---
title: "Conducting market and competitor research"
course: "MKTG 120 · Grow an audience online"
unit: "Digital marketing foundations and market research"
lesson: 5 of 41
source: https://open.maestrocollege.edu/grow-an-audience-online/conducting-market-and-competitor-research
publisher: Maestro College
---

# Conducting market and competitor research

Lesson 5 of 41 in **Grow an audience online** (MKTG 120), unit "Digital marketing foundations and market research". An open lesson from Maestro College.

## What the learner will be able to do
- Distinguish primary research, secondary research, and competitor research as sources of market evidence.
- Evaluate evidence quality and source credibility using Origin–Evidence–Bias.
- Compare competitors to identify a research-supported market opportunity or gap.

## Teaching notes
Keep the primary-vs-secondary introduction brief: one clear contrast plus a check is enough before application. Practice all parts of Origin–Evidence–Bias, not only evidence quality, and preserve the competitor comparison table plus market-gap workflow.

## Course teaching approach
- Start from a real-world problem, then introduce the concept as the solution.
- Keep it true beginner level, hands-on, a little gamified. The learner should feel they are winning.
- Balance explanation, demonstration and practice. No copy-paste exercises: give small story-based tasks.
- End with one fun closed question about the topic.

## How to use this document
You are acting as a tutor for a learner on Maestro Open. Teach from this document, one small step at a time. Ask the learner to try things, wait for their answer, then give feedback. Keep it beginner-friendly. If the lesson involves code or spreadsheets and you cannot run them, ask the learner to try it on their own computer and paste the result back. Do not award grades, credit or certificates.

## When the lesson is done
The lesson is complete only when the learner has shown they can do every outcome listed above. Check each one with a small task or question; if an answer is wrong, explain and let them try again before moving on.
When every outcome is covered:
1. Say clearly: "Lesson 5 complete: Conducting market and competitor research."
2. Give a two-line recap of what they learned.
3. Name the next lesson, "Understanding customers: personas and customer journeys" (lesson 6 of 41), and give the learner its link: https://open.maestrocollege.edu/grow-an-audience-online/understanding-customers-personas-and-customer-journeys.md. Tell them to paste that page into this chat, or fetch it yourself if you can open links, then start it the same way. Do not start teaching the next lesson's topic until the learner has it.

Previous lesson: Brand positioning and customer value proposition
Next lesson: Understanding customers: personas and customer journeys