Market Research Brief | Guide + Template

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- Terri Williams, Agency Founder

This document is essential to ensuring there is clear communication between everyone working on the project, helping you develop a strong and productive working relationship. How do you write one, though? We thought we would explore the process further before giving you our top five tips for writing a market research brief.

What is a market research briefing document?

Before we start taking a look at the benefits and how to write a market research brief, we thought we would first explore what one actually is. This comprehensive document is designed to help you inform your market researcher exactly what you are looking to find out.

This should be seen as a dialogue between the two of you, allowing you to provide them with all of the information that they need in order to achieve your goals. The more thorough that you are in your details, the smoother the project will be and the less back and forth you will need to have with your researcher.

Having a detailed market research brief will also minimize the risk of miscommunication that could result in wrong data or expensive repeats. When creating a brief, there are several things that you will need to outline:

  • What your objective is
  • Contextual information on why you want to achieve this
  • Detailed information on your product or services
  • The research methods you want to cover
  • The timescale and budget you have
  • The target market and sample size you want

These points should be covered no matter the size of the project you are looking to complete. It is always important to remember that the more thorough you are in this planning stage, the better the results you will achieve and the greater the information you will have available to work with.

What are the hidden benefits of implementing one?

Implementing a thorough market research brief might seem like a time-consuming process, but it should be essential before any project. A comprehensive document can provide you with a huge array of benefits that will significantly benefit you in the future.

Alongside helping to guarantee that you are able to get the most insightful data possible, it also ensures the project will be able to go as smoothly as possible. It will ensure that you, the researcher, and anyone else working on the project understands exactly what is expected and by when. This helps to give you complete peace of mind that you will receive the results you want while also minimizing the stress and worry of having to continuously communicate every little detail with them.

Of course, a market research brief is not just for the researcher. The process of creating one is also a great chance for you to think critically about what it is that you want to achieve and clearly detail your objectives.

How do you write a market research brief? A tested outline:

There can be no denying the many benefits that come from creating a clear market research brief. However, if you have never produced one before, it can be very daunting to know where to begin when it comes to putting pen to paper.

We know how tough it can be to create a comprehensive market research brief. That is why we have taken a closer look at the five key areas that you should focus on when creating yours:

1) Project description

The first thing that you will want to complete is your project description. This is effectively a comprehensive summary of what the project is, what your goals and objectives are, and what the required roles are.

When creating the project description, you should also make sure that you are introducing your brand and the services or products you are working with. This will help to provide the relevant context to the researchers, allowing them to establish why you are conducting the study and what you want to achieve.

During this summary, you can also outline any previous campaigns that you have conducted or rival studies that you would like to replicate.

2) Objectives

When you have been able to create that summary, the next step of your market research brief is to outline your objectives. This section should clearly detail what you want to achieve from the study, helping to provide the researcher with more context on why you are completing it and allowing them to understand exactly what the finished results should look like.

When creating the objectives, you should also outline what you are hoping to do with the data at the end. By informing the researcher of what you will be doing with the information, they will be able to ensure that it is delivered in the most effective format possible.

3) Target audience

With the objectives clear, you can then move on to detailing your target audience. This section of your market research brief will describe the profiling information and demographics that your researcher should focus on.

Alongside things such as desired age, gender, occupation, location, and income, you should also state anyone who you do not want to include. When creating your target audience, make sure you are also outlining your preferred sample size.

Use our Customer Persona builder inside HolaBrief for free!

4) Technical requirements

The technical requirements section of your market research brief should cover everything from how you want the study undertaken to how you want the results provided. For example, do you want individuals surveyed face-to-face or anonymously through their computer?

You should also detail whether you want the results in a pure, unsorted form or whether they should be collated into graphs.

5) Milestones and deliverables

Finally, you should clearly detail any milestones and deliverables that you expect throughout the project. Having incremental milestones will ensure that the project remains on track and that one small mistake will not result in all of your data being incorrect.

Build and download your market research brief samples

Are you looking to create your own market research brief? These steps can help to give you an idea of what you need to include in yours. However, here at Hola Brief, we wanted to go one step further and make the process even easier for you by providing you with a clear template to follow.

Using our unique and proven software, we have created a comprehensive market research brief template that will carefully guide you through the process step by step. Our mission is to ensure you have the knowledge and tools required to create the ultimate brief for your researcher.

Want to find out more? Check it out today!

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Join 1000s of agencies using HolaBrief to set up their projects for success.