Market Research
Market research is establishing what a market actually contains, who buys in it and what they pay, using evidence rather than a top-down estimate.
Capability · 2 services within this
In Growth Strategy: Diagnose Growth
How we help with Market Research
TAM is not research. It is arithmetic performed on a guess.
Size the market from the bottom up
Number of buyers, what they currently spend, and what share is genuinely addressable. A top-down percentage of an industry figure is arithmetic performed on a guess.
Segment by behaviour, not by demographics
Which buyers have the problem acutely, buy quickly and pay more. That segmentation is what a go-to-market plan is built on.
Get evidence of demand
Interviews, pricing tests and channel data from real buyers, rather than a survey that asks people to predict their own behaviour.
Say what it means for this business
Research that ends in a market description has stopped one step short. The output is a decision about where to compete.
TAM is not research. It is arithmetic performed on a guess.
FAQ
Questions founders ask about Market Research
What is the difference between market research and a TAM slide?
A TAM slide is a number. Market research is the evidence behind it: who the buyers are, what they currently spend, and what share is realistically reachable. Investors have learned to discount the first and ask for the second.
How long does proper market research take?
For a focused question, four to six weeks including primary interviews. Longer studies are usually answering more questions than the decision requires.
Do you use primary or secondary research?
Both, weighted to the question. Secondary sources establish the shape of a market; primary interviews establish whether buyers behave the way the secondary sources imply, and that gap is frequently where the answer is.
Can we not do this ourselves?
Founders can and often should do the interviews, because they hear things a researcher will not. What is hard to do internally is the disconfirming analysis, because the person who built the business has a view they are testing rather than a question they are asking.
What our research says about Market Research
Willingness to pay is not a number. It is a distribution across your buyers, and your job is to find where it clusters and where it splits.
Could our market sizing survive being rebuilt from scratch by someone with no incentive to believe our story?
Where is the gap between what customers say they will pay and what they actually pay?
Further reading
Article · Sriram ChidambaramPricing strategy for Indian startups and MSMEs: the ultimate guide to profitable growth and enterprise valueRead
Article · CA Mallavarjalla MounikaCommercial DD: Testing the Business Model Under ScrutinyRead
Article · Karthik BeknalPricing Labs: Testing Without Breaking SalesRead
Guides and downloads on Market Research
E-books and masterclass material from the SRF library, free to download.
The people behind Market Research
Market Research is run by the studio team: one multidisciplinary team whose pods work in tandem, matched to the sector and the stage the company is in.
Strategy Consulting / Labs pod
Led by Karthik Beknal
Lead - Strategy Consulting & FP&A. Defines direction and drives it through focused sprints.
See the pod structure
What usually runs alongside this
Competitor Analysis and BenchmarkingWho you are actually competing with, on what, and where the business stands against them.
PricingSetting your price: what buyers pay, what your costs allow, and how you charge.
Market IntelligenceA continuous read on the sector: what is moving capital, regulation and demand, and what it means for this business.
