market research leading questions

Product Management

80 Market Research Questions for More Valuable Insights (+tips)

Content Writer

December 11, 2023

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There are different types of market research, with 85% of researchers regularly using online surveys as their go-to tool , allowing them to reach broad target audiences in a cost-effective way.

Online surveys can break down geographical barriers and uncover profound customer insights, but only if you come up with the right market research questions.

Your questions shape the data you get, influencing your understanding of customer behavior and key consumer trends.

In this article, you'll find many examples of market research questions organized by categories, followed by tips for creating and analyzing your own market research survey.

80 market research questions to ask for more valuable insights

Demographic questions.

Learning more about your existing customer base can help you identify your ideal customers and adjust your marketing strategy accordingly. During the process, you may also discover that you have different customer personas, and you can later segment your audience.

Also, having detailed demographic data allows you to create targeted marketing campaigns that will convert better.

Here are some questions to explore your target audience:

• What is your age and gender?
• Where do you live?
• Do you have a partner or children?
• What is your highest level of education?
• In what industry do you work?
• What is your current job title?
• What is your annual income?
• What's the category you spend the most money on (e.g., groceries, technology, clothes)?
• What's the average amount you spend on _____ (mention a particular category relevant to your industry)?
• What websites, newspapers or magazines do you use to stay informed?

Product opportunities

Almost half of the startups fail because they're building products for which there's no real market need . That's why it's essential to do a product opportunity assessment before you invest time and money into building a product that may not have a big enough target market.

The following market research interview questions will help you discover burning issues and problems that your new product or service can solve.

• What challenges and problems do you currently face in _____ (name specific area) that you can't find an adequate solution for?
• Are there any existing products that you find close to meeting your needs but still fall short in some aspects, and which?
• How do you currently cope with the absence of a dedicated solution for that problem?
• Hypothetically speaking, what would an ideal solution for that problem look like?
• What features would you like this product to include?
• Would you purchase this product if it was available today? If not, why?
• What is the one feature that would make our product a must-have for you?
• Are there any untapped market segments or niches where our product could solve the existing problems?
• If you were to brainstorm about a product that anticipates future needs in your industry, what would be its main features?
• How would you prioritize the importance of the following features? (you can provide them with a list of features they need to rank from the most important to the least important)

If you've already started developing your product, read this article on how to get feedback for early-stage products and validate your product .

Customer feedback

If you've already launched a product or service, you should ask your existing customers for feedback and suggestions for improvement. This is an essential component of continuous product discovery , which is the best way to increase customer satisfaction by anticipating their needs.

Here are some questions you can use:

• How long have you been using our product?
• How often do you use our product?
• What made you decide to purchase our product?
• Describe how you use our product and what problems it solves for you.
• Which features of our product do you use the most?
• Which features of our product do you use the least or not at all?
• What is the best feature of our product in your opinion?
• What might be the weakest feature or the biggest area for improvement in our product?
• Have you had any issues or problems with our product?
• What would you miss the most if our product was no longer available?

Click here to discover 13 proven ways to collect customer feedback . Also, here are some additional questions for your product feedback survey .

Brand awareness

Market research surveys can help you see how existing and potential customers perceive your brand and whether you need to raise brand awareness or adjust your brand image.

• Have you heard about our brand before?
• How did you hear about us?
• What is the first thing that comes to mind when someone mentions our brand?
• What emotions or feelings do you associate with our brand?
• How would you describe our brand in one sentence?
• Are you currently using our products, and how often?
• How likely are you to purchase our products again?
• Are you aware that we also offer _____? (this can be an excellent opportunity for up-selling)
• How often do you see our posts or ads on social media?
• You can also calculate the Net Promoter Score by asking your current customers: On a scale of 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend our product to a friend or colleague?

Pricing analysis

The following market research survey questions will help you explore the balance between product quality, features, and cost and assess the perceived value of your product.

• What is more important to you: product quality or price?
• In your opinion, what's a fair and reasonable price for a product like this?
• What is the price range within which you'd feel comfortable purchasing this product?
• What is the maximum amount you'd be willing to spend on this product?
• If you think the price is too high, what additional features or improvements would justify the current price of our product?
• Are there specific payment options or financing plans that would make you consider purchasing our product?
• Do you find our pricing information clear and easy to understand?

Customer preferences

This set of questions will help you learn more about consumer preferences and their purchasing habits so that you can adjust your strategy accordingly.

• What factors are influencing your purchasing decisions the most?
• Where do you look for products you want to buy?
• Do you prefer offline or online shopping, and why?
• Do you read customer reviews, and on which websites?
• Are you looking for recommendations from your friends and family?
• Do you use social media to follow brand accounts, and which platforms do you use the most?
• What is your preferred way to receive information and updates about a brand (e.g., social media, email newsletter, SMS)?
• How do you prefer to consume information: through video, audio or reading?

Customer concerns

Understanding why people are not buying from you is essential for adjusting your offer and marketing. This set of questions will help you uncover potential objections you can address on your website.

• Is there anything that's preventing you from buying our product?
• What would need to happen for you to purchase our product today?
• If now is not the right time to buy it, why is that?
• Do you have any doubts or questions about our product?
• What was your biggest concern before purchasing our product?
• What is the main reason for canceling your subscription / not ordering again?
• Did you encounter any problems or challenges when using our product?
• If there was one thing about our product that would have made your decision-making process faster, what would it be?

Competitive analysis

It's important to research your competitors and learn both about their unique selling points and their weaknesses from users’ perspectives, which can help you discover your own competitive advantage and do a thorough market opportunity analysis .

• How are you currently dealing with the problem that our product solves?
• Are you already using a product with similar features?
• Which products or brands would you consider as an alternative to ours?
• Why did you choose our product over other options?
• Did you consider any other options?
• Does our product miss some features that our competitors' products have?
• Are our prices higher, lower or similar to those of other companies?
• Which of these products have you tried? (provide a list of your competitors' products)
• What is your preferred brand?
• If our product was no longer available, what other product would you choose instead?

The following market research questions can be applied to your website, landing page, social media platforms or any other channel you use to share information about your product or service or communicate with your customers.

• Was it easy to find information on our website?
• Is our website easy to navigate and user-friendly?
• Is some information missing on our website?
• Is product information clear and transparent?
• Do you think we should add any features to our website, and which ones?
• What kind of content would you like to see on our blog?
• Did you have any difficulties using our website?

Market research questions: Best practices

Here are a few tips to consider when creating your own market research questions:

• Define clear objectives: Before starting, you have to be clear on what you want to get out of the market research. Learning more about your potential customers? Identifying your competition? Evaluating a new product idea? Identifying different customer segments?
• Use neutral language: If you want to get unbiased results to drive customer-led product growth , use neutral language to avoid leading participants toward a particular response.
• Use different types of questions: You should combine multiple-choice questions, Likert scales and open-ended questions, as each of them helps you gather different types of data. While close-ended questions are great for collecting and analyzing large amounts of quantitative data, the open-ended format can be better when creating interview questions for market research as it provides you with deeper customer insights .

Writing questions and conducting market research is just the first step. The second and even more important step is to analyze the data you've gathered so you can uncover insights and patterns.

The best way to do so is through a customer feedback platform like Zeda.io, which provides you with a centralized workspace to collect and manage feedback and analyze data from all customer interaction points in one place.

Our platform helps you transform customer feedback into actionable insights that can help you decide which product to build or how to prioritize product features .

Thanks to advanced AI algorithms, we can help you spot product opportunities by uncovering the features users desire the most.

It can also help you analyze customer feedback to detect issues and frustrations reported by users so that you can enhance customer experience by promptly fixing them.

We can also spot trends in user feedback and calculate a potential revenue impact from adding new features.

We hope you were able to pick some ideas for creating your next customer survey or interview questions for market research.

After conducting research, it's crucial to thoroughly analyze your market research questionnaire using the right user feedback tools .

Zeda.io is an AI-powered tool that transforms raw customer data into actionable insights, helping you better understand your customers and spot emerging trends before competitors.

It helps you take the guesswork out of product discovery and confidently create products your target market will love.

Sign up today, and let's uncover burning issues and market gaps together.

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How do you write a good market research question?

Good market research questions are the ones that are clear, concise, specific and aligned with your goals. To get unbiased data, avoid leading questions and suggesting particular answers to your target audience.

What questions should I ask for market research for a new product?

You should ask target customers about their pain points, struggles, challenges and desires. See how they're currently solving those problems, whether they're using any other similar product and whether some features of that product could be added or improved.

What are the 7 basic questions in market research?

Here are the key market research questions: What problem is our product solving? Who is our target audience? What product features are the most important for them? What influences their purchasing decisions? How much are they willing to pay? What's preventing potential customers from buying our product? Who are our main competitors?

What are the elements of market research?

The main elements of market research are researching your target audience, their needs and problems, doing a competitor analysis and spotting market trends.

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Leading questions (with examples): What, why, and types (2024)

This article explains what leading questions are, why they are important, and provides examples of the different types of leading questions.

Product owners and user researchers often struggle with the challenge of obtaining accurate user feedback. 

Ever wondered why your survey responses seem biased or incomplete? Leading questions might be the culprit. 

Understanding what leading questions are and why they pose a problem is crucial for crafting effective surveys.

In this article, we unravel the mystery behind leading questions, explore their impact, and provide practical examples of different types. 

Equip yourself with the knowledge to ask questions that truly unveil user perspectives, enhancing the quality of your product research.

What are leading questions?

Leading questions are queries that subtly guide respondents toward a specific answer, potentially influencing their responses.

They often contain assumptions or suggest desired outcomes. 

Product owners and researchers should be cautious about using leading questions as they may introduce bias and compromise the validity of findings. 

To maintain objectivity, it's crucial to frame questions neutrally, avoiding preconceived notions. 

This ensures that insights collected accurately reflect user perspectives, fostering unbiased decision-making in product development. 

Now that we've defined what leading questions are, let's delve into their impact on user research and why they warrant careful consideration.

How do leading questions affect user research?

Leading questions wield considerable influence on user research outcomes, potentially skewing data and compromising the validity of findings. 

By inadvertently guiding participants towards desired responses, these questions can distort the user experience insights crucial for informed decision-making. 

Recognizing the impact of leading questions is pivotal for product owners and user researchers striving for unbiased and actionable results:

1) Misinformed product decisions

Leading questions in user research can misguide product owners, leading to uninformed decisions. 

When questions subtly steer participants towards a desired response, the resulting data may not accurately represent user opinions. 

This distortion can cloud the understanding of user needs and preferences, ultimately influencing product decisions based on skewed information. 

To ensure the integrity of decision-making, it is crucial to employ neutral and open-ended questions in user research, allowing users to express their thoughts genuinely.

2) Inauthentic and unreliable data

The impact of leading questions extends to the reliability of collected data. 

When users feel pressured to conform to implicit suggestions, their responses become less authentic. 

Inaccurate data can compromise the validity of research findings, leading product owners to base crucial decisions on unreliable information. 

To maintain the authenticity of user data, researchers should refrain from using leading questions and instead focus on creating an environment that encourages honest and unbiased responses from participants.

3) Reduced exploration

Leading questions can limit the depth of user exploration, hindering the discovery of valuable insights. 

By subtly directing participants towards specific aspects, researchers may inadvertently overlook unexpected user needs or preferences. 

This narrowed focus may result in a product that addresses only surface-level concerns, missing out on opportunities for innovation and differentiation. 

To foster comprehensive exploration, researchers should craft questions that allow users to freely express their experiences and opinions without influence.

4) Wasted resources

The use of leading questions in user research can lead to the misallocation of resources. 

If decisions are based on distorted data, resources may be invested in the wrong features or improvements, resulting in a product that fails to meet user expectations. 

Additionally, the time and effort spent on conducting research with leading questions may yield little actionable insight. 

To avoid wasted resources, product owners must prioritize the use of unbiased and open-ended questions, ensuring that research efforts translate into meaningful and impactful outcomes for the product.

To navigate the challenges posed by leading questions, it's essential to recognize the various types that exist. 

Let's explore the four main categories of leading questions next.

What are the 5 main types of leading questions?

In user research, leading questions manifest in various forms. There are four primary types to be mindful of: assumptive, statement-based, coercive, and consequential questions. 

Each type carries its own set of challenges and can impact the integrity of your research differently.

1) Assumptive leading questions

Assumptive leading questions guide respondents towards a particular answer by presupposing a specific scenario. In product research, this could involve assuming a positive experience to influence feedback. Consider:

• Framing questions with embedded assumptions about the product's benefits.
• Encouraging users to confirm presumed advantages, potentially skewing responses.
• Using language that presupposes a certain behavior or perception.

Bad Example: "Since most users find this feature very useful, how has it improved your workflow?"

Good Example: "How do you currently use the feature in your workflow?"

Avoid assumptions to ensure unbiased user feedback and uncover authentic insights into product experiences.

2) Statement-based leading questions

Statement-based leading questions present respondents with statements rather than open-ended queries. In user research, this technique can unintentionally influence opinions. Be cautious of:

• Offering predetermined viewpoints for agreement or disagreement.
• Crafting questions that presuppose a certain stance, limiting diverse perspectives.
• Creating an environment where users may feel compelled to align with presented statements.

Bad example: "The new design is more user-friendly, right?"

Good example: "Tell me about your experience with the current design."

Opt for open-ended inquiries to encourage users to express their genuine thoughts, fostering a more comprehensive understanding of user experiences.

3) Coercive leading questions

Coercive leading questions employ subtle pressure or influence to guide respondents towards a specific response. In product research, coercion can compromise the authenticity of user feedback. Be mindful of:

• Using emotionally charged language that may sway responses.
• Introducing subtle cues that encourage users to provide desired answers.
• Employing tactics that unintentionally coerce users into aligning with expectations.

Bad example: "You haven't faced any significant issues with the latest update, have you?"

Good example: "What challenges have you encountered while using the product?"

Maintain a neutral tone and avoid coercive elements to ensure honest and unbiased user insights, crucial for refining products effectively.

4) Consequential leading questions

Consequential leading questions hint at potential outcomes, encouraging respondents to consider repercussions when answering. In product research, this may impact the accuracy of user feedback. Watch out for:

• Framing questions with implied consequences, influencing user perceptions.
• Introducing scenarios that may prompt users to modify responses based on anticipated outcomes.
• Unintentionally steering respondents towards specific reactions by highlighting potential consequences.

Bad example: "Assuming these changes are implemented, it will make your job easier, right?"

Good example: "How do you think the proposed changes will impact your daily tasks?"

Choose questions that focus on immediate experiences rather than hypothetical outcomes to obtain user insights unaffected by perceived consequences.

5) Loaded questions

Loaded questions are a specific form of biased questioning that incorporates assumptions, often carrying an implicit agenda or predisposition. These questions are designed to lead respondents towards a particular answer or to provoke a specific reaction, making them a potential pitfall in unbiased research. It's important to be aware of:

• Implied assumptions or values embedded within the question.
• The potential for leading respondents to a predetermined conclusion.
• How loaded questions can unintentionally introduce bias into the data collection process.

Bad Example: " Don't you agree that our product is the most innovative in the market? "

Good Example: " What factors do you consider when evaluating the innovativeness of a product? "

By steering clear of loaded questions, researchers can maintain the integrity of the data and ensure that responses accurately reflect the diverse perspectives and experiences of users.

Now that we've outlined the types of leading questions, let's differentiate between leading and loaded questions to provide clarity on these commonly confused concepts.

Subtle difference between leading questions vs loaded questions

Leading questions and loaded questions have slightly distinct purposes in the realm of user research. 

A leading question guides respondents towards a desired answer, potentially skewing results. 

In contrast, a loaded question is deliberately phrased to provoke a specific response, often introducing bias. 

For product owners and user researchers, understanding the disparities is crucial for unbiased data collection. 

The table below illustrates key differences:

Being mindful of these differences empowers product owners and researchers to design surveys and interviews that yield objective insights, fostering better-informed decisions.

With the distinction between leading and loaded questions clarified, let's delve into practical examples of leading questions to better grasp how they can manifest in user research.

What are some of the examples of leading questions?

Concrete examples are invaluable for grasping the nuances of leading questions. By examining real-world scenarios, product owners and user researchers can hone their skills in identifying and mitigating leading questions. 

Let's explore instances where seemingly innocuous queries can inadvertently introduce bias into the research process:

Leading question example #1: Assumption-based leading questions in customer effort surveys

In customer effort surveys, the framing of questions can inadvertently lead respondents towards a particular answer, skewing the results. 

Consider the question: “ Is it easy for you to use [product feature]? ” This assumes the user finds the product feature easy to use, potentially biasing their response. 

Instead, a neutral and open-ended approach is recommended: “ How was your experience using [product feature]? ”

This revised question allows users to express their true sentiments without being influenced by the assumption embedded in the original query. 

Product owners and user researchers should strive for clarity and objectivity in their survey questions to obtain genuine insights from users.

Leading question example #2: Direct implication questions in net promoter score surveys

Net Promoter Score (NPS) surveys aim to gauge customer loyalty and satisfaction. 

However, the framing of questions can impact the reliability of responses. 

A leading question like, “ If you enjoyed using [product name], how likely are you to recommend [product name] to others? ” implies a positive experience, potentially leading users to rate their likelihood of recommendation higher. 

A better alternative is a direct inquiry: “ On a scale from 1 to 10, how likely are you to recommend [product name] to others? ”

By avoiding direct implications and framing questions in a straightforward manner, product owners can gather more accurate data on customer satisfaction levels, aiding in informed decision-making and strategic planning.

Leading question example #3: Coercive leading questions in product feedback surveys

Product feedback surveys should aim for unbiased responses, steering clear of questions that may coerce users into specific opinions. 

Consider the question: “Our recent product updates are helpful, aren’t they? ” This coercive approach may lead users to agree even if they harbor reservations. 

A preferable alternative is: “ How would you rate our recent product updates? ”

By posing questions neutrally, product owners create an environment where users feel comfortable providing honest feedback, facilitating a more accurate assessment of the product's strengths and areas for improvement.

Leading question example #4: Interconnected statements in leading questions for customer feedback surveys

The structure of questions in customer feedback surveys can impact the reliability of the obtained data. 

For instance, the question, “ Our customer service has resolved your help request in a timely manner. Do you find them supportive? ” establishes a connection between promptness and support, potentially influencing the user's response. 

A more effective approach is to separate the statements: “ Based on your recent interactions with our customer service, how satisfied or dissatisfied are you with our company? ”

By disentangling statements, product owners and user researchers encourage respondents to independently evaluate different aspects, yielding insights that are more nuanced and reflective of their true experiences.

Leading question example #5: Leading questions to ask for product development ideas

When seeking input for product development, it's crucial to avoid leading questions that presuppose user needs. 

For instance, consider the question: “ Based on your experience with our analytics feature, what other analytics functions would you like to see? ” This question assumes a desire for additional analytics functions without allowing users to express their unique needs. 

A more effective approach is to inquire broadly: “ What improvements or new features would you like to see in our analytics capabilities? ”

By maintaining an open-ended format, product owners can uncover diverse perspectives, fostering innovation and ensuring that product development aligns closely with user preferences and requirements.

Leading question example #6: Leading questions to gain actionable insights

To extract actionable insights from users, questions should avoid suggesting specific issues. 

For example, “ It looks like you haven’t [done a core task]. Is there anything we can do to improve your experience? ” implies users face challenges due to incomplete tasks. 

A more neutral and open-ended version is: “ Is there anything we can do to improve your experience with [core task]? ”

This reframing allows users to share their experiences and propose solutions without being directed towards a specific issue. 

By crafting questions carefully, product owners can derive insights that lead to meaningful enhancements in user experience and overall product satisfaction.

Now equipped with examples, let's shift our focus to proactive measures. How can you avoid falling into the trap of asking leading questions in your user research? Let's explore some practical strategies.

How do you avoid leading questions?

Avoiding leading questions requires a proactive approach and a keen awareness of potential biases. By implementing the following strategies product owners and user researchers can foster an environment that encourages candid and unbiased responses from participants:

1) Embrace open-ended questions

To avoid leading questions, prioritize open-ended inquiries. 

Instead of steering participants toward a specific response, ask questions that encourage thoughtful and detailed answers. 

For example, replace "Did you like the new feature?" with "Tell me about your experience with the new feature." 

Open-ended questions empower participants to express their opinions without feeling confined to predefined options, yielding more valuable insights for product owners and user researchers.

2) Avoid suggesting answers

Resist the temptation to embed potential answers within your questions. 

Leading questions often contain subtle cues that guide participants toward a specific response. 

For instance, reframing "How easy was it to use the intuitive interface?" to "What was your experience using the interface?" eliminates suggestive elements. 

By maintaining question neutrality, you ensure unbiased participant feedback, fostering a clearer understanding of user perceptions and preferences.

3) Steer clear of yes/no or either/or questions

Opt for questions that prompt participants to elaborate rather than ones inviting a simple "yes" or "no." Closed-ended inquiries limit insights and may inadvertently shape responses. 

For instance, replace "Did you find the website helpful?" with "How did you find the website experience?". 

This encourages participants to share their thoughts in a more nuanced manner, providing richer data for product owners and user researchers to make informed decisions.

4) Use neutral language

Choose words carefully to maintain objectivity. Neutral language helps prevent leading questions by avoiding terms that may sway participant responses. 

For instance, replace "How satisfied were you with the amazing features?" with "What are your thoughts on the features?" 

Using neutral language ensures that participants form opinions without external influence, aiding product owners and user researchers in obtaining genuine feedback on their products or services.

5) Watch out for assumptions

Be mindful of assumptions that may inadvertently creep into your questions. 

Assumptions can lead participants to align their responses with perceived expectations. 

For example, rephrase "Since the recent update, have you noticed improved performance?" to "What changes, if any, have you observed after the recent update?". 

By avoiding assumptions, you create a space for participants to share their authentic experiences and insights, contributing to more accurate assessments for product owners and user researchers.

6) Pilot test your questions

Before deploying surveys or conducting interviews, pilot test your questions to identify and rectify any potential leading elements. 

This proactive step allows you to refine your inquiries based on participant reactions. 

For example, observe if participants exhibit confusion or bias during the pilot test, and adjust your questions accordingly. 

Piloting ensures that the questions effectively capture unbiased feedback, enabling product owners and user researchers to gather reliable data for informed decision-making.

In conclusion, understanding leading questions is pivotal for product owners and user researchers. 

Recognizing their impact on data integrity and user feedback is crucial. 

By comprehending what constitutes a leading question and why they should be avoided, professionals can enhance the reliability of their research. 

The types of leading questions, exemplified through clear examples, offer practical insights. 

Steering clear of leading questions ensures unbiased and authentic user responses, leading to more informed decision-making in product development. 

Embracing a question-centric approach fosters a user-centric environment, facilitating the creation of products that genuinely meet user needs.

FAQs related to leading questions

1) what are considered leading questions.

Leading questions are queries that subtly guide or prompt the respondent towards a specific answer or viewpoint. They often contain presuppositions or assumptions that may influence the person's response. These questions tend to be suggestive in nature, potentially biasing the answers given.

2) What is an example of a leading question in an interview?

An example of a leading question in an interview could be: "Don't you agree that our product is the best on the market?" This question presupposes a positive response and guides the interviewee towards affirming the superiority of the product.

3) What is an example of a leading question in a sentence?

An example of a leading question in a sentence could be: "Wasn't the user interface incredibly user-friendly?" This question implies that the user interface was indeed user-friendly, leading the respondent to agree with the statement.

4) Which of the following is an example of a leading question?

"How satisfied are you with our product?"

"Wouldn't you say our product is superior to others?"

"What improvements would you suggest for our service?"

"Can you describe your experience with our website?"

The correct answer is option 2: "Wouldn't you say our product is superior to others?" This question subtly guides the respondent towards acknowledging the superiority of the product, making it a leading question.

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No two market research projects are alike, but happily there are some tried-and-tested questions you can use for inspiration to get the consumer insights you’re looking for.

It’s all about asking questions that are most relevant to the goals of your research. Every so often the best questions are actually quite straightforward, like asking consumers where they do their grocery shopping.

If you’re creating a customer profile, you’ll ask different questions than when you’re running creative testing with your target audience, or getting insights on key consumer trends in your market.

The right market research questions are the ones that will lead you to actionable insights, and give you a competitive advantage in your target market.

Let’s kick this off and get straight into some questions, shall we?

Where do we even begin with this?! There are so many types of research and we’ll get into which questions work for each below, but here are some classic example market research questions to get you started.

These particular questions are good for surveys that you might run when you’re running some essential consumer profiling research.

• Which of these products have you purchased in the last 3 months?
• Which of the following types of >INSERT YOUR PRODUCT/SERVICE CATEGORY< do you buy at least once a month?
• Approximately, how much would you say you spend on >INSERT YOUR PRODUCT/SERVICE CATEGORY< per month?
• What is stopping you from buying more of >INSERT YOUR PRODUCT/SERVICE CATEGORY<?
• When was the last time you tried a new >INSERT YOUR PRODUCT/SERVICE CATEGORY<?
• Please rank the following on how important or unimportant they are when deciding which >INSERT PRODUCT CATEGORY< to buy?
• Which of these brands are you aware of?
• Which of these brands have you purchased from in the last 3 months?
• How do you prefer to shop for >INSERT YOUR PRODUCT/SERVICE CATEGORY<?
• Why do you prefer to shop online?
• Why do you prefer to shop in-store?
• Thinking about the following, how often do you use/listen/watch each of these media?
• Where do you go to keep up to date with the news?
• Which social media platforms do you use daily?
• What mobile phone do you currently own?

Surely you want to talk to your current customers to understand why they buy from you and what they think about your products?

Correct! But your consumer research should definitely not end with current customers!

Here’s why you should think about broadening your research to include other groups and different market research methods :

• Current customers: This is a must! Running research to your current customers will help you understand how you can make your product or service better. These are the people who’ve spent their hard-earned cash on your products so they have a unique perspective on what kind of value you offer. In addition, understanding why your existing customer base chose your brand over others can help you create messaging that resonates with people who are still on the fence.
• Previous customers: People who used to buy your products but don’t anymore can give you valuable insight into areas you might need to improve. Perhaps your brand perception has shifted making some customers buy elsewhere, or maybe your competitors offer customers better value for money than you currently do. These are the kinds of areas you can learn about by running research to previous customers.
• Non-customers: You should also ask people who haven’t bought your products why they haven’t. That way you’ll learn what you need to improve to bring new customers in. You should ideally ask the same kinds of questions, so that you can learn about what product features you need to work on but also things like the messaging you should be putting out there to win people over.

Here are some questions that are perfect for competitive market analysis research. Some of these questions might sound similar to some from our previous section on consumer profiling—that’s because there’s often some crossover between these types of research. Consumer profiling often refers to a more general type of research that covers similar ground to market analysis. If you’re wondering how to calculate market size , questions like these would be a great starting point.

• How often do you usually purchase >INSERT YOUR PRODUCT/SERVICE CATEGORY<?
• Why do you buy >INSERT YOUR PRODUCT/SERVICE CATEGORY<?
• What types of >INSERT YOUR PRODUCT/SERVICE CATEGORY< do you buy?
• How often do you buy the following types of >INSERT YOUR PRODUCT/SERVICE CATEGORY<?
• Where do you buy your >INSERT YOUR PRODUCT/SERVICE CATEGORY<?
• Where do you find out about >INSERT YOUR PRODUCT/SERVICE CATEGORY<?
• Which of these brands have your purchased in the last 12 months?
• How would you feel if you could no longer buy >INSERT YOUR PRODUCT/SERVICE CATEGORY<?
• How important or unimportant do you find the following topics? (e.g. sustainability, diversity and inclusion, ethical supply chain)
• What could be improved about the products you currently use?

By involving consumers in the product development process, you can make sure that your products are designed to meet—and ideally exceed—their needs.

Product market research can be done at several points in the product development process, by asking potential customers in your target market questions about existing products (yours or competitors’), prototypes, or just your own early-stage product ideas.

You can dive into the customer experience, specific product features or simply find out if the product quality matches the value proposition you’re putting out there.

Sometimes you even get a surprising answer to the question: how does our product or service help people?

You might learn from the survey responses that customers are using your product in a different way than you intended, opening you up to new target markets and different product types in the future.

Asking these questions also allows you to get feedback on your designs, so that you can make necessary changes before the product is released. Here’s some inspiration for when you’re conducting product market research.

There are different types of new product development research. A key type is Jobs to be done research. This research digs into the practical reasons people buy products—the jobs they need to get done with a specific product. You use these insights to help you create products that will genuinely help consumers, and that they’ll ultimately want to buy.

• How many times have you carried out [INSERT ACTIVITY] in the last 12 months?
• How much time would you typically spend on this [INSERT ACTIVITY]?
• How important or unimportant is carrying out this [INSERT ACTIVITY]?
• How satisfied or unsatisfied do you feel when carrying out this [INSERT ACTIVITY]?
• What is the best thing about carrying out [INSERT ACTIVITY]?
• How does carrying out [INSERT ACTIVITY] make you feel? Please select all that apply
• What particular problems or challenges do you run into while carrying out [INSERT ACTIVITY]?

When you’re cooking up your brand’s next product, you’ll want to go through a concept testing phase. This is where you ask consumers what they think about your idea and find out whether it’s likely to be a success. Here are some of the questions you could ask in your concept testing research.

• To what extent do you like or dislike this idea/product? [ATTACH IMAGE]
• What do you like about this idea/product?
• What do you dislike about this idea/product?
• Is easy to use
• Sounds tasty
• Is good quality
• Is Innovative
• Is different from others
• Purchase this product
• Replace the product I currently own with this
• What other products this idea/product reminds you of? Please provide as much detail as possible including the product name.
• What feature(s), if any, do you feel are missing from this product?
• How would you improve this idea/product? Be as descriptive as possible!
• What issues do you solve through the use of this product?
• When can you see yourself using this product? Please select all that apply.
• The price for this product is $25.00 per item. How likely or unlikely would you be to buy this product at this price?

Get inspired with NPD survey templates

Our in-house research experts have created New Product Development (NPD) survey templates to give you the perfect starting point for your product research!

Does the perspective of new customers change over time? How do you compare to other brands, and how do you become the preferred brand in your market and increase that market share?

Brand perception and brand awareness are super important metrics to track. These insights can be used to improve customer experience and satisfaction on a higher level than just product: the relationship you have with your customers.

This research can also help you understand how to reach the holy grail of branding: turning loyal customers into brand ambassadors.

You should also remember to ask marketing research questions about your brand to existing and potential customers.

Existing customers might have a different view after having interacted with your team and products, and you can use that to manage the expectations of your target customers down the line. And potential customers can help you understand what’s holding them back from joining your customer base.

Top tip: it’s completely fine (and super beneficial!) to run brand tracking into your competitors’ brands as well as your own. Replicating research for different brands will give you a tailored benchmark for your category and position.

Here are some key questions to ask in your brand tracking research.

• Which of the following, if any, have you purchased in the past 12 months?
• Thinking about >INSERT YOUR CATEGORY<, what brands, if any, are you aware of? Please type in all that you can think of.
• Which of these brands of facial wipes, if any, are you aware of?
• Which of these facial wipe brands, if any, have you ever purchased?
• Which of these facial wipe brands, if any, would you consider purchasing in the next 6 months?
• e.g. Innovative
• Easy to use
• Traditional
• We’d now like to ask you some specific questions about >INSERT YOUR BRAND<.
• When did you last use >INSERT YOUR BRAND<?
• What do you like most about >INSERT YOUR BRAND<?
• What do you like least about >INSERT YOUR BRAND<?
• How likely would you be to recommend >INSERT YOUR BRAND< to a friend, family or colleague?
• Why did you give that score? Include as much detail as possible
• In newspapers/magazines
• On Instagram
• On Facebook
• On the radio
• Through friends/family/colleagues
• When did you last use >INSERT MAIN COMPETITOR BRAND<?
• How likely would you be to recommend >INSERT MAIN COMPETITOR BRAND< to a friend, family or colleague?

Kick off your brand tracking with templates

Track your brand to spot—and act on!—how your brand’s perception and awareness affects how people buy. Our survey templates give you the ideal starting point!

When it comes to pricing your product, there’s no need to wing it—a pricing survey can give you the insights you need to arrive at the perfect price point.

By asking customers questions about their willingness to pay for your product, you can get a realistic sense of what price point will be most attractive to them and, not unimportant, why.

Top tip: good pricing research can be tough to get right. Asking how much people would theoretically be willing to pay for a product is very different from them actually choosing it in a shop, on a shelf next to competitors’ products, and with a whole load of other economic context that you can’t possibly test for. Price testing is useful, but should sometimes be taken with a pinch of salt.

Here are some questions you could use in your pricing research.

• Which of the following product categories have you bought in the last 12 months?
• How often do you currently purchase >INSERT YOUR CATEGORY<?
• At what price would you consider this >INSERT PRODUCT CATEGORY< to be so expensive that you would not consider buying it? (Too expensive)
• At what price would you consider this >INSERT PRODUCT CATEGORY< to be starting to get expensive, so that it is not out of the question, but you have to give some thought to buying it? (e.g. Expensive)
• At what price would you consider this >INSERT PRODUCT CATEGORY< to be a bargain—a great buy for the money? (e.g. cheap)
• At what price would you consider this >INSERT PRODUCT CATEGORY< to be priced so low that you would feel the quality couldn’t be very good? (Too cheap)
• How much do you currently pay for >INSERT PRODUCT CATEGORY<? Please type in below
• Thinking about this product, please rank the following aspects based on how much value they add, where 1 = adds the most value 10 = adds the least value.
• Thinking about the product category as a whole, please rank the following brands in order of value, where 1 is the most expensive and 10 is the least.

Formulating market research questions can be tricky. On the one hand, you want to be specific enough that you can get tangible, useful answers. But on the other hand, you don’t want to ask questions that are so difficult or unclear that respondents will get frustrated and give up halfway through.

Think about what answers you need and what actions you are hoping to take based on those answers.

We’ll help you get started with a list of steps to take when formulating your own market research questions, and putting them together in a survey that makes sense.

1. Define your research goals and link them to actions you can take

Before you can write great market research questions, you need to know what you want to learn from your research.

What are your goals? What do you want to find out? Once you have a clear understanding of your goals, you can start brainstorming questions that will help you achieve them.

2. Know your target market and the language they use

Who are you conducting market research for? It’s important to know your audience before you start writing questions, as this will help you determine the best way to phrase them.

For example, if you’re conducting market research for a new product aimed at teenagers, you’ll want to use different language than if you were conducting research for a new financial planning service aimed at retirees.

3. Keep it simple, and break things into smaller pieces

Don’t make your questions too complicated. Stick to simple, straightforward questions that can be easily understood by your target audience.

The more complex your questions are, the more likely it is that respondents will get confused and provide inaccurate answers.

If you feel a question is too difficult, see if you can break it up into smaller pieces and add follow-up questions on top.

And don’t ever load two questions into one! This falls into Consumer Research 101, but it’s amazing how often it happens. Instead of ‘What’s your favorite chocolate bar, and why?’ ask two questions: ‘What’s your favorite chocolate bar?’ and ‘Why is this your favorite chocolate bar?’

4. Be super specific

Make sure your questions are specific enough to get the information you need. Vague questions will only lead to vague answers.

For example, instead of asking ‘What do you think of this product?’, ask ‘What did you think of the taste of this product?’ or ‘What did you think of the packaging of this product?’.

5. Avoid leading questions

Leading questions are those that suggest a particular answer or course of action. For example, instead of asking ‘Do you like our new product?’, which suggests that the respondent should like the product, try asking ‘What are your thoughts on this product?

This question is neutral and allows the respondent to answer freely without feeling pressured in any particular direction. It’s also brand-neutral: people answering this question will have no idea who’s asking, and their opinion won’t be biased as a result.

6. Make sure your question is clear

It’s important that your question is clear and concise so that respondents understand exactly what they’re being asked. If there is any ambiguity in your question, respondents may interpret it in different ways and provide inaccurate answers.

Always test your questions on a few people before sending them to a larger group to make sure they understand what they’re being asked.

7. Avoid loaded words

Loaded words are those with positive or negative connotations that could influence the way respondents answer the question. For example, instead of asking ‘Do you love this product?’, which has a positive connotation, try asking ‘What are your thoughts on this product?’

This question is neutral and allows the respondent to answer freely without feeling pressured in any particular direction

8. Make sure the question is answerable

Before you include a question in your market research survey, make sure it’s actually answerable. There’s no point in asking a question if there’s no way for respondents to answer it properly. If a question isn’t answerable, either revise the question or remove it from your survey altogether.

9. Use an appropriate question type

When designing your market research survey, be sure to use an appropriate question type for each question you include. Using the wrong question type can lead to inaccurate or unusable results, so it’s important to choose wisely. Some common question types used in market research surveys include multiple choice, rating scale, and open-ended questions.

10. Pay attention to question order

The order of the questions in your survey can also impact the results you get from your research. In general, it’s best to start with more general questions and then move on to more specific ones later on in the survey. This will help ensure that respondents are properly warmed up and able to provide detailed answers by the time they reach the end of the survey.

Make smart decisions with the reliable insights

To make sure you make smart decisions that have real impact on your business, get consumer insights you can rely on. Here’s our rundown of the top market research tools.

Survey questions for market research are designed to collect information about a target market or audience. They can be used to gather data about consumer preferences, opinions, and behavior. Some common types of market research survey questions include demographic questions, behavioral questions and attitudinal questions.

There are many different types of market research questions that companies can use to gather information about consumer preferences and buying habits. They can be divided into different categories, like a competitive analysis, customer satisfaction or market trends, after which you can make them more specific and turn them into survey questions. These are some of the things your research questions can help you answer: – What is the target market for our product? – Who is our competition? – What do consumers think of our product? – How often do consumers purchase our product? – What is the typical customer profile for our product? – What motivates consumers to purchase our product?

When conducting market research, surveys are an invaluable tool for gathering insights about your target audience. But how do you write a market research questionnaire that will get you the information you need? First, determine the purpose of your survey and who your target respondents are. This will help you to write questions that are relevant and targeted. Next, craft clear and concise questions that can be easily understood. Be sure to avoid ambiguity, leading questions and loaded language. Finally, pilot your survey with a small group of people to make sure that it is effective. With these tips in mind, you can write a market research survey that will help you to gather the crucial insights you need.

Elliot Barnard

Customer Research Lead 

Elliot joined Attest in 2019 and has dedicated his career to working with brands carrying out market research. At Attest Elliot takes a leading role in the Customer Research Team, to support customers as they uncover insights and new areas for growth.

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99 Market Research Questions You Should Be Asking

Asking the right market research questions at the right time can pay dividends. You wouldn’t buy a house without first researching the neighborhood – and it’s unlikely you’d take a job without doing your homework on your prospective employer. So why should starting a business be any different?

Whichever way you look at it, asking the right market research questions makes sense as a first step.

Do you want to gain a foothold in the market? Get to grips with the competition? Start thinking like your target audience? Introduce a new product or mobile app?

Whatever your goal, market research will help you understand all aspects of your industry, brand, potential customers, and rivals – good market questions can make a world of difference.

Below, we’ll walk you through 99 questions to ask for market research to succeed in the digital world. We started out as a research intelligence tool , so we know our stuff when it comes to defining a market, mapping key players, marketing strategies , and understanding trends , and target audiences.

So read on for all the questions your market research strategy needs – and how Similarweb can help you answer them.

How to choose market research questions

The market research questions you pick will depend on where your business is in its lifecycle. As we’ll get to in a moment, there are a lot of market research questions – so how exactly do you choose?

Pre-start-up – If you’ve not launched a business yet, and are just cultivating an idea – you’ll want to start with some formal market research first. Then, ask more general market research questions, and some targeted at start-ups. This will help you determine if there’s a financially viable market, whether it has blockbuster prospects, or is better off left in the cutting room.

Early start-up – If you’ve just started out, you’ll want to reach out to your target market with survey questions to help you tailor your products and services to them.

Established – If you’ve been around a little longer – and already have a few current customers – you’ll want to learn more about how you can keep improving your customer experience.

Finally, you can look at questions to ask for market research that focus on competitor analysis. These aren’t limited to any particular stage of your business’s journey. After all, getting clued up on the competitive landscape is always handy – whether you’ve just entered the market or are one of its most established players.

99 market research questions: discover, define, drill down

There’s no need to limit yourself! The best types of market research should – and do – include general questions and those addressing both existing and prospective customers. Indeed, an intelligent approach to market research should cover demographic questions all the way to those that’ll help you plan a product launch , drill down into your target market , and get the jump on your competitors.

Read on to see the best examples of market research questions in action!

Generic market research questions

These questions are most useful at the planning stage. They can apply to all businesses at any stage because markets shift, along with consumer behaviors, needs, and demands.

General market research is the process of figuring out how rich the soil is and whether the conditions are optimal to allow your business’s roots to take hold.

Some general market research questions you should be asking include:

1. How large is my product’s total addressable market (TAM)? 2. Will this market hold firm, or will it grow or decrease with time? 3. Are there already similar products or services out there? 4. If so, who’s offering them? (see the competitor analysis questions below for more) 5. Who are my buyer personas ? 6. What pain points does my product address? 7. How much market share is available for my business to take? 8. What external factors might affect the health and viability of my chosen market? 9. Which website demographics will I target? 10. Will I market my product internationally or target a specific geographical location or a single location (if so, why?) 11. Do I need to consider a website alone, or should I invest in a mobile app? (use mobile app intelligence to help to figure this one out) 12. Which suppliers or manufacturers operate in the space, and are they reputable? 13. Which marketing channels will I prioritize, and which affiliates or advertisers could I look to in order to expand my reach?

Market research questions for start-ups

Regardless of your sector, there are key things you need to establish before setting up a business. Read on to discover the fifteen market research questions all start-ups need to ask.

14. What is the total addressable market (tam), serviceable available market (sam), and share of market (som)? 15. What are the latest (and predicted) trends impacting your market? 16. Do you know who your direct and indirect competitors are?

Read through questions 71-99 for examples of market research questions to help you with this.

17. What’s your USP in the market? What’s the value-add that’ll make you stand out? 18. What do your competitors charge, and will you charge the same, more, or less?

You’ll also need to consider pricing models. For instance,  pay-monthly, annual subscription, or other?

19. Do you know how much people are willing to pay for a product/service like yours? 20. Can you trial your product or service with a beta group before launch to get feedback and/or testimonials? 21. What are the most effective marketing channels for businesses like yours? 22. How active are your customers and competitors on social media? 23. How will you onboard/welcome new customers? 24. Do rivals offer new customer or loyalty discounts? 25. What kind of customer support will you offer? Look at your rival’s offerings and decide whether you want to stick with the same or do better. 26. Are potential customers driven by price, product, or service? 27. Are your competitors or market impacted by seasonal trends ? 28. What opening hours and service level agreements (SLAs) will you advertise on your site?

Market research questions for a new product

Whether established, pre-launch or newly set up, you may need to ask specific market research questions for a new product launch. Whether you simply want to test the water with an idea or concept or go a little deeper to get clearer insights, these questions will help.

29. Is there a specific pain point your product will address? (if you have already identified an ideal customer, what kinds of things do they struggle with?) 30. Is there a demand for your product in the market? 31. Are there any opportunities to partner with other companies to get referrals for your product? 32. How do you plan to market and launch your product? 33. Will you release a minimum viable product (MVP) to market first?

If you release an MVP or offer a free trial to a select group of people, you’ll need to follow this up with a survey or specific questions to get feedback around usage, benefits, and improvements. A few examples of market research questions like these could include:

34. Which feature of the product did you use the most? 35. What improvements would you like to see? 36. How much would you be willing to pay for this product? 37. Was the product easy to use? 38. Was there anything you experienced during the trial that may deter you from using our product in the future? 39. How often did you use the product? 40. Would you recommend this product to someone else? If yes, why? If no, why?

Market research questions for your target audience

Once you’re sure there’s a viable market for your business, it’s time to drill down into that market – your audience and website demographics .

To begin, you’ll want to ask your respondents a few demographic questions to understand the basics. These might include:

41. How old are you? 42. Which gender do you identify as (if any)? 43. What’s your level of education? 44. What’s your profession? 45. What’s your household size? 46. What is your household income? 47. Which ethnic/cultural group do you identify with? 48. Where do you live? 49. Do you have any dependents? 50. What are your hobbies?

These questions provide a top-level understanding of your target audience . So, you can then utilize psychographic segmentation to dig a little deeper. These inquiries are designed to draw out your customers’ attitudes, lifestyles, likes, dislikes, motivations, and beliefs – particularly if they relate to your product or service.

The goal? To match your business with its ideal customer . Examples of these types of market research questions include:

51. Do you actively seek out new experiences or prefer to stick with what you know? 52. What do you most enjoy doing in your free time? 53. What was the last big-ticket item you purchased? 54. Have you ever boycotted a brand? If so, which brand – and why? 55. Which matters more when you make a purchase – price or quality? 56. Would you rather have more time or money? 57. How do you like to make purchases – do you prefer apps or web-based services? 58. How do you prefer to seek customer support? 59. What’s your main source of information?

For a more detailed deep dive into the above, see our guide on the what and why of market segmentation – and how to become a pro at it!

Market research questions for your customers

So, you’ve established the market for your product, nailed your target audience, and now… you’ve got customers! Congrats – that’s a surefire sign that you’re on the right track.

But simply having new customers isn’t enough. To be truly successful, you’ll need to maintain engagement , foster loyalty to your product, and keep your customers coming back for more – in other words, build your brand.

Fortunately, this is where market research can help. By asking your existing customers a few questions, you can find out what you’re doing well, what you could be doing better, and – crucially – what your brand means to them. With this knowledge, you can do more of what your customers love, and identify key areas for improvement.

Here are some of the market research questions you can ask your customers to get useful feedback:

60. How did you first hear about our brand? 61. What made you choose us? 62. How long have you been a customer? 63. How would you rate your most recent experience with us? 64. Did we answer all your questions and requests for support? 65. Would you use us again? 66. How likely are you to recommend us to a friend? 67. What do you wish our product could do? 68. Do you believe our product is priced fairly? 69. What’s the maximum you’d pay for this kind of product? 70. What do you like most about our product?

Explore our complete guide to audience development for more tips, tricks, and strategies around this type of customer analysis.

Market research questions for competitor analysis

Death, taxes, and… competition .

Yep – no matter how original or innovative your idea is, pretty soon, there’ll be hordes of wannabes targeting the same space with similar products, and guess who they’ll be targetting? Your customers.

So how do you keep your friends close and your competition even closer?

Well, a SWOT analysis is a good place to start. It involves swotting up on your business’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. It’s a heady mix of evaluating your business and the external factors that could affect it. So it’s naturally a great place to get your competitor analysis and benchmarking off the mark.

You could also begin by asking yourself the following market research questions:

71. Who are our main competitors? 72. What are they doing that we’re not? 73. What’s our unique value proposition? 74. How much web traffic do our competitors receive? 75. Do they have a mobile app? If so, is it on iOS or android? How many monthly or daily active users do they have? 76. What’s their bounce rate ? 77. Which keywords and search terms do they target? 78. Which marketing channels do they prioritize, and how frequently do they advertise? 79. How do the backlink profiles of our competitors compare to our own? 80. Are our competitors seen as more authoritative in the space? 81. What kind of content do our competitors produce? 82. How do our competitors attract customers? 83. What are the unique selling points of our competitors? 84. What do our competitors charge? 85. What social media channels do our competitors use? 86. What kind of discounts and promotions do our competitors run? 87. Which sources and affiliates drive traffic to our competitors’ sites? 88. How does our business model compare to those of our rivals?

Remember, your customers are a potential goldmine of information about your competitors . Reach out to your client base with the following market research questions:

89. Who do you seek advice from when shopping for this kind of product? 90. Are you loyal to a particular brand in the space? 91. If so, what do you love most about this brand? 92. Is there anything that this brand could do better? 93. How did you find the last product you bought in the industry? 94. Is there anything you see our competitors doing that you’d like us to do? 95. What’s most likely to make you buy a product from another brand? 98. Can you tell us the top three things that made you choose us over a competitor? 99. What one thing matters most to you when deciding between brands that offer the same product?

You may also consider including some open-ended questions so you can hear from your loyal customers in their own words. Market research surveys are a great way to uncover and collect this type of data.

If you’re unsure where to start, learn about the seven types of competitor analysis frameworks – and how to use them to get your strategy off the ground.

Similarweb Competitor Analysis Frameworks

Whether you're B2B or B2C, get started with our free and easy to use template

How to answer these questions with Similarweb

Now that you’re armed with the 99 research questions you need to succeed in your market research endeavors, how do you answer them?

Similarweb Digital Research Intelligence is a great place to start. With these tools (which you can try for free) you can effortlessly do market sizing, gauge your audience’s loyalty and engagement rate , uncover mobile app intelligence for your market, improve your site’s retention rates, and more.

In the same vein, Similarweb can also help you conduct that all-important competitor analysis . You can build a picture of which rival sites your customers frequent and form a data-driven understanding of why.

With Similarweb Digital Research Intelligence, you get an entire suite of market research and analysis tools at your fingertips. You can monitor your industry in real time via a personalized dashboard with on-demand access to industry, company, and consumer trends. With a broad view across web and mobile app intelligence, you can clearly understand the digital landscape that matters to you ( and your customers ) most.

Don’t just take our word for it, though. Check out what Similarweb can do for you today, and start tackling those big questions now!

Level up your market research

Get the data you need to adapt to market changes and industry trends.

What is market research?

Market research assesses the viability of a product or service by reaching out to its target market. It can include primary research – such as interviews, focus groups, and questionnaires – and secondary research , like articles and white papers.

What is the best way to ask market research questions to customers?

Because they’re quick to set up, relatively low-cost, and easy to use, market research surveys are a great tool to use if you want to ask a group of people market research questions.

What’s the difference between qualitative and quantitative market research?

While qualitative data is typically mined through close observation with participants – such as in focus groups or face-to-face interviews – quantitative processes tend to involve larger-scale data grabbing. This could use forms, surveys, polls, or questionnaires to collect opinions en masse, often via emails or social media.

Qualitative data captures people’s thoughts and feelings – the prevailing sentiment around a product or service. Its quantitative counterpart, however, is more concerned with the cold, hard facts. That could be traffic metrics, engagement levels, bounce rates: anything that paints a data-driven picture!

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Leading Questions: Definition, Characteristics and Examples

What are Leading Questions?

Leading question is a type of question that pushes respondents to answer in a specific manner, based on the way they are framed. More than often, these questions already contain information that survey creator wants to confirm rather than try to get a true and an unbiased answer to that question.

Biases can sneak up in the most unexpected ways and if these biases are present in the form of leading questions in a survey, the purpose of creating a survey is diluted, since the responses will be biased based on the leading question. These responses and collected data will not lead to insightful research reports and conclusions.

LEARN ABOUT: Testimonial Questions

Poorly constructed survey questions can lead to undesirable answers. If a survey creator is unaware of biases while framing questions, then these biases reflect in poor decision making based on partially true data. This may result in adversely affecting an organization or business who use this data for research and business purposes.

LEARN ABOUT: This or that questions

Characteristics of Leading Questions

As mentioned in the earlier section, leading questions prompt the survey respondents to answer in a specific manner by including certain terms and phrases.

5 main characteristics that define leading questions:

• They are intentionally framed to cultivate bias in respondents so that the answers are according to the survey creators plan.
• The questions have an element of conjecture and assumption.
• Leading questions thrive on a respondent’s personal input.
• These questions are often asked to understand the consequences of a situation.
• They tend to be forceful in terms of obtaining feedback.

LEARN ABOUT: Open-Ended Questions

Types of Leading Questions

Leading questions change the survey results due to the inherent intent and tone of the question types . They can be divided into multiple types –

• Leading questions based on an assumption: Asking questions on the basis of an assumption.  In student surveys , questions created on assumptions may be present: “How much did you enjoy with your teachers during the sports day at school?” – Here it is assumed that all the students would have had a frolicking time with their teachers during the school sports day. Instead, a question such as the following could be included: “Share with us your experience at the sports day.”
• Leading Questions based on interlinked statements: Ask questions that have two closely connected statements. Employee satisfaction surveys can have a leading question in the form of: “Most employees hate working for more than 10 hours a day…What do you have to say about it?” Here the work-life balance is interlinked with working fewer hours. Instead, “Would you prefer working for fewer hours, since your current work-life balance seems to be a problem.” will produce more impactful results.
• Leading Questions based on a direct implication: Asking questions that make respondents consider the results that would eventually happen in case a particular incident happens.  For example, in Conference feedback surveys – “If you enjoyed this conference, shall we conduct another conference in a similar manner?”.
• Leading Questions based on coerciveness: Asking questions that force respondents to answer in an extremely forceful manner.  Customer satisfaction surveys may have leading questions such as: “Your experience with our organization was satisfactory, wasn’t it?”.
• Leading Questions based on tagging: The above question can also be considered to be another type of leading question: Tag Question. This question includes a phrase to prompt respondents to answer and most often include negative elements such as “Don’t you” or “Isn’t is”.  Another example of a Tag Question is Website evaluation survey question , such as: “Our website was user-friendly and responsive, wasn’t it?”

LEARN ABOUT: Screening Question

What is a Biased Survey?

A biased survey is a survey that is bound to have errors due to:

• Survey design
• Leading questions asked in a survey

At all times, a survey creator should design and develop a survey, where the questions asked should not influence survey responses. A biased survey can lead to a higher dropout rate, as survey respondents lose interest in the survey.

A well-written survey question allows respondents to answer truthfully, without being pulled to one side or obvious biases. In simpler words, questions should not confuse respondents about which option to choose.

Good Examples of Leading Questions

Example: Did you like our excellent new offering?

Using “excellent” in the above question can lead to biases amongst respondents. A more neutral question would have been:

How would you rate our new offering?

Example: You are satisfied with our products, aren’t you?

This question generates a certain degree of confusion and eventually would have respondents succumb to an extreme answer option. A good survey design will not have a question that is highly likely to confuse respondents.  

The right question to ask in this context would be: How satisfied are you with our products?

• Very Satisfied
• Somewhat Satisfied
• Neither Satisfied nor Dissatisfied
• Somewhat Dissatisfied
• Very Dissatisfied

Example: Do you always consume fast food? ( Dichotomous Question )

Literally, this question would invariably lead respondents to answer no, even if they consume fast food a couple of times a week.

The right question to ask in this context would be: How frequently do you consume fast food?

• Very Frequently
• Occasionally
• Very Rarely

Learn more: Likert Scale Examples

How to avoid Leading Question?

• Keep questions clear and simple while creating a survey , avoid leading the respondent to a specific answer, provide appropriate answer options and offer, “other” options to make sure the survey is easy to respond to.
• To remove biases from leading questions, the survey creator can take an opinion from someone who is distant from a survey topic. It is always good to have an extra set of eyes scan through a survey to remove any biases before deploying a survey.
• Avoid using jargon in questions, using terms that are technical in nature or difficult to understand can lead to leading questions. When respondents fail to understand the question, they choose an answer option that is best understood by them.

Final Thoughts

A survey creator must avoid asking leading questions to be able to get correct and truthful responses. To avoid biases in a survey , make sure to clearly state all answer options so that respondents can choose the best possible options for them. Make sure to include “Prefer not to answer option”. Many people tend to drop out of a survey if they are uncomfortable answering a certain question.

By practicing the attributes mentioned above, survey creators can avoid asking leading questions and practice consciously, the art of asking the right questions to create an effective research design for their organizations or businesses.  

Learn more: Get 300+ FREE survey templates here

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Market research questions: what to ask and how.

9 min read Whether you’re looking for customer feedback, product suggestions or brand perception in the market, the right market research questions can help you get the best insights. Learn how you can use them correctly and where to begin.

What is market research?

Market research (also called marketing research) is the action or activity of gathering information about market needs and preferences. This helps companies understand their target market — how the audience feels and behaves.

For example, this could be an online questionnaire , shared by email, which has a set of questions that ask an audience about their views. For an audience of target customers, your questions may explore their reaction to a new product that can be used as feedback into the design.

Why do market research?

When you have tangible insights on the audience’s needs, you can then take steps to meet those needs and solve problems. This mitigates the risk of an experience gap – which is what your audience expects you deliver versus what you actually deliver.

In doing this work, you can gain:

• Improved purchase levels – Sales will improve if your product or service is ticking all the right buttons for your customers.
• Improved decision making – You can avoid the risk of losing capital or time by using what your research tells you and acting with insights.
• Real connection with your target market – If you’re investing in understanding your target audience, your product and service will more likely to make an impact.
• Understand new opportunities – it might be that your research indicates a new area for your product to play within, or you find potential for a new service that wasn’t considered before.

Get started with our free survey maker

Who do you ask your questions to?

Who to target in your market research is crucial to getting the right insights and data back. If you don’t have a firm idea on who your target audiences are, then here are some questions that you can ask before you begin writing your market research questions:

• Who is our customer currently and who do we want to attract in the future?
• How do they behave with your brand?
• What do they say, do and think?
• What are their pain points, needs and wants?
• Where do they live? What is the size of our market?
• Why do they use us? Why do they use other brands?

We’ve put together some questions below (Market research questions for your demographics) if you wanted to reach out to your market for this.

With the answers, you can help you segment your customer market, understand key consumer trends , create customer personas and discover the right way to target them.

Market research goals

Give yourself the right direction to work towards.There are different kinds of market research that can happen, but to choose the right market research questions, figure out your market research goals first.

Set a SMART goal that thinks about what you want to achieve and keeps you on track. SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Timely. For example, a good SMART business goal would be to increase website sales for a top product by 10% over a period of 6 months.

You may need to review some strategic business information, like customer personas and historical sales data, which can give you the foundation of knowledge (the ‘baseline’) to grow from. This, combined with your business objectives, will help you form the right SMART targets tailored to your teams.

Types of market research questions

Now that you have your SMART target, you can look at which type of market research questions will help you reach your goal. They can be split into these types:

• For demographics
• For customers
• For product

Market research questions for your demographics

Demographic information about your customers is data about gender, age, ethnicity, annual income, education and marital status. It also gives key information about their shopping habits.

Here are some questions you can ask in your market research survey:

• What is your age / gender / ethnicity / marital status?
• What is the highest level of education you have achieved?
• What is your monthly income range?
• What methods of shopping do you use?
• What amount do you spend on [product/brand/shopping] each month?
• How regular do you shop for [product/brand]?

Learn more about the demographic survey questions that yield valuable insights .

Market research questions for your customer

These questions are aimed at your customer to understand the voice of the customer — the customer marketing landscape is not an one-way dialogue for engaging prospects and your customer’s feedback is needed for the development of your products or services.

• How did we do / would you rate us?
• Why did you decide to use [product or service]?
• How does that fit your needs?
• Would you recommend us to your friends?
• Would you buy from us again?
• What could we do better?
• Why did you decide to shop elsewhere?
• In your opinion, why should customers choose us?
• How would you rate our customer experience?

Learn more about why the voice of the customer matters or try running a customer experience survey.

Market research questions for your product

These questions will help you understand how your customers perceive your product, their reactions to it and whether changes need to be made in the development cycle.

• What does our [product or service] do that you like or dislike?
• What do you think about [feature or benefit]?
• How does the product help you solve your problems?
• Which of these features will be the most valuable / useful for you?
• Is our product competitive with other similar products out there? How?
• How does the product score on [cost / service / ease of use, etc.]?
• What changes will customers likely want in the future that technology can provide?

There are also a set of questions you can ask to find out if your product pricing is set at the right mark:

• Does the product value justify the price it’s marketed at?
• Is the pricing set at the right mark?
• How much would you pay for this product?
• Is this similar to what competitors are charging?
• Do you believe the price is fair?
• Do you believe the pricing is right based on the amount of usage you’d get?

Have you tried a pricing and value research survey to see how much your target customers would be willing to pay?

Market research questions for your brand

How does the impact of your products, services and experiences impact your brand’s image? You can find out using these questions:

• What do you think about our brand?
• Have you seen any reviews about us online? What do they say?
• Have you heard about our brand from friends or family? What do they say?
• How likely are you to recommend our brand to a friend?
• Have you read the testimonials on our own channels? Did they have an impact on your decision to purchase? How?
• When you think of our brand, what do you think/ feel / want?
• How did you hear about us?
• Do you feel confident you know what our brand stands for?
• Are you aware of our [channel] account?

Learn more about brand perception surveys and how to carry them out successfully.

How to use market research questions in a survey

For the best research questionnaires, tailoring your market research questions to the goal you want will help you focus the direction of the data received.

You can get started now on your own market research questionnaire, using one of our free survey templates, when you sign up to a free Qualtrics account.

Drag-and-drop interface that requires no coding is easy-to-use, and supported by our award-winning support team.

With Qualtrics, you can distribute, and analyse surveys to find customer, employee, brand, product, and marketing research insights.

More than 11,000 brands and 99 of the top 100 business schools use Qualtrics solutions because of the freedom and power it gives them.

Get started with our free survey maker tool

Related resources

Market intelligence 10 min read, marketing insights 11 min read, ethnographic research 11 min read, qualitative vs quantitative research 13 min read, qualitative research questions 11 min read, qualitative research design 12 min read, primary vs secondary research 14 min read, request demo.

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Home | Blog | 79 Market Research Questions For Better Results

79 Market Research Questions For Better Results

By Magellan Solutions

Updated on August 4, 2023

Schedule a call with our outsourcing expert now and get a precise quotation that meets your requirements. Don't wait - get started today!

Valuable answers come from practical questions.

In this article, you’ll learn about the top market research questions you can ask to obtain valuable insights from your potential and existing market.

What you’ll learn:

What is market research, how to write market research questions, examples of market research questions.

• For new businesses
• For a new product
• For existing customers
• For potential customers
• For competitive analysis
• For customer service improvement

Market research is the systematic process of getting and analyzing feedback from different market segments. Using this approach, you can identify the potential of your product or service when offered to a specific consumer demographic.

In other words, it helps you find the right customers to patronize your business. It also enables you to determine the pain points of your target market. Through this, you can develop or improve products or services that can resolve the struggles of your existing customers or target audience. 

It has three main methods:

• Online survey – This tool can gather information from a sample population online. To help you get started, check out some of the methods for conducting surveys: – If you are starting a business, you can begin by utilizing email and social media to send survey questions or polls to your target market.- You can also embed it into your website or app, but since it is a reactive method, the chances of getting feedback are lower.- If you think you have the budget for it, you can send it to paid survey sites to get higher response rates.
• Phone interview – Have you experienced receiving cold calls from certain companies asking about your opinion on a particular product or service? If yes, then you’re probably familiar with market research. A phone interview is a proactive way of conducting market research surveys. It guarantees you a faster and more accurate response from your target demographics. Some companies outsource to a survey call center to expand their reach while saving time and money.
• Face-to-face interviews – This is the traditional way of conducting customer surveys. It is one of the best ways to get actual, first-hand opinions. Unlike the first two methods, it requires you to go out to the street and into the houses of your sample respondents. Here, you can encourage consumers to participate by giving freebies or samplers. While this is an excellent way to build personal relationships with your ideal customers, it is not as efficient as phone interviews and online surveys.

Aside from gathering first-hand consumer data, you can also keep track of economic trends .

Secondary information provided by existing sources enables you to kick-start your market research. It gives general and quantifiable data on industry trends, demographics, and potential competitors.

Some of the best secondary information sources include government census data, statistics and research reports published by independent market research firms, and business news.

It’s easy to think of and write questions right off the bat. But first, make sure you’re square on the following details:

• What is the problem you want to solve?
• What are your goals/objectives?
• Who is your target audience?

From there, you can start brainstorming questions that would provide insightful information for your marketing, sales, and research and development departments.

Here are some things you can consider that will add depth and dimension to your market research process:

• Demand is the number of products consumers are willing to purchase at any given time.
• Market size – the number of potential consumers within a specific market.
• Customer demographics – any given sector of a population segmented using different factors such as age, gender, occupation, income, location, etc.
• Location – the place where the target market resides.
• Market saturation – the number of similar products available to target customers.
• Economic indicators – any economic activity in the location of your business that is presented in metric format.
• Pricing – the cost of products or services based on target consumers’ economic status and competitors’ current pricing.

Once you’ve listed enough questions based on some of these elements, the next step is to select questions that bring you closer to your objectives. Make sure to remove those that won’t give enough value.

While answering those questions, create a clear picture or a registry of the possible target audience response. Ask only what is necessary to prevent your respondents from getting bored. Remember that if it takes too long, they might get triggered to answer questions hastily.

Also, keep your market research process simple. Through this, you will not only keep the attention of your respondents, but it will also enable you to obtain valuable answers.

Do you still find yourself struggling to come up with appropriate market research questions? If yes, check out these examples and carefully select what you need.

Market research questions for new businesses

If you’re opening a new business, it pays to gather extensive information about the industry, market size, target audience’s buying behaviors, competitors, and competitive advantage. 

• Who are your target customers?
• What are the core problems of your customers?
• What is your product or service?
• How can your product or service solve the problems of your customers?
• Does your product fit into the current market? 
• Is it possible to create a new market for your product?
• What is the current market size? What is the potential size of the market?
• Will the market size grow or contract? Why?
• What are the buying habits in the market? How can we exploit them?
• What are the existing segments of the market?
• In which segments do you plan to compete?
• Which of the segments are growing, and which are contracting?
• Who are your direct competitors? What are their strategies for attracting customers?
• What is your competitive advantage?
• Where do you plan to establish your business?
• What is the current economic status of your target customers from that location?
• How much do you plan to charge your customers for availing of your products or services?
• How much are you going to spend on customer acquisition?

When starting a new business, position yourself as an expert. This means having in-depth knowledge about your customers, the industry, the market trends, and competitors.

It is essential to curate questions that can show you opportunities to succeed. Assess your edge over your competitors. For example, you can ask your target market how your competitors can improve their products or services. Once you’ve analyzed their answers, it will be easier to figure out what you can add or enhance to meet customer expectations.

Market research questions for new product launch

Expanding your product line also requires lots of research and market testing. Here are some of the questions you can ask.

• How do you plan to test your new product?
• What will you test? (Product, marketing collaterals, marketing message, etc.)
• Where will you find users who will test the product?
• How high is the current demand for your new product?
•  How are you going to promote it?
• What channels are you going to use?
• Where do you plan to promote it?
• Who will be your market?
• How much do your competitors charge for a similar product?

Before launching a new product, you must know your target customers, the demand for the product, your marketing or advertising strategy, and your possible competitors.

Questions to ask existing customers

When researching existing customers, the main goal is to find out how they feel about your brand. Since they have first-hand experience using your products, they are the ones who can show you their strengths and weaknesses.

You can use a rating scale or a checklist for these questions. This way, it will be easier for your customers to answer your survey.

Checklist with ‘other’ option in case the answer isn’t indicated on your survey form:

• How did you hear about us?
• How long have you been our customer?
• What problem does our product solve for you?
• What features do you like most about our product?
• What do you like the least about our product?
• What made you choose us over the other products in the market?
• How often do you purchase our product?
• Would you avail of our product/service again?
• What else can we do to improve your experience with our brand?

Rating scale

• How well does our product meet your needs?
• How would you rate your last experience with us?
• How likely are you to recommend our product to a friend?
• How will you rate the speed and promptness of our customer service team?

The goal of conducting market research among your existing customers is to know their satisfaction with your brand. This will let you see what you need to continue doing and the areas you need to improve.

Market research questions to ask potential customers

When interviewing your potential customers, get enough information about their demographics, socioeconomic status, and unique interests.

These are the essential information you need to acquire:

• Address (doesn’t need to be specific, especially if confidentiality is required)
• Education level
• Profession/Job
• Household income
• Household size

On the other hand, these are some questions you can ask to help you better segment your target audience:

• What are your hobbies and interests?
• What are the common challenges you encounter regularly?
• What are your main goals?
• What products do you consider the most important for your everyday life?
• Where do you usually discover new products?
• How much do you spend when purchasing (specify here the type of product you’re offering)?
• How often do you buy (again, specify here the type of product you’re offering)?
• How likely are you going to buy our product?

You can also add more questions about your brand to get the necessary information when improving your marketing message.

These questions will help your marketing team create value-added promotional materials that appeal to your target audience. 

Questions for competitive analysis

Competitive benchmarking lets you compare your performance against your direct competitors. Here are some questions to help you get started:

• How’s your brand’s performance compared to your competitors?
• How do your competitors advertise or market their products?
• What are the other brands’ customer acquisition strategies?
• How much web traffic does your competitor receive?
• What keywords are your competitors using?
• What type of content are they producing?
• Are you using the same keyword on your website?
• What other channels do your competitors use aside from their websites?
• How many inbound links do your competitors have?
• How active are the other brands in producing backlinks with authority websites?

Measure your success by knowing the performance of your competitors. Analyzing their products, services, marketing strategies, sales, authority in the industry, customer acquisition strategies, and branding will let you see where you can thrive better than your competitors.

To improve customer service

Customer service is a crucial element in customer retention. It serves as the fine line between repeat business and an abandoned transaction. Do it right , and your customers will come back for more. Neglect it, and your customers are likely to move to your competitors.

Always check the quality of customer service you provide to keep your loyal customers.

• How fast do you respond to inquiries?
• How well and quickly do you resolve customer complaints?
• What are your customer satisfaction ratings?
• What problems do your customers often experience concerning your customer service?
• How can you improve your customer service?
• How can you measure your customer experience?
• Do your customers know all of the features, products, and services your business offers?
• Do you provide a personalized experience?
• How convenient is it to reach your business?
• What customer service channels are you using?
• Is your website or mobile app user-friendly?
• Is the experience consistent across all channels?
• Does your brand appear trustworthy based on online reviews?
• If you have international clients, do you provide multilingual options ?

As high as 49% of US customers leave a brand due to poor customer service. Don’t let this happen to your brand! Regularly assess the quality of your customer service to provide positive customer experiences. 

In conclusion

Market research can save a lot of trouble and financial heartbreaks when done right. Whether starting a business, chasing growth, creating better marketing messages, or improving your processes, market research can bring you the answers you need to develop dynamic strategies. Ask the right questions, and you’ll surely get valuable results.

Do you need the help of a market research call center to reach a wider audience within a shorter time? Magellan Solutions is here to help! We offer tailor-fit solutions to meet the needs and budget of your business. If you want to know more, contact us using the form below.

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100+ Market Research Questions to Ask Your Customers

Babu Jayaram

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Babu Jayaram brings over 20 years of experience in sales and customer service to his role on the Qualaroo Advisory Board. With a profound understanding of sales and conversion strategies, ... Read more

Babu Jayaram brings over 20 years of experience in sales and customer service to his role on the Qualaroo Advisory Board. With a profound understanding of sales and conversion strategies, Babu is committed to delivering exceptional results and fostering robust customer relationships. His expertise extends beyond mere management, including adept handling of support tickets, overseeing internal and customer-facing knowledge bases, and training support teams across diverse industries to ensure exceptional service delivery. Read less

UX & User Research Expert

Dwayne Charrington is a UX design and user research expert who explores a wide range of topics, including lead generation, feedback management, A/B testing, survey accessibility, and emerging technologies like AI and VR.

Asking the right market research questions can help you understand your target customers and map their behavior and preferences. 

But what does it actually mean?

Let’s look at a sample from a market research survey report for mapping brand awareness:

From this simple Q&A report, you can:

• Visualize the proportions of demographic segments among your audience.
• Measure how your brand is performing in comparison to others.
• Pick the top preferred brand among the customers, explore what makes it stand out, and apply the same techniques to your brand.
• See how your target market perceives brand advertisements and promotional efforts.

Now imagine if this type of data set is available for different aspects of your business – product development, marketing campaigns, optimization plans, and more.

That’s what market research does for you.

With the evolution of customer interaction points and constantly changing market trends, more and more businesses are fueling efforts to do in-depth market research, as evidenced by the steady increase in the revenue of the market research industry worldwide.

Market research can help you develop essential business strategies and maintain a competitive advantage over other brands to increase conversions and customer base.

And it all starts with asking the right questions to the right audience.

That’s why we have created this collection of 100+ market research questions to ask your target market. Each question aims to uncover a specific attribute about your customers. You can use a combination of these customer research survey questions, interviews, and othe marketing questionnaires for customers.

We have also added key tips to help you write your own effective market analysis questions if the needed.

100+ Great Market Research Questions to Ask Your Customers

The main challenge while designing and conducting research is – “What questions should I ask in my customer research survey?

That’s why we have a carefully curated list of market research questions to help you get started.

To Explore New Product Opportunities

• What was your first reaction to the product?
• Would you purchase this product if it were available today?
• What feature would you like to see on the website/product?
• Which feature do you think will help improve the product experience for you?
• Of these four options, what’s the next thing you think we should build?
• What’s the one feature we can add that would make our product indispensable for you?
• Would implementing [this feature] increase the usability of the [product name]?
• Please let us know how we can further  improve this feature.
• What problem would you like to solve with our product?

To Collect Feedback on Existing Products

• Have you heard of [product name or category] before?
• How would you feel if [product name] was no longer available?
• How disappointed would you be if you could no longer use [Product/feature name?]
• How often do you use [product name]?
• How long have you been using [product name] for?
• When was the last time you used [product name]?
• Please rate the following product features according to their importance to you.
• According to you, In which area is this product/service lacking the most? Specify below.
• How does the product run after the update?
• Rate our product based on the following aspects:
• Have you faced any problems with the product? Specify below.
• What feature did you expect but not find?
• How are you planning to use [product or service]?
• How satisfied are you with the product?

To Segment the Target Market

Please specify your age.

• Please specify your gender.
• Select your highest level of education.
• What is your current occupation?
• What is your monthly household income?
• What is your current marital status?

• What is the name of your company?
• Where is your company’s headquarters located?
• Please specify the number of employees that work in your company.
• What is your job title?
• In which location do you work?
• Which activity do you prefer in your free time?
• Which other physical activities do you take part in?
• Where is your dream holiday destination?
• Please rate the following as per their priority in your life – Family, work, and social life?
• Are you happy with your current work-life balance?
• Do you describe yourself as an optimist or a pessimist?
• How often do you give to charity?
• How do you travel to work?
• How do you do your Holiday shopping?

To Conduct a Competition Analysis

• Which product/service would you consider as an alternative to ours?
• Rate our competitor based on the following:
• Have you seen any website/product/app with a similar feature?
• How would you compare our products to our competitors? 
• Why did you choose to use our [product] over other options?
• Compared to our competitors, is our product quality better, worse, or about the same?
• Which other options did you consider before choosing [product name]?
• Please list the top three things that persuaded you to use us rather than a competitor.
• According to you, which brand best fits each of the following traits.

To Gauge Brand Awareness

• [Your brand name] Have you heard of the brand before?
• How do you feel about this brand?
• How did you hear about us?
• Describe [brand name] in one sentence.
• If yes, please tell us what you like the most about [your brand name]?
• If no, please specify the reason.
• How likely are you to purchase a product from this company again?
• If yes, where have you seen or heard about our brand recently? (Select all that apply)
• Do you currently use the product of this brand?
• Have you purchased from this brand before?
• Of all the brands offering similar products, which do you feel is the best brand?
• Please specify what makes it the best brand for you in the category.
• Which of the following products have you tried? (Select all that apply)
• On a scale of 1 to 10, how likely would you recommend this brand to a friend or colleague?

To Map Customers’ Preferences

• Have you ever boycotted a brand? If so, which brand and why?
• What influences your purchase decision more – price or quality of the item?
• How many hours do you spend on social media like Facebook, Instagram, etc.?
• How do you do your monthly grocery shopping – online or through outlets?
• How do you search for the products you want to buy?
• Rate the factors that affect your buying decision for [product].
• What persuaded you to purchase from us?
• How likely are you to purchase a product from us again?
• Please rate the following aspects of our product based on their importance to you.
• What is the most important value our product offers to you?
• Which of the following features do you use least?
• How well does the product meet your needs?

To Map Customers’ Reservations

• Is there anything preventing you from purchasing at this point?
• What’s preventing you from starting a trial?
• Do you have any questions before you complete your purchase?
• What is the main reason you’re canceling your account?
• What are your main reasons for leaving?
• What was your biggest fear or concern about purchasing from us?
• What is the problem that the product/service helped to solve for you?
• What problems did you encounter while using our [product]?
• How easy did we make it to solve your problem?
• What is your greatest concern about [product]?
• Have you started using other similar products? If yes, what made you choose that product?

To Perform Pricing Analysis

• Would you purchase the product at [price]
• According to you, what should be the ideal price of the [product name]?
• Is our product pricing clear?
• According to you, what is the ideal price range for the product?

To Collect Feedback on Website Copy

• Please rate the website based on the following aspects:
• How well does the website meet your needs?
• Was the information easy to find?
• Was the information clearly presented?
• What other information should we provide on our website?
• How can we make the site easier to use?
• What could we do to make this site more useful?
• Is there anything on this site that doesn’t work the way you expected it to?
• How easy was it to find the information you were looking for?
• Have feedback or an idea? Leave it here!
• Help us make the product better. Please leave your feedback.

To Assess Website/Product Usability

• Are you satisfied with the website layout?
• What features do you think are missing on our website?
• What features do you not like on our website?
• Was our website navigation simple and user-friendly?
• How much time did it take to find what you were looking for on our website?
• Was it easy to find the products you are looking for?
• Was the payment process convenient?

To Uncover Market Trends and Industry Insights

• Did you purchase our product out of peer influence or individual preference?
• How do you form your opinion about our product?
• Do you follow trends of the product, or do you prefer to go with what you know?
• Do discounts or incentives impact your decision-making process?

Market Research Survey Templates

One of the easiest ways to conduct market research is to use survey templates. They can help you save time and effort in creating your own market research surveys.

There are many types of market research survey templates available, depending on your objectives and target audience. Some of the most popular ones are:

• Demographic Templates: These templates help you segment your customers based on their location. It can help you tailor your marketing strategies and offers to different customer groups.

• Consumer Behavior Templates: These templates help you keep your pulse on your target market.

Industry Insights Templates: These templates help you get detailed information about your target industry and business.

Breakdown of Different Market Research Questions

The answer choices in a market research survey question can significantly impact the quality and reliability of the response data you collect from the audience.

Some answer types help categorize the audience, while others measure their satisfaction or agreement. 

So, before listing the customer research survey questions to ask your target audience, let’s understand their types:

Multiple Choice

A multiple-choice question type lets users select more than one answer from the given options. These questions are great for collecting multiple data sets using the same question and gauging people’s preferences, opinions, and suggestions .

Single Choice

In a single-choice question, the respondent can select only one answer from the given options. This question type is great for:

• Segregating the users.
• Prioritizing product updates based on user consensus.
• Disqualifying irrelevant respondents by placing the question at the start of your customer research survey.

Matrix Match

A matrix matching grid can combine multiple market research questions into one to make the survey shorter . There is only one condition – the individual questions should have the same response anchors as shown in the image below:

The questions are arranged in rows while the answer options occupy the grid columns.

Ranking Question

A ranking question can help map customers’ preferences and set priorities for product development . This question type asks the respondent to arrange the given options in their decreasing/increasing preference.

Dichotomous

A dichotomous question poses a simple yes or no scenario to the respondent. These question types can help disqualify irrelevant people from the survey and categorize the users into two groups .

Likert Scale

Likert scale market research questions can help you measure the extent of respondents’ agreement/disagreement with the given statement . The answer options are arranged from positive to negative sentiments or vice-versa, with the neutral option in the middle.

There are two types of Likert scales: 5-point and 7-point .

Open-ended market questions let you explore the respondents’ minds without adding any restrictions to the answer . This question type is followed by a blank space for the respondent to add a free-text response.

You can add an open-ended question as a follow-up after the first question to explore the reasons for the customer’s previous answer. It also lets you collect more in-depth information about their issues, pain points, and delights.

Tools like Qualaroo offer tons of different question types for your surveys. Just pick the question and match its answer option type from the drop-down. To make it more effective, you can add branching to the survey.

How to Write Your Marketing Research Questions

It’s imperative to have a dedicated repository of market research questions for your surveys. But nothing’s better than crafting your questions.

For this, you need to sit with your team and discuss what information you require from the customers. It lets you analyze and document how much data you already have in your system, which can help set the market research scope.

We have listed some questions you need to ask yourself before asking market research questions to your potential customers or target market:

Audience Segmentation Questions

Audience segmentation questions help to size up your target market and provide a granular view of the audience . Not all customers are equal, and audience segmentation makes it possible to focus on each group individually to address their issues, fears, and expectations.

Here’s what you need to know before you start writing customer research survey questions to understand your audience:

• Do we understand the demographics of the new market we are trying to target? (Age, location, ethnicity, education, company, annual income, etc.)
• What are the locations that drive the most customers to our business? How are these locations different from others?
• What are the interests, preferences, and fears of people from our new target market? Have we addressed these situations for our current customer base?
• What are the psychographics attributes of the current customers and potential market? Are we targeting these in our campaigns?
• What are the most popular engagement channels for our customers? Which channels drive the most traffic to our website?
• Do we have enough data to perform value segmentation to separate high-value customers from low-value customers? 
• How often do these high-value customers make a purchase?

Product-Based Market Research Questions

Product-based market research questions can produce precious insights to channel into your product development and optimization strategies . You can see how changing technology affects customers’ behavior, what new features they want to see in your product, and how they perceive your products and services over the competition.

Start by gathering information about the following:

• How does our product compare to the competition based on the features?
• What products do our competitors offer?
• What new features do customers want to see in our products? Do we have a product roadmap to deliver these updates?
• What unique solutions do our products offer? What is the value proposition that reflects this offering?
• Does our product incorporate the latest technological advancements?
• What channels do we use to collect product feedback from our users?
• What are customers’ preferences while choosing our products over competitors?

Pricing Market Research Questions

Pricing analysis can help you make your product more affordable to different customer segments while maintaining the desired gross margin. It also lets you restructure the pricing tiers to provide features depending on the customers’ requirements and company size .

Watch: (1/5) Supercharge Your Revenue With Data-Driven Pricing

Your sales and marketing team can help you hone in on the market research questions to ask your customers for running pricing analysis:

• Do the customers ever complain about the difficulty in finding the pricing information?
• What is the pricing structure of our competitors for the same products? What features do they include for a specific price?
• How do customers find our pricing when compared to the competitors?
• Do our products provide value for money to the customers? Does the sales pitch reflect this point?
• Can we restructure the pricing, and how will it affect the revenue?
• Are there any customer segments that have high-value potential but find the current pricing unaffordable? What are the plans for such customers?
• Are we in a situation to offer a basic free plan to encourage customers to try our product before upgrading?
• What promotions can we run to attract more customers?
• Should we target customers based on income, company size, or type of solution to set our product prices?

Brand Reputation Market Research Questions

A brand reputation questionnaire for marketing research gives you information on how well your target market knows about your brand. You can uncover previously unidentified channels to increase brand awareness and find potential customers to promote your brand .

Start by gauging what customers are saying about your brand:

• Which channels receive mentions of our brand? Are these posts positive or negative?
• Do we have a system in place to analyze and monitor these reviews and posts?
• What are the reviews of our brand on different sites? What is the overall impression of our brand in the market?
• How are we currently addressing the negative reviews and complaints? What do our customers think about the handling process?
• What is the impression of our brand in our target market?
• What brand awareness campaigns are our competitors running?
• Is our brand among the top choices of our target customers?

Advertisement & Campaign-Based Questions

These customer research survey questions let you assess the effectiveness of your current value propositions and campaigns . You can channel the customer insights into your advertising strategies to design targeted campaigns for different customer segments to reduce the overall acquisition cost and increase conversions.

Ask the following questions to collect information about the different marketing campaigns that are performing:

• What are the best modes to run the advertisement campaigns to reach our target audience?
• What is the estimated lifetime value of customers acquired from current campaigns? Is it higher or lower than the acquisition costs?
• Which campaigns bring the most ROI and why?
• How well do our advertisements present our value proposition to the customers? Do they address customers’ fears and expectations to attract them?
• Are we running A/B tests to improve our online campaigns? How are we gathering data to build the A/B test hypotheses – surveys, heatmaps, eye tracking, etc.?
• What advertisement campaigns do our competitors run?

7 Question Types to Use in Market Research Surveys

We mentioned earlier that market research questions provide important data for different operations like product development, marketing campaigns, sales pipeline and more.

But to what extent?

Let’s break it down to individual processes and understand how insights from customer research surveys can impact them:

To Know Your Target Market

Understanding your target audience is the fundamental aspect of market research, be it a new target market or existing customers. If you know what marketing research survey questions to ask your target market, you can identify different customer types’ unique traits and preferences.

The data can help you segment the users based on demographic, psychographic, geographic, and other attributes. These include their behavior, purchase preferences, age, location, habits, delights, frustrations, and more.

You can then create various customer personas and fuel your sales strategies to maximize ROI.

Case study – How Avis increased its revenue per customer

Avis, a leading car rental company, was looking to enhance customer experience by offering useful car add-ons like navigation systems, child seats, insurance, etc., to customers with their booking. So, it reached out to AWA Digital to find a way to promote these products and increase their sales.

AWA digital implemented customer research campaigns using targeted surveys to determine which add-ons were popular among the customers and why. 

Using these insights, the team added an interstitial pop-up just before the booking page to show relevant add-ons to the customers.

This simple update dramatically increased the sales of add-on items and helped Avis generate more revenue per customer.

Read the entire case study here .

To Plan the Product Roadmap

A product roadmap is a visual representation of the current status of your product and planned updates over time. It shows a high-level summary of planned activities and priorities for different teams to take the product to the next level.

Steve Jobs famously said – “You’ve got to start with the customer experience and work backward to the technology. You can’t start with the technology then try to figure out where to sell it.”

And market research helps to align your product strategies with the customer demand. Using targeted marketing survey questions, you can gauge what new features or functionality customers want to see in your products.

It helps to plan product development strategies based on customers’ consensus to prioritize the ideas that can have the most impact on customers and replace intuition-based approaches with data-backed decisions.

Customers’ demands change with market trends and technological advancements. That’s why your product map also needs to evolve constantly with time to reflect these changes in your product development cycle.

By designing targeted market research questions to ask the customers, you can uncover their expectations to deliver optimal product solutions. 

That’s what our next case study demonstrates.

Case study – How customer research drives Twilio’s operations  

Twilio, a cloud communications platform places customer discovery and research at the core of their product development strategies. It helps its teams to anticipate customer needs in a constantly changing market.

Lack of time and budget are the two biggest challenges that the company faces in its product development cycle. So, the team uses targeted market research questionnaires for a product to understand the challenges the customers face today and the ones they will face tomorrow. 

With an abundance of ideas and no time to test them all, the feedback data from surveys is used to prioritize the hypotheses to run the tests. It makes the process more efficient and effective in producing positive results. 

This data-backed approach is used across 18 different teams at Twilio to release new functionality every week and deliver optimal solutions to the clients.

Read the complete case study here .

To Reduce Acquisition Costs

Your customer base consists of multiple customer segments with different preferences and purchase potential. That’s why you cannot sell to everyone and need to find the right audience for your products.

If an acquired customer doesn’t bring in more revenue than it costs to acquire them, it will increase your acquisition costs over time.

We don’t want that, do we?

For example, let’s say you are targeting the entire market population using the same campaign. If your acquisition cost per customer is $300 and you acquire 20 customers from one campaign, you need to make more than $6000 to register profits.

The difficulty is you don’t know about these customers’ purchase behavior and capacity, so you cannot be sure if you will reach your goals. It adds unnecessary risks to your marketing ventures.

But, if you were targeting a specific segment with high income, regular shopping habits, or proven history of brand loyalty, You can obtain better results.

Now, the question is – 

How will you separate these potential long-term customers from one-time buyers and high-value targets from other segments?

One way to do this is by building customer personas using the data from the market research survey questions. A buyer persona defines different attributes of a particular customer segment so you can hone in on the right audience to funnel your marketing efforts.

Here’s what a typical persona includes:

• Target regions
• Target demographic (age, marital status, gender)
• Ideal psychographics (hobbies, social channels, activities they indulge in, goals)
• Preferred interaction channels
• Favorite brands and products
• Total revenue till date
• Estimated lifetime value

Once you have a clearer picture of different customers, you can find high-value prospects with the potential to be long-term customers looking for product solutions that your business offers. 

You can then design the correct pitch using the market research data to bring in these customers and control the overall acquisition costs.

For example:

• Plugin the demographic and psychographic data into CRM software like BIGContacts or Salesforce to convert high-value targets.
• Use your CRM to create segmented lists of prospects based on estimated value, location, current status, and more. Then target these groups individually with personalized value propositions to increase conversion rates.
• Identify their preferred mode of communication and technographic inclinations to find the right opportunities to pitch your product offering at the precise moment.

Even if acquiring and retaining such customers costs more, their overall revenue can balance the acquisition costs to deliver higher profits.

To Design Targeted Marketing Campaigns

By knowing how your target audience behaves and interacts with your business, you can find the exact opportunities to target them with personalized campaigns.

• You can use mail campaigns to target website users with app-exclusive offers to encourage them to download your app and improve app adoption.
• Add in-app broadcast messages about upcoming offers, exclusive membership benefits, and other incentives for new users to push them towards the end of the funnel.
• Create multiple landing pages to target different customer types.
• Design location-based ad campaigns with personalized value propositions based on audience preferences and problems at each location. 

Case Study – How Canon’s campaigns generated 700% ROI

AWA digital was tasked by Canon, one of the biggest electronics companies worldwide, to assess and increase the demand for their products in different geographies. So, the AWA team conducted customer research using target market survey questions and discovered the following attributes about customers’ purchase behavior and reservations:

• In some regions, people were reluctant to spend money on a Canon camera as they weren’t sure if Canon was an authoritative brand.
• In other regions, authority was not as important to the users.

Using these insights, AWA optimized the ads campaigns’ messaging for different locations to include what consumers deemed important purchase factors.

The results?

With in-depth customer feedback, Canon generated an overall ROI of 700% in all regions using personalized campaigns to target the audience.

To Improve Brand Awareness

Whether you are into soft drinks or not, You probably would have heard of Coca-Cola’s 2011 Share-A-Coke ad. This single campaign put the Coke brand back on the map and reversed the 10-year steady decline in sales in the US.  

Coke understood what motivates their customers and delivered a product offering that appealed to the masses to increase its brand equity- the excitement to get a Coca-Cola bottle with their name on it.

How did they do it?

In 2011, Coca-Cola rolled out its share-a-coke campaign in Australia. The company debranded the traditional Coke logo from the bottle and replaced it with the phrase “Share a Coke with” followed by a name.

The campaign used the list of the country’s most popular names (nicknames). The purpose was to make people go out and find the Coke bottle with their name on it and share it with their friends. The campaign was subsequently rolled out in 80 countries.

How did it impact Coca-Cola as a brand:

• In Australia, it’s estimated that the campaign increased Coke’s share by 4% and increased consumption among young adults by 7%.
• #ShareACoke became the top trending hashtag on Twitter globally and received over 1 billion impressions.
• In the USA, the campaign increased Coke’s market share by over 2% and brought 11% more sales compared to the previous year.

It’s not limited to big brands only.  

Understanding the customers and placing your product’s value offering along with their habits, lifestyle, and behavior can help you extend your brand’s reach.

Today, there are multiple touchpoints to connect with your customers and map their journey to uncover their issues, motivations, and fears to address in your campaigns.

• Monitor brand mentions on social media and engage with the users to cultivate an online community and promote your brand.
• Reach out to satisfied customers and turn them into your brand ambassadors.
• Use targeted ad campaigns that connect people’s emotions and general behavior to imprint your brand’s image in their minds.

Quick Tips for Writing Awesome Market Research Survey Questions

With the inter-team research complete, you are ready to write your own market research questions to ask your target audience. Keep these general dos and don’ts in mind to ensure that the market survey fulfills the purpose without affecting the data quality or response rate.

Use Mutually Exclusive Response Options

If you are using response anchors with specific ranges like age group or income, check that the options do not overlap . Otherwise, it will produce an irregular data set.

Please specify your age:

In the above example, the respondent lying on either extremity of the given age ranges may get confused on which option to choose. For example, a 28-year-old respondent can choose from both second or third options.

Plus, two different respondents of the same age may select different options, which will skew your demographic data.

You can avoid this confusion by creating mutually exclusive groups as shown below:

Always Add A “Not Applicable” Or “Rather Not Say” Option

Since market research questions extract personal information, some respondents may not want to share such details with you. These include questions about age, income, gender, hobbies, social activities, and more.

Forcing such questions on the customers without allowing them to skip can irate them and lead to survey abandonment .

That’s why you can also use Qualaroo’s skip and branching logic to create smart surveys that only ask relevant questions to your respondents based on their previous answers.

Calculate the Required Sample Size

Sample size plays a vital role in your market research questions to determine the reliability of your response data.

If the response volume is low, the results may not be conclusive to point towards customers’ consensus. On the other hand, a larger sample size than required means a waste of the company’s valuable resources and time.

That’s why it’s important to calculate the required sample size to estimate the number of responses you need for your market research survey questions.

You can use any survey sample size calculator available online to get started. Just fill in the required details to get the required sample size.

For example, to reach a statistical significance of 99%, you need at least 3145 responses to your market research questionnaire.

Consider Adding Incentives

Studies show that incentivized customer research surveys or questionnaires fetch higher response rates than general surveys.

The incentives encourage customers to invest their time in a survey and get something in return.

It means creating a gated questionnaire for market research can help you reach the required sample size quickly . The incentive can be a simple discount code, free shipping coupon, free ebook, or other freebies.

However, there is a possibility that irrelevant respondents may fill out the survey randomly just to get to the offer, which may skew the results. You can use screening questions to filter out unsuitable respondents.

Avoid Double-Barreled Market Research Questions

A double-barreled question poses two questions into one. The problem with such questions is that the respondent may have opposing views about the two statements in the questions. It makes it harder for them to choose one answer from the options .

“Please rate the [product name] on a scale of 1-10 based on overall quality and price?”

Here, the respondent may find the product quality appreciable while thinking it to be overpriced at the same time. In such a case, they may skip the question or select any option randomly.

You can easily sidestep this hurdle by breaking your double-barreled market research question into two to make it less confusing for the respondents.

Importance of Market Research

We mentioned earlier that market research questions provide important data for different operations like product development, marketing campaigns, sales pipeline, and more.

Understanding your target audience is the fundamental aspect of market research, be it a new target market or existing customers. If you know what customer research survey questions to ask your target market, you can identify different customer types’ unique traits and preferences.

AWA Digital implemented research campaigns using targeted customer research surveys to determine which add-ons were popular among the customers and why.

Steve Jobs famously said – “You’ve got to start with the customer experience and work backward to the technology. You can’t start with the technology and then try to figure out where to sell it.”

And market research helps to align your product strategies with the customer demand. Using targeted customer research survey questions, you can gauge what new features or functionality customers want to see in your products.

Image Source: Slide Team

By designing targeted market research questions to ask the customers, you can uncover their expectations to deliver optimal product solutions.

Case study – How customer research drives Twilio’s operations

Twilio, a cloud communications platform, places customer discovery and research at the core of its product development strategies. It helps its teams to anticipate customer needs in a constantly changing market.

Lack of time and budget are the two biggest challenges that the company faces in its product development cycle. So, the team uses targeted market research questionnaires for a product to understand the challenges the customers face today and the ones they will face tomorrow.

With an abundance of ideas and no time to test them all, the feedback data from customer research surveys is used to prioritize the hypotheses to run the tests. It makes the process more efficient and effective in producing positive results.

Your customer base comprises multiple customer segments with different preferences and purchase potential. That’s why you cannot sell to everyone and need to find the right audience for your products.

For example, let’s say you target the entire market using the same campaign. If your acquisition cost per customer is $300 and you acquire 20 customers from one campaign, you must make over $6000 to register profits.

But, if you were targeting a specific segment with high income, regular shopping habits, or a proven history of brand loyalty, you could obtain better results.

Now, the question is –

Image Source: brightspark

• Plug the demographic and psychographic data into CRM software like BIGContacts or Salesforce to convert high-value targets.
• Use your CRM to create segmented lists of prospects based on estimated value, location, current status, and more. Then, target these groups individually with personalized value propositions to increase conversion rates.

• Add in-app broadcast messages about upcoming offers, exclusive membership benefits, and other incentives for new users to push them toward the end of the funnel.

AWA Digital was tasked by Canon, one of the biggest electronics companies worldwide, to assess and increase the demand for their products in different geographies. So, the AWA team conducted a customer research survey using target market questions and discovered the following attributes about customers’ purchase behavior and reservations:

• In other regions, authority was not so important to the users.

Whether you are into soft drinks or not, you probably would have heard of Coca-Cola’s 2011 Share-A-Coke ad. This single campaign put the Coke brand back on the map and reversed the 10-year steady decline in sales in the US.  

Coke understood what motivates its customers and delivered a product offering that appealed to the masses to increase its brand equity- the excitement to get a Coca-Cola bottle with its name on it.

• In Australia, it’s estimated that the campaign increased Coke’s share by 4% and consumption among young adults by 7%.

It’s not limited to big brands only. 

Market Research: A Key to Your Business’ Success

Market research is a vital process for any business wanting to understand its customers and market better. By asking the right questions and using the right tools like Qualaroo, you can gain valuable insights that can help you improve your products or services, enhance your customer experiences, and grow your business.

In this blog, we have shared some of the best market research questions to ask your customers, as well as some of the best customer research survey templates to find market trends and industry insights. We hope that this blog has helped you learn more about market research and how to conduct it effectively.

About the author

Dwayne charrington.

Dwayne Charrington is an expert in UX design and user research, showing a strong grasp of how to improve user interfaces and interactions. He explores a wide range of topics, including lead generation, feedback management, the importance of survey accessibility, and how new technologies like AI and VR are changing how users interact with products. He shares insights on creating clear navigation, using A/B testing to make smarter design choices, and the power of storytelling in UX. Dwayne also focuses on optimizing mobile experiences and champions privacy-by-design, ensuring users feel satisfied, secure, and valued.

63 Insightful Market Research Questions to Ask in 2023

Better understand your target customer with these must-ask questions.

Understanding your target market, and how they respond to your product, is the key to successful promotional campaigns. Even if you feel like you understand your market perfectly, markets do change over time. Your customers’ opinions, needs, and wants will change along with current trends in society, politics, pop culture, and other influences. Asking the right market research questions can help you stay on top of your changing market.

The market research questions below will help you understand your market’s most pressing concerns , along with potential pain points.

Market research questions to understand customer demographics and psychology

Aside from basic demographic questions, like age, gender, income, and location, you can create a more specific customer profile. Ask these questions to get to know your customers better:

• How do you primarily spend your time?
• In which industry do you work?
• What kind of hobbies do you regularly participate in?
• What are your main interests?
• If money or time were not an issue, what do you prefer to spend money on?
• What draws you to one brand over another?
• How do you choose between brands and products? 
• Who makes the primary purchasing decisions in your household?
• How many people do you shop for on a regular basis?
• What’s your preferred method of shopping? Why?
• What makes you decide to avoid a brand in the future?
• How do you feel about available products in [your product category]?
• How often do you shop for [your product category]? 
• How much do you spend on [product category] on a monthly basis?
• How do you use [product type] in your everyday life?

Market research questions for new products

If you’re gathering information to create or launch new products, these questions can provide valuable insight:

• What do you look for when purchasing [new product or service]?
• What is the most important feature for a [product type]?
• How does [product type] make your life easier?
• How often do you use [product type]?
• Describe how you use [product type].
• How much would you prefer to spend on a similar product or service?
• What features would encourage you to pay more for a product or service?
• Are there any features in [similar product or service] that you wouldn’t use?
• Do you feel [competing products] are priced fairly?
• What would convince you to try a new product or service in this category?

Market research questions for pain points

Understanding how your customers are responding to your current offerings, whether product, service, advertising, or customer service, can help you understand where your business can improve. Ask these questions to learn more:

• When was the last time you purchased from [company]?
• Describe your experience with your last purchase.
• Where did we succeed in meeting your expectations?
• Where did we fail in meeting your expectations?
• What would make your experience with [product] better?
• Are there any features you don’t use?
• What would your ideal product or service include?
• Have you ever talked to our customer service team?
• Describe your reason for needing customer service assistance.
• Describe your experience with our customer service team.
• Was your issue resolved?
• How quickly was your issue resolved?
• Were you satisfied with the outcome?
• What would have made the experience better?
• What’s the most difficult part of using our products or services?
• Do you use our website? How do you use it?
• Have you experienced any problems contacting us for assistance? What were they?
• Have you experienced any problems on our website? What were they?

Market research questions for pricing and placement

Understanding how your product pricing and placement compare to those of your competitors can be helpful. Use these questions to refine your pricing and promotional strategies:

• How much do you currently pay for [product type]?
• Do you think our product is priced fairly?
• Have you found [product or service] for less? Did you purchase it? Why or why not?
• What is a reasonable price range for [product or service]?
• What is the ideal price for [product or service]?
• Is [price point] too low or too high for a similar product/service?
• Have you seen our products in stores before?
• Where have you seen our products mentioned/placed/advertised?
• Where would you like to see our products or services mentioned/placed/advertised?

Market research questions for advertising and brand awareness

Advertising, marketing, and branding create an image in your customers’ minds. While brand awareness is its own market research niche, these questions will help you understand how customers perceive your brand and advertising campaigns:

• Are you familiar with our brand?
• How did you find our brand/company?
• Have you ever seen any reviews of our brand/product/company? How did they influence your purchase?
• Have you ever seen advertisements for our brand/product/company? How did they influence your opinion of us?
• Who do you think our target customer is?
• When you think of our brand, how do you feel?
• Does our advertising and branding accurately reflect your experience with our company?
• What should potential customers know about our products and services?
• What do you think our brand/company stands for?
• Have you ever followed any of our social media channels? Which ones? How do you feel about our social media presence?

Ask the insightful questions with Voiceform

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80+ Market Research Questions to Ask your Target Audiences

To remain competitive in the current business landscape, keeping up with the ever-changing market trends is not just an option but an absolute necessity. By adapting your customer interaction points and developing strategies that not only attract but also convert potential leads into loyal customers, you can solidify your standing in the industry.

But how can you achieve all of this effectively and efficiently? The answer lies in the power of market research and, more importantly, in asking the right survey questions .

Build & Send your Market Research Surveys🔥

Choose from over 30+ question types, add your own themes and create amazing surveys that people love answering.

Market research can navigate your company by helping you understand your audiences and customers better, identify shifting trends, and maintain that sought-after competitive advantage. In this blog, we'll throw light on the most compelling market research questions and best practices that can unveil valuable insights and give you a strategic edge in the ever-evolving market. 

Table of Content

What are market research questions.

• For Customers
• For Startups
• For New Product Launch
• For Existing Product
• To Segment Target Market
• For Competitive Analysis
• To Check Brand Awareness
• Pricing Analysis
• For Concept Testing
• To Understand Online Visibility
• For Reputation Management
• For Messaging & Advertising

Best Practices for Market Research Questions

Why do market research, top 10 market research questions.

Market research questions are designed to gather specific information and insights about a target market or audience. These questions play a crucial role in conducting systematic research to understand consumer preferences, behaviors, and opinions, as well as to analyze market trends and competitors.

You can use a market research survey template offered by Zonka Feedback to make informed decisions, identify opportunities, and develop effective strategies to stay competitive. If you are looking for a ready-to-use market research survey template, here is one that can gain you customer insights, consequently increasing customer satisfaction .

Market Research Questions to Gather Insights

Market research questions can help to optimize the decision-making process for businesses across various stages, from product development to marketing and sales. However, choosing the right market research questions should be based on what you want to achieve through market research. You can leverage microsurveys like the Net Promoter Score or Customer Satisfaction Surveys to conduct market research or create a comprehensive survey to gauge various aspects. Let us look at market research questions aimed at different user personas and business goals. 

1. For Customers

Understanding customers' preferences, concerns, and buying behavior are vital for your business to provide exceptional customer experiences . With this knowledge, you can focus on enhancing the aspects your customers love while working on areas that need improvement. 

What factors influence your purchasing decisions the most? What improvements would you like to see in our offerings?  How satisfied are you with our customer service?  Would you recommend our product to others? Which specific features of our product/service do you find most valuable?

2. For Startups

For startups, market research is crucial to validate business ideas , identify target markets, and uncover potential opportunities and challenges. Seeking product feedback for your startup in the early stages of brand development can be especially valuable in refining your beta version of the product and can help to create a product that truly resonates with your target audience.

What challenges do you currently face in [relevant industry/problem area]? What features are most important to you when considering a [product/service]? Would you be willing to try a new [product/service] if it addresses your needs more effectively? What would be your primary reason for choosing a product over competitors? How much would you be willing to pay for a product/service that meets your requirements? What are your preferred communication channels to learn about new products/services? How do you prefer to purchase product/service - online, in-store, or through a mobile app?

There are certain questions that you should be establishing as a startup before entering the market. Consider these market research questions to refine your startup's value proposition and make well-informed decisions to position your venture for success.

What are the total addressable market (tam), serviceable available market (sam), and share of the market (som)? What is your USP? Are you planning to refine your beta version of the product with beta testing survey ?  How would you onboard new customers? What are the potential barriers or challenges you may face in acquiring customers? How does the pricing of your product/service compare to the perceived value among customers?

3. For New Product Launch

Market research for new products helps locate potential demand, get product feature requests , and identify target markets, reducing the risk of launching a product with limited appeal. Consider these market research questions for new products that you can ask your customers.

How did you first hear about our new product? What is your initial impression of the new product based on the information provided? How interested are you in trying out this new product? What features or benefits of the new product appeal to you the most? How does the pricing of the new product align with your expectations and perceived value? Are there any specific concerns you have about the new product? Would you be open to participating in a trial or beta testing for the new product?

4. For Existing Product

For companies that thrive on product-led growth , customer feedback on the existing product is the key to success. Market research for existing products helps in understanding changing customer needs and market trends, ensuring that the product remains relevant and competitive. 

On a scale of 1-5, how satisfied are you with our current product? What challenges are you facing in using our product? What additional features or improvements would you like to see in our product? How does our product compare to competitors in terms of performance and pricing?

5. To Segment Target Market

By asking market research questions, you can segment your target market based on various demographics, interests, behaviors, and preferences. Through user segmentation , you can create more targeted marketing campaigns, tailor products/services to specific needs, and effectively reach and engage your diverse user base. Here are some of the demographic survey questions that you can ask to segment your target market. 

What is your age group?  What is your gender? Where do you reside? What is your education level? Are you employed, self-employed, a student, or retired? What are your hobbies or interests?  What are your preferred modes of communication? How do you prefer to make purchase decisions? What are your primary reasons for purchasing a specific product/service? Which media channels do you use most frequently for information and entertainment? 

6. For Competitive Analysis

Understanding competitors' strengths, weaknesses, and strategies can help you dig deeper into market share and identify opportunities to stay ahead in the market. You can leverage survey collection software to perform competitive analysis and gather valuable analytics for marketing and conversion rate optimization. Consider these market research questions to ask your customers about competitors. Consider these market research questions to ask your customers about competitors.

Have you ever used products/services from our competitors? How would you rate the products/services of our competitors in terms of quality? What do you perceive as the main strengths of our competitors' offerings? What factors influence your decision to choose our products/services over those of our competitors? Are there any specific features or benefits offered by our competitors that you find appealing? How do you think our products/services compare to those of our competitors in terms of overall value? How likely are you to recommend our products/services over those of our competitors to others?

7. To Check Brand Awareness

Assessing brand awareness helps businesses measure the effectiveness of their marketing efforts and brand visibility in the market. Market research questions for checking brand awareness can include:

Have you heard of our brand before? How did you first learn about our brand? Which of the following products do you associate with our company?  Have you ever used or purchased any products from our company? What feature do you like the most about our product? On a scale of 1 to 10, how likely would you recommend our brand to a friend or colleague?

8. Pricing Analysis

Determining the right pricing strategy is crucial to attracting customers while ensuring profitability. Market research questions for pricing analysis can include:

What price range do you consider reasonable for our product? How does our current pricing compare to competitors in the market? What factors do you consider when evaluating the pricing of a product? Would you be willing to pay more for additional features or benefits?

9. For Concept Testing

Before launching the final product, performing concept testing allows businesses to evaluate the viability of new ideas before investing resources in full-scale development. By doing so, you can tailor your product according to customer needs and assess the overall feasibility of your new product idea.

Please read the description of the new product/service concept carefully. How appealing does this concept sound to you? What specific aspects of the concept do you find most appealing or interesting? How likely are you to consider using or purchasing this new product/service based on the concept description? What would be your primary reason for choosing this new product/service over similar offerings in the market? Is there anything missing in the concept that you believe would make it more appealing or valuable? Is there anything you would change or improve in the concept to make it more appealing to you? How much would you be willing to pay for this new product/service, based on the concept description?

10. To Understand Online Visibility

In the digital age, online visibility is crucial to reach their target audience effectively. Whether you want to drive in-store customers or online, the route is by following online visibility. Conducting an online survey is the easiest way to understand this. Consider these market research questions to understand online visibility.

How did you discover our brand/company online? How frequently do you come across our brand/company while browsing the internet? Have you visited our website? If yes, what was your purpose for visiting? Are you following our brand/company on social media? If yes, which platforms? How do you perceive our brand/company's presence on social media? (e.g., active, engaging, informative) Do you find our website and online content (blogs, articles, etc.) easy to navigate and informative? What do you think about the overall user experience on our website? (e.g., website speed, design, functionality) How does our online presence compare to that of our competitors? Are there any specific online platforms or websites where you would like to see our brand/company more active?

11. For Reputation Management

Monitoring and managing your brand's reputation is essential for improving customer loyalty and business revenue. A major part of market research includes knowing what customers think and speak about your business. Here are some market research questions for reputation management.

How would you describe your overall perception of our company? What do you think is our company's strengths? How likely are you to recommend our company to others based on your perception? Are there any specific aspects of our company's reputation that stand out to you? How do you feel about our company's responsiveness to customer feedback and concerns? Are there any specific incidents or experiences that have influenced your perception of our company?

12. For Messaging & Advertising

Crafting compelling messaging and advertising campaigns that resonate with the target audience is crucial for driving engagement and conversions. Your advertising should be in sync with your business goals and brand identity to communicate your unique value proposition. 

Have you come across any of our recent advertising or marketing campaigns? If yes, please specify where you saw or heard them. How well do you think our advertising aligns with your needs and preferences as a customer? Are there any specific advertising channels or platforms where you believe our brand should have a stronger presence? How likely are you to take action (e.g., visit our website, make a purchase) after seeing our advertising? Which specific elements of our advertising (e.g., visuals, slogans, offers) do you find most memorable? Have you ever shared or engaged with our advertising content on social media? Do you find our advertising to be informative and educational about our products/services?

Before you start framing your market research, it is essential to follow these best practices to ensure the effectiveness and reliability of your data:

Things to Do

• Decide your Goals : Clearly define the objectives of your market research. Determine what specific insights you aim to gather and how they will support your business decisions.
• Segment your Audience : Understand that different customer segments may have distinct needs and preferences. Tailor your survey questions to target specific groups, allowing for a more focused analysis.
• Choose the Right Survey Question Type : Select appropriate question formats based on your goals. Use a mix of multiple-choice questions, open-ended questions , Likert scales , and rating scales to capture both quantitative and qualitative data.
• Incentivize your Survey : Offer incentives to encourage participation and increase the response rate. It could be in the form of discounts, gift cards, or entry into a prize draw.

Things to Avoid

• Avoid Double-Barreled Questions : Double-barreled questions combine two or more issues into one question, making it challenging for respondents to provide clear and accurate answers. Keep your questions focused on one topic at a time.
• Avoid Leading Questions : Leading questions are worded in a way that influences or biases respondents' answers. Aim for neutrality and objectivity in your questions to obtain unbiased data.
• Avoid Too Many Questions : Lengthy surveys can lead to respondent fatigue, resulting in incomplete or rushed answers. Keep your survey concise and relevant, ensuring it can be completed within a reasonable timeframe.

All the popular companies in the market currently, whether it is Apple, Zappos, or Spotify, rely heavily on market research. Let us look at the reasons why you must consider market research to drive growth.

• Identifying Market Opportunities : Market research helps identify emerging trends, unmet needs, and untapped market segments, providing valuable opportunities for businesses to expand and innovate.
• Testing Product Concepts : Before launching a new product or service, market research can be used to gauge customer interest and receive feedback on potential concepts, get product idea validation , and reduce the risk of product failure.
• Evaluating Marketing Campaigns : Market research allows businesses to assess the effectiveness of their marketing efforts, whether it is driving NPS campaigns or launching new advertising initiatives. It helps to refine messaging, targeting, and channels for better results.
• Measuring Customer Satisfaction : Understanding customer satisfaction levels and identifying areas for improvement is crucial for retaining customers and building brand loyalty.

Now that you know the power of market research and how it can improve your offering and enhance customer experience, let us quickly recall the top 10 market research questions that can drive your business forward.

• What are the primary factors influencing your purchasing decisions?
• How satisfied are you with our product?
• What are the most desirable features you look for in a product?
• How did you first hear about our brand/product/service?
• What do you consider a fair price for our product?
• What improvements or additions would you like to see in our offerings?
• On a scale of 1-5, how likely are you to recommend our brand to others?
• What are the main challenges you face when using our product?
• How well do you think our product compares to competitors in the market?
• Which aspects of our advertising or marketing message do you find most compelling?

From identifying market opportunities and testing product concepts to measuring customer satisfaction and tracking brand awareness, market research questions play a vital role in allowing you to adapt and innovate in a rapidly changing marketplace. By listening to your customers and gaining valuable feedback through market research, you can refine your products and marketing efforts to better meet customer expectations .

For creating a market research survey, it is important that you leverage an omnichannel survey software that enables you to create impactful surveys, share them across multiple channels with your target customers, and gather and analyze valuable feedback using reporting features.

Zonka Feedback is one such powerful market research software that can help you do all of that, along with offering survey logic & branching , segmenting your customers, measuring trends, and closing the feedback loop .

You can sign up for a 14 -day free trial to create effective market research surveys and see how it works for you. 

Published on Jul 25, 2023. Updated on Apr 09, 2024.

Written by Kanika

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What market research questions should you be asking: With examples

• October 19, 2019
• 10 min read
• Market research

Primary market research question examples

Secondary market research question examples, first things first: who is our customer, good market research questions: what is important to ask, 1. who is our ideal customer, 2. what is the biggest challenge for customers, 3. what do customers really want, 4. what sets us apart from the competition, 5. what price is right, write the best market research questions with surveyplanet.

Before launching your next product or business, it’s important to take time to complete some marketing research, which will provide information about what competitors are doing and if your ideas are profitable.

An essential part of market research is refining the target audience, which will help in creating an effective marketing strategy. While there are many different market research components, the most important is asking the right questions.

SurveyPlanet is here to help with examples of good market research questions. Read through our market research 101 guides and discover the best market research questions to ask your target market.

Primary market research

Before diving into specifics, it’s important to grasp the main concepts of market research. There are two basic categories: primary research and secondary research.

Primary research is gathering firsthand information about a market, customers, and competition. It is generally completed with focus groups, interviews, and online surveys that provide information about specific challenges customers face. Such research also helps gather details about the brand awareness of a company. Conducting primary research is a way to establish buyer personas and segment the market.

Here are some examples of primary market research questions that will gather valuable insights about a target market:

Demographics and background

• What is your age range?
• What is your gender?
• What is your educational background?
• What is your household income level?
• What is your occupation?

Product or service perception

• What is your familiarity with our product/service?
• What do you perceive as the primary benefits of our product/service?
• How would you rate the quality of our product/service?
• How likely are you to recommend our product/service to others?

Consumer behavior

• How frequently do you purchase similar products/services?
• What factors influence your purchasing decisions?
• Where do you typically do research or seek information before making a purchase?
• What channels do you use for purchasing products/services?

Brand awareness and perception

• Are you familiar with our brand?
• How would you describe our brand personality?
• What do you associate our brand with?
• How likely are you to consider our brand over competitors?

Pricing and value perception

• How do you perceive the value-for-price equation of our product/service?
• What price range would you consider reasonable for our product/service?
• Would you be willing to pay a premium for additional features or benefits?

Customer satisfaction and feedback

• How satisfied are you with our product/service?
• What improvements or changes would you like to see in our product/service?
• How likely are you to repurchase our product/service in the future?
• Would you recommend our product/service to others? Why or why not?

Market trends and competitor analysis

• Are there any emerging trends or innovations in the market that you find appealing?
• How familiar are you with our competitors?
• What do you perceive as the strengths and weaknesses of our competitors’ offerings?
• What factors would make you switch from our product/service to a competitor?

Remember to tailor questions to your specific industry, target audience, and research objectives. The answers to these questions will provide valuable insights about the market, customer preferences, and areas for improvement, enabling informed decision-making and refined marketing strategies.

Secondary market research

The main purpose of secondary market research is to analyze data that is already published and draw conclusions from it. This involves analyzing public records, industry content, market statistics, and sales data. Secondary research is especially helpful for analyzing competitors. Most secondary research is done using a combination of public, commercial, or internal sources.

Public sources include government statistics such as data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and the U.S. Census Bureau. Commercial sources usually come in the form of a market report compiled by research agencies. Finally, internal sources include customer retention rates, average revenue, and data from both old and new accounts. Together, all this data may help determine what buyers want right now and help develop market research questions to ask clients.

Here are some examples of secondary market research questions that can help guide the search for existing information and data.

Market size and growth

• What is the current market size for [industry or product category]?
• What is the projected growth rate for the [industry or product category] in the next few years?
• Are there any specific regions or demographics driving the market growth?

Target market segmentation

• How is the target market segmented within the [industry or product category]?
• What are the key characteristics or demographics of each market segment?
• Are there any emerging or untapped market segments within the industry?

Competitive landscape

• Who are the major competitors in the [industry or product category]?
• What is their market share and positioning?
• What are their strengths and weaknesses compared to each other?

Consumer behavior and preferences

• What are the current consumer trends and preferences within the [industry or product category]?
• What factors influence consumer purchasing decisions?
• Are there any notable shifts in consumer behavior in recent years?

Industry regulations and compliance

• What are the regulatory requirements and compliance standards for the [industry or product category]?
• Are there any upcoming regulatory changes or potential impacts on the industry?
• How do these regulations affect product development and marketing strategies?

Pricing and revenue models

• What are the typical pricing structures and models within the [industry or product category]?
• Are there any pricing trends or changes affecting the industry?
• What are the revenue models commonly used by businesses in the industry?

Technological innovations and disruptions

• What are the emerging technologies or innovations relevant to the [industry or product category]?
• Are there any disruptive technologies that could impact the industry?
• How are businesses adopting or integrating technology within the industry?

Consumer feedback and reviews

• What are consumers saying about products or services within the [industry or product category]?
• Are there any common issues or concerns raised by consumers?
• What are the key factors influencing consumer satisfaction or dissatisfaction?

Marketing and advertising strategies

• What are the prevailing marketing and advertising strategies used in the [industry or product category]?
• Are there any successful or noteworthy campaigns that have garnered attention?
• How are businesses utilizing digital platforms and social media for marketing purposes?

Industry publications and reports

• What industry publications or reports provide insights into the [industry or product category]?
• Are there any reputable market research firms or organizations that publish relevant data?
• What recent studies or reports offer valuable information about the industry?

Remember to search for reliable and up-to-date sources of information like industry reports, market research publications, government data, and reputable news outlets. Secondary market research can provide a foundation of knowledge about the industry, market trends, and consumer behavior, allowing you to make informed decisions and develop effective strategies.

Once you have collected primary market research, it’s time to sit down and define buyer personas and focus groups. Ask who the ideal customer is. What is their age? Where do they live? What do they do for a living? Defining buyer personas helps form a better understanding of your audience.

Key characteristics of a buyer persona include:

• Job Title(s)
• Family Size

Companies may have more than one buyer persona; that’s completely fine. The reason to create buyer personas is to know exactly who your potential audience is. Buyer personas will help optimize campaigns and content to spark their interests.

Conducting a market research survey

Market research surveys are an efficient way to gain data based on insights from real customers. Companies can send surveys to existing and/or potential customers. Surveys give valuable insight into opinions about products, the company, and its customers. Companies use market research questions to make changes to products and improve or enhance features. Surveys may also answer whether the business idea is a good one. Find below some examples of market research questions to ask in a survey.

Explore and use our market research survey templates to get the data you need to make the right decisions.

Market research questions are extremely important for everyone—from small businesses to corporations.

Market research can help better understand customers and, maybe even more importantly, nourish relationships with them by making them feel influential and special. In this way, the goal is not just satisfied customers, but loyal ones too. Examining people’s needs can improve business decisions and help with product development.

Market research questions can also ask clients and associates their thoughts about your cooperation so far.

Online surveys are one of the simplest research methods—they are flexible, dependable, and cost-effective. Read here our tips for creating an engaging survey. But what are good market research questions to ask a target market?

We prepared a few examples of market research questions—with detailed explanations.

Market research surveys should include questions about customers, including gender, age, income level, job title, location, and education level. This is an especially important step for start-up companies new to the market that have yet to nail down their target audience. It’s one thing to create buyer personas; it’s another to verify they are correct based on actual customers.

Don’t hesitate to ask for details in order to learn more about the ideal customer. A pet shop needs to know what kinds of animals customers own. How many? In what type of home do they live? The more information you can learn about customers, the better.

Market research involves learning about customers’ pain points, which will help create better solutions. For example, if an online textbook store sent out a survey to students and asked about pain points, they might find that “textbook prices are too high.” The company could take this information and compare prices to a competitor’s. If their prices are too high, they can lower them or offer discounts to combat this challenge.

Ask customers about their top five to seven problems regarding a service or product. If there are enough similar responses, business owners may need to improve or create a new product to counteract these frustrations.

It doesn’t hurt to ask customers exactly what they want. Asking open-ended market research questions like this will provide answers that you might not have realized were needed. If people show reluctance to answer this question, give them the option to rate certain products or services. This will at least provide guidance about which ones they like or dislike.

For example, a shoe store might send a survey with an email asking about this season’s sandals. Customers have the option to rate the sandal and answer specific questions about it. The company can use this information to learn more about what their customers like and what to provide in the future.

Learning the difference between quantitative and qualitative research can help you choose market research methods and questions.

Ask this question to find out what customers really think about you. Choose open-ended questions and encourage respondents to describe everything in detail. One way to do this is by asking specific questions related to what you offer that competitors don’t.

For example, a bakery might offer gluten-free and vegan options, but they’re unsure if their customers care. The bakery could ask in the survey, “How important is it to you to have gluten-free or vegan options at a bakery?” The responses are rated on a scale from not important to very important. The answers will tell you if what sets you apart matters to the customer.

The survey should also include sections that allow a customer to agree or disagree with statements. For example, “I can count on Phil’s Auto Shop to offer competitive pricing.” Such questions provide insight into the emotional benefits customers perceive from your business.

New businesses benefit from including pricing questions since it can be difficult to pinpoint the right price to charge, especially if you don’t have a true competitor. Pricing products or services fairly can generate the right balance of revenue and customer satisfaction. Pricing products too high can result in a lack of customers. Pricing them too low can result in a profit loss. So how to price just right? Figure out a comfortable profit margin and then ask customers their opinions on prices. Realize that there will always be businesses that charge more or less. Pricing fairly is a matter of creating brand loyalty and excellent customer experience.

While conducting a market research survey, ask customers if they find the prices too low, fair, or too high. Display different products and services with prices and have customers rate them. For example, a marketing agency might wonder if their website design price is appealing. In their survey, they can include an example of a website design, what it includes, and their current price. Customers will have the option to decide if it’s fair or not. To gain more insight, they might also include their other services in the survey.

With these suggestions, you might now be wondering how to use them. SurveyPlanet is a great place to start. We offer a free plan that allows for the creation of unlimited surveys that can be sent to customers. And if you don’t want to write market research material, we have over 90 pre-written surveys and plenty of examples to choose from. All you have to do is press send.

For companies that would prefer to customize their surveys, we offer a Pro plan that allows the creation of custom themes, branch questions , export results, and so much more. Whether you need something basic or more extensive, both our free and paid versions can help get the job done. Start conducting market research by signing up for SurveyPlanet today.

12 must-ask questions for market research

Last updated

3 April 2024

Reviewed by

Cathy Heath

Once you’ve identified your target market of consumers, it’s essential to conduct market research to determine their needs, how to fulfill them, and any problems that stand in the way of a successful sale of your product or service.  

Market research can focus on new markets, products or services, or existing products and services that have been upgraded or changed. The research data will help you to make better decisions, connect with your audience's needs, and jump on new opportunities.    

Market analysis template

Save time, highlight crucial insights, and drive strategic decision-making

• Who do you ask market research questions to?

To get pertinent data for your market research, you need to ask questions to your target audience. If you’re unsure who that might be, start by answering that research question first. 

It’s always more difficult if you’re a new company without a solid customer base. Consider reaching out to staff as well as suppliers and retailers of your product or service and asking them who they think your target audience might be. 

Questions you can ask include:

Who is our current customer base, and do we want to keep them or expand to a different group?

What does our employee, customer, supplier, or retailer like or dislike about our product or service?

What are their pain points, and what do they want to see to make it better?

Define the demographic, e.g., where they live, how much money they make, ethnicity, and other pertinent information.

How big is our market? Are there additional potential customers there?

Do our customers purchase from our competitors? Why?

When or why do you use our product or service?

How much would you pay, and how often would you pay?

What would the perfect new product or service look like?

Would you recommend our product or service?

Are there any upcoming features that competitors are promoting that appeal to you?

What are the customer trends regarding our product or service?

How does our target audience purchase? Do they buy online, from a brick and mortar, over the phone, etc.?

Does our target audience have a buying pattern, e.g., seasonal holidays, the start of the school year etc.?

Are our product or service price points viewed as good value by consumers?

• Types of market research questions

Carefully designed market research questions can impact the data that you collect. Once you’ve determined the goal of your market research, you can design the type of question that offers the highest quality and reliability in the answers you receive. 

Some questions may help with segmenting your audience. Others may ask about the customer's feelings about your product or service. 

To determine which format is the best for you, take a look at the types and designs of market research questions.

Multiple-choice

Most people are familiar with multiple-choice questions. These questions are great for comparing preferences and opinions and comparing them to other respondents. In this type, the user selects from several choices presented to them and can choose multiple answers.   

For example:

How have you purchased Product XYZ in the past? (Check all that apply)

Social media

Retail store

Wholesale outlet

Single-choice

Single-choice market research questions offer multiple options for the respondent to choose from, but they can only choose one. This helps researchers to segregate users or determine the priority for product updates. They’re sometimes placed at the beginning of a survey to disqualify respondents who don’t meet the criteria.  

An example of a single-choice market research question is:

Do you own a smartphone?

Don't know

Matrix match

Many market researchers design matrix match questions to shorten the survey so that it’s less-onerous for a respondent to complete. Questions are arranged in rows and answers are put into grids. The main thing to remember with matrix match questions is that each question should have the same response anchor.

An example of a matrix match question is:

How would you rate the importance of each of the following when purchasing Product XYZ?

Each selection would be on the same scale from 1 (least important) to 10 (most important) on a grid, and the respondent would choose one answer on each line.

Ranking question

Ranking questions are just like they sound. The respondent ranks their preferences on a scale from most to least important or by preference.

Using the same example from the matrix match, an example of a ranking question might be:

Arrange in order of importance, with 1 being the least important and 5 being the most important.

While a matrix match identifies how important each factor is, a ranking question compares the importance of several factors against each other.

Dichotomous

A dichotomous question only has a yes or no answer. Once again, you can use these questions to categorize or disqualify users.  

An example of a dichotomous question is:

Are you over the age of 18?

Likert scale.

Likert scale market research questions measure the extent of agreement to a statement. A question contains a statement, and the respondent answers by the amount they agree or disagree with it. 

You can gain a better understanding from Likert scales than from a simple yes or no answer, as they help you determine the level and strength of sentiment your customer feels.

An example of a Likert scale market research question is:

How likely would you be to purchase Product XYZ again?

Definitely will purchase again

Probably will purchase again

May or may not purchase again

Probably will not purchase again

Definitely will not purchase again

Open-ended questions ask respondents to answer a question without any predetermined choices. This allows them to write freely without restrictions, allowing them to voice their opinion or offer suggestions. 

Researchers may find it involves more time to analyze, code, and report the responses. They’re often used after another question to delve deeper into why the respondent chose the response they did.  

You said you would probably not purchase Product XYZ again. Why do you say that?

• Market research question examples

Of course, the market research questions will differ, determined by the kind of information that you’re trying to acquire. There are four circumstances that you can design your questions for:

Market research questions to ask customers

Market research questions for product development, market research questions for brand tracking.

For each type of question, there will always be some overlap. But if you want to know how a customer feels about a new product or service design , it’s different from finding out what they feel about your pricing strategy .

These questions center around how your customer feels about your brand and their customer experience . They can show areas that require improvement, how to build on strengths, and provide you with an insight into how your customer feels.  

A few examples are:

Would you recommend us to your friends or family?

What do we do better than our competitors?

How can we improve the customer experience ?

Would you purchase from us again?

These market research surveys can help in the development of your product, point out some opportunities, and offer feedback if changes or improvements are needed. They allow you to understand the customer's perception of your product and their reaction to it.  

What do you like or dislike about Product XYZ?

What would make our product or service even better?

How is Product XYZ better than its competition?

Do you find our product or service easy to use?

Because your products, services, and experiences impact your brand's image, it’s important to see how the customer perceives the brand and discover if improvements need to be made.  

Examples of market research brand tracking questions are:

How did you hear about us ?

What do you think of when you think of our brand? 

Are you familiar with our other brand's other products and services?

Have you checked out our new app?

• How to write your own market research questions

Writing your market research questions may seem like a daunting task. But there are some tips that can help you and your team craft the questions you need to get the data you want. 

Make your questions easy for the customer to understand and answer, and in a way that makes it easy to collect and analyze data after.  Surveys that are too complex or lengthy often don’t get completed or tend to be rushed, skewing the quality of the data.  

Keep these tips in mind when writing your market research questions:

1. Use mutually exclusive response options

By mutually exclusive response options, we recommend that your groupings or options don’t overlap. This sometimes happens when asking for demographic information like age or income. 

As an example, imagine that you’re asking about income: 

Please state your gross annual household income

$20,000–$40,000

$40,000–$75,000

$75,000–$100,000

In the above example, results can be skewed if the respondent makes $40,000 per year. Does it fall into category two: $20,000-$40,000, or category 3: $40,000-$75,000? Since the goal of the market research is to collect the most accurate information possible, it would be better clarified and give a better representation if the categories didn’t overlap.

2. Always add a "not applicable" or "rather not say" option

Some customers may not feel comfortable giving out personal information such as age, income, gender, social activities, and more. Be cautious to include all represented categories and add either a "not applicable" or "rather not say" option. 

If someone is uncomfortable with giving out personal information, they’ll often abandon the survey altogether to escape answering the question. You then won’t be able to capture a complete market research survey that may contain important and relevant data.

3. Calculate the required sample size

The sample size is always critical in research. If the number of responses is too low, you may collect biased data that doesn’t represent your customer base well. If the sample size is too large, it may be too difficult to analyze the data, wasting time and money. 

Though researchers use many methods to determine sample size, an easy way is to follow these four steps:

Step 1: Find out the size of the population 

Step 2: Determine the margin of error

Step 3: Set confidence level 

Step 4: Use a formula to find the sample size

4. Consider adding incentives

People respond better when incentives are attached. There have been studies done that show that surveys offering incentives get a higher completed response rate than those without. Consider coupons, free shipping on the next order, or a discount code if the survey is completed. 

Along with cost, there’s another drawback when adding incentives. Sometimes respondents will hurry through a survey to get the incentive and the data may not be accurate.

5. Avoid double-barreled market research questions

It’s easy to think that combining two questions into one can save time and shorten the survey. That’s usually not the case. Combining two questions or statements into one, or a double-barreled question , can make it more difficult for the respondent to answer.  

An example might be: 

How would you rate Product XYZ on flavor and nutrition?

What makes it tricky is that maybe your respondent loves the flavor but really wants an organic product. It would be hard to rate both flavor and nutrition in the same question. By breaking this into two questions, you can gather the correct data.

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5 Types of Leading Questions with Examples + How They Differ From Loaded Questions

Have you ever created a survey with questions designed to subtly nudge a recipient in one direction or another? Or, have you ever taken a survey and felt boxed in by one of the questions? Chances are, you were crafting, or responding to, a leading question. In this blog, we’ll look at five types of leading questions with examples, why you should avoid them on surveys, and how they’re different from loaded questions.

Create your survey, poll, or questionnaire now!

What is a Leading Question?

A leading question does just what it says: It “leads” respondents toward the answer the survey-taker wants them to choose. For example, if a company wants a prospective client to sign a contract, a question may ask, “When would you like to get started?” This question doesn’t ask them if they want to get started, but prompts them to state when they will get started. It presupposes that they want to come on board. While this can be beneficial for the company, it puts the client in an unfair position. 

5 Types of Leading Questions with Examples

Assumption-based leading questions.

These types of questions operate on preconceived notions that the survey creator holds. Feedback surveys commonly use them when a researcher wants to evaluate respondents’ feedback regarding a product, service, or process. Of course, they can apply to other types of surveys as well. For example, a question may ask, “How much did you enjoy our services?” This question assumes that the respondent enjoyed the services provided, and only asks to what level of enjoyment they received. It does not allow them to state that they did not enjoy the services.

Other examples of questions that are based on assumptions: 

• How satisfied are you with our product? 
• Which of our product features did you find most useful?
• How bad do you think the President’s new policies are?

Leading Questions with Interconnected Statements

This type of question combines two closely related statements. Often, it will begin with a statement designed to put bias into a respondents’ head, and then follow up with a question hoping that they will agree with the aforementioned statement. Leading questions with interconnected statements are often used in employee feedback surveys designed to create new policies, and the survey creator wants to sway the decision in one way or another. For example, say a company wants to get rid of its work from home policy. A leading question with interconnected statements may be, “Many employees like coming to the office versus working from home. What do you think about this?” As you can see, the statement aims to persuade the employee to agree with it by highlighting how others feel first before posing the question.

Other examples of questions with interconnected statements: 

• Many employees dislike wearing masks to work. How do you feel about this? 
• Most students think virtual learning isn’t working. Do you agree?
• A lot of Americans support stricter gun laws. Do you feel the same way?

Direct Implication Leading Questions

This type of leading question is designed to get respondents to consider results that would eventually happen if something else happens. In other words, they ask respondents to consider the results of their possible reaction to something. These types of questions are often used for experienced-based surveys. For example, a restaurant may ask, “If you liked your meal, would you come back again soon?” As you can see, it asks them a question based on an implication (that they will like their meal). 

Other examples of direct implication questions:

• If you found this conference beneficial, would you return next year?
• Do you think if you feel our services are top-notch, you contact us again?
• If you enjoyed this movie, would you recommend it to friends?

Scale-based Leading Questions

This type of question is leading because it uses an unfairly marked scale to tip it in the researcher’s favor. So, the scale is weighted with the positive responses outnumbering the negatives. By providing more options on the satisfied side, the question is biased and leads participants in that direction. Scale-based leading questions can appear on just about any type of survey.

An example of a scale-based question with more positives than negatives would be:

• Extremely satisfied
• Somewhat satisfied
• Somewhat dissatisfied
• Dissatisfied

Coercive Leading Questions

This type of question forces respondents to provide a specific answer, usually in the affirmative. Unlike other types of leading questions that are subtle, coercive leading questions are aggressive. This type of leading question can often be found in customer satisfaction surveys and website evaluation surveys and is a huge source of survey bias. These questions, also referred to as leading questions with tags due to their structure, pose a statement and then a question (often with a negative element, such as “won’t you?”).

Examples of coercive questions:

• Our product satisfactorily met your needs, didn’t it? 
• You’ll get vaccinated when the time comes, won’t you?
• You’ll highlight your positive experience on social media, right?

Why You Should Avoid Leading Questions on Surveys

Some researchers and survey creators unintentionally use leading questions; hopefully, this helps you to better understand their characteristics so you can avoid them on your surveys. Of course, some people use these questions intentionally, arguing that they are beneficial because they are:

• Focused. They help to suit the immediate objectives of their survey. 
• Efficient. They help achieve predetermined responses, simplifying data analysis.
• Specific. They help avoid vague and ambiguous questioning.

While this may be true, leading questions are a big source of survey bias . By trying to achieve predetermined results, framing questions in a way that evades neutrality and cajoles the respondent into an answer that may not be entirely true, the survey results become skewed. This means the survey, while it may say what you want it to say, is not valid. In addition, leading questions often lead to false feedback. What is the purpose of soliciting feedback, if you can’t learn and improve from it? Gathering untrue impressions will, in the long run, hurt the organization, not help it.

Leading vs Loaded Questions

There is a distinct difference between leading questions and loaded questions. While a leading question prompts someone toward an answer, a loaded question is a trick question. No matter how a respondent answers, they’re saying something that they may not agree with. You can see in these examples how loaded questions are different from leading questions:

Examples of loaded questions:

• Even if the respondent replied “no,” they’re still stating that the company is amazing.
• Again, even if the respondent replies “no,” they’re still stating the person is a criminal.
• If the respondent says “no,” they’re stating they still abuse their dog; if they say “yes,” they’re stating that they used to. So, if the respondent never has abused their dog, it’s a lose-lose scenario.
• This loaded question is framed in a way that if the respondent disagrees with one of the two included clauses, it inadvertently suggests that they agree with the other one. It’s loaded because it assumes that these are the only two reasons why a person might believe the mainstream media (they’re naive or they don’t care about the truth).

For more examples of loaded questions, we suggest checking out Effectiviology .

Leading questions are intentionally or unintentionally framed queries that prompt a respondent to answer in a particular way. So, while these types of questions may result in respondents answering in the way the survey creator had hoped, it results in survey bias which impacts the validity of the survey. Therefore, you should avoid them in order to conduct a clean and accurate survey. Armed with this information, are you ready to create your next survey, free from leading (and loaded) questions? Start now with SurveyLegend! Our surveys beautifully render, are highly secure, and completely responsive. And, it’s free to start, sign up today!

Have you used leading questions on surveys in the past? Did they skew your data? Do you have any other great examples of leading questions? Let us know in the comments!

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What is a leading question?

A leading question may be intentional or unintentional on the part of the survey creator. Ultimately, it results in prompting the respondent to answer in one way or another, often to the benefit of the person performing the survey.

What is a loaded question? 

Unlike a leading question that persuades someone to answer one way or another, a loaded question is a “trick question” in which no matter the way someone responds, they’re siding with the person asking the question or incriminating themselves.

What are the five types of leading questions?

Assumption-based, interconnected statement, direct implication, scale-based, or coercive.

Are leading questions considered bad?

Yes. Leading questions introduce bias into surveys, often resulting in inaccurate responses which skew data and lead to an invalid survey.

Jasko Mahmutovic

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Blog Best Of

• 50+ Market Research Questions To Ask Your Target Audience

Kate Williams

8 April 2024

11 min read

Table Of Contents

What is Market Research?

• 50+Market Research Questions

How to Write Market Research Questions

• 8 Benefits of Market Research
• Reliable Tools for Conducting Market Researchr

Before we learn about market research questions , how about a coke?

Coca-Cola, from classic coke to their famous diet Coke, is a success. No doubt. But they’ve had their share of failures too.

One of these failures happened because of poor market research. Coca-Cola’s highly ambitious product, C2 , which was half regular and half diet coke, tanked badly, as they didn’t ask the right questions to the right audience during market research.

According to the Coca-Cola market research surveys, Coca-Cola lost upwards of $50 million on C2, and we don’t want something similar happening to one of your products. That’s why we focus on market research questions that’ll get the right responses to scale your business to better heights. Here’s a snippet of what we’ll further discuss in this article.

• What is Market Research
• 50+ Research Questions To Use In 2023
• Benefits Of Market Research.
• Tools for Conducting Market Research.

Market research is the process of gaining your target customer’s insights about new products, competitors, preferences, or more. Marketing research is all about getting high-value information on things that could benefit a company and help them grow – and surveys are a great tool for this.

If you struggle with writing questions for your market research surveys, bookmark this blog. The better and more precise these market research questions are, the better the data and the better the decision you make with it.

50+Market Research Survey Questions to Use in 2023

Here we are now –  the 50 most effective market research questions that deliver outstanding results when used in research surveys. We’ve split these questions into five categories so you can pick the right ones at the right time.

 Effective Market Research Questions: 5 Effective Catagories

• New Product Survey Questions
• New Business Survey Questions
• Competition Analysis Survey Questions
• Questions For Your Existing Customers
• Questions To Improve Customer Service

These marketing research questions can be open-ended, multiple-choice, or scale-based questions as per your data requirements.

1. New Product Survey Questions

A new product launch is where most market research happens. As exciting as it sounds, it can cause a massive failure if the new product ain’t what the target audience wants it to be.

To understand that, here are 10 market research survey questions you can ask:

• How excited are you about our upcoming product? Would you be willing to test it?
• Is the product solving your problem accurately?
• What change do you wish to bring to this product?
• If given the responsibility, how would you go about promoting it?
• How much would the competitors charge for a product like this?
• On a scale of 1 to 10, how likely are you to purchase this product once it’s available?
• What features or benefits of the product stand out the most to you?
• Are there any concerns or hesitations you have about the product?
• In comparison to products you currently use or are familiar with, how does our product fare?
• Which marketing channels (e.g., social media, email, TV, etc.) would you most likely notice information about this product?

Need a ready-to-launch e xamples of research questions? H ere’s a survey created with SurveySparrow .

Unlock access to a range of free market research question templates by simply signing up today!

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2. New Business Survey Questions

When you’re about to enter a new business or market opportunity, it always works well too:

• Research the audience you’ll target
• The competition you’ll face
• The market size of this new opportunity
• The buying behavior of your target group

These are the ten  market research questions examples for new business:

• Who are the groups or groups that’ll buy from us?
• How big is the market for this opportunity? Will it sustain or shrink in the long run?
• How can we capitalize on customers’ buying habits/behaviors in this market??
• How are our direct or indirect competitors doing their business in this market?
• What are the problems we’ll solve for our target groups here?
• What differentiates our business or offering from existing competitors in the market?
• Which marketing channels most effectively reach our target audience in this new market?
• Are there any cultural, regional, or demographic factors we should know when entering this market?
• What regulatory or compliance challenges might we face in this specific market?
• How open is the target audience to trying a new product or service in this category?

3. Competitive Analysis Questions

Let’s face it. Whatever your business is, there are competitors. Some are big, some are small, but competition is there, and when you’re keeping tabs on them by asking the right market research questions from your teams and customers, you stay ahead of the curve!

Here are ten good market research questions for competition analysis:

• What do you like the most about our (competitor’s name) product?
• Are you content with their product pricing?
• Where do you think our brand stands compared to (competitor’s name)?
• Do you like the way they market and advertise their products?
• What sets (competitor’s name) apart? Is it their product, service, user experience, content, or anything else?
• Which features or benefits of (competitor’s name) do you wish our product/service offered?
• Have you ever experienced any issues or challenges with (competitor’s name) product/service?
• How do you perceive the customer service or support provided by (competitor’s name)?
• If you could change one thing about (competitor’s name) offering, what would it be?
• How often do you consider switching from (competitor’s name) to another brand or solution? What would motivate that switch?

4. Questions For Your Existing Customers

When you and your teams are working on a new product or service or want to bring changes to the existing ones, it’s always best to know your customer’s opinions about it because you want to deliver what they want and the changes that’ll take their satisfaction levels with your brand to the next level.

Check out these 10 market research questions for your customers:

• What changes would improve our product for you?
• Are you facing any consistent issues where you think we can help?
• Do you think our services can improve? If so, we would love to know how.
• Would you buy our products/services at a higher price if we added additional features to them?
• How can we improve our products to enhance your overall experience?
• How would you rate your overall satisfaction with our product/service on a scale from 1-10?
• If you’ve contacted our customer support, how was your experience, and what can we do better?
• Are there other products or services you wish we offered?
• How frequently do you use our product/service, and are there any challenges during its use?
• What’s the one thing you love the most about our product/service and one thing you dislike?

5. Questions To Improve Customer Service

If you thought market research and market research questions were only about new products, new business opportunities, insights from existing customers, and competitor analysis, think again!

Market research has always been about improving according to your customers, target audience, and employee insights. Your customer experience always needs review and timely improvements, and a market research survey backed with the right market research questions would help you big time here.

So, let’s look at ten such examples of market research questions that you can ask about your customer service:

• After raising your query, how much time did our customer service representative take to reply?
• Did our customer service representative directly give you the solution or explain why the issue occurred in the first place?
• How convenient is it for you to reach our customer representative and head?
• Do you wish our customer service team to be available on any other channels apart from the ones they are?
• Do you get consistent customer experience on all channels from our service team?
• On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate your overall experience with our customer service team?
• Were our customer service representatives friendly and empathetic to your concerns?
• Did you feel like our team valued your time and was efficient in their assistance?
• Would you say that the solution provided was satisfactory and met your expectations?
• How likely are you to contact our customer service again for future queries or concerns?

Now that might be familiar with market research questions, why not design a survey seamlessly using our ready-to-use templates?

Register below with your email for free access

Here are ten tested tips to create a perfect market research survey that gets results. Make full use of it.To create the perfect market research survey:

• Define the problem you’ll solve with it.  Don’t just conduct market research, hoping to get actionable data.
• Select the right target group. You do not want to collect irrelevant data that’s of no use. So, for a particular problem, select the right people.
• Know your sample size . Whether your method is cluster sampling , quotas , systematic sampling or purposive sampling , figure out the number of survey responses you’ll need for reliable data and keep a safety margin for half-filled or not-responded surveys.
• Select focused questions . Use these twenty-five questions the best you can. You can also check out our go-to guide on how to write better survey questions .
• Use interactive question types – like voice notes, image choice, video backgrounds, and graphical sliders. This will massively increase your response rates.
• Give incentives like free e-books gift cards. This can give respondents the extra encouragement they need to complete the survey.
• Keep it conversational . Market research surveys work when they are treated with the same care and warmth as a conversation. So, build that trust with the tone of your questions.
• Don’t send the survey to all the respondents at once . Send it to a small batch first. Analyze how they answer, make changes if needed, and then go for the full-scale market research.
• Set times for reminders . You don’t want to speed up at the wrong time.
• And last, give enough time for analysis. Specific survey tools can save time with auto-generated survey reports that you can customize.

8 Benefits of Market Research: What Makes it So Important?

While we were explaining market research and market research questions, we mentioned one of its biggest benefits too. The benefit that makes it absolutely important for any business is gunning for long-term and sustained growth.

Guessed it? Well, it’s the benefit of getting rich insights from your target audience. But that’s not the only benefit.

Yes, market research offers a lot more than you can think of. And it’s time we discuss them one by one.

#1 Know Your Business Better

When you get customer and target market feedback about a product or service, you see the difference between your and your customer’s opinions. Observing this difference allows you to bridge that down by aligning the new or existing product based on their wants.

So, when you use the right market research questions in your survey, you get to observe your company through the target audience’s lens, allowing you to better understand the business and its goals.

#2 Get More Business Opportunities

While conducting a market research survey, you often find or realize a new opportunity or avenue where the company can thrive. This realization comes when you analyze the collected survey data and see your target market’s interest in this new opportunity.

#3 Discover New Customer Segments To Target

“The product has come out well. I want to use it, and I think the Genz’s would like it too.”

If the answer to one of your market research questions is something like this, you and your teams know they have a new customer segment to target. That’s a powerful benefit of conducting a well-planned market research survey that contains the right questions.

#4 Massively Reduce The Risk Of Failing

With market research or market research surveys, you don’t just get to know the insights and opinions of your target audience on a certain product, you also come to understand areas where it’s severely lacking and can cause a failure if not duly addressed.

Also, with a few well-crafted market research questions, you get to know the areas where your business is lacking. And if you’re working on those, the chances of your business going under are reduced massively.

#5 Understand Where And How To Market

By using the right market research questions in your surveys, you understand where and how your customers and target group want your teams to market a product.

Give your survey respondents the freedom to express themselves, and you’ll get gold out of your market research. Believe us on that!

#6 Track Your Competition

While conducting market research, you can’t forget about your competitors. As a leader, you need to stay on top of proceedings regarding your competitors and their products. Your teams need to have answers to questions like what new are they bringing, what’s their new campaign like, what are they focusing on at the moment, and many more.

What better way to do that than to ask these subtly by including the right market research questions? And trust us, you’ll get massive information about your competition with these surveys, allowing you to pivot and do better.

#7 Identify New Trends

Scanning the internet for new trends is an absolute time-consuming process. You can replace that with market research and market research surveys to stay updated and well-informed on what new your customers want. Analyzing new trends can be done successfully with  digital marketing training.  The process of obtaining information becomes effective.

If not anything, it’ll save your teams a lot of time, which they can use for other important tasks.

#8 Predict The Future

To sum all the benefits we’ve mentioned, you’ll be able to predict the future of your products, services, and even your business after knowing your customer’s insights and opinions on it. That’ll give you the chance and the freedom to bring the right changes at the right time. Ain’t that impressive?

Reliable Tools for Conducting Market Research

You now know the twenty-five top market research questions to include. But how can you add these questions to a market research survey and send it? What are the different tools you could use for it?

If you have these questions, with no further ado, get your answers here.

A Full-Action Survey Software

There can be nothing better than using survey softwares to conduct market research surveys. Period. But why? Well, survey software is the best way to gather reliable information quickly from your customers and employees about your existing or new products. These surveys would give clarity about your potential and target customers, buyer persona, and the solid feedback you’ll receive will help you strategize and do better eventually.

If you’re looking to use survey software for your research surveys, look no further than SurveySparrow. This Typeform alternative allows you to create engaging forms and surveys with no hassle. These surveys are conversational, easy-to-use, and completely secure. More importantly, it offers features like likert scale questions , interactive dashboards, customization, embedded surveys, recurring surveys, and so much more. And you can use all these features in the 14-Day free trial itself.

Our friendly suggestion: Don’t miss out on this!

Chatbots for the Website

Chatbots are the future of market research, no doubt on that. As per a study, by 2024, the global market for chatbots is projected to be over $994 million. That’s some number! Thousands of brands are implementing or have implemented chatbots in their everyday business task. From doing market research to tracking and answering customer’s queries, chatbots are everywhere.

Do you know what’s the best thing about a chatbot? It’s that it makes a customer’s or employee’s journey more enjoyable, as the conversations are natural and human-like. In addition, a chatbot will always ask a follow-up question to your customers just like a human mostly does. And this helps in market research. How? By making sure you and your teams are always up to date about what your customers want and what their expectations are from your products, services, and support.

SurveySparrow’s no-code Feedbot is made to gather insightful market data with no programming knowledge. Deloitte Digital , a San Francisco-based marketing, and advertising company de-cluttered their data collection process using SurveySparrow’s Feedbot. The company was facing challenges while collecting market data with the paper questionnaire format. However, the chat-like experience and interactive UI of Feedbot helped them gather 804 survey responses out of 1200 surveyed people. That’s a 67% completion rate. Market research conducted most profitably, isn’t it?

360 Degree Feedback Software

You can spend all your dollars on your customers to make them stay, but without your employees’ efforts, it just won’t happen. When we talk about market research, the first thing that comes in our mind is the customers. We want to conduct market research to gain knowledge about customer preferences, insights, and opinions. But, what about employee research to find their satisfaction levels?

In recent times, employee satisfaction and experience have both become popular and crucial topics. Because, no matter the industry, people like to do business with people. And satisfied employees are the most real, and simple people to attract customers and keep them engaged.

That’s why it’s important to use a 360-degree feedback tool like SurveySparrow’s 360-degree feedback solution . With this, you can conduct an employee assessment (research) to increase their satisfaction levels and drive growth. Trust us, you need to conduct such assessments, especially in this new normal.

Let’s Begin!

There you have it, then. You now know the benefits of market research, twenty-five different questions to include in the market research survey, tools to conduct these surveys, and as a bonus, highly effective tips to create the perfect market research survey.

The only thing that’s left now is for you to use these questions and start conducting market research surveys. SurveySparrow and its marketing experience solution can make this process a lot easier, effective, and the least time-consuming for you and your teams. So, check it out, and we’re just this click away if you need help. Waiting to hear from you. Au revoir!

Content Marketer at SurveySparrow

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Home • Knowledge hub • Your Guide to Using Open-Ended Questions in Market Research.

Your Guide to Using Open-Ended Questions in Market Research.

When conducting market research, asking the right questions is crucial. The magic happens when you dig deeper than the traditional ‘yes’ or ‘no’ responses. This is where open-ended questions come in. These questions allow respondents to express their thoughts in their own words, providing richer, more meaningful insights. 

This blog will guide you on effectively using open-ended survey questions in your market research, analyzing the responses, and highlighting some best practices. We’ll also share some examples of effective open-ended questions.

The Power of Open-Ended Questions

Open-ended questions cannot be answered with a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’. They allow respondents to express their opinions, thoughts, and feelings in a more detailed and nuanced manner.

For instance, instead of asking, “Do you like our product?” (a close-ended question), you could ask, “What do you like most about our product?” The latter question provides more room for detailed responses, giving you deeper insights into what your customers value about your product.

Also, read “ Bad Survey Questions and How to Avoid Them. “

How to Use Open-Ended Questions in Your Survey

Strategically placing open-ended questions in your survey is key. Too many open-ended questions can make the survey long and tedious, leading to lower response rates. Consider mixing both close-ended and open-ended questions to maintain balance.

Open-ended questions should be clear and straightforward. Avoid using industry jargon or complex language that might confuse the respondent. 

Here are a few examples of effective open-ended questions:

• “What features would you like to see added to our product in the future?”
• “Can you describe a situation where our service helped solve your problem?”
• “What made you choose our product over others available in the market?”

Here are some examples of less-effective questions, why they’re problematic, and how they could be improved for better insights

Example 1: “Are there any comments you’d like to share?”

Problem: This question is too vague. Respondents may need to learn precisely what you’re asking for, which could lead to irrelevant responses or discourage respondents from answering.

Solution: Instead, ask, “Can you share your thoughts on how we could improve our product?” This question is more specific and invites respondents to provide actionable feedback.

Example 2: “Do you like our new website?”

Problem: While seemingly open-ended, this question can be answered with a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’. It doesn’t encourage respondents to provide details or reasons behind their answers.

Solution: A better way to phrase this could be, “What do you like most about our new website, and what could be improved?” This invites respondents to share specific positive feedback and offer constructive criticism.

Example 3: “What features do you want in our product?”

Problem: While this question seeks valuable feedback, it might be too open-ended. Respondents might suggest features beyond your product’s scope, making the feedback less actionable.

Solution: Instead, consider asking, “Which existing feature would you like us to enhance in our product, and why?” This question still captures the desire for improvement but focuses on the product’s current capabilities.

Example 4: “Tell us about our customer service.”

Problem: This question is broad and might lead to unfocused answers. It doesn’t guide respondents on which aspects of customer service they’re interested in.

Solution: An improved version of this question could be, “Could you describe a recent experience you had with our customer service team and how it could have been better?” This question prompts respondents to share specific experiences and provide targeted feedback.

Crafting effective open-ended questions is about clarity and relevance. Strive for questions that encourage detailed, focused responses while ensuring the question is directly relevant to the respondent and the purpose of your research.

Analyzing Responses to Open-Ended Questions

Analyzing open-ended responses can be more complex than analyzing close-ended ones due to the qualitative nature of the responses. 

Here are some strategies to help:

• Thematic Analysis: This involves identifying recurring themes or patterns in the responses. For example, if many respondents mention that they love your product’s ‘ease of use’, it’s a recurring theme worth noting.
• Sentiment Analysis: This is used to gauge the overall sentiment of the responses, i.e., whether they are positive, negative, or neutral. This can give you a quick understanding of the overall perception of your product or service.
• Coding: This involves categorizing responses into predefined categories. For example, responses to the question “What do you like most about our product?” could be coded into categories such as ‘price’, ‘quality’, ‘customer service’, and so on. 

Best Practices for Using Open-Ended Questions

• Use sparingly: Avoid overwhelming respondents with too many open-ended questions. They should be used sparingly and strategically.
• Ensure clarity: The question should be easy to understand. Avoid ambiguity that may confuse respondents.
• Invite elaboration: Encourage respondents to provide as much detail as possible. You can do this using phrases like, “Please explain…” or “Could you elaborate on…”
• Keep it relevant: Ensure that your open-ended questions are relevant to the respondent and the purpose of your survey. Irrelevant questions may lead to incomplete responses or drop-outs.

When and Why Should You Use an Open-Ended Question?

Open-ended questions can be incredibly useful, but knowing when to deploy them is vital for their effectiveness. 

Here are a few scenarios where open-ended questions are particularly beneficial:

• Gathering In-Depth Insights: Open-ended questions are perfect when seeking detailed and nuanced insights from your respondents. They encourage respondents to share their experiences, perspectives, and opinions in their own words, providing richer and more complex data than close-ended questions.
• Exploring New Ideas: Open-ended questions can be a valuable tool if you’re looking for fresh ideas or creative input. They give respondents the freedom to think outside the box and offer suggestions they might not have considered.
• Understanding Customer Sentiment: When you want to gauge how customers feel about your brand, product, or service, open-ended questions can reveal more about their emotions and attitudes. Sentiments are often complex and can’t be captured fully by a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer.
• Problem Diagnosis: If customers face issues with your product or service, open-ended questions can help diagnose the problem more effectively. By allowing customers to describe the issue in their own words, you’re more likely to understand the root of the problem.

Why should you use open-ended questions? Open-ended questions are essential when you want to:

• Understand the ‘Why’: Open-ended questions help you understand why respondents feel a certain way, providing context that can help inform your decision-making.
• Identify Trends and Patterns: By identifying common themes or trends in the responses to open-ended questions, you can gain valuable insights into broad customer attitudes and behaviors.
• Empower Respondents: Open-ended questions give your respondents a voice, making them feel valued and engaged. This can help build stronger relationships with your customers.

The ultimate goal of using open-ended questions is to collect meaningful and actionable insights to help you make informed decisions, enhance your product or service, and ultimately better serve your customers.

Analyzing results from open-ended questions can be challenging due to the qualitative nature of the data. 

However, the following steps can guide you through the process and help you extract meaningful insights:

• Organize Your Responses: Start by collecting and organizing all the responses you’ve received. You might transcribe them if they were collected verbally, or if they’re written, gather them into a single document or spreadsheet for analysis.
• Read and Familiarize Yourself with the Responses: Read through all the responses carefully to get a sense of what your respondents are saying. This will give you an initial understanding of the general sentiments and main ideas.
• Code Your Responses: Coding is the process of categorizing responses based on shared themes or concepts. You could categorize responses to product improvement questions into themes like ‘product features’, ‘pricing’, and ‘customer service.’
• Identify Themes or Patterns: After coding, analyze the categories to identify common themes or patterns. These recurring themes can reveal significant insights about your respondents’ opinions or experiences.
• Quantify Your Data: You should quantify your data depending on the number of responses. For instance, you can calculate the percentage of responses that mention a particular theme. This can help when comparing the prominence of different themes.
• Perform Sentiment Analysis: This involves assessing the emotional tone of the responses. Software tools can assist with this, especially for larger datasets. You can classify responses as positive, negative, or neutral.
• Review and Interpret Your Findings: Review your coded data, theme patterns, and sentiment analysis results. What do they suggest about your respondents’ perspectives? What actionable insights can you extract?
• Present Your Findings: Summarize your findings clearly and concisely, suitable for presentation. Visual aids such as charts, graphs, or word clouds can help communicate your results effectively.

Analyzing open-ended responses can be time-consuming, but the depth and richness of the insights you’ll gain make it a worthwhile endeavor.

Open-ended questions can provide rich, in-depth insights into your customers’ thoughts, feelings, and motivations. Remember, it’s not about the quantity of data you collect but the quality of the insights you glean that truly matter in market research.

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The Art of Asking Smarter Questions

• Arnaud Chevallier,
• Frédéric Dalsace,
• Jean-Louis Barsoux

With organizations of all sorts facing increased urgency and unpredictability, being able to ask smart questions has become key. But unlike lawyers, doctors, and psychologists, business professionals are not formally trained on what kinds of questions to ask when approaching a problem. They must learn as they go. In their research and consulting, the authors have seen that certain kinds of questions have gained resonance across the business world. In a three-year project they asked executives to brainstorm about the decisions they’ve faced and the kinds of inquiry they’ve pursued. In this article they share what they’ve learned and offer a practical framework for the five types of questions to ask during strategic decision-making: investigative, speculative, productive, interpretive, and subjective. By attending to each, leaders and teams can become more likely to cover all the areas that need to be explored, and they’ll surface information and options they might otherwise have missed.

These five techniques can drive great strategic decision-making.

Idea in Brief

The situation.

With organizations of all sorts facing increased urgency and uncertainty, the ability to ask smart questions has become key. But business professionals aren’t formally trained in that skill.

Why It’s So Challenging

Managers’ expertise often blinds them to new ideas. And the flow of questions can be hard to process in real time, so certain concerns and insights may never be raised.

Strategic questions can be grouped into five domains: investigative, speculative, productive, interpretive, and subjective. By attending to each, leaders and teams are more likely to cover all the areas that need to be explored—and they’ll surface information and options they might otherwise have missed.

As a cofounder and the CEO of the U.S. chipmaker Nvidia, Jensen Huang operates in a high-velocity industry requiring agile, innovative thinking. Reflecting on how his leadership style has evolved, he told the New York Times, “I probably give fewer answers and I ask a lot more questions….It’s almost possible now for me to go through a day and do nothing but ask questions.” He continued, “Through probing, I help [my management team]…explore ideas that they didn’t realize needed to be explored.”

• Arnaud Chevallier is a professor of strategy at IMD Business School.
• Frédéric Dalsace is a professor of marketing and strategy at IMD.
• Jean-Louis Barsoux is a term research professor at IMD and a coauthor of ALIEN Thinking: The Unconventional Path to Breakthrough Ideas (PublicAffairs, 2021).

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When AI Investments Pay Off in Marketing

Marketing leaders are realizing gains from AI in three key areas, new research shows: increasing sales productivity, increasing customer satisfaction, and reducing marketing overhead costs.

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From content creation to software coding and customer segmentation, artificial intelligence deployment fever is real. But amid a great deal of media, analyst, and executive speculation about how AI will impact enterprises, it’s still not easy to see where organizations are reaping the results. To get new insights into what is currently happening with AI deployments in marketing and the associated payoffs, The CMO Survey asked a sample of 316 marketing leaders at for-profit U.S. companies to rate how the use of AI in marketing has affected outcomes. The marketing leaders, 95.6% of whom were at the vice president level or higher, reported gains in three key areas: a 6.2% increase in sales productivity, a 7% increase in customer satisfaction, and a 7.2% decrease in marketing overhead costs.

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Given these positive results, we took a deeper dive into the survey findings to understand the factors that improve or hurt AI payoffs. What we found is that the return on AI investment varies depending on AI tool adoption time, the company’s digital transformation stage, and its level of experimentation with AI. Let’s take a closer look at the data and what it shows marketers.

The AI Adoption-Payoff Curve

A striking finding from the survey is that AI does not have a long history in marketing at most organizations. The results indicate that 60.4% of companies have used AI in marketing for less than one year, 17.9% for one year, and 18.7% for two to five years, and only 2.9% have used AI in marketing for more than five years.

Why the slow start for so many organizations? Many companies have experienced challenges scaling AI in business functions due to the cost, effort, and complexity of training and deploying AI data models . However, the launch of ChatGPT in November 2022 made it much easier to try AI tools. Leaders began exploring generative AI’s potential to innovate, optimize tasks, and enable domain-specific business processes more broadly across their organizations. Gartner has predicted that more than 80% of enterprises will use generative AI APIs or will have deployed generative AI applications by 2026. That’s up from 5% in 2023.

AI’s adoption time matters when it comes to payoffs.

About the Authors

Christine Moorman is the T. Austin Finch Sr. Professor of Business Administration at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business. She is founder and director of The CMO Survey and former editor in chief of the Journal of Marketing . Colleen Hickey is a class of 2024 MBA candidate at the Fuqua School of Business and a research fellow for The CMO Survey.

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