Research studies have been useful marketing tools for companies that want to position themselves as thought leaders. The findings are used for developing deeper customer relationships, generating press interest and building knowledge.

Management and business consultants tend to take this sort of research inhouse. While this can be a quick and cost-effective platform, since those involved tend to have some expertise in research, we will quickly point out two common pitfalls.

1. Objectives

Often, business research is conducted to answer three questions:

• What business issues is the company is facing?
• What information is needed before making a decision?
• Where/whom can we gather that information from?

When conducting research for marketing or PR purposes, other factors come into play, especially when the findings will be shared publicly. Here are some examples:

• What is the value of the research for marketing? Has it already been done by my competitors?
• Will the findings still be newsworthy by the time they are ready for public release?
• How will the findings position us?
• Will it benefit my competitors as well? (We wish to avoid that)
• Are my customers likely to respond with keen interest in the findings?
• Can the study be packaged well for both print and online media? Can the findings be presented in multimedia format?

Take time to carefully consider your objectives. It can make all the difference between a much-quoted study and a waste of your resources.

2. Assumptions

One of the benefits of seeking the advice of third-party research professionals is (hopefully) getting unbiased and challenging feedback. It is natural for industry insiders to build up some assumptions about where their business is heading. What may seem to be perfectly reasonable objectives for the research could actually be skewed.

In conducting field research for instance, we need to check:

• What is the real source of the issue at hand? Is there more than one source? Are there other related issues to consider?
• Are the people we plan to interview the best candidates to answer our questions? Did we include all the right stakeholders? Will they be biased?

It can be more useful to first start with desk research and market investigation, before finalising the objectives of the project.

For more information, please contact Manifesto.

Read our other research tips.