Frequently Asked Questions
When does a company need to conduct market research?
If you are faced with a marketing problem that you feel could be solved if only you knew what your customers / prospects were thinking, then market research is the right way to go. Whether it’s advertising, packaging, the brand experience or growing your brand equity, some market research with your consumers can give you the insights you need to move forward and tackle a problem, knowing that you are focusing your efforts on the right actions.
What details do you need to know before you can propose a solution for a market research project?
If you approach us with a request for proposal, we will ask you firstly what your ultimate objectives.
Other details we will need to know will include:
- Who do you want to speak to? Are they consumers / prospects or both? Where are these consumers based?
- Based on the type of person you want to speak to we will recommend a methodology. This could qualitative, quantitative, face-to-face, online or telephonic.
- Do you already have a questionnaire designed or would you require us to design it?
- What are your reporting requirements?
- What is your timeline?
- Do you have a budget?
What is the difference between quantitative and qualitative market research?
Qualitative research is descriptive research and makes use of long interviews and focus groups to glean rich insights about a particular topic. Quantitative research uses large scale survey research and makes use of structured questionnaires. Results cleaned from quantitative research involve more numbers and clean cut classifications.
How often do you need to conduct market research?
It depends on the project that you are embarking on. If your market research yields a key metric that would provide value in monitoring, then this needs to be done on a continual basis. Depending on your turnaround time for implementing change, this could be done every month, every three months, biannually or annually to track the change. Some market research such as initial usage and attitude research, or concept / package testing for example, only needs to be conducted as a once-off project.
How do you gather the information?
We will phone respondents, book appointments with them to conduct interviews or invite them to participate in an online survey. If the research project is qualitative we will invite them to focus groups or in-depth interviews, do ethnographies or go into their environments (like stokvels) to get the research that we need.
My company does not fit into any of the sectors you have mentioned here. Can you still conduct market research in other sectors?
Yes, please contact us to brief us on the details of your project.
I would like to work for Ipsos. What do I do?
Please visit our careers page on this website where you can view vacancies and contact our recruitment officer.