Market Research Survey Notes

Please number all questions and design the form properly like an actual survey that you can use and answer straight away. Indicate where to write the answers, e.g. brackets, blank lines. Introduce yourself in the beginning and thank the participant at the end of the survey.

E.g. “Dear Participants,

I am representing <your group>, collecting information on behalf of xxx company for the purpose of market research. Kindly answer every question in this survey; it will take approximately 15 min to complete. If you have any query, please feel free to approach me for clarification. Please return the completed survey form to me at <ADDRESS> by 18 March 2013. (This is an academic exercise – xxx company does not exist.)

Thank you for your kind participation in this survey.”

Many of you did not ask questions that tells you how useful the responses are: you didn’t ask the participants’ income level, ages and ability to make decision. In other words, you need to determine if the participants are suitable for your survey.

Answers take time and effort to analyse. For every question you put into the final survey, ask yourself how the answers will be useful for writing your business plan. If you can’t convince yourself that it help you, choose another question or re-write it to capture the information you need.

Note: open-ended questions that allow participants to write any response are typical very hard to analyse eventually.