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20 Market Research Questions To Ask In Your Customer Survey

The primary reason you conduct any customer survey with market research questions is to make effective decisions that grow your business by selling more to both existing customers, as well as by acquiring new customers by increasing the effectiveness of your product/service to suit their needs better. But when you take even a closer look, we’re making these decisions because the main objective is to become the obvious choice for that ideal customer. For that to happen and to reach market research goals, you need to ask:

What are Market Research Questions?

Market research questions is a questionnaire that is answered by customers or potential consumers, to understand their perception and opinion on a given subject, typically pertaining to product or service feasibility, understanding consumer needs and interests, and pricing concepts.

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For example: A customer survey on market research of an existing product line that focuses on the usefulness of specific features in a product line. Based on the feedback received from this survey, a business can now decide which features to invest and enhance/improve, and which features to relatively defocus/discontinue. This market research , therefore, enables a business to efficiently allocate resources based on real, data-oriented insights from their own customers.

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A similar set of market research questions can also be sent to potential consumers of a product, to understand market absorption capability.

LEARN ABOUT: Consumer Surveys

What Market Research Questions should I ask in my Customer Survey?

Who is our ideal customer? These are typically demographic market research questions such as gender survey questions , education level, income level or location. You can expand these questions to find out your customer’s occupation or if your ideal customer is a parent, pet owner. Don’t skimp on demographics or psychographics . If anything, get really creative with them. You might consider conducting a survey with nothing but profiling questions that include where your customers shop, or where they prefer to eat. It’s critical to know as much as possible about your ideal customer so that you can begin focusing your marketing decisions around their preferences.
What do they struggle with? Another root set of data that market researchers are searching for within their ideal customer is “what they struggle with.” What are the 5 to 7 frustrations that they are dealing with when it comes to interacting with our product or service? Suppose you are a golf accessories company and you ask your ideal customer what frustrates them about their golfing experience. In that case, you might get responses such as “expensive golf clubs getting wet during a rainstorm.” If you get enough of those responses, you may consider developing a golf accessory that protects golf clubs in the rain.
What does your ideal customer really WANT? No matter how you phrase the market research questions (and there are countless creative formats) all we really want to know is what our customer will actually purchase as a solution. What is it that they WANT? Of course, they’re NOT going to say that they want something that doesn’t exist yet — in the 1960’s the average person would NOT have known that they wanted a microwave. They wanted hot food fast. One good way to get at these wants is to give your respondents some examples of product offerings and combinations and see how they rate them.
What sets you apart from your competition? Competitive analysis and bench-marking are critical if you want to increase the profitability of your product and build your brand. An effective way to measure or identify differentiators or competitive advantage is to ask Customer Satisfaction questions . The key to asking these market research questions is getting the attributes right. For example “How important is it that your tires have a run-flat safety feature?” instead of asking “How important is it that your car has tires.”For example, A survey can be conducted by either Apple or Samsung to find out how satisfied are the customers with their products and what are the other features that the consumer prefers from the competitive brand. Using such data a company can incorporate features based on the demand and can also benchmark their features that the customers prefer. A Apple vs Samsung Survey Questions template can help to achieve the data required to compare their products with the competition and strategize accordingly .
What benefits do your customers perceive? Because we all choose and purchase based on emotion — it’s important to understand specifically what emotional benefits our customers receive from our products and services. The more we connect with our customers on an emotional level and provide that benefit — the more likely they are to choose us. This is an ideal place to use matrix questions that rate the degree to which customers agree or disagree with a variety of “benefit” statements. Here is an example “I can count on Service X to pull me out of a bind.”
Who is currently buying from us? A very important research metric to track is the “who” is currently buying a product or a service from you. Deriving a pattern from the current purchasing population, helps you target and market to a similar potential demographic. This also is an ideal place to use demographic questions extensively but it also helps if other factors like geographical metrics are tracked. You don’t want to be ignoring your existing customer base and also be smart and agile in attracting new business to your brand.
Why are other people not buying from us? While it is imperative to know who is your potential customer or map your existing customer base, you need to find out who is not buying from you. This information is essential to understand if there are shortcomings in a product or service and at what milestone customers drop out of the purchasing process . This also helps to identify the way your business is conducted, if additional training is required to make a sale or if your product or service lacks in quality. Understanding why people are not buying from you also helps monitor if there is something fundamentally wrong with what you are offering to the masses.
Who can buy from us in the future? It is a known fact that is about 10x more expensive to create a new customer rather than to maintain the one you currently have. That, however, is no reason not to aim for new business. It is therefore important to have a clear picture of your potential future business. Targeting potential customers, is a mix of customer demographics that have purchased from you in the past and a mix of demographics you advertise and market to. It is therefore important to have a well-rounded product or solution. For example, since your barbecue sauces and rubs are famous and widely used in the midwest does not mean they cannot be bought in the southern states.
Why do people buy from you? What value or need does it fulfill? Customers only buy from you because of a perceived value . This value is either what you depict to potential customers or repeat customers have been privy to the value of your product or service. Customers also make a purchase because of the trust they have either in the product or service or the brand or sometimes even certain individuals. It is therefore important that you understand the value of your brand and stick to the morals and ethics of delivering high quality to ensure that the perceived and actual brand quotient is very high. The other reason why customers purchase from you is if their need is fulfilled by what you have on offer. This could either be a direct or an indirect need.
What would make you a perfect brand? No brand can be perfect! But you can surely be close to perfect. What this means is everything about your product or service is easy to use, intuitive, is value for money, scalable and ancillary support is impeccable. All of this is obviously immaterial if the product does not solve a real problem or make life easier for the customer. Having a very high customer oriented focus gives your brand a positive ring and becomes increasingly the go-to brand. You can use a simple Net Promoter Score question to understand how referrable is your brand and who are the promoters and detractors of your brand.
What single aspect about your brand makes it stand out and makes clients trust you? People buy from you or transact with you mostly when there is a high trust factor. Very rarely is the purchasing decision purely based on need or ease of access. To identify and build on that one factor that makes you a preferred buying choice over your competitors is very important. You can map preferred aspects of your brand to age, sex, geographical location , financial limitations etc. because each of those factors can appeal to your brand differently. It is important that you identify and fortify those aspects of your business. Your brand can also be preferred because of other factors like personnel, customer service , ethos and perception amongst peers, consumers and the society alike. Abercrombie & Fitch was a respected brand but lost a lot of market share and goodwill due to CEO’s words in one isolated incident. It takes lots of work and time to build trust but takes none to lose all of it!
What is the best way to communicate with the kind of people you are trying to reach out to? What’s caused the downfall for a lot of brands is the inability to reach out to target customers despite their product or service being impeccable. Not knowing how to reach your target audience or potential customer makes all your hardwork go down the drain. For example, if a new life saving drug is making its way to the market, but medical professionals and doctors don’t know about it or how to administer it and its benefits, about 20 years of work goes down the drain. You need to identify the right channels and avenues to reach out to the people that will consume your product or service.
What do customers make of your product and/or service line? There are a few brands that have one product or service and that rakes in the customers and money for them because of the nature of the product or service. But most brands aren’t this way! They would need to branch out into multiple products or services or very often, a mix of both. It is, therefore important to understand the value of your products and/or services. It is imperative to know if they solve a problem a customer has or make life easier for the customer or any other such reason. This helps in consolidating the customer base.
What improvements could be made to your products or services to have a wider reach? A product or a service has never achieved the maximum number of customers it can get. There always is someone who could use your product or service; maybe not in the form that it currently is but there is scope to scale. This makes it so much more important to collect periodic feedback on what additions your current customer base would like to see in your brand and what can bring in new customers from your competitors. Chipping away at deadwood features and making increased usability tweaks increases the adoption and use of your product and service. For example, a retail store wants to promote the use of its self-service checkout systems. However, a lot of customers still are not opting for the system. There can be many reasons to why the customer is choosing not to use the system, like complex operation, no readability, or even slow speed of the system. To understand the reason, a Usability survey for self-service checkouts can be conducted. This will enable the store to gather first-hand information from the customers and make improvements in the system accordingly.

Learn More: User Interface Survey Template

What is the right price to charge? Pricing a product or service is one of the most important aspects of your business. Pricing right can decide the revenue, brand perception, profitability and adoption of the product or service. Pricing too slow has a negative connotation and may increase in bringing in lower revenue. Pricing high gives the feeling of being elite and then the profitability and revenue hinge on the factors of per unit adoption rather than a very high adoption. Pricing just right is a myth – what someone finds cheap, someone else could find expensive. Where someone finds your product or service value for money, others may find it exorbitant. Hence, it is important to collect extensive feedback from your existing and potential customers about what they think is an ideal price to play. It is also important to conduct due diligence on competitors to map how they price versus the service and product features they provide. These factors will help you come close to an “ideal price” to charge.
What is the vision for the brand? A vision for a brand dictates the level the brand aspires to be and wants to scale up to be. Apple is now a preferred phone because the vision was to be an experience, not a device. The device is the means to ensuring that vision. They wanted to make the ecosystem so robust that any device you use, that familiarity and ease of use is standardized but also stonewall easy. Despite being expensive and facing ridicule during early days due to the ecosystem being different, they are now a one trillion behemoth, more than the GDP of some countries, due to having a vision for the brand.
What is the way to ensure you reach that vision? A vision is easy to have but tough to follow through on. This is because your vision may see many roadblocks and may not be the current flavor of the market, but it is the right thing to stick with it. Innovate in your product and service lines by taking into consideration what your customers want and need and items they themselves don’t know that they need. Despite enduring hardships, if you stick to your vision, it is easier to use that as a launchpad for being an immaculate and preferred brand.
What should the brand branch out into to avoid stagnation or imitation? While launching a product or service, it’s essential to understand where your competitors stand on the same product type or service line. How soon can they catch up to you and imitate your service or product? On the other hand, stagnation brings the ultimate demise of a brand, product, or service line. With little innovation and competitors saturating the market by imitating your product or service line, you’ll soon see your customer base dwindle. To ensure your customers don’t drop out, the key question to ask is, “What next?”. The best way to innovate or bundle your product or service is to understand what your customers struggle with and what value they are looking for. For example, Sony is known for its PlayStations, but competitors like Xbox don’t take long to catch up to their new products. How Sony does manage to stay ahead of the market is by constantly branching into new products and services.
What bundled service or product you can offer in conjunction with yours? Good partnerships are hard to come by, strategic ones are even harder. This question tackles two of your problems, how to offer something new to your customers and how to reduce competitors in market. Your bundled service or product though has to make sense to the use, should complement your brand and cannot be an operational and logistical nightmare for your brand which then makes it counter-productive. Facebook’s acquisition of Instagram to consolidate on social images and short content rich video, is a strategic initiative to increase customer base as well as reduce competition at the same time. The key to building strong brand partnerships is to ensure your vision and product values align. Summing up, offering a bundled service or product in partnership will not only retain the existing customer base but also attract and increase new customers.

No matter why you are conducting a survey, you’ll find these 20 research questions at the core of “WHY” you want to know. Remember, your respondents will read or spend time with absolutely ANYTHING as long as they are at the center. Be sure to keep these 20 questions in mind when creating your survey and everyone involved will save time, aggravation and money. You can use single ease questions . A single-ease question is a straightforward query that elicits a concise and uncomplicated response.

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Beyond these 20 market research questions, here are 350+ Market Research Templates for you to use completely free!

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Purdue Online Writing Lab College of Liberal Arts

What is Primary Research and How do I get Started?

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Primary research is any type of research that you collect yourself. Examples include surveys, interviews, observations, and ethnographic research. A good researcher knows how to use both primary and secondary sources in their writing and to integrate them in a cohesive fashion.

Conducting primary research is a useful skill to acquire as it can greatly supplement your research in secondary sources, such as journals, magazines, or books. You can also use it as the focus of your writing project. Primary research is an excellent skill to learn as it can be useful in a variety of settings including business, personal, and academic.

But I’m not an expert!

With some careful planning, primary research can be done by anyone, even students new to writing at the university level. The information provided on this page will help you get started.

What types of projects or activities benefit from primary research?

When you are working on a local problem that may not have been addressed before and little research is there to back it up.

When you are working on writing about a specific group of people or a specific person.

When you are working on a topic that is relatively new or original and few publications exist on the subject.

You can also use primary research to confirm or dispute national results with local trends.

What types of primary research can be done?

Many types of primary research exist. This guide is designed to provide you with an overview of primary research that is often done in writing classes.

Interviews: Interviews are one-on-one or small group question and answer sessions. Interviews will provide a lot of information from a small number of people and are useful when you want to get an expert or knowledgeable opinion on a subject.

Surveys: Surveys are a form of questioning that is more rigid than interviews and that involve larger groups of people. Surveys will provide a limited amount of information from a large group of people and are useful when you want to learn what a larger population thinks.

Observations: Observations involve taking organized notes about occurrences in the world. Observations provide you insight about specific people, events, or locales and are useful when you want to learn more about an event without the biased viewpoint of an interview.

Analysis: Analysis involves collecting data and organizing it in some fashion based on criteria you develop. They are useful when you want to find some trend or pattern. A type of analysis would be to record commercials on three major television networks and analyze gender roles.

Where do I start?

Consider the following questions when beginning to think about conducting primary research:

What do I want to discover?
How do I plan on discovering it? (This is called your research methods or methodology)
Who am I going to talk to/observe/survey? (These people are called your subjects or participants)
How am I going to be able to gain access to these groups or individuals?
What are my biases about this topic?
How can I make sure my biases are not reflected in my research methods?
What do I expect to discover?

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Crafting primary research survey questions for actionable data.

Home » Crafting primary research survey questions for actionable data

Actionable Survey Design is essential for extracting meaningful insights from primary research. A well-crafted survey can transform basic data collection into a powerful tool for informed decision-making. When questions are thoughtfully designed, they guide respondents in sharing valuable perspectives, fostering genuine engagement and encouraging detailed feedback.

In today's competitive landscape, organizations must prioritize actionable data to remain relevant. Effective survey questions illuminate customer needs and preferences, leading to strategic improvements. By focusing on the clarity and relevance of questions, researchers can uncover insights that truly matter, creating a solid foundation for future initiatives and ensuring that every piece of data collected serves a purpose.

Understanding Actionable Survey Design

Actionable survey design focuses on creating surveys that yield meaningful insights and guidance for decision-making. To achieve actionable results, it is essential to ask clear, specific questions that align with your research objectives. Ambiguity in questions can lead to misleading data, making it imperative to craft each question with precision to obtain direct responses.

When designing your survey, consider the following key aspects: first, define your target audience to tailor questions accordingly. Second, employ a mix of quantitative and qualitative questions to gain a comprehensive view of participants' perspectives. Third, be mindful of the survey length; extensive surveys may lead to participant fatigue and affect data quality. Finally, test your survey prior to full deployment to identify any unclear questions or technical issues. Understanding these elements will significantly enhance your survey’s effectiveness, ensuring the data collected drives actionable insights.

Defining Actionable Survey Design

Actionable Survey Design is centered on creating surveys that provide clear, relevant, and usable insights from respondents. The primary goal is to craft questions that can inform decisions and spark meaningful action. The process involves understanding the target audience and formulating questions that align with specific objectives, ensuring that the data collected leads to substantial conclusions.

To ensure your survey design is actionable, start by identifying key objectives. This clarity allows you to create targeted questions that are descriptive and elicit informative answers. Next, consider the audience when framing questions, as their context and experiences influence their responses. Finally, pilot your survey to refine questions based on feedback, enhancing its effectiveness. By following these structured steps, you can transform raw survey data into actionable insights that drive informed strategies.

The Role of Clear Objectives

Clear objectives serve as the backbone of actionable survey design. They provide a focused direction, ensuring that every question asked resonates with the overall goals of the research project. When researchers pinpoint their objectives, they can craft questions that extract specific information needed for decision-making. Without clear objectives, surveys may become unfocused, cultivating ambiguous answers that lead to misguided conclusions.

To achieve effective survey outcomes, it is essential to outline clear objectives by identifying key goals, determining target respondents, and establishing desired insights. First, pinpointing key goals helps in framing questions that are relevant to the research aims. Next, understanding target respondents ensures that questions are crafted in a way that resonates with those being surveyed. Lastly, establishing desired insights drives the design of questions that are precise and actionable, directly informing strategic decisions based on the data collected. This structured approach ultimately enhances the potential for meaningful insights derived from the survey data.

Crafting Effective Survey Questions for Actionable Data

Crafting effective survey questions is essential for collecting actionable data. To achieve this, focus on clarity and precision. Each question should be straightforward, minimizing ambiguity. Utilize specific language that resonates with your target audience. Well-structured questions elicit clear responses, allowing you to capture meaningful insights.

When formulating your survey, consider the following key points:

Define Clear Objectives : Understand what information you need and why it matters.
Use Closed-ended Questions : These provide quantifiable data, making analysis easier.
Employ a Logical Flow : Arrange questions to guide respondents smoothly through your survey.
Include Follow-up Questions : These can provide deeper insights based on initial answers.
Test for Bias : Remain aware of question wording to avoid leading respondents.

By following these guidelines, you enhance your chances of obtaining relevant and actionable insights from your surveys. Prioritize a thoughtful approach to your survey design, ensuring your questions engage and inform effectively.

Techniques for Actionable Survey Design

Effective Techniques for Actionable Survey Design involve several key principles to optimize your data collection process. Start by clearly defining your research goals, as this provides a roadmap for crafting focused questions. Tailor your questions to gather specific insights that align with your objectives, ensuring that each question serves a purpose. For instance, open-ended questions can yield rich, qualitative data, while closed-ended questions offer quantitative metrics that are easier to analyze.

Additionally, consider the order of your questions. Begin with simpler queries to encourage participant engagement, gradually transitioning to more complex issues. This flow helps respondents feel comfortable and invested in the survey. Furthermore, pilot testing your survey can help identify potential ambiguities and areas for improvement before full deployment. By implementing these strategies, you can significantly enhance your Actionable Survey Design, ultimately leading to more reliable and usable data for informed decision-making.

Common Pitfalls in Survey Question Design

When designing surveys, common pitfalls can undermine the effectiveness of your questions, making it difficult to gather actionable data. One prevalent issue is ambiguity in question wording. Questions should be clear and straightforward to avoid misinterpretation. If respondents cannot grasp the intent, the reliability of their answers diminishes significantly.

Another frequent mistake is providing leading questions that guide respondents toward a specific answer. Instead, questions should encourage unbiased responses. Overly complex or technical language can also alienate respondents, resulting in incomplete or inaccurate data. Lastly, failing to pilot test your questions can lead to unanticipated issues during data collection. Consider these points to craft effective and actionable survey questions that yield reliable insights.

Conclusion: Achieving Actionable Insights Through Thoughtful Survey Design

Effective survey design is paramount in transforming raw data into actionable insights. It involves structuring questions that elicit clear, targeted responses, allowing researchers to identify trends and patterns within the data. By focusing on the clarity and relevance of each question, you create a framework that genuinely reflects the thoughts and feelings of respondents. This deliberate approach minimizes ambiguity, enhancing the probability of receiving insightful feedback.

Moreover, actionable insights derived from surveys can significantly impact decision-making. Well-crafted surveys not only capture data but also facilitate a deeper understanding of the underlying issues. As a result, organizations gain the ability to act decisively, enhancing their strategies and fostering growth. Thoughtful survey design ultimately paves the way for informed actions, driving meaningful outcomes and fostering a culture of continuous improvement.

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9 Types of Survey Questions for Effective Market Research

October 27, 2024

The quality of your survey questions plays a pivotal role in market research, distinguishing between merely gathering surface-level information and uncovering actionable insights that can drive your business forward.

Crafting the right questions is an art that requires a deep understanding of your objectives and the nuances of question design.

This guide explores 9 essential types of survey questions, detailing how to create surveys that serve a unique purpose in the quest for meaningful data.

Table of Contents

9 Essential Types of Survey Questions Every Researcher Should Know

1. open-ended questions.

These questions encourage respondents to provide detailed answers in their own words, offering rich, qualitative insights. They’re invaluable for exploring new topics or gathering nuanced feedback on products or services.

2. Closed-Ended Questions

With predefined answers for respondents to choose from, these questions facilitate straightforward analysis and comparisons. They are ideal for quantifying preferences or behaviors.

Do you use our product regularly?

3. Rating Scale Questions

Respondents are asked to rate a statement or item on a numeric scale, such as 1 to 5 or 1 to 10. This format is useful for measuring the intensity of feelings or perceptions toward a subject.

4. Likert Scale Questions

A special type of rating scale, Likert questions measure attitudes or opinions with options ranging from strong agreement to strong disagreement. They’re excellent for assessing customer satisfaction or employee engagement.\

5. Multiple Choice Questions

These allow respondents to select one or more options from a list of answers, making them versatile for various research needs. They can simplify complex questions into manageable choices.

Which of the following features do you use? (Select all that apply)

6. Dichotomous Questions

Characterized by simple “Yes” or “No” answers, dichotomous questions are great for filtering responses, segmenting respondents, or gathering straightforward data.

7. Nominal Questions

These questions classify responses into categories without implying any order or ranking among them, such as types of industries or methods of transportation used.

8. Demographic Questions

Gathering background information about respondents, such as age, gender, income, education, etc., these questions help in segmenting data and tailoring analyses to specific groups.

9. Matrix Table Questions

Respondents evaluate multiple items using the same set of measurement scales, efficient for comparing products, services, or behaviors across several dimensions.

Tips on When to Use Each Type of Survey Questions

Surveys are a versatile and powerful tool in the field of research, acting as a bridge to uncover valuable insights and data across a wide range of subjects. Serving as a cornerstone in both exploratory and quantifiable research methodologies, surveys can be designed to meet the specific needs of any study.

Understanding what type of research is a survey helps in strategically choosing the right questions to achieve your objectives, whether you’re exploring new ideas or measuring specific variables. Below is a guide for selecting the optimal types of survey questions for your research needs:

Open-Ended Questions : Best survey questions for exploratory research or when seeking in-depth feedback, these questions allow respondents to express their thoughts freely, providing rich qualitative data.
Closed-Ended Questions : Ideal for quantifiable research objectives or when you need easily comparable data, these questions limit responses to predefined options, facilitating straightforward analysis.
Rating and Likert Scale Questions : Useful for gauging degrees of opinion on specific statements or topics, these questions help in measuring intensity of feelings or perceptions.
Multiple Choice and Dichotomous Questions : Great for surveys targeting a broad audience where simplicity and speed of completion are key, these questions offer a balance between ease of use and informative value.
Nominal Questions : Best utilized when you need to categorize responses without implying any hierarchy, allowing for the effective segmentation of data.
Demographic Questions : Crucial for segmenting your data and understanding the characteristics of your respondent groups, these questions collect basic information such as age, gender, education level, and more.
Matrix Table Questions : Effective for assessing multiple variables in a compact format, these questions save time and space in your survey, making it easier for respondents to provide comprehensive feedback.

Best Practices for Crafting Survey Questions

Clarity is Key : Ensure questions are straightforward and free from jargon.
Avoid Bias : Phrase questions neutrally to avoid influencing responses.
Ensure Relevance : Each question should serve a clear purpose in meeting your research objectives.
Keep It Engaging : Varied question types can maintain interest and encourage completion.

Selecting the appropriate types of survey questions is pivotal for achieving your research objectives. By leveraging a mix of these question types and adhering to best practices in survey design, you can uncover deep insights and make informed decisions that drive your business forward. Whether it’s understanding customer preferences, gauging product feedback, or segmenting your market, the right questions are your gateway to valuable data.

27 Real Primary Research Examples

Chris Drew (PhD)

Dr. Chris Drew is the founder of the Helpful Professor. He holds a PhD in education and has published over 20 articles in scholarly journals. He is the former editor of the Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education. [Image Descriptor: Photo of Chris]

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Primary research is a type of academic research that involves collecting new and original data to conduct a study.

Examples of primary research include studies that collect data through interviews, questionnaires, original text analysis, observation, surveys, focus groups, case studies, and ethnography.

It is the opposite of secondary research which involves looking at existing data to identify trends or new insights. Both secondary and primary research are legitimate forms of academic research.

Primary Research Examples

1. interviews.

Interviews involve approaching relevant people and asking them questions to gather their thoughts and opinions on a topic. This can take the form of structured, semi-strutured, and unstructured interviews.

Structured interviews generally do not involve back-and-forth discussion between the researcher and the research participant, while semi-structured and unstructured interviews involve the interviewer asking follow-up questions to dig deeper and elicit more insights.

2. Questionnaires and Surveys

Questionnaires are text-based interviews where a set of questions are written down by the researchers and sent to the research participants. The participants fill out the questionnaires and return them to the researcher.

The researcher then anonymizes the data and analyzes it by looking for trends and patterns across the dataset. They may do this manually or use research tools to find similarities and differences in the responses of the research participants.

A simple questionnaire can take the form of a Likert scale which involves asking a research participant to circle their opinion on a set of pre-determined responses (e.g. ‘Very Likely, Likely, Unlikely, Very Unlikely’). Other questionnaires require participants to write detailed paragraphs responding to questions which can then be analyzed.

One benefit of surveys over interviews is that it’s easier to gather large datasets.

3. Control Group Analysis

Control group analyses involve separating research participants into two groups: the control group and the experimental group.

An intervention is applied to the experimental group. Researchers then observe the results and compare them to the control group to find out the effects of the intervention.

This sort of research is very common in medical research. For example, a new pill on the market might be used on two groups of sick patients to see whether the pill was effective in improving one group’s condition. If so, it may receive approval to go into the market.

4. Observation Studies

Observational studies involve the researchers entering a research setting and recording their naturalistic observations of what they see. These observations can then form the basis of a thesis.

Longer-term observation studies where the researcher is embedded in a community are called ethnographic studies.

Tools for observation studies include simple pen-and-paper written vignettes about a topic, recording with the consent of research participants, or using field measuring devices.

Observational studies in fields like anthropology can lead to rich and detailed explanations of complex phenomena through a process called thick description . However, they’re inherently qualitative, subjective , and small-case studies that often make it difficult to make future predictions or hard scientific findings.

Another research limitation is that the presence of the researcher can sometimes affect the behavior of the people or animals being observed.

Go Deeper: 15 Ethnography Examples

5. Focus Groups

Focus groups are similar to interviews, but involve small groups of research participants interacting with the interviewer and, sometimes, one another.

Focus group research is common, for example, in political research, where political parties commission independent research organizations to collect data about the electorate’s perceptions of the candidates. This can help inform them of how to more effectively position the candidate in advertising and press stops.

The biggest benefit of focus group studies is that they can gather qualitative information from a wider range of research participants than one-to-one interviews. However, the downside is that research participants tend to influence each others’ responses.

See More: Examples of Focus Groups

6. Online Surveys

Online surveys are similar in purpose to offline questionnaires and surveys, but have unique benefits and limitations.

Like offline surveys and questionnaires, they can be in the form of written responses, multiple choice, and Likert scales.

However, they have some key benefits including: capacity to cast a wide net, ease of snowball sampling, and ease of finding participants.

These strengths also present some potential weaknesses: poorly designed online surveys may be corrupted if the sample is not sufficiently vetted and only distributed to non-representative sample sets (of course, this can be offset, depending on the study design).

7. Action Research

Action research involves practitioners conducting just-in-time research in an authentic setting to improve their own practice. The researcher is an active participant who studies the effects of interventions.

It sits in contrast to other forms of primary research in this list, which are mostly conducted by researchers who attempt to detach themselves from the subject of study. Action research, on the other hand, involves a researcher who is also a participant.

Action research is most commonly used in classrooms, where teachers take the role of researchers to improve their own teaching and learning practices. However, action research can be used in other fields as well, particularly healthcare and social work.

Go Deeper: 21 Action Research Examples

8. Discourse and Textual Analysis

Discourse and textual analyses are studies of language and text. They could involve, for example, the collection of a selection of newspaper articles published within a defined timeframe to identify the ideological leanings of the newspapers.

This sort of analysis can also explore the language use of media to study how media constructs stereotypes. The quintessential example is the study of gender identities is Disney texts, which has historically shown how Disney texts promote and normalize gender roles that children could internalize.

Textual analysis is often confused as a type of secondary research. However, as long as the texts are primary sources examined from scratch, it should be considered primary research and not the analysis of an existing dataset.

Go Deeper: 21 Discourse Analysis Examples

9. Multimodal, Visual, and Semiotic Analysis

Discourse and textual analyses traditionally focused on words and written text. But with the increasing presence of visual texts in our lives, scholars had to come up with primary research studies that involved the analysis of multimodal texts .

This led to studies such as semiotics and multimodal discourse analysis. This is still considered primary research because it involves the direct analysis of primary data (such as pictures, posters, and movies).

While these studies tend to borrow significantly from written text analysis, they include methods such as social semiotic to explore how signs and symbols garner meaning in social contexts. This enables scholars to examine, for example, children’s drawings through to famous artworks.

Often, primary research is a more highly-regarded type of research than secondary research because it involves gathering new data.

However, secondary research should not be discounted: the synthesis, categorization, and critique of an existing corpus of research can reveal excellent new insights and help to consolidate academic knowledge and even challenge longstanding assumptions .

References for the mentioned studies (APA Style)

Atack, L., & Rankin, J. (2002). A descriptive study of registered nurses’ experiences with web‐based learning. Journal of Advanced Nursing , 40 (4), 457-465.

Baughcum, A. E., Burklow, K. A., Deeks, C. M., Powers, S. W., & Whitaker, R. C. (1998). Maternal feeding practices and childhood obesity: a focus group study of low-income mothers. Archives of pediatrics & adolescent medicine , 152 (10), 1010-1014.

Calvert, M., & Sheen, Y. (2015). Task-based language learning and teaching: An action-research study. Language Teaching Research , 19 (2), 226-244.

Coker, D. L., Farley-Ripple, E., Jackson, A. F., Wen, H., MacArthur, C. A., & Jennings, A. S. (2016). Writing instruction in first grade: An observational study. Reading and Writing , 29 (5), 793-832.

Cossrow, N. H., Jeffery, R. W., & McGuire, M. T. (2001). Understanding weight stigmatization: A focus group study. Journal of nutrition education , 33 (4), 208-214.

Costello, J. (2006). Dying well: nurses’ experiences of ‘good and bad’deaths in hospital. Journal of advanced nursing , 54 (5), 594-601.

Deckx, L., Mitchell, G., Rosenberg, J., Kelly, M., Carmont, S. A., & Yates, P. (2019). General practitioners’ engagement in end-of-life care: a semi-structured interview study. BMJ Supportive & Palliative Care .

Drew, C. (2013). Elitism for sale: Promoting the elite school online in the competitive educational marketplace. Australian Journal of Education , 57 (2), 174-184.

Erdener, M. A., & Knoeppel, R. C. (2018). Parents’ Perceptions of Their Involvement in Schooling. International Journal of Research in Education and Science , 4 (1), 1-13.

Felicia, O. (2021). A social semiotic analysis of gender power in Nigeria’s newspaper political cartoons. Social Semiotics , 31 (2), 266-281.

Gardner, C. D., Trepanowski, J. F., Del Gobbo, L. C., Hauser, M. E., Rigdon, J., Ioannidis, J. P., … & King, A. C. (2018). Effect of low-fat vs low-carbohydrate diet on 12-month weight loss in overweight adults and the association with genotype pattern or insulin secretion: the DIETFITS randomized clinical trial. Jama , 319 (7), 667-679.

Groves, M. M., & Zemel, P. C. (2000). Instructional technology adoption in higher education: An action research case study. International Journal of Instructional Media , 27 (1), 57.

Gullifer, J., & Tyson, G. A. (2010). Exploring university students’ perceptions of plagiarism: A focus group study. Studies in Higher Education , 35 (4), 463-481.

Karlsson, J., & Juslin, P. N. (2008). Musical expression: An observational study of instrumental teaching. Psychology of music , 36 (3), 309-334.

Liu, D., Huang, Y., Huang, C., Yang, S., Wei, X., Zhang, P., … & Zhang, H. (2022). Calorie restriction with or without time-restricted eating in weight loss. New England Journal of Medicine , 386 (16), 1495-1504.

Martin, F., & Bolliger, D. U. (2018). Engagement matters: Student perceptions on the importance of engagement strategies in the online learning environment. Online Learning , 22 (1), 205-222.

Munro, M. (2018). House price inflation in the news: a critical discourse analysis of newspaper coverage in the UK. Housing Studies , 33 (7), 1085-1105.

O’bannon, B. W., & Thomas, K. (2014). Teacher perceptions of using mobile phones in the classroom: Age matters!. Computers & Education , 74 , 15-25.

Olsen, M., Udo, C., Dahlberg, L., & Boström, A. M. (2022). Older Persons’ Views on Important Values in Swedish Home Care Service: A Semi-Structured Interview Study. Journal of Multidisciplinary Healthcare , 15 , 967.

Ravn, I. M., Frederiksen, K., & Beedholm, K. (2016). The chronic responsibility: a critical discourse analysis of Danish chronic care policies. Qualitative Health Research , 26 (4), 545-554.

Sacks, F. M., Bray, G. A., Carey, V. J., Smith, S. R., Ryan, D. H., Anton, S. D., … & Williamson, D. A. (2009). Comparison of weight-loss diets with different compositions of fat, protein, and carbohydrates. New England Journal of Medicine , 360 (9), 859-873.

Saltmarsh, S., Chapman, A., Campbell, M., & Drew, C. (2015). Putting “structure within the space”: Spatially un/responsive pedagogic practices in open-plan learning environments. Educational Review , 67 (3), 315-327.

Samaras, G., Bonoti, F., & Christidou, V. (2012). Exploring children’s perceptions of scientists through drawings and interviews. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences , 46 , 1541-1546.

Sengul, K. (2019). Critical discourse analysis in political communication research: a case study of right-wing populist discourse in Australia. Communication Research and Practice , 5 (4), 376-392.

Smahel, D., Machackova, H., Mascheroni, G., Dedkova, L., Staksrud, E., Ólafsson, K., … & Hasebrink, U. (2020). EU Kids Online 2020: Survey results from 19 countries.

Stawarz, K., Preist, C., & Coyle, D. (2019). Use of smartphone apps, social media, and web-based resources to support mental health and well-being: online survey. JMIR mental health , 6 (7), e12546.Towns, M. H., Kreke, K., & Fields, A. (2000). An action research project: Student perspectives on small-group learning in chemistry. Journal of Chemical Education , 77 (1), 111.

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