From Idea to Launch: Types of Market Research Every Startup Founder Should Know in 2025
As per this press release on Start-up Conclave 2025, in the eight years since ‘Startup India’ began, India has become the world’s third-largest startup ecosystem. This government press release reports that startup numbers have grown from about 500 in 2014 to 1.92 lakh by 2025, including over 120 unicorns. With growing number of startups, the competition today is at its peak, and hence data-driven decisions have become crucial over guess works to run a successful business.
For every founder and marketing leader, knowing the types of market research is key to finding product–market fit, improving customer reach, and driving steady growth.
This article covers what is market research, what are the types of market research, practical ways of conducting market research, and how to pick the best method for your startup or SME.
What is Market Research and Why is it Important in 2025?
Market research is the structured process of collecting, recording, and analyzing data about customers, competitors, and the market. It goes beyond guesswork and helps make decisions more reliable and evidence-based.
Businesses typically use it to:
- Test demand or product ideas
- Learn customer needs and pain points
- Compare competitors
- Measure market size and growth
- Shape pricing, positioning, and go-to-market plans
As per Observer Research Foundation, by 2025, over 159,000 startups will be recognized under ‘Startup India’, While this is a proud news for Indian ecosystem, it should be a serious wake-up call for Indian startups and SMEs – margins are going to be tight, funding is limited, and mistakes can be costly.
With this pace, early market research becomes more essential. Without it, startups risk wrong assumptions, misaligned products, and missing their target audience.
How Market Research Drives Growth for Startups and SMEs?
With market research, every decision is guided by real customer intelligence for sustainable growth and long-term success. It is more than what we study theoretically. Successful businesses have been able to turn insights into action – grow revenue, plug hidden gaps, and improve customer satisfaction. This is how:
1. Identifying target audiences and unmet needs
Market surveys and in-depth interviews can reveal user segments with pain points you hadn’t noticed. These insights can guide product changes. A real-life example, SOEZI, a beauty and fashion brand, saw a clear gap in the Indian beauty market. However, they were unsure of who would be their precise target persona in need. The founder surveyed more than 1000 women across India before successfully launching their products in the market.
2. Refining product–market fit
Before scaling, test and validate ideas early. Research among small groups – do they like the features of products or your services, is pricing relevant, or is it convenient to deliver your services to the end customers. Market validation helps founders assess – does your product or service solve a real, valuable problem so customers buy, use and recommend it.
3. Optimizing marketing campaigns and messaging
Understanding user language, triggers, and objections lets you craft campaigns that convert better and lower costs. Another real-life example is of this this plant-based meat café, who tested their messaging before spending big. This enabled their marketing campaigns resonate better and deliver stronger ROI.
4. Mitigating risk
Losing prospects to competitors is the worst feeling for any start-up founder. Testing assumptions through data makes failures less costly than blind launches. Structured market survey and research provide clarity.
These are the clear signs of using different types of market research for business and growth iteration. A detailed guide to execute expert market research for startups and SMEs – for smooth transition from “I could have done better” to “I know how it is to be done”.
The Main Types of Market Research
Here is a quick guide on what are the different types of market research you can employ, their best practices, and under what circumstances they may be appropriate for small and mid-size businesses.
1. Primary Market Research
Primary market research assists startups to know about the demand forecast, the way the consumers act and why, and what the target audience still require. The possibility of gathering fresh information through your target audience increases.
Examples:
- Market surveys: Questionnaires or online surveys that capture the opinions, habits, and preferences of potential users.
- In-depth interviews: Interviews that provide a specific insight into what customers are motivated by and which aspects of the company can remove their pain.
- Focus groups: Small group discussions which involve testing the responses to a product idea, feature, or product message.
- Observation/ ethnography: Viewing the real product usage settings of the people to discover concealed behaviour/needs.
Among all types of market research, this is the best way to reduce guesswork before launching a new product or feature.
2. Secondary Market Research
Secondary research uses existing data from reliable sources such as published reports, government databases, research papers, and competitor studies. It’s faster and more cost-effective than primary research.
For example, you can use data from the Ministry of MSME, NITI Aayog, or industry associations to understand market size, sector trends, and benchmarks. Secondary data helps identify macro trends, compare performance, and shape early business strategies. Many startups combine this with other types of market research for a hybrid approach.
3. Quantitative Market Research
Quantitative methods deal with numbers, data, and outcomes that you can measure in numbers. They include structured surveys, user analytics, and market size estimation.
If you need to forecast demand, segment audiences by percentage, or run statistical tests, quantitative research is the right choice. It includes statistical studies and data mining.
4. Qualitative Market Research
Qualitative research explores customer beliefs, attitudes, motivations, and perceptions. It uses interviews, open-ended surveys, and focus groups to uncover insights. These methods help you understand the “why” behind user behavior. It includes case studies and ethnographic studies.
For instance, you might find that users avoid your product due to trust concerns, not for any missing features.
5. Exploratory vs Descriptive Research
- Exploratory research helps uncover new insights early in the process. It’s used to identify user problems, needs, or patterns that aren’t yet clear.
- Descriptive research comes later. It’s structured and focused on measuring what was found earlier, such as user segments, adoption rates, or market size.
6. Competitive (or Benchmarking) Research
Competitive research looks at rivals in the market, their products, pricing, user feedback, and positioning. It helps identify gaps and stand out. For example, fintech startups in India often compare user reviews, fees, and features of Paytm, PhonePe, and Razorpay. This provides clear, real-time insights for better decisions.
Best Ways to Conduct Market Research
Knowing ways of market research is one thing; applying them effectively is another. Here’s a clear step-by-step guide for startups and SMEs in India:
- Define objectives clearly – Align to your marketing research objectives.
- Choose the right type(s) – Select relevant types of market research based on budget, stage, and goals.
- Design instruments carefully – Use unbiased, clear survey questions.
- Collect and analyze data – Pick representative samples and track quantitative + qualitative insights.
- Translate insights into action – Implement findings to improve product or marketing.
- Repeat often – Continuous learning sharpens business direction.
Pro tip: Mixing different types of market research, such as primary and secondary, delivers more accurate and useful results.
How to Choose the Right One for Your Business
Or rather, when to know that a business needs to go through rigorous market research process before announcing a launch. Below is a quick guide on which stage the business is at and the type of market research needed:
1. Idea Validation
Goal: Determine whether there is an actual problem to address
Research Approach: Qualitative interview, exploratory survey, secondary research
Live Example: This millet based foods start-up started with in-depth interviews, understanding the consumer needs towards healthy eating, before launching a nation-wide study.
2. Early Product Launch
Purpose: Determine the best feature/pricing.
Research Approach: A/B testing, quantitative survey, competition research
Live Example: New Norm Foods tested their plant-based milk café idea before investing big in opening their first outlet in Mumbai.
3. Growth / Expansion
Decision: When it is time to expand to new city or new country.
Research Approach: Segmentation research, competitive benchmarking, regional in-depth interviews
4. Customer Feedback
Aim: To discover the pulse of your customers.
Research Approach: Small quantitative tests, quick qualitative feedback.
Choosing the right types of market research depends on your specific challenge, whether it’s discovery, validation, or optimization.
Future of Market Research in 2025 and Beyond
Market research is changing rapidly, especially in India’s tech and startup sectors.
- Expertise in Analysis: Tools can now analyze open responses, sentiment, and trends automatically, reducing human bias.
- Predictive analytics & modeling: Data can forecast trends or predict churn, moving beyond just past insights.
- Social media listening & sentiment analysis: Startups monitor public platforms like Twitter, Reddit, and Indian forums to spot early signals.
- Continuous micro-surveys & in-app feedback: Instead of one large survey, startups use small prompts to capture real-time user sentiment.
- Integration with analytics & product telemetry: Combining survey data with usage metrics gives a fuller view of customer behavior.
The Right Type of Market Research Will Help Develop Data-Driven Growth
Having an idea is just a start. It is not even a good start. To standout in this competitive Indian market, it is imperative to understand and implement the correct types of market research, and knowing how to conduct market research gives you a concrete advantage.
ThinkSurvey enables startups and SMEs with understanding their market, create and launch surveys, reach the right audience, and making smart business decisions based on the results. It has already helped many startups to experiment with ideas, learn about the customers, and make informed decisions that are driven by data. Connect with our team.
