Conduct a New Product Market Research Survey in 8 Steps
New product market research surveys are used to collect consumer feedback about a new product or a new product concept. The product can be anything from a household item such as food or a toy, to larger item such as a kitchen appliance or television. Whatever the product may be, small or large, the process of managing the new product market research survey will remain the same, from start to finish.
Process of managing a new product market research survey
- Choose your preferred survey method: online survey, paper survey, mobile survey, phone survey, face-to-face interview, etc. Online surveys and mobile surveys can be more cost effective. However, remember, keep your target respondents in mind. Some consumers may not have access to a computer or mobile device. Some respondents may be more accessible through mailed paper surveys.
- Discuss the survey with other department managers such as product managers, marketing, advertising, sales, engineering, and finance. Managers from other departments will have insight into the information they want to obtain from the product research survey. As the market researcher, you can take the information you gather from the managers and turn it into properly phrased and formatted question types.
- If you do not have the in-house resources or formal knowledge to conduct a proper market research survey, consider hiring a third party survey research provider as they have the professional resources and expertise.
- Create the new product market research survey. It is best to ask as many closed-ended questions, preferably at the beginning of the questionnaire. There are several types of closed-ended question types such as multiple choice questions, rating scale questions, and ranking questions. Include some open-ended questions at the end of the survey, so respondents can provide comments or express opinions. Also, try to keep the survey short, no more than 5 minutes. The longer the survey, the higher the drop-out rate.
- Allow other managers to review and test the survey. Adjust as needed.
- Obtain your target respondent panel. Ensure that the respondent sample size is representative of your total consumer base. Survey a mixture of current and potential consumers. You want to gather a range of consumer feedback.
- Administer the survey with your chosen method, and collect and manage results. Online survey software has the advanced administration and data collection capabilities necessary to conduct and manage new product market research surveys to gather effective results. However, you’re not limited to designing and conducting just online new product market research surveys. As previously mentioned, some consumers may be more accessible via paper surveys. More advanced survey software solutions have multi-mode capabilities, allowing you to output the same survey into different formats, i.e. paper, online, mobile (including iPad, iPhone, Android, and Smartphones), and kiosk. The structure and content of the survey remains the same for each mode, but the appearance will be different to adjust to each mode.
- And finally, process and analyze results. Advanced survey software solutions have built-in analysis capabilities. Analyze survey data with tables, charts, graphs, cross tabulations, and more advanced analysis functionality. Learn more about advanced analysis features.
