Qualitative market research. How much does it cost?
The first thing to consider when calculating the cost of a market study is the type of methodology to be followed. If you want to begin to explore or understand a topic in depth, you may be interested in a qualitative research methodology. On the other hand, if you want to quantify habits, attitudes or opinions, you will undoubtedly opt for a quantitative methodology.
Unless you are moderating qualitative research yourself, you will need the support of moderators to manage focus groups or in-depth interviews . Therefore, the cost of qualitative market research depends largely on the number of focus groups or interviews you conduct. The larger the number of groups or participants, the higher the price of your research.
At the same time, not all focus groups or in-depth interviews have the same cost. If we want to carry out the study in person, we will need a space to carry it out and the incentive for participants will be greater to compensate for the cost and travel time. There are also other factors, such as the type of audience we are targeting or the length of the interview. We will delve into some of these points when reviewing how the price of a survey is calculated.
Price of a survey
Calculating how much it costs to conduct a survey is the most common request faced by sales teams at research companies. In general, there are three major cost blocks that influence the final price.
Sample selection and incentives
Within the cost of the sample, the following components must be taken into account.
Sample size. A larger number of respondents reduces the margin of error and improves the quality of the data. However, the value that new respondents add is progressively reduced, so the optimal sample size at which we have good data without increasing the cost unnecessarily must be calculated.
Target type. Unless you work with your own databases, most surveys incorporate incentives that motivate participants to respond quickly and with quality. These incentives are usually greater if you target a specific professional audience (e.g. CTOs of technology companies) than if you target an audience of consumers and users, which is much easier to find and motivate.
Sociodemographic profile. When we interview consumers, it is always cheaper to access a nationally representative sample, and the price increases the more restrictive the sociodemographic profile we want to connect with. Addressing the entire population is not the same as targeting specific segments, such as Generation Z, those over 55 years of age or residents of small towns.
Incidence rate. Sometimes we want to interview customers of a specific bank, or consumers of a brand of ready meals, or people who are considering a major purchase in the next gambling data japan phone number few months. In all these cases, unless we have already collected this information previously, we must incorporate screening questions. If the consumer meets the condition, we will start the interview, and if not, we will discard them. The more people who meet the filter condition, the easier it will be to find people to interview and the cheaper the market study will be.
Here it is interesting to introduce the concept of a consumer panel . Using a sample from a consumer panel is a good way to reduce the cost of your market research. A consumer panel is a large database of people who have agreed to participate in market research on a regular basis. When panellists are recruited, they fill out a questionnaire with all their socio-demographic data, and other data on their consumption, preferences or household equipment. This information is periodically refreshed so that it is always up to date.
Thanks to a consumer panel, it is much easier to find people who meet precise socio-demographic criteria, and even filter them by their usual consumption of products, media or any other available data. Instead of looking for a “needle in a haystack” within the total population, we can access them directly.
Market research fieldwork
The fieldwork of a market study is the phase in which all the people participating in the survey are interviewed. This is the moment in which the information is collected. In this phase, there are two factors that influence the cost of the market study.
Survey length. The number of questions or minutes it takes to complete a survey will influence the value of the incentive. The more questions or minutes, the higher the cost. A good way to keep the price of your market research down is to have a clear view of which questions are essential and which could be sacrificed to reduce your budget.
Interview technique. Whenever interviews can be conducted online, the budget for market research will be more economical, since unlike in-person or telephone interviews, it will not require interviewers.
Analysis of a market study
After the field work, the analysis phase begins.
Generation of cross tables and graphs. Researchers analyse the survey results by reviewing data in cross tables for the variables they wish and viewing graphs for each question. This task is easily automated, so in the case of We are testers, the tables and graphs do not involve any additional cost. Other companies with more manual processes may charge costs for this service.
Complex statistical analysis. Sometimes data analysis is requested that goes beyond standard tables. Multivariate principal component analysis or conjoint studies, to give two examples, often require the involvement of statistical experts, which often entails an additional cost.
Customized reports and presentations. Research agencies can offer clients customized reports or even presentations online or at the client's headquarters to help communicate data within the organization.
