Many market researcher (and organisations who employ them) had faced a notion “ It’s often said that the only bad question is the one you didn’t ask “. If right questions are being asked by researchers then they can help companies to identify and address concerns by helping them to create new metrics. It will also enable them to corroborate the mettle of their marketing procedures and products.
If you are going for survey research you should self-introspect your understanding of surveys and how much they can contribute in overall development of various aspects that lead to company’s growth.
Some fallacies that you must clear up before going for surveys as means for carrying out market research:
Myth 1-More Data is better:
The focus should be not in gathering more data through more questions being asked to high number of respondents. To get good data right questions need to be asked to right respondents. Spending time to screen the audience and asking them relevant questions will enable you to get quality insights. Asking too many questions related to many topics can make the respondents frustrated and abandon the survey or they will not give the survey with full interest and provide false information which makes the whole process a big failure. So quality is more important than quantity.
Myth 2-Respondents should not be anonyms:
Demographic information about respondents provides appropriate data to put responses into the right prospective. It also helps in determining that if inferences about rest of the population can be drawn out or not. You don’t need individual names rather a general sense about the respondents is adequate to get results to take appropriate actions by the companies.
Myth 3-One mode fits all:
“One size fits all” does not work in the market research surveys like most things in life. An online survey would not give optimum results if your respondents are elderly people, not having access to a computer and internet or don’t know the correct way to use the device they are using to fill out the survey. If researchers are using paper survey then they are more likely to reach less number of respondents or that are not the right audience for a particular survey. You may not get the same results from the same survey if you are targeting respondents with same demographics in developed and developing countries. Instead the surveys should be designed to reach the right target respondents to make the efforts worthwhile.
Myth 4-Everyone can easily do it:
In the modern era, there are a number of available options to carry out market research surveys yourself. Practically it is not that easy as it seems. There are many market research professionals who still make mistakes even after years of experience. If you want appropriate results and ROI then you should reach out to market research companies who have an expertise in carrying out market research through surveys. This will give you optimum results so that you can take correct decisions for your company or business and flourish on the path of development and grow exponentially.
