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The Market Research Plan (MS Word, 16 pages) contains the following chapters. The other checklists, questionnaires, surveys and templates are listed below. 

1 Executive Summary
1.1 Goals
1.2 Points Of Contact

2 Market Research Plan
2.1 Stage 1 – Why You Need a Market Research Plan
2.2 Stage 2 – Who are your Customers
2.3 Stage 3 - How Are Your Going To Get The Information
2.4 Stage 4 – Collect Data
2.4.1 Train Your Staff
2.4.2 Make it Sharable
2.4.3 Avoid Corrupt Data
2.4.4 Design Carefully
2.5 Stage 5 – Analyze Data
2.6 Stage 6 – Generate Report Findings
2.6.1 Descriptive Data Analysis
2.6.2 Inferential Data Analysis
2.7 Stage 7 – Choose Best Strategies

3 Market Plan Budget

As a small business owner, you're looking for ways understand:

• Who are your current customers and potential customers
• What do I really know about them Where do they live Do they prefer to shop online or offline
• What do they want to buy
• What is their average income What’s the disposable income
• What type of products do they have (Skoda), like to have (slightly bigger Car), and aspire to having (BMW)
• How much are they willing to pay for my products
• Can they find my products where they go shopping If not, why
• What do they think of my business Do they think we’re reliable, trustworthy, good value
• How does my business compare with my competitors

Moving Targets

Marketing Research deals with moving targets. Last year you couldn’t give away Tablet PCs. Then Apple launched its iPad. Suddenly everyone wants one.

Marketing research looks at what makes people choose to buy one product over another. What makes them suddenly switch brands What makes them recommend one product over another

To do this you need to gather facts, examine opinions and organize them in a structure manner. This lets you drill down and see what makes people want to buy - not just what you want to sell them.

You can use these twelve templates (10 Microsoft Word and 2 Excel spreadsheets) to outline the specific goals for your Market Research Plan and then feed these results into your Business Plans, Marketing Plans, and product development strategies.

This Market Research Plan will help you examine five areas:

1. Assess the Competition - Can you compete against the incumbent How many competitors are there in the current marketplace Could you partner with other companies and deliver a superior product offering
2. Identify your Target Market – gather information about the age, location and number of people who’ll be interested in the product. The more you know about your customers, the more you can tailor your product to their needs, spending habits and in relation to emerging trend.
3. Identify the Right Price – how much will the product cost Will you sell it as part of a bundle Do you offer discounts How about international customers Will the price be the same in the US as in Japan And if customers find out, what next
4. Define the Best Sales channels - What’s best approach to selling the products Over the web, in the high street, through partners, direct mail
5. Determine the Number of Customers - How many people are looking for this product How confident are you that this figure is correct Will this number increase or decrease over the next three years

As you can see, there are many factors to consider when launching a product. Interviewing, running surveys and polls are different ways to get inside the head of your customers (or prospective customers) and see what they think.

Remember, market research is not an exact science.

What works in one area, may not work in another. Likewise, you may need to run different surveys or workshop until you begin to see specific trends emerging, for example, the price may be too high for customers in different regions or the user interface may confuse customers and cause them to leave the site.

The over-arching goal is to learn more about your customers and how their spending habits, preferences and knowledge of your brand will impact your company's Sales and Marketing strategy.

You can then use these forms, checklists, surveys, and questionnaires to complete the seven stages in the Market Research process:

1. Stage 1 – Why You Need a Market Research Plan
2. Stage 2 – Who are your Target Customers
3. Stage 3 - How To Get The Information You Need
4. Stage 4 – How Do You Collect Data
   
   How to Train Your Staff
   How to Make it Sharable
   How to Avoid Corrupt Data
   How to Design Questionnaires, Surveys and Polls
    
5. Stage 5 – Analyze Data
6. Stage 6 – Generate Report Findings
   
   Descriptive Data Analysis
   Inferential Data Analysis
    
7. Stage 7 – Choose Best Strategies

You can also use the budget section and Project Plan (MS Excel template) to capture the costs associated with the Market Plan. This helps you identify the budget amount allocated by category (e.g., milestone or cost categories).

Here are screenshots of the templates you can download by clicking the Click Here to Purchase image above.

Executive Summary

Project Plan

Market Research Template, Stage 3

Market Plan Budget

Market Research, Excel Template

Competitor Analysis

Demographic Analysis Worksheet

Brand Loyalty Survey