How to prepare a Market Research brief

An increasing number of organisations are commissioning market research on a wide range of issues from external agencies. One should bear in mind that developing a research proposal (particularly if organisation require an on-site presentation) takes considerable professional time and often some initial desk research. Consequently, it is courteous, before approaching agencies for a detailed response, to have:

Budget approval for the project (at least in principle) – organisation should always start with idea of what they want to spend and minimum benefits & value they want to get by spending that amount - not use agencies’ proposals as a starting point for deciding whether they can afford to do research

A carefully thought out and internally agreed research brief – it is a waste of time and effort to invite proposals without a brief and then decide what organisation really want to do - then rebrief the agency!

A Quality Brief

The quality of response organisation get from outside agencies in terms of their proposal will reflect the quality of organisation’s brief. It is, therefore, important from organisation’s own point of view to spend some time in deciding what they want, preparing their brief, and getting any necessary internal approval for the project before approaching external agencies for their proposals.

The brief should aim to give the agencies all the information they need without being prescriptive, thereby precluding any creativity on their part. Although the detailed methodology will be suggested by the agencies, it is appropriate to indicate in the brief whether you are looking for outcomes in terms of numbers (quantitative research) or direction (qualitative research).

The document should include the following sections:

Background

Organisations must try to be specific and discrete. It is also useful to give agencies guidance as to the sort of decisions organisation will want/have to take on the basis of the research findings.

Organisations must try to give information specific to its scenario/problem. The agency needs to know something about organisation {a copy of your prospectus can be a good start}. Good agencies will do their own research and/or ask organisation the appropriate questions to ensure that they have a feel for client organisation and what is happening in the market, before they put together their proposal.

Objectives

Organisation must e as specific as possible about the aims of the research. All encompassing objectives should be avoided, for example To investigate the scope for widening participation – is very topical but too general/vague. This could be expressed more specifically as follows:

• To define the profile of the organisation’s services against national statistics

• To define the barriers to enter in higher price segments amongst car or automobile market

• To appraise the product portfolio with a view to widening client base

Research audiences and scope

Organisation must suggest the audiences they are interested in - for example potential middle class, having one car, online bank account holder etc - particularly if the agency is not a segment specialist. To research every audience may be beyond client organisation’s budget so they should indicate priorities. Client organisation should also indicate if they have relevant internal lists (for example, existing customer, past inquiry data, etc) or access to any data that may be useful to the agencies.

Organisation should list the areas of particular interest (full-time, part-time, undergraduate, postgraduate, etc) and outline general information requirements.

Time scale

If organisation have critical dates by which they need feedback from the research, eg a Governors’ meeting or a broad time scale in mind, they should indicate this in the brief – otherwise must ask the agencies to suggest an appropriate timetable.

Outcomes

Organisation should try to define expected outcome, if they require initial briefing sessions or meetings during the project and/or a formal presentation or informal debriefing meeting on completion of the project? What are expectations in terms of the final written report and whether or not they prefer to see it initially in draft form.

Budget

Although organisations are sometimes reticent to give a budget, this is less than helpful to agencies putting together a proposal and may not result in the best solution for the organisation. Organisations must bear in mind that research can be a bit like buying a car. One can spend £5000 and acquire one which will do the basic job of transporting from A to B but need to spend £20,000 and enjoy the luxury of car with more features.

There will be a direct correlation between the scale and depth of the research and budget. Most agencies base charges on a straightforward combination of the cost of staff time and direct costs incurred in the research process (fieldwork costs, data inputting, travel and subsistence costs, etc).

Comparing proposals

Buying research is not like buying stationery or other tangible items, it is buying the expertise of the researchers and consultants and have to make a judgement on which agency is likely to offer the best all-round value for money – this will not necessarily be the cheapest. Organisations need to look carefully at the proposed methodology and consider which agency has shown the best insight into the issue. Organisations should take time to find out from the agency the level of commentary/analysis it will provide on the findings as it is this which will add the value to the project (number crunching and table generation is a fairly mechanical process).

Acknowledgement and thanks for these article to Deepak Pareek, Head – Indian Research Advisory Group. He can be contacted at [email protected].

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