Guide

A market research example, section by section

An example that is actually filled in, not an empty outline — plus the downloadable template and the free sources to cite.

Updated July 27, 2026 · 11 min read

Most market research examples you find online are empty outlines: a list of headings with "describe your market here" underneath. That is not an example, that is a table of contents. What follows is a study actually filled in, for a fictional but realistic project — a mobile quoting app for building trades — so you can see what belongs in each section, at what length, and with what kind of evidence.

⬇ Download the blank template (Markdown, free)

The six sections, and what each one is for

A market research exists to answer one question: is there a market, and can I reach it? Everything that does not serve that question is padding. Six sections are enough.

The market — what it covers, its size, its direction.
Demand — who buys, in what segments, why, how often.
Competition — who already sells, at what price, and what they serve badly.
Regulatory environment — licences, standards and obligations that condition the activity.
Price positioning — what the market accepts to pay, and where you sit.
Quantified conclusion — your revenue assumption and the number it rests on.

One rule applies throughout: every claim carries its source and its date. A figure without an issuer cannot be checked and ages in silence — and a banker spots it instantly.

1. The market

Define the perimeter before the size, otherwise the size means nothing. "The construction market" is not a perimeter; "independent tradespeople with fewer than five employees, in France, doing renovation work" is.

Example. The perimeter covers building-trade businesses with fewer than five employees. According to the national business registry, this segment represents the large majority of registered construction firms, and its numbers have grown steadily over the last five years, driven by micro-entrepreneur registrations. Direction: stable to rising. Source: national statistics institute, sector series, consulted July 2026.

Where to find it, for free: national statistics institutes, professional federations (they publish sizing to justify their own existence), and official company registries.

2. Demand

This is the section people skip, and it is the only one that predicts anything. You are not describing a population — you are describing a behaviour: what these people already do about the problem, and what it costs them.

Example. Three segments emerge. (a) Solo tradespeople who write quotes in the evening on a laptop, losing jobs to slower turnaround — the most acute pain, the smallest budget. (b) Two-to-five-person firms where one person does admin part-time — a real budget, an existing tool they complain about. (c) Firms already equipped with a full ERP — not a target. Evidence: Google Autocomplete returns "quote app for tradespeople", "quote template for builders", "quote software price"; the third phrasing carries a commercial marker, which indicates purchase intent, not just curiosity.

Free sources for this section: search queries (Autocomplete and the People Also Ask box), trade forums and Facebook groups where the complaint is stated spontaneously, and reviews of existing tools — one-star reviews are a demand study written by your future customers. See analysing product demand.

3. Competition

The purpose here is not to prove you are alone. It is to prove the market pays, then to find the badly served segment. An empty competitive landscape is bad news, not good.

Example. Four categories of competitor. Full ERPs (high price, long setup, aimed at larger firms), generalist invoicing tools (cheap, not trade-specific, no on-site use), spreadsheet templates (free, the real incumbent), and doing nothing. Public pricing ranges from €0 to €80 per month. The underserved gap: mobile use on a job site, with compliant wording built in. Sources: vendors' own public pricing pages, consulted July 2026.

Do not forget the two competitors everyone omits: the spreadsheet and doing nothing. They win far more often than any funded startup. Read my business idea already exists for how to read that in your favour.

4. Regulatory environment

Skipping this section is how projects die at month six. It is short, but it is the one that can kill the whole thing.

Example. A quote issued to a consumer must carry mandatory wording (identity of the business, insurance details, VAT treatment, validity period, withdrawal terms). A non-compliant quote is unusable, so compliance is a product requirement, not a feature. Personal data of the tradesperson's own clients is processed, which places the product under data-protection obligations as a processor.

5. Price positioning

Price is not decided by your costs. It is decided by what the market already pays and by what your customer avoids losing.

Example. The comparison set sits between €0 (spreadsheet) and €80 per month (full ERP). A single job won thanks to a faster quote is worth several hundred to several thousand euros. Positioning at €19–29 per month places the product above the free option and well below the ERP, with a payback argument that fits in one sentence: one saved job pays for a year.

6. Quantified conclusion

End with a number and the assumption it rests on. If you cannot write this paragraph, the study was documentation, not a decision.

Example. Reachable target: solo and small trade firms in the renovation segment. Assumption: a launch focused on two trades, with a conversion rate on qualified traffic to be measured rather than assumed. At €24 per month, reaching a given monthly revenue requires a specific number of paying accounts — that number, not the market size, is the figure to test first. The riskiest assumption is not that the market exists; it is that these customers will change tool at all.

What a market research does not do

It proves a market exists. It never proves anyone will buy from you. That distinction is where most projects lose a year. Once the study is written, the next step is not a better study — it is a real commitment from a real person: test the idea with a landing page and set the success threshold before you look at the results.

If you want the framing figures without spending a day on it, the free market research in one hour covers the short version, and Sondari automates the demand section — real queries, trend, competition and purchase intent — in 30 seconds.

Frequently asked questions

What does a market research contain?

Six sections. The market: what it covers, its size and its trend. Demand: who buys, in what segments, for what reason and at what frequency. Competition: who already sells, at what price, and what they serve badly. The regulatory environment: licences, standards and obligations that condition the activity. Price positioning: what the market accepts to pay and where you place yourself. And a quantified conclusion: your revenue assumption and the number it rests on.

How do you write a market research yourself?

Start from the demand, not from the market. Collect the real queries people type, the complaints they post in communities, and the prices already charged by existing sellers — those three sources cost nothing and are specific to your niche. Then add public statistics for the framing figures, and write each claim with its source and its date. A short study with sourced numbers beats a long one built on impressions.

Where do you find free, reliable data for a market research?

National statistics institutes for sector and demographic data, professional federations for market sizing, official company registries for the number of competitors and sometimes their filed accounts, Google Trends for the trend curve, and Google Autocomplete for actual demand wording. All of it is free. What matters is citing the issuer and the date: an unattributed figure ages in silence and cannot be checked.

How long does a market research take?

Half a day for a usable first version if you stick to the six sections and to free sources. Weeks if you chase exhaustiveness — which is almost always a way of postponing the test. Write the short version, identify the one assumption the whole project rests on, and go and test that assumption in the real world rather than documenting it further.

Is a market research enough to validate an idea?

No. A market research proves a market exists; it never proves anyone will buy from you. It reduces the risk of building in an empty space, but only a real commitment — a pre-order, a paid pilot, a deposit — proves demand for your offer specifically. Treat the study as the framing step, and the field test as the verdict.

From theory to a verdict

Sondari does all of this automatically: real demand, trend, competition and purchase intent cross-referenced in 30 seconds.

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