The decision to enter Romania, the Czech Republic, or Hungary usually does not fail because of a lack of courage, but because of a lack of reliable data. The team has a hypothesis and an initial business model – but no one who understands the local sales channel, competitive landscape, or buyers’ actual expectations. Foreign market research before entry turns this chaos into three consecutive steps: desk research, expert interviews, and demand measurement among a sample of target audiences. The logic of this sequence, its time requirements, and what cannot yet be determined at each stage are described below.
Why does foreign market research before entry require a sequence rather than a single study?
A typical design mistake is for a company to commission a quantitative study immediately in a market it does not understand. The result is a questionnaire based on Polish categories: the same price segments, the same purchasing channels, and the same competitor names in the brand awareness question. The survey is conducted correctly from a methodological perspective, yet the results are of limited use because respondents answered questions formulated within someone else’s market reality. Sometimes, it is only at the analysis stage that it becomes clear that the key distribution channel in a given country was not included in the questionnaire.
The sequence solves this problem because each stage generates questions for the next. Desk research establishes a conceptual map: who operates in the market, which product categories are recognized, how regulation is defined, which statistical data are available, and at what levels of detail. Expert interviews verify this map with people who work in the market every day and reveal what no report contains: informal rules for negotiating with retail chains, actual payment terms, and how purchasing decisions are made by institutional customers. Only on this basis can a quantitative instrument be developed that measures demand using categories that exist in respondents’ minds rather than in the minds of the project team.
The second argument for a sequential approach is economic in terms of information risk. Exploring a new market in stages makes it possible to stop the project after each step if the findings change the scope of the research questions. A large one-off study limits this option – its scope and budget are largely locked in when knowledge of the market is at its lowest.
The third issue is the nature of regional markets. CEE market research has specific characteristics related to data availability: public statistics are available in most countries in the region, but they are fragmented, published in local languages, use different category definitions, and are released with varying delays. Online panels have uneven depth in niche and B2B segments. This means that research projects in the region often require combining sources and methods rather than selecting just one.
What does the sequence look like step by step, and how long does it actually take?
The logic of the three stages, along with indicative time requirements, is outlined below. Timelines depend on the number of markets, the availability of experts, and sample size, but the proportions between stages are often similar across projects.
Stage 1: desk research and secondary data analysis
The aim is not to write a market report, but to develop a list of hypotheses and information gaps. The scope of work covers several types of sources that, in practice, need to be reviewed in parallel:
- public statistics from the target country and Eurostat data – volumes, consumption structure, and demographic data by region;
- business registers and financial statements – identifying market players, their scale of operations, and ownership structure;
- tender databases and public notices, if the segment under study is B2G;
- regulations and certification requirements affecting whether an offering can be marketed in a given country;
- industry materials: local press, publications by chambers of commerce, and competitors’ websites, including price lists and commercial terms;
- data on the market’s digital behavior – category search volumes, product assortments, and prices on local marketplaces.
The outcome of this stage is a document that explicitly identifies what cannot be determined from secondary data: market size according to the definition relevant to the company, actual channel margins, and supplier selection criteria. These gaps become the discussion guide for the next step.
Exploring a new market should begin with secondary data not because it is inexpensive, but because it determines the questions to be asked in interviews. An hour spent speaking with an industry expert is a limited resource and may be wasted if it is filled with questions that can be answered by a company register or statistical report.
Time requirement: usually two to four weeks per market, although working with materials in local languages can significantly extend this stage.
Stage 2: expert interviews (IDIs with market experts)
Expert interviews are in-depth individual conversations with people who have operational knowledge of the market: distributor managers, retail buyers, former employees of competitors, industry consultants, association representatives, and, in B2B, purchasing decision-makers among potential customers. This stage has three functions: it fills the gaps identified through desk research, verifies the reliability of secondary data, and provides the language the market uses to describe itself.
The key project decisions at this stage concern the selection of interviewees. An expert sample is not representative and is not intended to be – it should be diverse in terms of position within the value chain. Interviews with an importer, a retailer, and an end user may produce three inconsistent views of the same category, and these inconsistencies can be the most informative. In practice, the sample usually consists of several to a dozen interviews per market, and the point at which recruitment ends may be determined by thematic saturation: additional interviews no longer generate new response categories.
The technical side matters. Interviews are conducted in the interviewee’s language by a moderator familiar with the industry, based on a flexible discussion guide with probing questions. The recordings are transcribed and coded, and findings are reported separately as facts confirmed by multiple interviewees, differing opinions, and individual signals requiring further verification. This distinction prevents anecdotes from being treated as data.
Time requirement: three to six weeks, with expert recruitment usually taking longer than conducting the interviews themselves. In narrow B2B industries, recruitment can be the longest component of the entire project.
Stage 3: demand research among a sample of target audiences
The third stage quantifies the selected issues that the previous two stages have established qualitatively. Depending on the nature of the market, this may involve a CAWI survey using a consumer panel, CATI or targeted recruitment in B2B segments and among hard-to-reach groups, mixed-mode research for geographically dispersed samples, and, when testing offer configurations, choice-based techniques such as conjoint or MaxDiff, as well as price sensitivity measurement methods.
The standard measurement scope includes several blocks that should already be planned at the interview guide stage:
- penetration and frequency of category use among the target population;
- brand awareness – using a list developed through desk research and supplemented by experts, rather than based on the Polish market;
- supplier or product selection criteria, measured using choice-based methods rather than simple importance scales;
- acceptable price ranges and responses to offer variants;
- actual channels used to seek information and make purchases;
- purchase barriers identified earlier in qualitative interviews.
Time requirement: four to eight weeks, including instrument design and translation, a pilot study, fieldwork, and analysis. Questionnaire translation requires separate attention – verification by a second translator or back translation should be used, along with a pilot of the instrument, because a terminology error in a question about a product category can invalidate an entire block of results.
Overall, research to support international expansion of this type usually takes two to four months per market when stages are conducted sequentially. Partial overlap between stages is possible, but it shortens the project less than is usually assumed – preparing a quantitative instrument before the interviews are complete may recreate exactly the problem that the sequence was intended to eliminate.
What mistakes most often undermine the exploration of a new market?
Most unsuccessful projects of this type do not fail at the fieldwork stage, but at the level of assumptions. Below are the most common pitfalls observed in research practice.
Transferring the Polish category structure to another market. Price segmentation, names for product types, and channel definitions can all be local. A questionnaire built around a Polish conceptual framework may measure a phenomenon that does not exist in the market under study or is understood differently there.
Treating expert interviews as a source of hard figures. An expert may describe mechanisms and relationships very accurately, but their estimate of a competitor’s market share is an opinion, not a measurement. Figures from interviews require triangulation with secondary data or quantitative measurement.
An overly homogeneous expert sample. Five interviews with distributors will provide a consistent but one-sided picture. Without the voice of the end user, demand barriers may remain unidentified.
Declarative measurement of purchase intent without context. Asking about willingness to purchase without considering price, competitive alternatives, and availability may lead to overestimation. Choice-based techniques, in which respondents trade off attributes, usually reflect such trade-offs better than simple declarative scales.
Using an online panel as the default solution for every segment. In B2B research, specialist segments, and older populations, a panel may not have sufficient depth. In such cases, CATI, targeted recruitment, mixed-mode research, or a sample built from industry databases should be considered.
Omitting the qualitative stage due to time pressure. Shortening a project by removing interviews can be a false saving – it may result in a quantitative study whose findings subsequently have to be interpreted through guesswork.
It is also worth clearly distinguishing what such foreign market research before entry provides and what it does not. The sequence described above delivers a measured picture of demand, an understanding of competition, selection criteria, and barriers. On its own, it does not necessarily include an assessment of the profitability of market entry or recommendations on the form of market presence – these belong to strategic and financial analysis conducted on the basis of the research findings, although they may be combined in a single project.
How do project variants differ depending on the scope of the decision?
Not every foreign market research before entry project needs to include all three stages. Below are three typical configurations and the situations in which they apply:
- Screening several markets simultaneously: desk research of comparable scope for each country, plus two or three expert interviews per market. The aim is to narrow down the list of countries for further research, not to measure demand. Timeline: several weeks.
- In-depth exploration of one market: the full sequence, with an expanded qualitative stage and quantitative research among a sample of target audiences. Used when the decision concerns a specific country and the measurement focuses on the size and structure of demand as well as the offer configuration.
- Supplementing existing knowledge: when a company already has a distributor or its first customers in the market, the starting point may be interviews with current partners and a satisfaction study, supplemented by measurement among groups not yet served and, where necessary, an update of the desk research.
The criterion for selecting a variant is the decision question the research is intended to support. If it is “which of the five markets should be researched further,” a full demand study in each of them is excessive. If it is “what price and offer configuration should be adopted,” desk research and interviews will not be sufficient.
Frequently asked questions
What should you start with when researching a new foreign market?
Start by clearly defining the decision questions, and only then conduct desk research. Without a list of questions, secondary data analysis expands into collecting everything that is available instead of identifying information gaps. The output of the first stage should be a document identifying what cannot be determined from available sources – this becomes the starting point for expert interviews.
How long does reliable market exploration take?
The full sequence for one market usually takes two to four months, with recruiting interviewees in narrow B2B segments being the longest and least predictable element. Screening several markets, limited to secondary data and a few interviews per country, can be completed within several weeks. Conducting research in parallel across multiple markets can shorten the overall timeline, but requires coordination of local fieldwork teams.
When is desk research no longer sufficient?
It ceases to be sufficient when the required definition of the market no longer corresponds to the definition used in public statistics and industry reports, and when the question concerns behavior rather than volumes. Secondary data will usually not answer questions about supplier selection criteria, actual commercial terms in the channel, or reasons for abandoning a purchase. Another warning sign is when available sources provide conflicting market size estimates without disclosing their methodology – in that case, triangulation is needed, which may include primary data.
Ask about a research project before entering a new market
If the list of decision questions concerning a new market is already prepared, the next step is to determine which can be addressed using secondary data and which require interviews or demand measurement. Hume’s Institute can help design a sequence tailored to the scope of the decision and the realities of data availability in the selected markets – simply describe the context in a message.