What are the biggest mistakes people make when conducting market research?

Written by: Paul Stallard


When analysing mistakes made by companies carrying out market research there are two main stand-out blunders that can hinder your findings; the wrong questionnaire and the wrong sample.

When carrying out market research, your questionnaire should be entirely objectives focused, avoiding as many tangents and irrelevant pieces of information as possible. Do not launch a survey wanting to find out about retail shopping habits and ask questions about something completely disconnected. This will simply provide you with useless results which you will then have to manipulate into fitting your expectation. It is far more effective to plan and prepare so that you ask the right questions and therefore have results that can back up your campaign.

The second biggest mistake in market research is choosing the wrong sample. For example, people often miss the opportunity to target their sample by asking people with better experience or expertise in the desired sector. It is common practice to open a survey to the general public rather than asking a particular group that that has a skillset and knowledge to provide more helpful results.

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When carrying out research, your questionnaire should be entirely objectives focussed, avoiding as many tangents and irrelevant pieces of information as possible.

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