Market Research Brief: A One-Page Template for India

A market research brief has 15 fields: decision, research questions, existing knowledge, method, who is in, who is out, cities, language, sample, stimulus, incentive and consent, deliverables, timeline, budget and contacts. Each row below has a test it must pass. This version is written for qualitative fieldwork in India.

Our research screener template turns rows 5 and 6 into the actual screening questions.

The decision comes first because it determines the method, the sample and the deliverable. "We need six focus groups" fixes the answer before anyone knows the question. "We will decide whether to launch in Pune or Lucknow first" lets an agency choose between interviews, groups or a diary study on merit.

Write the decision in the form "if we find X, we do A; if we find Y, we do B". If both outcomes lead to the same action, the study may not be needed. In our experience, this test catches studies that do not need to run.

Keep to three research questions or fewer. Every added question widens the discussion guide, lengthens each session and thins the evidence on each topic. That is our recommendation: a larger programme can carry more, but each extra question should change a decision.

Templates leave out the lines qualitative fieldwork depends on: incentive, consent, language and city. We read 11 published market research brief templates in October 2026 and counted an item only where the template has a dedicated field or an explicit instruction for it. Qualfacto publishes this page; none of the templates is ours.

All 11 ask for a budget. One asks about incentives, one about consent, one about language, and one mentions India. Each template is public: search its name with "market research brief" to check our count.

In our view, this reflects a survey focus. A survey brief can leave city, language and consent to the panel provider. A qualitative brief cannot, because the same people who are recruited are the ones who are interviewed, recorded and quoted.

Describe the audience as tests a recruiter can run on a phone call: age band, city, what they do or buy, how often, and who is excluded. "Urban millennials who care about health" cannot be screened. "Buys packaged snacks at least weekly, lives in Delhi or Pune, has no household member in marketing" can.

Separate must-haves from nice-to-haves. Every must-have narrows the pool, so each should earn its place. A nice-to-have can be met by most participants; a missing must-have disqualifies the person.

Then state the number as completed sessions, not recruits. Ask the agency how many people to recruit to reach it, because some people drop out and some fail the screener on the day. We set that margin per study from the audience and the city.

Add the city and the language of each session. Eight sessions in two cities is a different job from eight in one, and a session in Hindi or another Indian language needs a moderator and a transcript to match. We run sessions in languages other than English, so state yours.

The incentive line should give an amount per session and a payment method, or say "agency to propose". The consent line should say whether sessions are recorded, who will see the recordings, and how long you need them. Both affect who agrees to take part.

For a sense of scale, our guide to what to pay focus group participants in India puts the range at ₹1,000 to ₹5,000. Pay is agreed per study and told to participants before they take part, and we release it once the stated requirements are completed and validated.

On consent, India's data law is changing. As of 14 October 2026, the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 applies together with the DPDP Rules, 2025, which were notified in November 2025 with an eighteen-month period for phased compliance. That period ends in May 2027, so write consent and retention terms into the brief now.

The ICC/ESOMAR International Code sets the professional standard for market research; ESOMAR is the global research and insights association. Our approach is guided by it and by the Market Research Society of India (MRSI). Our guide to informed consent in research includes a form you can adapt.

Yes, share a range. Without one, an agency has to guess between a lean design and a full one, and you may receive a proposal you cannot approve. "Up to a stated amount, with room for one extra city" is enough.

We do not work from a fixed rate card. We price each project after reading the brief, and these factors move the quote:

Recruiting category users in a metro city is usually simpler than recruiting a narrow group in a smaller town or a rural area, so a tighter audience costs more per session. For a worksheet to build your own estimate, see user research recruitment cost in India.

Test the brief with five pass-or-fail checks. Each takes a minute and catches a gap an agency would otherwise raise by email.

Here is the difference, with illustrative figures for demonstration, not a recommendation.

Before: "We want to understand how consumers feel about our new payments app. Please run some focus groups."

After: "We will decide before the next design sprint whether to keep the 'pay later' feature on the home screen. If most users find it without help, we keep it; if not, we move it to the second screen. Questions: Can users find it? What do they think it does? What stops them using it? Audience: adult app users who have paid a bill in the last month, in Delhi and Pune, excluding people who work in banking or payments. Eight completed sessions, four per city, in Hindi or English. Method: agency to advise. Deliverables: recordings and transcripts from the agency; findings report from our team."

The second version can be quoted the same day.

After you send your brief, we review the objective, method, audience, geography, sample, usership, timelines and recruitment criteria, check whether the study is feasible, and send a tailored proposal and quote. When you approve the scope, commercials and timeline, recruitment begins.

We manage recruitment and participant engagement, including screening and coordination. We check participant identity before invitation and can recruit by city, in languages other than English, and by household and demographic profile. We can also supply moderators.

We run in-depth interviews, focus groups, digital diary studies, ethnography, usability and app testing, online bulletin boards, product testing, shop-alongs and, with explicit opt-in, digital behavioural tracking.

What you receive depends on the scope agreed before the study begins: recruitment, fieldwork materials, recordings, transcripts, structured data exports or a research report. We produce what is in the engagement, and you produce what you manage yourself.

We reply within one business day, Monday to Friday, 10:00 to 18:00 Indian Standard Time. Send your brief to Qualfacto (support@qualfacto.io).