Designing Market Research: Objectives & Competitors

From Client Request to Actionable Plan

Imagine a client gives you a new project. Before you dive into Google searches or start building spreadsheets, you need a roadmap. In market research, this roadmap is often called a research brief or a project plan. Its purpose is to translate a client's broad request into a set of specific, answerable questions and a clear scope of work.

Why is this so important? A good plan helps you:

• Identify gaps in the market that your client can exploit.
• Understand what makes your client unique (their value proposition).
• Focus your research efforts so you don't waste time on irrelevant information.

Let's watch a short video that explains the value of conducting a competitor analysis.

To make this practical, let's work with a sample client request for a fictional company.

Client: GreenLeaf Organics, a small e-commerce store selling organic skincare products.

Request: "We want to understand our competition better. We need a report on our top 3-4 competitors. We're thinking of launching a new vitamin C serum and want to see what others are doing in terms of product features, pricing, and how they market it on social media. We also want to know who their main customers seem to be."

Our task is to turn this request into a structured plan.

Step 1: Define Your Research Objectives

A client's request contains both a high-level goal and specific questions. Your first job is to separate these into Business Objectives (the "why") and Research Objectives (the "what").

The article "Market Research Brief" from Conjointly provides a clear framework for this.

Applying this to our GreenLeaf Organics brief:

• Business Objective: To understand the competitive landscape to inform the launch strategy for a new vitamin C serum.
• Research Objectives:
  1. Identify the top 3-4 direct competitors for GreenLeaf Organics.
  2. Analyze their vitamin C serum offerings (e.g., key features, ingredients, size).
  3. Document their pricing for these serums.
  4. Assess their social media marketing strategy for this product category.
  5. Describe the apparent target audience for each competitor.

These objectives now form a clear checklist for the data you need to find.

Step 2: Identify Key Competitors

With clear objectives, you can now focus on finding the right competitors to analyze. The client asked for "top competitors," which usually means direct competitors: those who sell similar products to the same target market.

So, how do you find them? The best way is to think like a customer.

For GreenLeaf Organics, you could search on Google and Amazon for terms like:

• "organic vitamin C serum"
• "natural skincare online store"
• "clean beauty brands"

There are several free tools and techniques you can use to gather this intelligence. The following video provides excellent, practical examples.

As you search, you'll start to see the same company names appearing. These are your likely competitors. For B2B research, LinkedIn is an invaluable tool. While less central for a B2C product like skincare, its analytics tools are powerful for tracking competitors once you've identified them.

Your Task: Create the Research Plan

Now it's time to put this all together. Your task is to create a simple research plan for the GreenLeaf Organics project. This document will be your guide for the rest of the project.

1. Create a new Google Doc.
2. Title it: Market Research Plan: GreenLeaf Organics.
3. Copy and paste the template below into your document.
4. Fill in the sections based on the work we've done in this lesson. For the "Key Competitors" section, use the search techniques described above to find 3 real companies you think would be direct competitors for GreenLeaf Organics.

Project Research Plan Template

1. Project Background

• Client: GreenLeaf Organics
• Business Objective: (Fill this in from our analysis above)

2. Research Objectives
(List the 5 research objectives we defined earlier)

• 1.

3. Key Competitors to Investigate
(Use Google and Amazon to find 3 real-world companies that sell organic/natural skincare online. List their names and website URLs.)

• 1. Company Name:
  • Website:
• 2. Company Name:
  • Website:
• 3. Company Name:
  • Website:

4. Data to Collect (for Each Competitor)
(This section is a preview for our next lesson. It lists the categories of information we will gather.)

• Vitamin C Serum Product Details (name, price, size, key ingredients)
• Value Proposition & Target Audience
• Social Media Presence (channels used, content focus)
• Customer Reviews (common praises and complaints)

Conclusion

In this lesson, you've taken the essential first step in any market analysis project. By translating a client's request into a structured plan, you've created a roadmap that will guide your research and ensure your final report is relevant and valuable.

Here are the key takeaways:

• Planning is paramount: Always start by creating a research brief or plan.
• Deconstruct the request: Separate the client's high-level Business Objective from the specific Research Objectives your work will address.
• Think like a customer: Use simple search techniques on platforms like Google and Amazon to identify direct competitors.
• Your plan is your roadmap: This document will keep your research focused and on track.

In our next lesson, we will begin executing this plan. You'll take the competitors you've identified and start gathering the specific data points outlined in your research plan, starting with their websites and product offerings.