Question

Topic: Research/Metrics

Survey Questions For Marketing Plan

Posted by Michel on 5/20/2009 at 3:00 PM ET 250 Points
Thanks to all who respond and to Marketing Profs for such a great Forum!

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I am trying to construct a Marketing Plan for recently launched hair care products. I don't have access to much secondary data and will have to use surveys to gather data for each section of the marketing plan. Does anyone know of an online resource which helps people determine which surveys are needed for the marketing plan and which questions to ask when constructing them ( for each section of the marketing plan)? Alternatively, does anyone know which questions I should ask in each section of the marketing plan?

Thanks!
Mich
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  • Posted by wnelson on 5/20/2009 at 6:21 PM Accepted
    Mich,

    Survey questions for a marketing plan depend mostly on what you don't know, or alternately, what you want to find out. For instance, in a marketing plan, you might what to include the market size for the region you are in. Since you said no secondary data is available (which is not a great loss anyway because the secondary data would most likely be for hair care products globally and not in your region on interest), then you have to do primary research. In a survey, questions to address this are:

    1) Do you use hair care product (type A)?
    2) How much per year do you buy?

    Type A might be gel, hair spray, or whatever class of product you want to understand. You could have a survey with a set of questions for each of these types of products.

    If you wanted to get competitive information, you could include:

    3) Which brand of hair care product (type A) do you buy?

    If you want to get at customer needs, you might ask:

    4) When you buy type A hair care product, how important is

    If you elaborate on what information you don't have or are seeking, we can make the answers a little more specific too.

    A cautionary note here: Survey results depend heavily on how the survey questions are worded, including the answers. If you have no experience in this area, it's not something you can "buy a book on" and learn in an hour. I would suggest hiring someone. If it's not important enough to spend the money to hire someone, then, OK, just don't make any decisions on the results.

    I hope this helps.
  • Posted on 5/20/2009 at 10:10 PM Member
    One of the best tools for building a marketing plan is available in the Smart Tools section of www.marketingprofs.com
  • Posted by SteveByrneMarketing on 5/21/2009 at 1:40 AM Accepted
    Wayde is right ... you design a survey, conduct the survey and then interpret the results for a report on the survey. It is very easy to get a false snapshot of your specific marketing landscape.

    Hiring a professional is the best way to go.

    I would add one step. I would call several dozen of the survey targets and just ask a few open ended questions to hear their opinions in their voice. It will help you understand the customer from direct knowledge, which in turn will help you when working with a professional.

    best of luck,

    Steve
  • Posted by wnelson on 5/21/2009 at 7:33 AM Member
    Good add, Steve! I forgot to mention that. Survey design never starts with knowing nothing. Surveys are to confirm hypotheses that you form through focused conversations. Talk to your customers first and ask open ended questions. Take notes and this is the basis of the survey design. This will help you to understand if the professional you hire has it right or not, too.

    Wayde
  • Posted by Michel on 5/21/2009 at 3:05 PM Author
    Hi wnelson & Steve,

    Thanks for the feedback, much appreciated.

    I do have some short term experience in survey design and understand the basics of statistical analysis. I am a recent MBA grad who is taking some time to help my mother with her business. I know pre-designed surveys exist for the various sections of the marketing plan as wnelson highlighted in his first response, I am just having trouble finding them on the web. I am looking for websites which have consumer, market, competitor etc. surveys which I could tweak to my needs for this business, any ideas?

    Thanks for your help guys!
    Mich
  • Posted by wnelson on 5/21/2009 at 3:12 PM Accepted
    Mich,

    I've never used "prepackaged" surveys because they generally don't have much of a relationship with what's needed. I've always found it better to just go design the survey myself.

    Wayde
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