The Ultimate Guide to Report Structure for Lean Market Research

In brief

The ultimate deliverable of lean market research is the report. The report embeds the researched content, in a highly structured and intuitive way. This is key for achieving professional and high quality market research. This post is about The Ultimate Guide to Report Structure for Lean Market Research.

Report structure is key. Indeed, it defines how the information flows and helps the reader to the major outcomes. Hence increasing the likelihood of taking the best business decision. Which is never reminded enough, the holy grail and ultimate goal of any market research.

This post focuses on the report structure for a lean market research study.

Introduction

The Report Structure for Lean Market Researchstarts obviously by the introduction. The introduction is an important part of the report since it sets up the scope of the conducted work.

It’s also the main first impression for the reader with the deliverables. Hence it should be done with a lot of care.

In addition, many readers go through the report at a high level first and sometimes they just read the introduction, conclusion and recommendation sections.

I think that you get the message, the intro is vital.

The introduction contains many parts.

First, it sets up the framework of the conducted research.

Framework refers to the product, service or market of interest.

For instance the value proposition and main features of the target research.

In this purpose, the resources of interest are:

• Generic resources for setting up the big picture and having a first taste around the target object of the research
• AnswerThePublic.com for gathering the main questions about the target object of the research.

Exposing the pain point of the studied market

Comes then the next section among the introduction.

That is exposing the pain point tackled by the product of interest.

This aims at presenting objectively what is the value proposition and what is the importance of the studied product in the market.

It can also contain a short description of the typical audience that is concerned by the studied product.

In this section, the main used lean market research tools are:

• Generic resources
• Product (or similar product) site, tutorials, tests etc
• Online interviews from both customers and producers or providers sides
• In addition to answerThePublic.com that can bring some interesting information at this level

Exposing the pain point of the conducted study

Comes then among the introduction the part focusing on introducing the pain points tackled by the conducted research.

This one is not the same as the previous pain point.

Indeed, this section aims at presenting the pain point tackled by the conducted research that means the why of the conducted research or the value proposition of the conducted research.

Whereas the previous pain point was focusing on the pain point that the studied product itself is resolving, that means the why of the product itself or the value proposition of the studied product itself.

Hence the two sections are pretty different.

In order to outline the pain points that the conducted research is focusing on, one or several questions should be defined.

The conducted research aims at answering the defined question.

Typical questions that a report can answer to

Among the questions that are defined at this stage of the introduction and that will be addressed during the conducted research, one can cite:

• Is there any lack of data that needs this research to be conducted ?
• Is the studying opp worth it ? Typically, is the studied market presenting an interesting opportunity ?
• Is there a good or a bad acceptance from the market about the studied product or service ?
• Is there an important future trend of the market: Is it market dropping ? Is it expected to increase in the upcoming period ?
• Is the studied company losing some share in front of the competition and how to address it?
• What is the current status of the brand image of the studied company ?
• Is the adopted pricing strategy optimal ?

Goal of the conducted research

Then, always among this first section of the introduction, the goal of the conducted research should be defined clearly.

The goal of the conducted research can be for instance to study the structure of a given market like for example:

• The market size
• The market trend
• The market segmentation segmentation
  • Audience
  • Geo
  • Techno
  • Usage

• Competitive landscape, the current market offer and share
• The current and future opportunities offered by the market

List of the potential goals of the research

The goal of the conducted research can be also an item among the following points:

• Use of and attitude to products
• Promotion / advertising effectiveness
• Segment markets
• Improve brand position
• Improve customer satisfaction and loyalty
• Achieve optimum pricing
• Enter a new market
• Launch a new product or test a new product
• Financial Analysis: dcf, trendsVsTime, balanceSheet, financial ratios etc
• Feeding a business plan
• Defining and fine tuning the strategic positioning of the product or service among the market
• Sketch a vision through time regarding the strategic future of the business
• Study deeply the target audience
• Deepen and fine tune the adopted business models
• Optimize the cash flow sources
• Define a clear strategy regarding the needed resources whether human or physical resources
• Perform a strategic study regarding the current and potential partners from different perspectives like the supply, demand, sponsorship perspectives etc
• Marketing analysis: 4Ps (price, product, place, promotion)
• Technological Analysis of the product or service of interest

Once the objective of the conducted study is announced, the introduction is closed and the report can move to the next section.

That is announcing the research methodology.

Research methodology

The Report Structure for Lean Market Research embeds then the Research Methodology. The research methodology section can be divided into two main parts that are:

• A general overview of the adopted research methodology: That consists in listing the used research tools among the 2 big categories that are primary and secondary research tools. Indeed, this section contains:
  • First, a subsection reporting the secondary research objectives and tools
  • Second, a subsection reporting the primary research objectives and tools
• The second part of this section of the report is to discuss in an objective way the main challenges and limitations of the adopted research methodology.

This aims at stating clearly how the results can be interpreted and where the current research can be improved in upcoming endeavors.

Global market structure

Among the Report Structure for Lean Market Research comes then the global market structure with its following sub-parts:

Market size and trends

First, it can report the market size and trend.

For this purpose, the following lean market research tools can be used:

• Keyword research and online seo tools
• General tools among trends & volumes category
• Company data
• Sources of financial data on companies

Market segmentation

Comes then the market segmentation section.

The market segmentation can be performed from different perspectives like:

• Audience
• Geography
• Technology
• Usage of the product or service
• The tools that can be used for conducting an efficient market segmentation are the following:
• Facebook: through qualitative search on Facebookor though quantitative search on Facebook using fb audience insight
• Using online survey panels & polls
• Talking to expert

Competitive landscape

Always the general market structure section, Comes than the highly strategic section of the competitive landscape.

This section aims at sketching a clear picture about the major and minor players of the market.

In order to conduct the competitive landscape study, the following tools can be used among the lean market research toolbox:

• Generic resources
• AnswerThePublic.com
• Semrush.com
• Similarweb
• Similarsitesearch.com
• Owler
• Pitchbook.com
• Markets for mobile apps
• Competition – online methods inspired from offline research
• Sources of financial data on companies

These tools were presented in detail in the Lean Market Research Toolbox Module so don’t hesitate to come back and review that module if you feel the need to do so.

Opportunity analysis

The section of global market structure can also contain a sub-section focusing on the current and future opportunities that the market offers.

In order to unveil the opportunities of a given market, the following tools can be used:

• General tools for assessing trends and volumes
• Talking to experts for leveraging their intuition and expertise about what would be the next big thing of the studied market

Main research objectives

Comes then the main research objectives in the Report Structure for Lean Market Research.

This is the detailed section where the major objective of the study will be developed.

If the major objective of the study is to perform the research regarding the global market structure, then this section can be skipped.

Indeed, the global market structure was already covered by the previous section of the report.

Otherwise, if the subject should be developed, then the following objectives can be developed using the corresponding lean market research tools as explained in the upcoming slides.

Use and attitudes to products

Let’s start by Use and attitudes to products as a major objective of the conducted research.

For this research objective, the following tools among the len market research toolbox can be used:

• Using customer review
• Talking to experts
• Online survey panels & polls
• Quora & reddit among the generic tools

Promotion or advertising effectiveness

Comes then promotion or advertising effectiveness.

In order to feed such study, the following tools can be used:

• Time series analysis
• Open data
• Paid data
• Trends & volumes – keyword research
• Trends & volumes – general
• Online survey panels & polls

Segment markets

The main objective of the conducted research can be Market segmentation for which the following tools can be used:

• Facebook: search, groups etc and more importantly using Facebook audience insights
• Online survey panels & polls
• Talking to experts

Brand awareness

Comes then improving brand position using tools like:

• Using customer review
• Talking to experts
• Online survey panels & polls
• Quora & reddit

Improve customer satisfaction and loyalty

Another important research subject can be: Improve customer satisfaction and loyalty.

In order to conduct such study, the following tools can be used:

• Using customer review
• Talking to experts
• Online survey panels & polls
• Quora & reddit among the generic research tools

Achieve optimum pricing

Achieve optimum pricing for which the following tools can be used:

• Using customer review
• Talking to experts
• Online survey panels & polls
• Quora & reddit among the generic tools

Enter a new market

Enter a new market, where the following lean market research tools can be used:

• Talking to experts
• Generic resources
• Online survey panels & polls
• Open data
• Paid data
• Trends & volumes – keyword research
• Trends & volumes – general

Test a new product or service

Comes then, research conducted to launch or test a new product or service.

In this kind of research, the following tools can be used:

• Talking to experts
• Generic resources
• Online survey panels & polls
• Trends & volumes – keyword research
• Trends & volumes – general

Financial analysis

The conducted research can also focus on performing a particular financial analysis like

• Discount cash flows or DCF
• Trends Vs time or time series analysis of financial data
• Balance sheet
• Financial ratios
• Feeding a business plan

In this framework, the following tools can be used:

• Sources of financial data on companies
• Company data
• Talking to experts
• Trends & volumes – keyword research
• Trends & volumes – general

Strategic analysis

Comes then strategic analysis studies like:

• Strategic market positioning
• Business vision through time
• Target audience
• Business models
• Needed resources whether human, financial, physical or non-physical

In this framework, the following tools among the lean market research toolbox can be used:

• Talking to experts
• Trends & volumes – keyword research
• Trends & volumes – general
• Facebook: search and Facebook audience insights API
• Online survey panels & polls

Marketing analysis

Comes then marketing analysis.

This can be done for example through a marketing mix analysis or 4 Ps analysis.

This kind of analysis provides a holistic overview regarding the product or service from 4 perspectives that are

• Product
• Price
• Place
• Promotion

In this framework, the following tools can be used for feeding the study:

• Talking to experts
• Trends & volumes – keyword research
• Trends & volumes – general
• Facebook: search and Facebook audience insights API
• Online survey panels & polls

Technological analysis

Finally comes technological analysis as a potential major objective of the conducted study.

This type of research focuses on scanning the different technological solutions that are existing on the market and that can be used for the creation of a given product or service.

In order to conduct such a study, the following tools can be used:

• Generic resources
• Talking to experts
• AnswerThePublic.com

Business analysis models

Business analysis models are a key component of the Report Structure for Lean Market Research. These models can be specialized in different aspects of the business.

Among the examples of business analysis models, one can cite:

• SWOT
• PESTLE
• Marketing mix 4Ps
• Porter’s 5 forces

Other examples of business analysis models are:

• BCG’s matrix
• Ansoff’s matrix
• Product lifecyle analysis

Desk research / secondary research

As you know it now perfectly, the desk research can be qualitative.

Qualitative research can be fed by using the following tools among the lean market research toolbox:

• Articles & books
• Online reports, blogs and magazines

And desk research can be quantitative as well.

In this case, it can be fed by the following tools among the lean market research toolbox:

• Open data sources
• Paid data sources

Primary research

After desk or secondary research comes naturally primary research.

Like secondary research, primary research can have its own section or can be spread among the different sections of the report depending on the needs of the research.

As already seen in the previous modules, primary research can be qualitative.

In order to feed that type of research, the following tools can be used among the lean market research toolbox:

• Depth interviews
• Focus groups
• Ethnography and observation

The primary research can be quantitative as well.

For this purpose, the following tools can be used:

• Face to face interviews
• Telephone/online interviews
• Self completion questionnaires
• Online surveys

Summary and decisions

The summary and discussion section is started by the main findings and recommendations.

The findings can be presented in a bulky way or by subdividing it into organized through subsections as function of different points of view like presenting the findings:

• By end user
• By geographic location

Then this section is closed by a general discussion by outlining for instance:

• The primary vs secondary research findings consistency and differences
• The new raised questions upon the completion of the conducted research

Conclusions and open questions

This section represents a compact summary of the main outcomes of the conducted research and an opener for further studies.

Whether it’s the conclusion section or the summary and discussion section, there is no particular tool tied to these final sections.

Indeed, these last 2 sections use by definition the outcomes of the main core sections of the report where the lean market research tools were used.

References

The references section contains simply a listing of the different resources used for performing the research.

Among the different referencing styles, one can cite

• Oxford
• Harvard
• Chicago

The major difference between these styles is in the rules that are use for presenting the references listing.

Examples of such rules are:

• Should the references be put in alphabetical order
• Should it be put in chronological order based on how it did appear on the research
• Should the name of the author be put first r the title of the reference

There is no right or wrong way of presenting the references.

It really depends on the preferences of the researcher, the content where the research will be published, the customer preferences etc.