Market Surveys
Enabling smarter business decisions to take the right next steps forward
Whether you’re looking to launch a new business or move into a new market; or maybe grow or broaden your presence in an existing market. Whatever you’re looking to do, you’ll need a degree of certainty about the market you’re focusing on, if you’re to maximise your chances of success.
From the identification or critique of market gaps, to an examination of the opportunities and threats, some level of market analysis is essential if you’re to reduce the risks of any market venture you undertake.
From pricing trends to analysis of customer requirements and competitor activity, you’ll also need to undertake primary and secondary research of fresh and existing data, if you’re to gain a deeper and more comprehensive understanding of the market you’re interested in.
By enabling you to gather, analyse and interpret information, market surveys are the ideal primary research method to help you better understand the characteristics, expectations and requirements of your target audience. This can ultimately help you to uncover what features of your products or services your target audience are more readily willing to accept and so help guide your strategy.

Only 5% of products launch successfully, which is why solid market research and product positioning matters.
Harvard Business School
Types of market survey
There are many types of market surveys available to organisations to run, collect and analyse data depending on the aims of their market research. From surveys to better understand various aspects of a market, in order to address topics such as the right time to launch a product or service, to surveys that help you to better understand market trends, competitor activity, customer loyalty and much more. Here are some of the most popular:
Market segmentation surveys
While you might have a great product or service, you’ll struggle to sell if you’re not focusing on the right market segment.
Through a market segmentation survey, you’re better able to understand what different members of your target market have in common, as well as how they differ, based on anything from their demographics and geographical location to their behaviours and attitudes. Based on this insight, you’re then able to segment your target audience into smaller groups and tailor the marketing of your goods according to their preferences and tastes.
Product positioning surveys
Knowing what sets your product apart from your competitors and where it fits in the marketplace in comparison to them is essential, if you’re to create the right marketing messages aimed at the right audience to maximise your success.
From asking for your audiences’ opinions about what they believe to be your product’s biggest strengths and weaknesses, to what they find most valuable and useful about it. The insight that a product positioning survey can provide can increase its chances of success when its launched.
Competitor analysis surveys
Your customers can provide you with a rich source of insight including information about your competitors.
From what your customers like or dislike about their products, to how much they are having to pay and what channels they are having to buy through and much more. The questions in a competitor analysis survey not only reveal your customers’ experience with your competitors, but also your competitor strengths and weaknesses in key business areas in comparison to your own. This information can highlight what you need to be your customers’ preferred vendor and help strengthen your own market position.
Market share surveys
From insight that gives you a better indication of your market’s real size, to demographic information that enables you to better understand the potential audience of that market. The insight that a market share survey can reveal can give you a better indicator of the market share available for any new product or service launch, or market expansion venture you’ve been planning.
Only around 7% of companies are doing detailed competitor research with the use of such mediums as competitive analysis surveys of their customers, offering significant advantages to those that are doing this.
Producthabits.com
Example market survey questions
From launching a new product or service, to checking out your competitors or your position in the market before trying to grow your brand. There can be many reasons for running a market survey and assessing what you need to do, before making your move.
So, to help get you started, we’ve detailed a few areas with some sample questions you could you potentially use below.
Before a new product launch, you’re likely to want to examine what a sample of your audience thinks of your product concept, before it goes into final production. Suitable questions you might want to ask them include:
What are the things you most like and dislike about this product?
Are there any areas that you would most like to improve with this new product?
What do you most like and dislike about competing products currently available from other companies?
Alternatively, you might be looking to strengthen your brand and position in the market, and therefore need to find out more about your competitors’ activities. Suitable questions you might like to ask you sample audience about this include:
What do you believe to be our competitors’ biggest strengths and weaknesses?
Where do you perceive our brand in comparison to our competitors, are we at the higher, middle or lower end of the market?
What channels are our competitors using to effectively attract customers?
Market survey templates
With a wide range of market survey types and questions you could potentially use, it can be daunting to know where to start. So, it’s always useful to be able to view some examples first. To help get you started, why not take a look at our market survey templates.