In this post, learn how to use exploratory research as a tool for arming your business with data-backed decision-making.
Starting with an overview of what exploratory research is, the article will go on to detail types of exploratory research methods, how to design this type of study, a step-by-step example, and the benefits of conducting exploratory research.
Table of Contents:
- What is exploratory research?
- Types of exploratory research methods
- How to design exploratory research
- Step-by-step exploratory research example
- Examples of exploratory research questions to ask
- Advantages and disadvantages of exploratory research
- Learn more about exploratory research
What is exploratory research?
Exploratory research is a type of research that’s meant to gather consumer feedback on a new topic, category, market, phenomenon, etc., that’s of interest to a business or insights team. Businesses can leverage this type of research as a starting point to establish a foundation of knowledge on a topic before potentially moving on to more in-depth studies.
Exploratory research is often used when an insights team or individual researcher is looking to map out the scope, nature, and causes of a business problem at a fundamental level, as it's often the starting point of knowledge in a category. Through the research findings, potential solutions to that problem will arise, leading to either 1.) a business decision grounded on consumer insights, or 2.) the basis for a more detailed future quantitative or qualitative research study; the latter of those two options is typical of exploratory research, as this type of research is often preliminary and used to generate hypotheses around a research topic.
Types of exploratory research methods
There are two main data collection methods when it comes to exploratory research: primary research and secondary research.
Primary Research Methods
Primary exploratory research means a researcher or insights team is collecting their own original data for analysis using research methods such as quantitative surveys, qualitative interviews, focus groups, or ethnographic observation. Primary market research allows you to gather specific, detailed findings that answer a unique research question or problem.
As researchers gather information about consumers’ experiences, opinions, and attitudes, they can build data charts, presentations, or consumer insights dashboards to share with internal teams or stakeholders. They can also use these findings to fuel new research studies that explore some of these metrics in greater detail.
Primary market research has the benefit of customization - meaning researchers can choose the methodology, tailor their question phrasing, and source a unique sample group - all based on what best serves their research objective. However, all this comes with financial costs, so for those with little or no budget, secondary research methods are a great alternative.
Secondary Research Methods
Secondary exploratory research involves analyzing existing research that’s been collected by a third party. These sources might include literature, online reviews, case studies, big data mining, or published research paper analysis.
As mentioned above, secondary data collection methods are typically less expensive (or free!) and less time-consuming than primary data collection methods. However, the tradeoff is that secondary data may not be directly relevant to your research question.
Using them together
Researchers may start with secondary research to get a better understanding of the topic in question, and then proceed with primary exploratory research methods or even other types of in-depth market research studies to add context to their data analysis. Secondary research might even inform brands of new topics to explore in a primary research study or narrow down which demographics to target in future projects. For brands with the budget and the bandwidth to do so, the benefits of mixed-methods research are worth considering.
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How to design exploratory research
Once you decide that an exploratory research methodology is right for you, follow these simple steps to design an effective exploratory study:
Start with a problem or objective you want to explore
Before you draft your first question in a survey, you need to settle on your research problem. What business questions will this research solve for your business? This is the key question that each and every survey question will be based around. It’s the glue for your study, to keep the insights specific, measurable, and most importantly, actionable.
Decide on your exploratory strategy
Next, you’ll need to decide if you want to leverage primary exploratory research, secondary research sources, or a mix-methods approach. As a reminder, primary exploratory methods have the benefit of being specific to your research project, though they can run a higher price tag and take longer to discover insights. Secondary exploratory study data can be available immediately (as it already exists - and is generally low-cost or free), though the insights might not exactly answer your research problem.
Decide what makes the most sense for your business based on the resources you have available, and then proceed with setting up your exploratory study.
Set up your study
To set up your study, you’ll need to determine what research design will deliver the best results. Do you want very detailed feedback from just a few consumers or an initial read on an early-stage business idea? Qualitative research methods such as interviews or focus groups would be your best bet.
Do you need a large sample size to measure advanced method insights by many different demographic cuts? This will require an online, quantitative kind of research. Online sources also have the benefit of reaching a wide array of consumers in a short amount of time and can be made specific to a niche audience (as you’ll see in the example in the section below).
Implicit testing is a great advanced method to leverage to make better-informed business decisions based on consumers' authentic, gut reactions:
Regardless of your research design, ask a mix of closed-ended and open-ended questions to get a mix of straightforward consumer intelligence metrics along with detailed feedback in consumers’ own words.
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Step-by-step exploratory research example
An ice cream shop is looking to open up a new location in a nearby town. To decide if it’s worth their time, effort, and budget, first they decide to explore the market to see if there’s a need or interest in a new ice cream shop.
The scenario outline below demonstrates a step-by-step example of how this ice cream shop can conduct exploratory research and act on the findings.
To start, they develop their business question: What’s the potential interest for an ice cream shop in town?
With this business question in mind, they start their exploratory research with secondary sources - looking up the public sales numbers from competitive ice cream shops and grocery store ice cream purchases. They check out the social media profiles of competitors to see what consumers are saying about them - do they wish they had better hours? Do they like the product? Are they satisfied with the flavors?
Based on their secondary findings, the ice cream shop determines that consumers in that town are buying ice cream primarily on the weekends due to competitors' hours and that they wish these competitor locations offered more flavors. This signals an opportunity for the ice cream shop to expand into town and offer a wider availability in terms of hours and flavors. To determine what those should be, the shop proceeds to run preliminary exploratory research with a quantitative online questionnaire.
The questionnaire panel is set up to target only respondents that live in that town and asks them questions about store hour expectations, frequency of ice cream shop visits, top flavor preferences, and hopes for unique in-store experiences (events, charity drives, workshops, etc.).
The study finds that residents in the town would like an ice cream shop to be open until at least 8pm on the weekdays so they can take their kids after sports practices and homework. They also find that residents would love a strawberry cheesecake flavor of ice cream, and there is a high interest in hosting birthday parties at a local ice cream shop.
With this information, the ice cream shop is armed with data-backed insights that will help them expand its business into a new territory with a unique offering that has already been vetted to attract customers.
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Examples of exploratory research questions to ask
With that ice cream shop example in mind, let's now consider how you might craft your own exploratory research study! When collecting data through a primary research method, your exploratory research design should incorporate some of the following questions to get a better idea of your product/category’s landscape and target audience:
Which brands do you buy?
Knowing which brands consumers are currently purchasing can help pave the competitive landscape and see who you’re up against. If you’re not currently in shoppers’ mindsets, you know you have to start by working on brand awareness before you can continue to grow. Or, if your target audience is currently buying your brand, you can learn how you might differentiate your offering from the other brands they buy.
Where do you shop?
If you want consumers to buy your brand’s product or service, it needs to be in their consideration set when shopping. Knowing which in-store locations and online sites your target audience is currently visiting is a great place to start.
How often do you buy [product/service]?
Part of your exploratory research process should aim to understand how often consumers are shopping for your product or service. This kind of intel informs strategic positioning, supply chain, budget allocation, and more.
The above questions are just examples to get you started in your research design. Your exploratory research project will of course be catered to your specific subject matter.
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Advantages and disadvantages of exploratory research
Though there are some elements to consider before diving into an exploratory study, the benefits of doing research in an exploratory fashion often outweigh the few disadvantages:
Advantages of exploratory research
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Guides early-stage business planning/product development
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Is relatively quick and simple (vs. a more in-depth study)
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Can be done quantitatively or qualitatively
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Can be done at a low cost with secondary sources
Disadvantages of exploratory research
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Might not provide the most descriptive research, requiring future research studies at additional costs to dive deeper into specific areas of interest
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Exploratory research findings are often not representative of your true target audience (unless you know this going in)
Learn more about exploratory research
Conducting exploratory research is a great way for brands to capture an initial understanding of their market before investing in further research or coming to a final business decision.
To learn more about this kind of research with quantilope’s automated consumer intelligence platform, get in touch below!