If you're really trying to get good, solid feedback on whether your
new business idea will fly in the marketplace, then you need to use a
reputable, but reasonably priced, online market research service.
Don't simply use a do-it-yourself site on which you can construct your
own questionnaire and get what's called a "convenience" sample. You
need to make sure that the sample of people that take the survey are
representative of whatever the population is that would be in the
market your business/product/service would likely serve.
Sorry, for that preamble, but it's way too easy to go for quick, cheap
and dirty research and get burned because the results are not valid or
reliable.
That being said, here are two recommendations:
(1) www.zoomerang.com is a service that has a good online panel.
Zoomerang is the "low-end" version of MarketTools' product line.
They're a company that has financial backing from General Mills and
Proctor & Gamble and do lots of work for both companies as well as
other corporations, so rest assured they're reliable.
(2) www.insightexpress.com is also a reliable company that does lots
of work for Fortune 500 companies also. If memory serves me, they were
once part of a much larger market research company that spun them off
years ago. Have their own panel.
Don't let the fact that these companies do work for Fortune 500
companies put you off. Each of these companies will offer you somewhat
different services and their costs may be somewhat different, so it's
probably worth talking to both to see which will best suit your needs.
One important thing is that they both have panels from which they
should be able to select an appropriate sample for your particular
needs. If you're still unsure about how to approach this whole "market
research thing," then you might want to find a market research
consultant that can help you with your project. |