Ajitha, 2021 ; Wu et al., 2021 ), mobile commerce ( San-Martin and López-Catalán, 2013 ; Chen et al., 2021 ), and offline/in-store shopping ( Rook and Fisher, 1995 ; Inman et al., 2009 ; Tendai and Crispen, 2009 ; Sharma et al., 2010 ; Aragoncillo and Orus, 2018 ). However, few studies focus on impulsive purchase through the livestream shopping channel ( Lee and Chen, 2021 ; Wang S. Q., 2021 ).

There are various definitions of impulse buying. Rook (1987) describes impulse buying as spontaneous and hedonic purchase driven by an urgent, forceful, and persistent craving, regardless of possible consequences. Lučić et al. (2021) assert that impulsive purchase is actuated by irrational emotions. Researchers also claim that impulsive purchase is the result of an irresistible reaction that is triggered by often deliberately designed stimuli ( Stern, 1962 ; Rook, 1987 ; Liu et al., 2013 ; Kim and Johnson, 2016 ; Aragoncillo and Orus, 2018 ). Aragoncillo and Orus (2018) summarized and categorized features that induce impulsive purchase in offline and online channels, from previous studies. They argue that “greater product assortment and variety, sophisticated marketing techniques, credit cards, anonymity, lack of human contact, and easy access and convenience are the encouraging factors to online impulsive purchase” ( Aragoncillo and Orus, 2018 , p. 47). Akram et al. (2017) believe that “impulsive purchasing is an immediate, unplanned, compelling, and sudden purchase behavior while shopping” (p. 76) ( Akram et al., 2017 ). When comparing characteristics of online store to livestreaming shopping, it is not difficult to notice that livestreaming shopping contains all the encouraging factors mentioned and offers higher levels of stimuli. Specifically, payment is made easier by biometric fingerprint scanning on smart mobile devices, bypassing typed-in credit card passwords. Livestreaming provides for more comprehensive product display by e-commerce anchors than predesigned images and text on webpages. In livestreaming shopping rooms, there is instant interaction and sharing of product experience between anchors and customers, and between customers. Free shipping and unconditional returns or refunds encourage impulse buying. Big data analytics facilitate tailor-designed promotions and accurate/precise targeting of individual consumers. Therefore, based on discussion above, this study assumes that marketers use effective strategies to stimulate impulse buying on livestreaming shopping platforms. Specific constructs of interest include perceived e-commerce anchor attributes, perceived scarcity, immersion, and involvement.

Marketing Strategies Applied to Livestreaming E-commerce

The success of livestreaming retailing lies in its high interactivity, entertainment value, authenticity, and visibility ( Bründl et al., 2017 ). As shown in Figure 1 , livestreaming ( Figure 1C ) is different from shopping in a physical store ( Figure 1A ) and online shopping ( Figure 1B ) because consumers can watch, interact, comment, and purchase using a mobile device anywhere and anytime ( Liu L. et al., 2020 ). Traditional online shopping is search-based, requiring searching, comparing, and choosing before purchasing. Traditional online retailing thus relies on consumer initiative, and retailing success relies to a significant extent on consumers looking for products, with clear objectives in mind ( Virdi et al., 2020 ). In livestreaming retailing, consumers are guided by anchors who actively promote products to them ( Bründl et al., 2017 ; Ang et al., 2018 ). Figure 1 illustrates the three types of shopping experience:

Figure 1. Three types of shopping experience.

Marketing strategy is the most direct embodiment of merchants facing consumers. Effective marketing strategy in retailing is to provide effective stimuli for buying ( Zhu et al., 2019 ), and specific stimuli often lead to impulse buying ( Floh and Madlberger, 2013 ). In traditional e-commerce, users browse the goods on a shopping platform and typically spend considerable amounts of time considering purchase: this is “decision-making consumption” ( Rezaei, 2015 ). In livestreaming, consumers are provided with various designed entertainments. Whether they are hedonic or utilitarian consumers are readily attracted by personal charm, product introduction, promotion information, and livestreaming scenes deliberately designed to lead to consumption behavior ( Liu F. J. et al., 2020 ; Xu et al., 2020 ). Impulsive purchase is awakened by marketing strategies planned by anchors.

The success of livestreaming retailing lies in the good coordination of the elements “People-Product-Place” ( Luo et al., 2020 ), which is a perspective that should not be ignored when studying marketing strategy ( Wang K., 2021 ). “People” represents the anchor, who is the key factor to attract “followers” to watch. Anchor attributes is an important influencing factor in purchase decisions in livestreaming shopping Liu F. J. et al., 2020 ; Meng et al., 2020 ; Xu et al., 2020 ). Anchor attributes marketing becomes one of the major streams in livestreaming e-commerce by introducing products to their audience ( Liu, 2021 ). “Product” represents promoted goods recommended by the anchor. The main marketing method for “goods” is hunger marketing through the creation of availability stimuli, “limited time,” and “limited quantity.” The anchor creates the phenomenon of “short supply” that increases consumer perceived time pressure and product scarcity, stimulating impulsive purchase ( Gupta and Gentry, 2019 ; Cheng et al., 2020 ). “Place” is the final presentation of the e-commerce livestreaming scene. With the support of “people” and “product,” the internet platform built a communication scene integrating shopping, livestreaming, communication, and other functions. In the broadcast room, the extraordinary sense of temporal presence allows participants to sink into the immersive experience. Immersive marketing develops consumption into an “entertainment game” of shopping ( Luo et al., 2020 ). Therefore, we studied the influence of three elements in marketing strategy on impulsive purchase: anchor attributions, hunger marketing, and immersive marketing.

Perceived E-commerce Anchor Attributes and Impulsive Purchase Behavior

E-commerce anchors are the core of marketing strategy in livestreaming retailing. An e-commerce anchor is one who introduces and displays products comprehensively to customers ( Zhu et al., 2021 ). Unlike traditional television broadcasters, e-commerce anchors provide guidance to customers by sharing experiences based on their own consumption of the promoted products, answer viewers’ questions in real time, and interact with viewers based on their requests, and display products in ways that static images and texts cannot ( Sun et al., 2019 ; Han and Xu, 2020 ). Research has shown that the attributes, features, or characteristics of e-commerce anchors significantly influence purchase decisions or impulsive purchase on livestream shopping platform ( Li, 2021 ; Zhao and Feng, 2021 ; Zhu et al., 2021 ). Zhu et al. (2021) classify anchors’ characteristics into physical attractiveness, professional ability, and social attractiveness. Zhao and Feng (2021) assert that interactivity, professionalism, and charisma are important characteristics of e-commerce anchors who are opinion leaders. Their findings indicate that anchor characteristics positively influence consumer purchase intention. In their qualitative study, Han and Xu (2020) interviewed 68 livestreaming shoppers and summarized the attributes of e-commerce anchors. These authors argue that charisma, recommendation attributes, and display and interaction attributes are essential attributes of an e-commerce anchor. In summary, the literature discusses important attributes of e-commerce anchors, but studies on how these attributes influence impulsive purchase behavior are still limited. In addition, because of recent tax evasion by several famous livestream anchors in China, the essential requirements for becoming e-commerce anchors have been raised. As discussed, consumers’ perception of e-commerce anchor attributes is important. In this study, these attributes are defined in terms of how consumers/viewers perceive the presented image of an anchor. These attributes consist of whether the anchor observes discipline and law, his/her communication and professional skills, and whether consumers find the anchor reliable and have professional knowledge on the products being promoted. Thus, this study proposes the following hypothesis:

H1a: Perceived e-commerce anchor attributes have a positive effect on impulsive purchase behavior.

Perceived Scarcity and Impulsive Purchase Behavior

Studies show that perceived scarcity significantly affects panic buying ( Islam et al., 2021 ; Li et al., 2021 ) and influences decision-making in impulse buying ( Wu et al., 2021 ). By deliberately manipulating the supply of products, anchors create an ambiance of the shortage of goods in livestreaming shopping. In this study, perceived scarcity is intentional creation of limited time and quantity scarcity by anchors in livestreaming shopping ( Aggarwal et al., 2011 ; Gupta and Gentry, 2019 ; Islam et al., 2021 ). Following introduction of product functions, quality, and any other information consumers need to know, anchors specifically emphasize the limited availability of the products for on-the-spot purchase, especially when viewers significantly outnumber product units. Anchors also magnify the countdown process, which signals urgency to buy as soon as the countdown ends. Such a situation creates perceived product scarcity and competitive purchase pressure ( Guo et al., 2017 ).

Perceived scarcity has been studied as an independent variable ( Guo et al., 2017 ; Akram et al., 2018b ; Gupta and Gentry, 2019 ; Islam et al., 2021 ; Wu et al., 2021 ), a mediating factor ( Li et al., 2021 ), and a moderating factor ( Cheng et al., 2020 ) purchase decision, panic buying, urgency to buy, or impulse buying. These studies indicate that perceived scarcity positively influences panic buying ( Li et al., 2021 ) and indirectly influences panic or impulse buying through perceived arousal ( Guo et al., 2017 ; Islam et al., 2021 ; Wu et al., 2021 ). Perceived scarcity is shown to strongly predict online impulsive buying in Chinese social commerce ( Akram et al., 2018b ). Interestingly, studies find in in-store consumers, perceived scarcity does not directly affect urgency to buy, but perceived scarcity triggers in-store hording behavior (e.g., holding the clothes in hand while shopping) and in-store hiding behavior (e.g., hiding clothes somewhere else other than the place they should be) ( Gupta and Gentry, 2019 ). These authors assert that the relationship between perceived scarcity and urgency to buy is mediated by anticipated regret ( Gupta and Gentry, 2019 ). A moderating effect of perceived scarcity was not found in Cheng et al.’s (2020) study. Because the literature reports various results and inconsistent findings, this study aimed to contribute more evidence on perceived scarcity as both a direct and indirect influencing factor on impulsive purchase. Thus, this study postulates the following hypothesis:

H1b: Perceived scarcity has a positive effect on impulsive purchase behavior.

Immersion and Impulsive Purchase Behavior

In a study about viewers’ complete absorption of co-viewing experience on video websites, immersion is described as a joyful feeling that one is deeply absorbed in a mediated world, meanwhile forgetting or failing to pay attention to people or environment around him/her ( Fang et al., 2018 ). In a virtual reality environment, the use of augmented reality is expected to give users a higher level of immersion. In this context, immersion is described as a complete engrossing feeling of neglecting the actual environment ( Yim et al., 2017 ). Hudson et al. (2019) argue that individuals’ perceived levels of immersion differ, hence, their study focused on subjectively experienced immersion. Previous research has focused mainly on the mediating role of immersion in various activities. For instance, Yang et al. (2021) examined the mediating effect of immersion between social presence and customer loyalty intentions toward recommendation vlogs. Their findings confirm the proposed hypothesis and indicate that increased consumer immersion positively influences customer loyalty. In a study of try-on experience of wrist watches with augmented reality, Song et al. (2020) found that immersion mediates the relationship between environmental embedding and feelings of ownership. Immersion and perceived benefit have been found to mediate between social presence and customer loyalty on co-viewing experience in video websites ( Fang et al., 2018 ). In a study of fashion product purchase intention, immersion was studied as a mediator between five characteristics of fashion influencers and their followers’ purchase intentions ( Kim et al., 2021 ). Evidence that immersion in augmented reality positively affects online tourists’ willingness to pay was found in a study about AR tourism destination experience, without highlighting the mediating role of immersion ( Huang, 2021 ).

The literature indicates that the immediate relationship between immersion and impulsive purchase is rarely studied. A study of interactive marketing ( Kabadayi and Gupta, 2005 ) showed that deeply immersed customers tend to indulge in longer hours of digital media. A study in Taiwan provides evidence that high level of the absorbed-in state greatly influences unplanned buying online, and consumers are willing to pay more in such situations ( Niu and Chang, 2014 ). Thus, this study defines immersion as a joyful state of being absorbed and engrossed, losing awareness of time and forgetting about one’s surroundings when watching livestream promotions. The following hypothesis was proposed:

H1c: Immersion has a positive effect on impulsive purchase behavior.

Involvement

Involvement is an important variable affecting consumers’ purchase decision-making. Zaichkowsky (1985 , p. 32) defines involvement as “a person’s perceived relevance of the object based on inherent needs, values, and interests” and suggests that this definition could be applied to research on purchase decisions. Much research has evaluated “product” involvement in purchase decisions. For instance, Cheng et al. (2020) adapted Zaichkowsky’s (1985) 10 measurement dimensions to evaluate product involvement in livestreaming shopping. A study on online ordering behavior for food delivery measured product involvement based on nine external cues for action. These external cues are mainly concerned with nine different aspects of safety and customer rating, including food safety, advertisement safety, and safety of food retailers ( Mehrolia et al., 2020 ). A study on purchase decisions of halal products measured product involvement in two aspects: consumer perceptions of the degree of importance of targeted products and the number of attributes of a halal product that consumers regard as imperative ( Rachmawati et al., 2020 ).

To measure the involvement construct more comprehensively, some researchers extend the definition of involvement by including more aspects of involvement besides product attributes. In a study of customer satisfaction in mobile commerce, “buying-selling environment” was included as a measurement item for involvement ( San-Martin and López-Catalán, 2013 ). Mou et al. (2019) studied the influence of product involvement, characterized as cognitive and affective involvement, and platform involvement, characterized as enduring and situational involvement, on consumer purchase intention in cross-border e-commerce. Based on the foregoing discussion, this study defines involvement as a variable that includes aspects of consumer’s interests and valuation of promoted products and services, and perceived relevance and importance of the shopping environment (livestreaming shopping).

Marketing Strategies and Involvement

To create strong bonding between consumers and shopping platform, e-commerce managers have worked on measures to make consumers feel connected or intrigued. E-commerce managers design marketing to attract, retain, and connect viewers in livestreaming shopping, with the aim of increasing their involvement, and inducing impulse buying. In the literature, antecedents of involvement include product description ( Mou et al., 2019 ) and innovativeness in new technology ( San-Martín et al., 2017 ). In the domain of livestreaming shopping, there are likely to be more antecedents of involvement to be discovered. Thus, this study postulates the following hypotheses:

H2a: Perceived e-commerce anchor attributes positively affect involvement.

H2b: Immersion positively affects involvement.

H2c: Perceived product scarcity positively affects involvement.

Involvement and Impulsive Purchase Behavior

Studies have also examined the direct impact of involvement on behaviors such as consumer satisfaction, purchase intention, or decision-making ( San-Martin and López-Catalán, 2013 ; Mehrolia et al., 2020 ; Rachmawati et al., 2020 ). Several studies provide evidence that high involvement induces purchase intentions/decisions ( San-Martin and López-Catalán, 2013 ; Siala, 2013 ; Mehrolia et al., 2020 ; Rachmawati et al., 2020 ). Thus, this study postulates the following hypothesis:

H3: Involvement positively affects impulsive purchase behavior.

The Mediating Role of Involvement

Involvement has been studied as a mediating factor between product description and purchase intention in cross-border e-commerce. Three out of four dimensions of involvement are found to mediate between product description and purchase intention in that study ( Mou et al., 2019 ). To contribute empirical evidence for the mediating effect of involvement between relationships various variables and impulsive purchase, this study postulates the following hypotheses:

H4: Involvement mediates the relationship between marketing strategies applied in livestreaming shopping room and impulsive purchase behavior.

H4a: Involvement mediates the relationship between perceived e-commerce anchor attributes and impulsive purchase behavior.

H4b: Involvement mediates the relationship between immersion and impulsive purchase behavior.

H4c: Involvement mediates the relationship between perceived scarcity and impulsive purchase behavior.

Research Design and Methodology

This study adopts a positivist paradigm. Data were collected online using self-reporting questionnaires, and structured equations were used to evaluate the relationship between variables and to test study hypotheses. This topic focuses on the research on the influence mechanism of consumers’ impulsive purchase behavior in the context of livestreaming e-commerce. To ensure the validity of the research results, people who have had an online livestreaming shopping experience are selected as the target group, which is conducive to objectively assessing consumers’ impulsive purchase behavior on livestreaming e-commerce.

Research Design

The study focuses on the marketing-generated stimuli that influence impulse purchase in livestreaming retailing: anchor attributes, hunger marketing, and immersive marketing. Perceived anchor attributes , perceived scarcity , and immersion are independent variables; impulsive purchase behavior is the dependent variable; and involvement is a mediator. Figure 2 shows the framework that links these variables.

Figure 2. Research model.

Instrument Development

The study constructed a SOR model and attempted to explain consumer impulsive purchase from a psychological and behavioral perspective. Data were collected through an online self-administered questionnaire. To ensure validity reliability of measurement of the variables, the study defined these variables, and identified and adapted/modified measurement items from the literature to fit the context and object of the study from the literature. All the measurement items were rated on a 5-point Likert scale anchored on 1 (strongly disagree) and 5 (strongly agree). Table 1 shows the measurement items.

Table 1. Measurement items.

The online questionnaire comprised three parts: an introduction describing the purpose of the questionnaire, to dispel respondents’ concerns, and to enable respondents to recall live e-commerce shopping by describing live shopping. The second part comprised the questionnaire that measured perceived anchor attributes, perceived scarcity, immersion, and impulsive purchase behavior. The third part elicited respondent demographics, i.e., gender, age, education level, income, and occupation.

Data Collection

We conducted online questionnaire survey by using Questionnaire Star 2 , which is a platform with 2.6 million database members, covering more than 90% of universities and research institutions in China. Convenience sampling was used, and we elicited voluntary responses from individuals with experience of shopping in live e-commerce. We asked respondents to respond to the items based on their live e-commerce shopping experience. Screening of the 456 response sets received yielded 437 sets for analysis, giving an effective response rate of 94.96%.

Table 2 shows the demographic characteristics of respondents.

Table 2. Demographic data of respondents.

Women accounted for 79.6% of respondents, a relatively large percentage. In four age groups, participants are mainly between 18 and 30 years, reaching 52.2 and 97.5% of participants are younger than 50 according to the statistics. This shows that most of the people participating in live shopping are younger groups, and they are more likely to embrace new shopping channels. From the perspective of education level, 80.8% have a bachelor’s degree or above, indicating that the participants’ education level is relatively high. The highest monthly income is less than or equal to 2,000, accounting for 41.4%, and the proportion of students is 41.9%, which is consistent with the proportion of monthly income less than or equal to 2,000. This suggests that the young student group is the backbone of livestreaming shopping.

Data Analysis

SPSS and AMOS statistical software were used to analyze the data. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to test the reliability validity of the measurement model. We then verified the model using structural equation modeling (SEM) in AMOS software, using regression analysis to analyze the relationship between variables, and bootstrapping to test the hypothesis of the mediating effect.

Results and Findings

Construct validity and reliability.

CFA is usually used to test data reliability and validity of data to evaluate questionnaire quality ( Hou et al., 2004 ). In this study, AMOS software was used to establish a measurement model with five latent variables, including three independent variables, one dependent variable, and one mediator, and CFA was conducted. The test results of the measurement model are shown in Tables 3 – 5 .

Table 3. Goodness-of-fit statistics of the measurement model.

Table 4. Reliability and validity results of measurement mode.

Table 5. Analysis of discriminant validity.

The indices of fit ( Table 3 ) for the measurement model were chi-square fit statistics/degree of freedom (CMIN/DF) = 1.79, comparative fit index (CFI) = 0.971, goodness of fit index (GFI) = 0.939, TFI = 0.966, normed fit index (NFI) = 0.9011, and root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) = 0.043. According to the criteria in Table 3 , the model fit is good. As shown in Table 4 , individual item loadings are required to be above 0.50 for adequate and Cronbach’s alpha and CR value are higher than the recommended value of 0.700. The average variance extracted (AVE) scores were higher than the recommended value of 0.500, indicating the internal consistency and component reliability of each variable are good. Table 3 also shows that inter-construct correlations are all smaller than the square root of AVE, indicating the data have good discriminant validity. The reliability and validity of the data were therefore good and suitable for further analysis.

Hypothesis Testing

Before hypothesis testing, degree-of-fit testing is carried out to test the relationship between variables in the structural model. The model fit statistics were CMIN/DF = 2.573, CFI = 0.942, GFI = 0.914, TFI = 0.932, NFI = 0.942, and RMSEA = 0.06. According to the judgment criteria shown in Table 3 , the model fit is good.

Path Coefficient Testing

AMOS software was used to test path coefficients to verify the hypothesis of direct relationship. Table 6 shows the standardized path coefficients.

Table 6. Results of direct effects.

In the relationship between consumer-perceived marketing strategy and impulsive purchase behavior, perceived anchor attributes (β = 0.122, p = 0.01), immersion (β = 0.522, p = 0.000), and perceived scarcity (β = 0.105, p = 0.02) positively influence impulsive purchase behavior, supporting H1a, H1b, and H1c. In the relationship between consumer-perceived marketing strategy and impulsive purchase behavior, perceived anchor attributes (β = 0.322, p = 0.000), immersion (β = 0.469, p = 0.000), and perceived scarcity (β = 0.236, p = 0.000) positively influence impulsive purchase behavior, supporting H2a, H2b, and H2c. In the relationship between involvement and impulsive purchase behavior, involvement (β = 0.273, p = 0.000) positively influenced impulsive purchase behavior, supporting H3.

Testing for Mediating Effect

In the bootstrap method to detect a mediating effect, the bootstrap iteration was set to 2,000 times. Whether the mediating effect is significant is judged by whether the 95% confidence interval contains 0. The three mediation paths are perceived anchor attributes → involvement → impulsive purchase behavior , immersion → involvement → impulsive purchase behavior , and perceived scarcity → involvement → impulsive purchase behavior; the analysis results are shown in Table 7 , as follows:

Table 7. Results of mediating effects.

In the path perceived anchor attributes → involvement → impulsive purchase behavior , the 95% confidence intervals [0.041, 0.16] did not include 0, p = 0.000. The mediating effect was thus significant, supporting H3a. The 95% confidence intervals for total and direct effects were respectively, [0.091, 0.329] and [0.005, 0.245]; both sets of intervals did not contain 0, so involvement partially mediates the relationship between perceived anchor attributes and impulsive purchase behavior.

In the path perceived scarcity → involvement → impulsive purchase behavior , the 95% confidence intervals [0.025, 0.117] do not contain 0, p = 0.000, indicating that the mediation effect is significant and H3b is supported. The 95% confidence intervals of total effect [0.055, 0.279] do not contain 0, but the 95% confidence interval of direct effect [-0.015, 0.213] contains 0, so involvement fully mediates the relationship between perceived scarcity and impulsive purchase behavior.

In the path immersion → involvement → impulsive purchase behavior , the 95% confidence intervals of total effect [0.063, 0.204] do not contain 0, p = 0.001, indicating it is significant. The 95% confidence intervals of total and direct effects [0.551, 0.732] and [0.404, 0.636], respectively, both do not contain 0. Therefore, involvement partially mediates the relationship between immersion and impulsive purchase behavior.

Discussion and Implications

Based on SOR theory, this study used a framework of “marketing stimulus—involvement—impulsive purchase behavior” to investigate consumer impulsive purchase behavior in livestreaming shopping. By introducing the “People-Product-Place,” three elements of marketing stimulus as a marketing strategy of the livestreaming shopping platform, this study investigates the influencing mechanism and examines the influencing effects of perceived e-commerce anchor attributes, perceived scarcity, and immersion on consumers’ impulsive purchase behavior based on user perception perspective. Moreover, this study also examines the mediating effect of involvement between the three stimulus elements and consumers’ impulsive purchase behavior. Therefore, to explain the influencing mechanism of different marketing strategies in the livestreaming room on consumers’ impulsive purchase behavior. Findings of this research are discussed as follows.

Perceived e-commerce anchor attributes, perceived scarcity, and immersion positively influence impulsive purchase behavior. These findings are similar to previous studies, which report that e-commerce anchor attributes ( Li, 2021 ) and scarcity influence impulsive purchase behavior ( Akram et al., 2018b ). This study indicates that building e-commerce anchor attributes, creating pressure to purchase, and developing immersion are important and effective measures to trigger impulse buying. This finding is similar to previous studies that claim that sales promotion significantly affects online impulsive purchasing ( Akram et al., 2018a ).

Involvement mediates between perceived e-commerce anchor attributes, perceived scarcity, and immersion and impulsive purchase behavior. Partially mediating effects of involvement are found between perceived e-commerce anchor attributes and consumer impulsive purchase behavior; and between immersion and impulsive purchase behavior. Involvement fully mediates between perceived scarcity and impulsive purchase behavior. The findings indicate that perceived e-commerce anchor attributes and immersion can directly or indirectly affect impulsive purchase behavior through involvement. However, perceived scarcity only influences impulsive purchase behavior through involvement.

Implications for Theory

Technological innovations in the Internet and information systems seem to have driven changes in concepts and habits of consumption. A major development of online shopping is livestreaming shopping that is centered on consumer experience, and this study provides an understanding of consumer purchase behavior in livestreaming shopping. Consumer decision-making is greatly influenced by stimuli carefully designed by marketers. The study extends behavioral theory in two aspects.

First, this study innovatively combined the SOR theory of environmental psychology with the “People-Product-Place” marketing model and established a research framework of “marketing method stimulus-involvement-impulsive purchase behavior” corresponding to the three elements of “People-Product-Place.” The study investigated the influencing mechanisms of perceived e-commerce anchor attributes, perceived scarcity, and immersion on impulsive purchase behavior from the consumers’ perspective. The study enriches the theoretical understanding of impulsive purchase behavior in livestreaming shopping and provides a theoretical basis for further research.

Second, previous studies have mostly considered immersion as a mediating factor. This study considered consumers’ perceptions of immersion in livestreaming shopping rooms as an independent variable, expanding the research scope of immersion.

Implications for E-commerce and Its Regulation

Path analysis indicates that immersion is the strongest predictor of involvement and impulsive purchase behavior. Involvement is a significant predictor of impulsive purchase behavior. Thus, anchors, merchants, and platforms should actively expand shopping scenarios, enrich consumers’ experience of watching livestreaming, and fulfill their diverse consumption needs. The consumer experience can be enhanced or optimized using virtual reality, artificial intelligence and big data analytics, enabling consumers to experience immersive shopping, enhancing their sense of authenticity and their trust in online shopping. Marketers can focus on creating a joyful atmosphere in livestreaming shopping rooms so as to infect consumers with the ambience when they watch and experience immersive shopping. Anchors should avoid applying the same marketing strategy to all products but should use different strategies to keep consumers feeling fresh, integrate themselves into the shopping atmosphere, and increase their involvement, and eventually purchase. Perceived scarcity is also a significant predictor of involvement and impulsive purchase. In practice, creating a limited-time-quantity promotion atmosphere is key. Consumers are led by the idea of “what is scarce is valuable.” Perceived scarcity increases perceived value, increases the desire to buy, and enables the goal of product promotion to be achieved.

In China, rapid development and tax evasion by several e-commerce livestreaming shopping anchors have recently brought stricter regulatory standards to the industry, and thus higher implications for its managers. It seems essential for government to strengthen regulation of the five main participants in the livestreaming shopping industry: merchants, anchors, platform operators, anchor service agencies, and consumers. Regulation needs to clarify the rights and responsibilities of these parties and standardize online livestreaming marketing. Relevant regulatory legislation for the livestreaming shopping industry to improve supervision is expected in the future. For platforms, it is necessary to strictly review the qualifications of merchants and anchors, increase the legal awareness and integrity of anchors, and improve their professionalism. The accounts of anchors who deceive and mislead consumers should be banned or closed in a timely manner. The platform should also strictly monitor for livestreaming data fraud, establish an anti-false data supervision mechanism, and purify the e-commerce livestreaming ecosystem. Anchors must promote products according to objective facts; not fabricate or exaggerate effects or facts. As influential public figures, anchors must abide by the law and regulations, be socially responsible, and accept public oversight. Anchors should strive to improve their professionalism by improving product selection standards and product quality, so as to guarantee consumer satisfaction. It is necessary for e-commerce anchors to strengthen their livestreaming image. The greater the charm of the anchor, the more psychological pleasure it can bring to consumers. Anchors should pay attention to the creation of personal image by strengthening their characteristics, creating more interaction with consumers and increasing their stickiness, establishing an emotional connection with fans, and creating a warm and charming anchor image.

China’s livestreaming shopping industry has made remarkable achievements, especially in assisting economic recovery in the current postepidemic period. The success of this industry stems from the reshaping of the established “People-Product-Place” retailing strategy. Hopefully this experience may provide valuable lessons for the livestreaming industry in other countries.

Study Limitations and Further Research

There are three methodological limitations. One is that respondents are from China. This limitation does not restrict application of the study findings to livestreaming shopping platforms in China. Consumers are stimulated by the “People-Product-Place” marketing strategy. Impulse buying in livestreaming shopping rooms is significantly affected by perceived e-commerce anchor attributes, perceived scarcity, immersion, and involvement. The second methodological limitation is the use of convenience sampling, and more systematic sampling should be used in future studies. Despite these limitations, this study contributes to the literature on impulsive purchase behavior in livestreaming shopping platforms. Thirdly, this study used self-reported data that might not reflect actual decision-making. For instance, consumers may not willingly admit to being impulsive. Further studies could use quasi-experimental methods or a data analytics approach using data provided by shopping platforms.

Further research should also consider different types of e-commerce anchor, including key opinion leaders, celebrities, famous e-commerce anchors, and merchant-employed anchors. These types of anchors might employ different marketing strategies and factors that influence impulsive purchase might differ. Thus, it is recommended to investigate how different factors influence consumer purchase behavior from different types of e-commerce anchors and the specific strategies they apply. Finally, this study selected perceived anchor attributes, perceived scarcity, immersion, and involvement as predictors of impulsive purchase behavior. Further exploration is needed to identify and characterize other influencing factors for impulsive buying and extends the theoretical framework.

Data Availability Statement

The raw data supporting the conclusions of this article will be made available by the authors, without undue reservation.

Author Contributions

BC and JW: conceptualization, methodology, software, formal analysis, resources, data curation, writing—original draft preparation, visualization, and project administration. LW and HR: validation, writing—review and editing, and supervision. LW: investigation. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Publisher’s Note

All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

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Keywords : e-commerce live streaming shopping, impulsive purchase behavior, People-Product-Place, marketing strategy, COVID-19

Citation: Chen B, Wang L, Rasool H and Wang J (2022) Research on the Impact of Marketing Strategy on Consumers’ Impulsive Purchase Behavior in Livestreaming E-commerce. Front. Psychol. 13:905531. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.905531

Received: 27 March 2022; Accepted: 09 May 2022; Published: 16 June 2022.

Reviewed by:

Copyright © 2022 Chen, Wang, Rasool and Wang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) . The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

*Correspondence: Jun Wang, [email protected]

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

Market Research: A How-To Guide and Template

Discover the different types of market research, how to conduct your own market research, and use a free template to help you along the way.

MARKET RESEARCH KIT

5 Research and Planning Templates + a Free Guide on How to Use Them in Your Market Research

Updated: 02/21/24

Published: 02/21/24

Today's consumers have a lot of power. As a business, you must have a deep understanding of who your buyers are and what influences their purchase decisions.

Enter: Market Research.

Whether you're new to market research or not, I created this guide to help you conduct a thorough study of your market, target audience, competition, and more. Let’s dive in.

Table of Contents

What is market research?

Primary vs. secondary research, types of market research, how to do market research, market research report template, market research examples.

Market research is the process of gathering information about your target market and customers to verify the success of a new product, help your team iterate on an existing product, or understand brand perception to ensure your team is effectively communicating your company's value effectively.

Market research can answer various questions about the state of an industry. But if you ask me, it's hardly a crystal ball that marketers can rely on for insights on their customers.

Market researchers investigate several areas of the market, and it can take weeks or even months to paint an accurate picture of the business landscape.

However, researching just one of those areas can make you more intuitive to who your buyers are and how to deliver value that no other business is offering them right now.

How? Consider these two things:

• Your competitors also have experienced individuals in the industry and a customer base. It‘s very possible that your immediate resources are, in many ways, equal to those of your competition’s immediate resources. Seeking a larger sample size for answers can provide a better edge.
• Your customers don't represent the attitudes of an entire market. They represent the attitudes of the part of the market that is already drawn to your brand.

The market research services market is growing rapidly, which signifies a strong interest in market research as we enter 2024. The market is expected to grow from roughly $75 billion in 2021 to $90.79 billion in 2025 .

Free Market Research Kit

• SWOT Analysis Template
• Survey Template
• Focus Group Template

You're all set!

Click this link to access this resource at any time.

Why do market research?

Market research allows you to meet your buyer where they are.

As our world becomes louder and demands more of our attention, this proves invaluable.

By understanding your buyer's problems, pain points, and desired solutions, you can aptly craft your product or service to naturally appeal to them.

Market research also provides insight into the following:

• Where your target audience and current customers conduct their product or service research
• Which of your competitors your target audience looks to for information, options, or purchases
• What's trending in your industry and in the eyes of your buyer
• Who makes up your market and what their challenges are
• What influences purchases and conversions among your target audience
• Consumer attitudes about a particular topic, pain, product, or brand
• Whether there‘s demand for the business initiatives you’re investing in
• Unaddressed or underserved customer needs that can be flipped into selling opportunity
• Attitudes about pricing for a particular product or service

Ultimately, market research allows you to get information from a larger sample size of your target audience, eliminating bias and assumptions so that you can get to the heart of consumer attitudes.

As a result, you can make better business decisions.

To give you an idea of how extensive market research can get , consider that it can either be qualitative or quantitative in nature — depending on the studies you conduct and what you're trying to learn about your industry.

Qualitative research is concerned with public opinion, and explores how the market feels about the products currently available in that market.

Quantitative research is concerned with data, and looks for relevant trends in the information that's gathered from public records.

That said, there are two main types of market research that your business can conduct to collect actionable information on your products: primary research and secondary research.

Primary Research

Primary research is the pursuit of first-hand information about your market and the customers within your market.

It's useful when segmenting your market and establishing your buyer personas.

Primary market research tends to fall into one of two buckets:

• Exploratory Primary Research: This kind of primary market research normally takes place as a first step — before any specific research has been performed — and may involve open-ended interviews or surveys with small numbers of people.
• Specific Primary Research: This type of research often follows exploratory research. In specific research, you take a smaller or more precise segment of your audience and ask questions aimed at solving a suspected problem.

Secondary Research

Secondary research is all the data and public records you have at your disposal to draw conclusions from (e.g. trend reports, market statistics, industry content, and sales data you already have on your business).

Secondary research is particularly useful for analyzing your competitors . The main buckets your secondary market research will fall into include:

• Public Sources: These sources are your first and most-accessible layer of material when conducting secondary market research. They're often free to find and review — like government statistics (e.g., from the U.S. Census Bureau ).
• Commercial Sources: These sources often come in the form of pay-to-access market reports, consisting of industry insight compiled by a research agency like Pew , Gartner , or Forrester .
• Internal Sources: This is the market data your organization already has like average revenue per sale, customer retention rates, and other historical data that can help you draw conclusions on buyer needs.
• Focus Groups
• Product/ Service Use Research
• Observation-Based Research
• Buyer Persona Research
• Market Segmentation Research
• Pricing Research
• Competitive Analysis Research
• Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty Research
• Brand Awareness Research
• Campaign Research

1. Interviews

Interviews allow for face-to-face discussions so you can allow for a natural flow of conversation. Your interviewees can answer questions about themselves to help you design your buyer personas and shape your entire marketing strategy.

2. Focus Groups

Focus groups provide you with a handful of carefully-selected people that can test out your product and provide feedback. This type of market research can give you ideas for product differentiation.

3. Product/Service Use Research

Product or service use research offers insight into how and why your audience uses your product or service. This type of market research also gives you an idea of the product or service's usability for your target audience.

4. Observation-Based Research

Observation-based research allows you to sit back and watch the ways in which your target audience members go about using your product or service, what works well in terms of UX , and which aspects of it could be improved.

5. Buyer Persona Research

Buyer persona research gives you a realistic look at who makes up your target audience, what their challenges are, why they want your product or service, and what they need from your business or brand.

6. Market Segmentation Research

Market segmentation research allows you to categorize your target audience into different groups (or segments) based on specific and defining characteristics. This way, you can determine effective ways to meet their needs.

7. Pricing Research

Pricing research helps you define your pricing strategy . It gives you an idea of what similar products or services in your market sell for and what your target audience is willing to pay.

8. Competitive Analysis

Competitive analyses give you a deep understanding of the competition in your market and industry. You can learn about what's doing well in your industry and how you can separate yourself from the competition .

9. Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty Research

Customer satisfaction and loyalty research gives you a look into how you can get current customers to return for more business and what will motivate them to do so (e.g., loyalty programs , rewards, remarkable customer service).

10. Brand Awareness Research

Brand awareness research tells you what your target audience knows about and recognizes from your brand. It tells you about the associations people make when they think about your business.

11. Campaign Research

Campaign research entails looking into your past campaigns and analyzing their success among your target audience and current customers. The goal is to use these learnings to inform future campaigns.

• Define your buyer persona.
• Identify a persona group to engage.
• Prepare research questions for your market research participants.
• List your primary competitors.
• Summarize your findings.

1. Define your buyer persona.

You have to understand who your customers are and how customers in your industry make buying decisions.

This is where your buyer personas come in handy. Buyer personas — sometimes referred to as marketing personas — are fictional, generalized representations of your ideal customers.

Use a free tool to create a buyer persona that your entire company can use to market, sell, and serve better.

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How to do market research in 4 steps: a lean approach to marketing research

From pinpointing your target audience and assessing your competitive advantage, to ongoing product development and customer satisfaction efforts, market research is a practice your business can only benefit from.

Learn how to conduct quick and effective market research using a lean approach in this article full of strategies and practical examples. 

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A comprehensive (and successful) business strategy is not complete without some form of market research—you can’t make informed and profitable business decisions without truly understanding your customer base and the current market trends that drive your business.

In this article, you’ll learn how to conduct quick, effective market research  using an approach called 'lean market research'. It’s easier than you might think, and it can be done at any stage in a product’s lifecycle.

How to conduct lean market research in 4 steps

What is market research, why is market research so valuable, advantages of lean market research, 4 common market research methods, 5 common market research questions, market research faqs.

We’ll jump right into our 4-step approach to lean market research. To show you how it’s done in the real world, each step includes a practical example from Smallpdf , a Swiss company that used lean market research to reduce their tool’s error rate by 75% and boost their Net Promoter Score® (NPS) by 1%.

Research your market the lean way...

From on-page surveys to user interviews, Hotjar has the tools to help you scope out your market and get to know your customers—without breaking the bank.

The following four steps and practical examples will give you a solid market research plan for understanding who your users are and what they want from a company like yours.

1. Create simple user personas

A user persona is a semi-fictional character based on psychographic and demographic data from people who use websites and products similar to your own. Start by defining broad user categories, then elaborate on them later to further segment your customer base and determine your ideal customer profile .

How to get the data: use on-page or emailed surveys and interviews to understand your users and what drives them to your business.

How to do it right: whatever survey or interview questions you ask, they should answer the following questions about the customer:

Who are they?

What is their main goal?

What is their main barrier to achieving this goal?

Pitfalls to avoid:

Don’t ask too many questions! Keep it to five or less, otherwise you’ll inundate them and they’ll stop answering thoughtfully.

Don’t worry too much about typical demographic questions like age or background. Instead, focus on the role these people play (as it relates to your product) and their goals.

How Smallpdf did it: Smallpdf ran an on-page survey for a couple of weeks and received 1,000 replies. They learned that many of their users were administrative assistants, students, and teachers.

Next, they used the survey results to create simple user personas like this one for admins:

Who are they? Administrative Assistants.

What is their main goal? Creating Word documents from a scanned, hard-copy document or a PDF where the source file was lost.

What is their main barrier to achieving it? Converting a scanned PDF doc to a Word file.

💡Pro tip: Smallpdf used Hotjar Surveys to run their user persona survey. Our survey tool helped them avoid the pitfalls of guesswork and find out who their users really are, in their own words. 

You can design a survey and start running it in minutes with our easy-to-use drag and drop builder. Customize your survey to fit your needs, from a sleek one-question pop-up survey to a fully branded questionnaire sent via email. 

We've also created 40+ free survey templates that you can start collecting data with, including a user persona survey like the one Smallpdf used.

2. Conduct observational research

Observational research involves taking notes while watching someone use your product (or a similar product).

Overt vs. covert observation

Overt observation involves asking customers if they’ll let you watch them use your product. This method is often used for user testing and it provides a great opportunity for collecting live product or customer feedback .

Covert observation means studying users ‘in the wild’ without them knowing. This method works well if you sell a type of product that people use regularly, and it offers the purest observational data because people often behave differently when they know they’re being watched. 

Tips to do it right:

Record an entry in your field notes, along with a timestamp, each time an action or event occurs.

Make note of the users' workflow, capturing the ‘what,’ ‘why,’ and ‘for whom’ of each action.

Don’t record identifiable video or audio data without consent. If recording people using your product is helpful for achieving your research goal, make sure all participants are informed and agree to the terms.

Don’t forget to explain why you’d like to observe them (for overt observation). People are more likely to cooperate if you tell them you want to improve the product.

💡Pro tip: while conducting field research out in the wild can wield rewarding results, you can also conduct observational research remotely. Hotjar Recordings is a tool that lets you capture anonymized user sessions of real people interacting with your website. 

Observe how customers navigate your pages and products to gain an inside look into their user behavior . This method is great for conducting exploratory research with the purpose of identifying more specific issues to investigate further, like pain points along the customer journey and opportunities for optimizing conversion .

With Hotjar Recordings you can observe real people using your site without capturing their sensitive information

How Smallpdf did it: here’s how Smallpdf observed two different user personas both covertly and overtly.

Observing students (covert): Kristina Wagner, Principle Product Manager at Smallpdf, went to cafes and libraries at two local universities and waited until she saw students doing PDF-related activities. Then she watched and took notes from a distance. One thing that struck her was the difference between how students self-reported their activities vs. how they behaved (i.e, the self-reporting bias). Students, she found, spent hours talking, listening to music, or simply staring at a blank screen rather than working. When she did find students who were working, she recorded the task they were performing and the software they were using (if she recognized it).

Observing administrative assistants (overt): Kristina sent emails to admins explaining that she’d like to observe them at work, and she asked those who agreed to try to batch their PDF work for her observation day. While watching admins work, she learned that they frequently needed to scan documents into PDF-format and then convert those PDFs into Word docs. By observing the challenges admins faced, Smallpdf knew which products to target for improvement.

“Data is really good for discovery and validation, but there is a bit in the middle where you have to go and find the human.”

3. Conduct individual interviews

Interviews are one-on-one conversations with members of your target market. They allow you to dig deep and explore their concerns, which can lead to all sorts of revelations.

Listen more, talk less. Be curious.

Act like a journalist, not a salesperson. Rather than trying to talk your company up, ask people about their lives, their needs, their frustrations, and how a product like yours could help.

Ask "why?" so you can dig deeper. Get into the specifics and learn about their past behavior.

Record the conversation. Focus on the conversation and avoid relying solely on notes by recording the interview. There are plenty of services that will transcribe recorded conversations for a good price (including Hotjar!).

Avoid asking leading questions , which reveal bias on your part and pushes respondents to answer in a certain direction (e.g. “Have you taken advantage of the amazing new features we just released?).

Don't ask loaded questions , which sneak in an assumption which, if untrue, would make it impossible to answer honestly. For example, we can’t ask you, “What did you find most useful about this article?” without asking whether you found the article useful in the first place.

Be cautious when asking opinions about the future (or predictions of future behavior). Studies suggest that people aren’t very good at predicting their future behavior. This is due to several cognitive biases, from the misguided exceptionalism bias (we’re good at guessing what others will do, but we somehow think we’re different), to the optimism bias (which makes us see things with rose-colored glasses), to the ‘illusion of control’ (which makes us forget the role of randomness in future events).

How Smallpdf did it: Kristina explored her teacher user persona by speaking with university professors at a local graduate school. She learned that the school was mostly paperless and rarely used PDFs, so for the sake of time, she moved on to the admins.

A bit of a letdown? Sure. But this story highlights an important lesson: sometimes you follow a lead and come up short, so you have to make adjustments on the fly. Lean market research is about getting solid, actionable insights quickly so you can tweak things and see what works.

💡Pro tip: to save even more time, conduct remote interviews using an online user research service like Hotjar Engage , which automates the entire interview process, from recruitment and scheduling to hosting and recording.

You can interview your own customers or connect with people from our diverse pool of 200,000+ participants from 130+ countries and 25 industries. And no need to fret about taking meticulous notes—Engage will automatically transcribe the interview for you.

4. Analyze the data (without drowning in it)

The following techniques will help you wrap your head around the market data you collect without losing yourself in it. Remember, the point of lean market research is to find quick, actionable insights.

A flow model is a diagram that tracks the flow of information within a system. By creating a simple visual representation of how users interact with your product and each other, you can better assess their needs.

You’ll notice that admins are at the center of Smallpdf’s flow model, which represents the flow of PDF-related documents throughout a school. This flow model shows the challenges that admins face as they work to satisfy their own internal and external customers.

Affinity diagram

An affinity diagram is a way of sorting large amounts of data into groups to better understand the big picture. For example, if you ask your users about their profession, you’ll notice some general themes start to form, even though the individual responses differ. Depending on your needs, you could group them by profession, or more generally by industry.

We wrote a guide about how to analyze open-ended questions to help you sort through and categorize large volumes of response data. You can also do this by hand by clipping up survey responses or interview notes and grouping them (which is what Kristina does).

“For an interview, you will have somewhere between 30 and 60 notes, and those notes are usually direct phrases. And when you literally cut them up into separate pieces of paper and group them, they should make sense by themselves.”

Pro tip: if you’re conducting an online survey with Hotjar, keep your team in the loop by sharing survey responses automatically via our Slack and Microsoft Team integrations. Reading answers as they come in lets you digest the data in pieces and can help prepare you for identifying common themes when it comes time for analysis.

Hotjar lets you easily share survey responses with your team

Customer journey map

A customer journey map is a diagram that shows the way a typical prospect becomes a paying customer. It outlines their first interaction with your brand and every step in the sales cycle, from awareness to repurchase (and hopefully advocacy).

The above  customer journey map , created by our team at Hotjar, shows many ways a customer might engage with our tool. Your map will be based on your own data and business model.

📚 Read more: if you’re new to customer journey maps, we wrote this step-by-step guide to creating your first customer journey map in 2 and 1/2 days with free templates you can download and start using immediately.

Next steps: from research to results

So, how do you turn market research insights into tangible business results? Let’s look at the actions Smallpdf took after conducting their lean market research: first they implemented changes, then measured the impact.

Implement changes

Based on what Smallpdf learned about the challenges that one key user segment (admins) face when trying to convert PDFs into Word files, they improved their ‘PDF to Word’ conversion tool.

We won’t go into the details here because it involves a lot of technical jargon, but they made the entire process simpler and more straightforward for users. Plus, they made it so that their system recognized when you drop a PDF file into their ‘Word to PDF’ converter instead of the ‘PDF to Word’ converter, so users wouldn’t have to redo the task when they made that mistake. 

In other words: simple market segmentation for admins showed a business need that had to be accounted for, and customers are happier overall after Smallpdf implemented an informed change to their product.

Measure results

According to the Lean UX model, product and UX changes aren’t retained unless they achieve results.

Smallpdf’s changes produced:

A 75% reduction in error rate for the ‘PDF to Word’ converter

A 1% increase in NPS

Greater confidence in the team’s marketing efforts

"With all the changes said and done, we've cut our original error rate in four, which is huge. We increased our NPS by +1%, which isn't huge, but it means that of the users who received a file, they were still slightly happier than before, even if they didn't notice that anything special happened at all.”

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Market research (or marketing research) is any set of techniques used to gather information and better understand a company’s target market. This might include primary research on brand awareness and customer satisfaction or secondary market research on market size and competitive analysis. Businesses use this information to design better products, improve user experience, and craft a marketing strategy that attracts quality leads and improves conversion rates.

David Darmanin, one of Hotjar’s founders, launched two startups before Hotjar took off—but both companies crashed and burned. Each time, he and his team spent months trying to design an amazing new product and user experience, but they failed because they didn’t have a clear understanding of what the market demanded.

With Hotjar, they did things differently . Long story short, they conducted market research in the early stages to figure out what consumers really wanted, and the team made (and continues to make) constant improvements based on market and user research.

Without market research, it’s impossible to understand your users. Sure, you might have a general idea of who they are and what they need, but you have to dig deep if you want to win their loyalty.

Here’s why research matters:

Obsessing over your users is the only way to win. If you don’t care deeply about them, you’ll lose potential customers to someone who does.

Analytics gives you the ‘what’, while research gives you the ‘why’. Big data, user analytics , and dashboards can tell you what people do at scale, but only research can tell you what they’re thinking and why they do what they do. For example, analytics can tell you that customers leave when they reach your pricing page, but only research can explain why.

Research beats assumptions, trends, and so-called best practices. Have you ever watched your colleagues rally behind a terrible decision? Bad ideas are often the result of guesswork, emotional reasoning, death by best practices , and defaulting to the Highest Paid Person’s Opinion (HiPPO). By listening to your users and focusing on their customer experience , you’re less likely to get pulled in the wrong direction.

Research keeps you from planning in a vacuum. Your team might be amazing, but you and your colleagues simply can’t experience your product the way your customers do. Customers might use your product in a way that surprises you, and product features that seem obvious to you might confuse them. Over-planning and refusing to test your assumptions is a waste of time, money, and effort because you’ll likely need to make changes once your untested business plan gets put into practice.

Lean User Experience (UX) design is a model for continuous improvement that relies on quick, efficient research to understand customer needs and test new product features.

Lean market research can help you become more...

Efficient: it gets you closer to your customers, faster.

Cost-effective: no need to hire an expensive marketing firm to get things started.

Competitive: quick, powerful insights can place your products on the cutting edge.

As a small business or sole proprietor, conducting lean market research is an attractive option when investing in a full-blown research project might seem out of scope or budget.

There are lots of different ways you could conduct market research and collect customer data, but you don’t have to limit yourself to just one research method. Four common types of market research techniques include surveys, interviews, focus groups, and customer observation.

Which method you use may vary based on your business type: ecommerce business owners have different goals from SaaS businesses, so it’s typically prudent to mix and match these methods based on your particular goals and what you need to know.

1. Surveys: the most commonly used

Surveys are a form of qualitative research that ask respondents a short series of open- or closed-ended questions, which can be delivered as an on-screen questionnaire or via email. When we asked 2,000 Customer Experience (CX) professionals about their company’s approach to research , surveys proved to be the most commonly used market research technique.

What makes online surveys so popular?  

They’re easy and inexpensive to conduct, and you can do a lot of data collection quickly. Plus, the data is pretty straightforward to analyze, even when you have to analyze open-ended questions whose answers might initially appear difficult to categorize.

We've built a number of survey templates ready and waiting for you. Grab a template and share with your customers in just a few clicks.

💡 Pro tip: you can also get started with Hotjar AI for Surveys to create a survey in mere seconds . Just enter your market research goal and watch as the AI generates a survey and populates it with relevant questions. 

Once you’re ready for data analysis, the AI will prepare an automated research report that succinctly summarizes key findings, quotes, and suggested next steps.

An example research report generated by Hotjar AI for Surveys

2. Interviews: the most insightful

Interviews are one-on-one conversations with members of your target market. Nothing beats a face-to-face interview for diving deep (and reading non-verbal cues), but if an in-person meeting isn’t possible, video conferencing is a solid second choice.

Regardless of how you conduct it, any type of in-depth interview will produce big benefits in understanding your target customers.

What makes interviews so insightful?

By speaking directly with an ideal customer, you’ll gain greater empathy for their experience , and you can follow insightful threads that can produce plenty of 'Aha!' moments.

3. Focus groups: the most unreliable

Focus groups bring together a carefully selected group of people who fit a company’s target market. A trained moderator leads a conversation surrounding the product, user experience, or marketing message to gain deeper insights.

What makes focus groups so unreliable?

If you’re new to market research, we wouldn’t recommend starting with focus groups. Doing it right is expensive , and if you cut corners, your research could fall victim to all kinds of errors. Dominance bias (when a forceful participant influences the group) and moderator style bias (when different moderator personalities bring about different results in the same study) are two of the many ways your focus group data could get skewed.

4. Observation: the most powerful

During a customer observation session, someone from the company takes notes while they watch an ideal user engage with their product (or a similar product from a competitor).

What makes observation so clever and powerful?

‘Fly-on-the-wall’ observation is a great alternative to focus groups. It’s not only less expensive, but you’ll see people interact with your product in a natural setting without influencing each other. The only downside is that you can’t get inside their heads, so observation still isn't a recommended replacement for customer surveys and interviews.

The following questions will help you get to know your users on a deeper level when you interview them. They’re general questions, of course, so don’t be afraid to make them your own.

1. Who are you and what do you do?

How you ask this question, and what you want to know, will vary depending on your business model (e.g. business-to-business marketing is usually more focused on someone’s profession than business-to-consumer marketing).

It’s a great question to start with, and it’ll help you understand what’s relevant about your user demographics (age, race, gender, profession, education, etc.), but it’s not the be-all-end-all of market research. The more specific questions come later.

2. What does your day look like?

This question helps you understand your users’ day-to-day life and the challenges they face. It will help you gain empathy for them, and you may stumble across something relevant to their buying habits.

3. Do you ever purchase [product/service type]?

This is a ‘yes or no’ question. A ‘yes’ will lead you to the next question.

4. What problem were you trying to solve or what goal were you trying to achieve?

This question strikes to the core of what someone’s trying to accomplish and why they might be willing to pay for your solution.

5. Take me back to the day when you first decided you needed to solve this kind of problem or achieve this goal.

This is the golden question, and it comes from Adele Revella, Founder and CEO of Buyer Persona Institute . It helps you get in the heads of your users and figure out what they were thinking the day they decided to spend money to solve a problem.

If you take your time with this question, digging deeper where it makes sense, you should be able to answer all the relevant information you need to understand their perspective.

“The only scripted question I want you to ask them is this one: take me back to the day when you first decided that you needed to solve this kind of problem or achieve this kind of a goal. Not to buy my product, that’s not the day. We want to go back to the day that when you thought it was urgent and compelling to go spend money to solve a particular problem or achieve a goal. Just tell me what happened.”

— Adele Revella , Founder/CEO at Buyer Persona Institute

Bonus question: is there anything else you’d like to tell me?

This question isn’t just a nice way to wrap it up—it might just give participants the opportunity they need to tell you something you really need to know.

That’s why Sarah Doody, author of UX Notebook , adds it to the end of her written surveys.

“I always have a last question, which is just open-ended: “Is there anything else you would like to tell me?” And sometimes, that’s where you get four paragraphs of amazing content that you would never have gotten if it was just a Net Promoter Score [survey] or something like that.”

What is the difference between qualitative and quantitative research?

Qualitative research asks questions that can’t be reduced to a number, such as, “What is your job title?” or “What did you like most about your customer service experience?” 

Quantitative research asks questions that can be answered with a numeric value, such as, “What is your annual salary?” or “How was your customer service experience on a scale of 1-5?”

 → Read more about the differences between qualitative and quantitative user research .

How do I do my own market research?

You can do your own quick and effective market research by 

Surveying your customers

Building user personas

Studying your users through interviews and observation

Wrapping your head around your data with tools like flow models, affinity diagrams, and customer journey maps

What is the difference between market research and user research?

Market research takes a broad look at potential customers—what problems they’re trying to solve, their buying experience, and overall demand. User research, on the other hand, is more narrowly focused on the use (and usability ) of specific products.

What are the main criticisms of market research?

Many marketing professionals are critical of market research because it can be expensive and time-consuming. It’s often easier to convince your CEO or CMO to let you do lean market research rather than something more extensive because you can do it yourself. It also gives you quick answers so you can stay ahead of the competition.

Do I need a market research firm to get reliable data?

Absolutely not! In fact, we recommend that you start small and do it yourself in the beginning. By following a lean market research strategy, you can uncover some solid insights about your clients. Then you can make changes, test them out, and see whether the results are positive. This is an excellent strategy for making quick changes and remaining competitive.

Net Promoter, Net Promoter System, Net Promoter Score, NPS, and the NPS-related emoticons are registered trademarks of Bain & Company, Inc., Fred Reichheld, and Satmetrix Systems, Inc.

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What Is Market Research?

• How It Works
• Primary vs. Secondary
• How to Conduct Research

The Bottom Line

• Marketing Essentials

How to Do Market Research, Types, and Example

Joules Garcia / Investopedia

Market research examines consumer behavior and trends in the economy to help a business develop and fine-tune its business idea and strategy. It helps a business understand its target market by gathering and analyzing data.

Market research is the process of evaluating the viability of a new service or product through research conducted directly with potential customers. It allows a company to define its target market and get opinions and other feedback from consumers about their interest in a product or service.

Research may be conducted in-house or by a third party that specializes in market research. It can be done through surveys and focus groups, among other ways. Test subjects are usually compensated with product samples or a small stipend for their time.

Key Takeaways

• Companies conduct market research before introducing new products to determine their appeal to potential customers.
• Tools include focus groups, telephone interviews, and questionnaires.
• The results of market research inform the final design of the product and determine how it will be positioned in the marketplace.
• Market research usually combines primary information, gathered directly from consumers, and secondary information, which is data available from external sources.

Market Research

How market research works.

Market research is used to determine the viability of a new product or service. The results may be used to revise the product design and fine-tune the strategy for introducing it to the public. This can include information gathered for the purpose of determining market segmentation . It also informs product differentiation , which is used to tailor advertising.

A business engages in various tasks to complete the market research process. It gathers information based on the market sector being targeted by the product. This information is then analyzed and relevant data points are interpreted to draw conclusions about how the product may be optimally designed and marketed to the market segment for which it is intended.

It is a critical component in the research and development (R&D) phase of a new product or service introduction. Market research can be conducted in many different ways, including surveys, product testing, interviews, and focus groups.

Market research is a critical tool that companies use to understand what consumers want, develop products that those consumers will use, and maintain a competitive advantage over other companies in their industry.

Primary Market Research vs. Secondary Market Research

Market research usually consists of a combination of:

• Primary research, gathered by the company or by an outside company that it hires
• Secondary research, which draws on external sources of data

Primary Market Research

Primary research generally falls into two categories: exploratory and specific research.

• Exploratory research is less structured and functions via open-ended questions. The questions may be posed in a focus group setting, telephone interviews, or questionnaires. It results in questions or issues that the company needs to address about a product that it has under development.
• Specific research delves more deeply into the problems or issues identified in exploratory research.

Secondary Market Research

All market research is informed by the findings of other researchers about the needs and wants of consumers. Today, much of this research can be found online.

Secondary research can include population information from government census data , trade association research reports , polling results, and research from other businesses operating in the same market sector.

History of Market Research

Formal market research began in Germany during the 1920s. In the United States, it soon took off with the advent of the Golden Age of Radio.

Companies that created advertisements for this new entertainment medium began to look at the demographics of the audiences who listened to each of the radio plays, music programs, and comedy skits that were presented.

They had once tried to reach the widest possible audience by placing their messages on billboards or in the most popular magazines. With radio programming, they had the chance to target rural or urban consumers, teenagers or families, and judge the results by the sales numbers that followed.

Types of Market Research

Face-to-face interviews.

From their earliest days, market research companies would interview people on the street about the newspapers and magazines that they read regularly and ask whether they recalled any of the ads or brands that were published in them. Data collected from these interviews were compared to the circulation of the publication to determine the effectiveness of those ads.

Market research and surveys were adapted from these early techniques.

To get a strong understanding of your market, it’s essential to understand demand, market size, economic indicators, location, market saturation, and pricing.

Focus Groups

A focus group is a small number of representative consumers chosen to try a product or watch an advertisement.

Afterward, the group is asked for feedback on their perceptions of the product, the company’s brand, or competing products. The company then takes that information and makes decisions about what to do with the product or service, whether that's releasing it, making changes, or abandoning it altogether.

Phone Research

The man-on-the-street interview technique soon gave way to the telephone interview. A telephone interviewer could collect information in a more efficient and cost-effective fashion.

Telephone research was a preferred tactic of market researchers for many years. It has become much more difficult in recent years as landline phone service dwindles and is replaced by less accessible mobile phones.

Survey Research

As an alternative to focus groups, surveys represent a cost-effective way to determine consumer attitudes without having to interview anyone in person. Consumers are sent surveys in the mail, usually with a coupon or voucher to incentivize participation. These surveys help determine how consumers feel about the product, brand, and price point.

Online Market Research

With people spending more time online, market research activities have shifted online as well. Data collection still uses a survey-style form. But instead of companies actively seeking participants by finding them on the street or cold calling them on the phone, people can choose to sign up, take surveys, and offer opinions when they have time.

This makes the process far less intrusive and less rushed, since people can participate on their own time and of their own volition.

How to Conduct Market Research

The first step to effective market research is to determine the goals of the study. Each study should seek to answer a clear, well-defined problem. For example, a company might seek to identify consumer preferences, brand recognition, or the comparative effectiveness of different types of ad campaigns.

After that, the next step is to determine who will be included in the research. Market research is an expensive process, and a company cannot waste resources collecting unnecessary data. The firm should decide in advance which types of consumers will be included in the research, and how the data will be collected. They should also account for the probability of statistical errors or sampling bias .

The next step is to collect the data and analyze the results. If the two previous steps have been completed accurately, this should be straightforward. The researchers will collect the results of their study, keeping track of the ages, gender, and other relevant data of each respondent. This is then analyzed in a marketing report that explains the results of their research.

The last step is for company executives to use their market research to make business decisions. Depending on the results of their research, they may choose to target a different group of consumers, or they may change their price point or some product features.

The results of these changes may eventually be measured in further market research, and the process will begin all over again.

Benefits of Market Research

Market research is essential for developing brand loyalty and customer satisfaction. Since it is unlikely for a product to appeal equally to every consumer, a strong market research program can help identify the key demographics and market segments that are most likely to use a given product.

Market research is also important for developing a company’s advertising efforts. For example, if a company’s market research determines that its consumers are more likely to use Facebook than X (formerly Twitter), it can then target its advertisements to one platform instead of another. Or, if they determine that their target market is value-sensitive rather than price-sensitive, they can work on improving the product rather than reducing their prices.

Market research only works when subjects are honest and open to participating.

Example of Market Research

Many companies use market research to test new products or get information from consumers about what kinds of products or services they need and don’t currently have.

For example, a company that’s considering starting a business might conduct market research to test the viability of its product or service. If the market research confirms consumer interest, the business can proceed confidently with its business plan . If not, the company can use the results of the market research to make adjustments to the product to bring it in line with customer desires.

What Are the Main Types of Market Research?

The main types of market research are primary research and secondary research. Primary research includes focus groups, polls, and surveys. Secondary research includes academic articles, infographics, and white papers.

Qualitative research gives insights into how customers feel and think. Quantitative research uses data and statistics such as website views, social media engagement, and subscriber numbers.

What Is Online Market Research?

Online market research uses the same strategies and techniques as traditional primary and secondary market research, but it is conducted on the Internet. Potential customers may be asked to participate in a survey or give feedback on a product. The responses may help the researchers create a profile of the likely customer for a new product.

What Are Paid Market Research Surveys?

Paid market research involves rewarding individuals who agree to participate in a study. They may be offered a small payment for their time or a discount coupon in return for filling out a questionnaire or participating in a focus group.

What Is a Market Study?

A market study is an analysis of consumer demand for a product or service. It looks at all of the factors that influence demand for a product or service. These include the product’s price, location, competition, and substitutes as well as general economic factors that could influence the new product’s adoption, for better or worse.

Market research is a key component of a company’s research and development (R&D) stage. It helps companies understand in advance the viability of a new product that they have in development and to see how it might perform in the real world.

Britannica Money. “ Market Research .”

U.S. Small Business Administration. “ Market Research and Competitive Analysis .”

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