Like traditional research, cross-border network market research must also follow certain methods and steps to ensure the quality of the research process, which generally includes the following five steps.
1. Determine the research questions and goals
Determining the research questions and goals is the starting point of cross-border network market research, such as whether to develop new products and launch them, or to understand consumer satisfaction, analyze consumer consumption characteristics, or investigate the company’s reputation. First, the company needs to clarify what the main issues of this research are and what aspects the research content should focus on, whether it is about consumers, competitors, their own operations, or the market environment.
The overall purpose of cross-border network market research is to provide three types of information: descriptive information (such as where consumers currently buy similar products); diagnostic information (such as why consumers buy in these places); predictive information (such as how many consumers will come to us to buy). Companies need to clarify what type of information they want to obtain from this research.
2. Develop a research plan
The second step of cross-border network market research is to develop an effective research plan, including five parts: data sources, research methods, research means, sampling plans, and contact methods.
3. Collect information
The Internet has almost no time, space and geographical restrictions. Whether it is first-hand or second-hand information, market research can be conducted globally at the same time using the Internet. The method of collecting information is also very simple. Just submit or download it online. This is very different from the way of collecting information in traditional market research. For example, if a company wants to understand the views of various countries on a certain international brand, it only needs to post advertisements on some well-known global advertising sites and point the link to the company’s questionnaire, instead of finding different agents in various countries to implement it separately as in traditional market research.
4. Analyze information
After collecting information, what needs to be done is to analyze the information, which is a very critical step. “The answer is not in the information, but in the mind of the investigator.” How the investigator extracts information related to the survey target from the data directly affects the final result. At this time, some data analysis techniques should be used, such as cross-list analysis, summarization, comprehensive indicator analysis and dynamic analysis. At present, the more commonly used analysis software in the world includes SPSS, SAS, etc. A major feature of online information is that it is presented in real time, and many competitors may also see the same information from some well-known business websites. Therefore, the ability to analyze information is very important, which can enable you to capture business opportunities in dynamic changes.
5. Submit a report
The writing of a research report is the last stage of the entire research activity. The report is not a simple accumulation of data and information. Researchers cannot throw a large amount of numbers and complex statistical techniques in front of managers, otherwise the value of the research will be lost. The correct approach is to present the main survey results related to key marketing decisions in the form of a survey report, and write it in the formal structure that a survey report should have.