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5 must-read market research books

Updated May 23, 2024

Our list of the top books for market researchers and business leaders is in! We searched high and low to find the best books on market research - check out some of our favorites and see our full list of must-read books.

Want to see more must-read titles? Check out our free ebook, 24 Essential Books for Researchers in 2024 .

1. The Disruption Mindset: Why Some Organizations Transform While Others Fail

By Charlene Li

Charlene Li upturns our thinking and suggests that disruption doesn’t create growth – growth creates disruption. She argues that disruption goes beyond innovation and provides a roadmap with three key areas: Strategy designed to meet the needs of future customers; leadership that creates a movement to drive and sustain transformation; and a culture that thrives on disruptive change.

By using prominent brand examples, including T-Mobile, Adobe, ING Bank, Amazon, Starbucks, Electrolux, SHNU, Nokia, Microsoft and Southwest, Li gives plenty of  Big Gulp Moments to inspire people to make cultural changes that prepare you for disruption. Invest in this book, think about the ideas and make up your own mind.

2. Invisible Influence: The Hidden Forces that Shape Behavior 

By Jonah Berger

Social influence is the invisible influence, according to the New York Times bestselling author, Jonah Berger. He explores the subtle influences that affect the decisions we make – from what we buy, to the careers we choose, to what we eat.

Berger explores some of the more subtle ways – like imitating other people or avoiding actions that may impact others’ opinions of you – to more overt ways that give you a peek under the cover of an unconscious system.

Read this if you’re looking for a fast read that digs into the psychology around why people sometimes behave differently, or comply with predicted behavior patterns.

3. The Power of Moments: Why Certain Experiences Have Extraordinary Impact

By Chip Heath and Dan Heath

Read about the experiment in which two strangers meet in a room, and—forty-five minutes later—they leave as best friends. Author and brother duo, Chip and Dan Heath, bring ‘moments’ into the limelight, with this fantastic collection of stories to delight and inspire you into action.

They explore (as the title suggests) how our most powerful moments are formed and how, by tapping into these elements, researchers and marketers can create more moments that matter and elevate the experiences they deliver.

4. Marketing to Mindstates: The Practical Guide to Applying Behavior Design to Research and Marketing

By Will Leach

Your non-conscious mind will filter out more than 99 percent of marketing you “see” today. So how do you make sure your marketing is part of the 1% that people don’t filter out?

In this book, Will Leach demystifies this nonconscious filter and explains how to bypass it, introducing readers to temporary moments of influence called mindstates. With a book that’s as practical as it is inspiring, Leach provides a powerful handbook for any marketer or researcher who wants to design creative that compels people to listen, care, and act.

5. Storytelling with Data: A Data Visualization Guide for Business Professionals

By Cole Nussbaumer Knaflic

Storytelling is an increasingly important skill for any researcher. When it comes to presenting your insights and recommendations, the way you present them is often as important as the insights themselves, and getting stakeholders on board ensures they’re listened to and acted on.

Cole Nussbaumer Knafic’s book walks you through the ‘why’ and the ‘how’ of telling stories with data from the way you visualize it to how you communicate it to different audiences. This book should be on every researcher’s shelves, and is packed with practical examples of how you can say goodbye to stale graphics, and use new approaches to deliver research with real impact.

Unlock the secrets to powerful market research

Whether you're looking to sharpen your market research skills or gain new insights into consumer behavior, these essential books are your key to unlocking more effective, impactful research strategies.

Eager to explore further? Download our free ebook to access the complete list and begin revolutionizing your market research approach today.

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Marketing Research, 13th Edition

ISBN: 978-1-119-49758-5

November 2018

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Consistent with these objectives, the 13th edition has undergone some critical changes. The more prominent of these include the following:

1. The chapter objectives have been clearly detailed on the first page of each chapter in order to clearly communicate what is to be covered in the chapter.

2. Chapter 1 (A Decision‐Making Perspective on Marketing Intelligence) has been updated to cover the latest business trends and company examples that aptly reflect the nature and level of changes made throughout the textbook.

3. Chapter 2 (Marketing Research in Practice) offers an updated report of the marketing research industry in the U.S. and around the world.

4. Chapter 6 (Standardized Sources of Marketing Data) contains updated information on marketing data sources that accounts for the rapid changes in technology that impacts data collection. Also, this chapter lists examples of companies using such modes of data sources.

5. Chapter 7 (Marketing Research on the Internet) contains revised and updated information regarding the Internet, and how it impacts marketing research. Also, the prominence of privacy and safety issues on the Internet have been elaborated using recent developments.

6. Chapter 25 (New Age Strategies) has been significantly revised and updated. Reflecting the chapter title, this chapter has undergone changes that reflect the latest trending marketing strategies. Sections that are outdated have been removed, and new sections have been added. Also, new topics such as Internet of Things, big data, and blockchain have been covered in this edition.

7. The examples contained in the Marketing Research in Action throughout the book have been updated with relevant content changes.

8. Statistics and other trend information have been updated. Further, new cases and study questions have been added.

9. The text has also benefitted from additions and updates to new and emerging marketing topics such as lifetime value and measuring the effectiveness of social media campaigns; and technology topics such as artificial intelligence and bots.

10. The web address www.wiley.com/college/kumar can be used for accessing information pertaining to the textbook and its contents. 

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• Covers the importance of international market research and provides a clear distinction between international and domestic market research methodologies
• Integrates technology into market research and demonstrates current software’s role in the decision-making process

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• Appeals to users as well as suppliers of marketing research: Comprehensive topics in marketing research (such as philosophy, techniques, and applications) are delivered in a reader-friendly, applications-oriented, and non-mathematical fashion. 
• Covers many cutting-edge techniques of data collection and analysis: Traditional quantitative techniques, innovative qualitative techniques, and emerging online methods are presented. 
• Provides a broad range of current ideas and applications: The contributors address models of the impact of marketing mix variables, segmentation, brand equity, satisfaction, customer lifetime value, and marketing ROI. Chapters on international marketing research and marketing management support systems are also included.

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"This handbook comprehensively explores approaches for delivering market insights for fact-based decision-making in a market-oriented firm. Divided into four parts, it addresses: (1) the different nuances of delivering insights, (2) quantitative, qualitative, and online data gathering techniques, (3) basic and advanced data analysis methods, and (4) the substantial marketing issues that clients are interested in receiving through marketing research. It is a valuable resource for all studetns and instructors of marketing research."

"Grover and Vriens have blended the contributions of 48 well-qualified academics and professionals to produce a comprehensive, in-depth guide to modern market research. A unique feature of this work is its emphasis on the potential of market research as a generator of marketing insights, this positioning market research as a trusted adviser. This handbook can serve as an up-to-date reference for market research suppliers as well as a guide for users. Highly Recommended."

" In addition to discussing relevant content, the various contributors to the book are excellent communicators. Sentences are clear, paragraphs are coherent, and chapters fulfill the promise of their introductions, and readers will benefit from the diagrams, figures, and charts that are used to enhance the text.  I enjoyed reading this book and recommend it highly. This book will be of particular interest to advanced students, academics, and practitioners. Although statistical background is necessary to comprehend the advanced analytical techniques, most readers are likely to benefit from the overviews provided in this well-written book."  

                                                                                    — Guldem Gokcek, JOURNAL OF MARKETING

·         The contents will be articulated in a very reader-friendly, applications-oriented and non-mathematical fashion.

·         Promotes the current overarching business philosophy of customer/market focus by emphasizing the need for Market Research to provide the insights required for making decisions. 

·         Identifies such troubling current trends as biased sample answers on long questionnaires, and "professionals" whose job is to skew focus group responses.

·         Will employ top flight international researchers from both academia and practice to provide a broad range of ideas and applications.

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Handbook of Market Research

• Reference work
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• Christian Homburg 0 ,
• Martin Klarmann 1 ,
• Arnd Vomberg 2

Department of Business-to-Business Marketing, Sales, and Pricing, University of Mannheim, Mannheim, Germany

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Department of Marketing & Sales Research Group, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Karlsruhe, Germany

Marketing & Sales Department, University of Mannheim, Mannheim, Germany

Guides through the state-of-the-art quantitative and qualitative market research methods

Provides an intuitive understanding of the material

Includes clear application examples for relevant topics

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Panel Data Analysis: A Nontechnical Introduction for Marketing Researchers

Market Research

• Data Analytics
• Marekt Research Methods
• Neural Networks
• Qualitative Market Research
• Survey Design

Table of contents (31 entries)

Front matter, experiments in market research.

• Torsten Bornemann, Stefan Hattula

Field Experiments

• Veronica Valli, Florian Stahl, Elea McDonnell Feit

Crafting Survey Research: A Systematic Process for Conducting Survey Research

• Arnd Vomberg, Martin Klarmann

Challenges in Conducting International Market Research

• Andreas Engelen, Monika Engelen, C. Samuel Craig

Fusion Modeling

• Elea McDonnell Feit, Eric T. Bradlow

Dealing with Endogeneity: A Nontechnical Guide for Marketing Researchers

• P. Ebbes, D. Papies, H. J. van Heerde

Cluster Analysis in Marketing Research

• Thomas Reutterer, Daniel Dan

Finite Mixture Models

• Sonja Gensler

Analysis of Variance

• Jan R. Landwehr

Regression Analysis

• Bernd Skiera, Jochen Reiner, Sönke Albers

Logistic Regression and Discriminant Analysis

• Sebastian Tillmanns, Manfred Krafft

Multilevel Modeling

• Till Haumann, Roland Kassemeier, Jan Wieseke

Panel Data Analysis: A Non-technical Introduction for Marketing Researchers

• Arnd Vomberg, Simone Wies

Applied Time-Series Analysis in Marketing

• Wanxin Wang, Gokhan Yildirim

Modeling Marketing Dynamics Using Vector Autoregressive (VAR) Models

• Shuba Srinivasan

Structural Equation Modeling

• Hans Baumgartner, Bert Weijters

Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling

• Marko Sarstedt, Christian M. Ringle, Joseph F. Hair

Editors and Affiliations

Christian Homburg

Department of Marketing & Sales Research Group, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Karlsruhe, Germany

Martin Klarmann

Marketing & Sales Department, University of Mannheim, Mannheim, Germany

Arnd Vomberg

About the editors

Prof. Arnd Vomberg is Professor of Digital Marketing and Marketing Transformation at the University of Mannheim, Germany. Professor Vomberg has also been an Associate Professor (with tenure) at the Marketing Department of the University of Groningen, The Netherlands. Professor Vomberg’s research focuses on digital marketing and marketing transformation. He studies omnichannel strategies, online pricing, marketing automation, agile transformation, marketing technology, and marketing’s impact on employees. His research has been published in several leading journals of the field, including Journal of Marketing, Journal of Marketing Research, Strategic Management Journal, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, and International Journal of Research in Marketing. Professor Vomberg has received several awards for his research, including the Ralph Alexander Best Dissertation Award from the Academy of Management.

Bibliographic Information

Book Title : Handbook of Market Research

Editors : Christian Homburg, Martin Klarmann, Arnd Vomberg

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57413-4

Publisher : Springer Cham

eBook Packages : Business and Management , Reference Module Humanities and Social Sciences , Reference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences

Copyright Information : Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022

Hardcover ISBN : 978-3-319-57411-0 Published: 03 December 2021

eBook ISBN : 978-3-319-57413-4 Published: 02 December 2021

Edition Number : 1

Number of Pages : XX, 1112

Number of Illustrations : 138 b/w illustrations, 73 illustrations in colour

Topics : Market Research/Competitive Intelligence , Sales/Distribution , Business Strategy/Leadership , Organization

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How to do market research: The complete guide for your brand

Written by by Jacqueline Zote

Published on  April 13, 2023

Reading time  10 minutes

Blindly putting out content or products and hoping for the best is a thing of the past. Not only is it a waste of time and energy, but you’re wasting valuable marketing dollars in the process. Now you have a wealth of tools and data at your disposal, allowing you to develop data-driven marketing strategies . That’s where market research comes in, allowing you to uncover valuable insights to inform your business decisions.

Conducting market research not only helps you better understand how to sell to customers but also stand out from your competition. In this guide, we break down everything you need to know about market research and how doing your homework can help you grow your business.

Table of contents:

What is market research?

Why is market research important, types of market research, where to conduct market research.

• Steps for conducting market research
• Tools to use for market research

Market research is the process of gathering information surrounding your business opportunities. It identifies key information to better understand your audience. This includes insights related to customer personas and even trends shaping your industry.

Taking time out of your schedule to conduct research is crucial for your brand health. Here are some of the key benefits of market research:

Understand your customers’ motivations and pain points

Most marketers are out of touch with what their customers want. Moreover, these marketers are missing key information on what products their audience wants to buy.

Simply put, you can’t run a business if you don’t know what motivates your customers.

And spoiler alert: Your customers’ wants and needs change. Your customers’ behaviors today might be night and day from what they were a few years ago.

Market research holds the key to understanding your customers better. It helps you uncover their key pain points and motivations and understand how they shape their interests and behavior.

Figure out how to position your brand

Positioning is becoming increasingly important as more and more brands enter the marketplace. Market research enables you to spot opportunities to define yourself against your competitors.

Maybe you’re able to emphasize a lower price point. Perhaps your product has a feature that’s one of a kind. Finding those opportunities goes hand in hand with researching your market.

Maintain a strong pulse on your industry at large

Today’s marketing world evolves at a rate that’s difficult to keep up with.

Fresh products. Up-and-coming brands. New marketing tools. Consumers get bombarded with sales messages from all angles. This can be confusing and overwhelming.

By monitoring market trends, you can figure out the best tactics for reaching your target audience.

Not everyone conducts market research for the same reason. While some may want to understand their audience better, others may want to see how their competitors are doing. As such, there are different types of market research you can conduct depending on your goal.

Interview-based market research allows for one-on-one interactions. This helps the conversation to flow naturally, making it easier to add context. Whether this takes place in person or virtually, it enables you to gather more in-depth qualitative data.

Buyer persona research

Buyer persona research lets you take a closer look at the people who make up your target audience. You can discover the needs, challenges and pain points of each buyer persona to understand what they need from your business. This will then allow you to craft products or campaigns to resonate better with each persona.

Pricing research

In this type of research, brands compare similar products or services with a particular focus on pricing. They look at how much those products or services typically sell for so they can get more competitive with their pricing strategy.

Competitive analysis research

Competitor analysis gives you a realistic understanding of where you stand in the market and how your competitors are doing. You can use this analysis to find out what’s working in your industry and which competitors to watch out for. It even gives you an idea of how well those competitors are meeting consumer needs.

Depending on the competitor analysis tool you use, you can get as granular as you need with your research. For instance, Sprout Social lets you analyze your competitors’ social strategies. You can see what types of content they’re posting and even benchmark your growth against theirs.

Brand awareness research

Conducting brand awareness research allows you to assess your brand’s standing in the market. It tells you how well-known your brand is among your target audience and what they associate with it. This can help you gauge people’s sentiments toward your brand and whether you need to rebrand or reposition.

If you don’t know where to start with your research, you’re in the right place.

There’s no shortage of market research methods out there. In this section, we’ve highlighted research channels for small and big businesses alike.

Considering that Google sees a staggering 8.5 billion searches each day, there’s perhaps no better place to start.

A quick Google search is a potential goldmine for all sorts of questions to kick off your market research. Who’s ranking for keywords related to your industry? Which products and pieces of content are the hottest right now? Who’s running ads related to your business?

For example, Google Product Listing Ads can help highlight all of the above for B2C brands.

The same applies to B2B brands looking to keep tabs on who’s running industry-related ads and ranking for keyword terms too.

There’s no denying that email represents both an aggressive and effective marketing channel for marketers today. Case in point, 44% of online shoppers consider email as the most influential channel in their buying decisions.

Looking through industry and competitor emails is a brilliant way to learn more about your market. For example, what types of offers and deals are your competitors running? How often are they sending emails?

Email is also invaluable for gathering information directly from your customers. This survey message from Asana is a great example of how to pick your customers’ brains to figure out how you can improve your quality of service.

Industry journals, reports and blogs

Don’t neglect the importance of big-picture market research when it comes to tactics and marketing channels to explore. Look to marketing resources such as reports and blogs as well as industry journals

Keeping your ear to the ground on new trends and technologies is a smart move for any business. Sites such as Statista, Marketing Charts, AdWeek and Emarketer are treasure troves of up-to-date data and news for marketers.

And of course, there’s the  Sprout Insights blog . And invaluable resources like The Sprout Social Index™  can keep you updated on the latest social trends.

Social media

If you want to learn more about your target market, look no further than social media. Social offers a place to discover what your customers want to see in future products or which brands are killin’ it. In fact, social media is become more important for businesses than ever with the level of data available.

It represents a massive repository of real-time data and insights that are instantly accessible. Brand monitoring and social listening are effective ways to conduct social media research . You can even be more direct with your approach. Ask questions directly or even poll your audience to understand their needs and preferences.

The 5 steps for how to do market research

Now that we’ve covered the why and where, it’s time to get into the practical aspects of market research. Here are five essential steps on how to do market research effectively.

Step 1: Identify your research topic

First off, what are you researching about? What do you want to find out? Narrow down on a specific research topic so you can start with a clear idea of what to look for.

For example, you may want to learn more about how well your product features are satisfying the needs of existing users. This might potentially lead to feature updates and improvements. Or it might even result in new feature introductions.

Similarly, your research topic may be related to your product or service launch or customer experience. Or you may want to conduct research for an upcoming marketing campaign.

Step 2: Choose a buyer persona to engage

If you’re planning to focus your research on a specific type of audience, decide which buyer persona you want to engage. This persona group will serve as a representative sample of your target audience.

Engaging a specific group of audience lets you streamline your research efforts. As such, it can be a much more effective and organized approach than researching thousands (if not millions) of individuals.

You may be directing your research toward existing users of your product. To get even more granular, you may want to focus on users who have been familiar with the product for at least a year, for example.

Step 3: Start collecting data

The next step is one of the most critical as it involves collecting the data you need for your research. Before you begin, make sure you’ve chosen the right research methods that will uncover the type of data you need. This largely depends on your research topic and goals.

Remember that you don’t necessarily have to stick to one research method. You may use a combination of qualitative and quantitative approaches. So for example, you could use interviews to supplement the data from your surveys. Or you may stick to insights from your social listening efforts.

To keep things consistent, let’s look at this in the context of the example from earlier. Perhaps you can send out a survey to your existing users asking them a bunch of questions. This might include questions like which features they use the most and how often they use them. You can get them to choose an answer from one to five and collect quantitative data.

Plus, for qualitative insights, you could even include a few open-ended questions with the option to write their answers. For instance, you might ask them if there’s any improvement they wish to see in your product.

Step 4: Analyze results

Once you have all the data you need, it’s time to analyze it keeping your research topic in mind. This involves trying to interpret the data to look for a wider meaning, particularly in relation to your research goal.

So let’s say a large percentage of responses were four or five in the satisfaction rating. This means your existing users are mostly satisfied with your current product features. On the other hand, if the responses were mostly ones and twos, you may look for opportunities to improve. The responses to your open-ended questions can give you further context as to why people are disappointed.

Step 5: Make decisions for your business

Now it’s time to take your findings and turn them into actionable insights for your business. In this final step, you need to decide how you want to move forward with your new market insight.

What did you find in your research that would require action? How can you put those findings to good use?

The market research tools you should be using

To wrap things up, let’s talk about the various tools available to conduct speedy, in-depth market research. These tools are essential for conducting market research faster and more efficiently.

Social listening and analytics

Social analytics tools like Sprout can help you keep track of engagement across social media. This goes beyond your own engagement data but also includes that of your competitors. Considering how quickly social media moves, using a third-party analytics tool is ideal. It allows you to make sense of your social data at a glance and ensure that you’re never missing out on important trends.

Email marketing research tools

Keeping track of brand emails is a good idea for any brand looking to stand out in its audience’s inbox.

Tools such as MailCharts ,  Really Good Emails  and  Milled  can show you how different brands run their email campaigns.

Meanwhile, tools like  Owletter  allow you to monitor metrics such as frequency and send-timing. These metrics can help you understand email marketing strategies among competing brands.

Content marketing research

If you’re looking to conduct research on content marketing, tools such as  BuzzSumo  can be of great help. This tool shows you the top-performing industry content based on keywords. Here you can see relevant industry sites and influencers as well as which brands in your industry are scoring the most buzz. It shows you exactly which pieces of content are ranking well in terms of engagements and shares and on which social networks.

SEO and keyword tracking

Monitoring industry keywords is a great way to uncover competitors. It can also help you discover opportunities to advertise your products via organic search. Tools such as  Ahrefs  provide a comprehensive keyword report to help you see how your search efforts stack up against the competition.

Competitor comparison template

For the sake of organizing your market research, consider creating a competitive matrix. The idea is to highlight how you stack up side-by-side against others in your market. Use a  social media competitive analysis template  to track your competitors’ social presence. That way, you can easily compare tactics, messaging and performance. Once you understand your strengths and weaknesses next to your competitors, you’ll find opportunities as well.

Customer persona creator

Finally, customer personas represent a place where all of your market research comes together. You’d need to create a profile of your ideal customer that you can easily refer to. Tools like  Xtensio  can help in outlining your customer motivations and demographics as you zero in on your target market.

Build a solid market research strategy

Having a deeper understanding of the market gives you leverage in a sea of competitors. Use the steps and market research tools we shared above to build an effective market research strategy.

But keep in mind that the accuracy of your research findings depends on the quality of data collected. Turn to Sprout’s social media analytics tools to uncover heaps of high-quality data across social networks.

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Posted on May 11, 2022

How to Research Your Market: An Author's Guide [Checklist]

About ricardo fayet.

Reedsy co-founder and Chief Marketing Officer, Ricardo Fayet is one of the world's leading authorities in marketing indie books. He is a regular presenter at several prestigious writers' conferences, where his unique personal style has made him an instantly recognizable figure.

Understanding the people who might buy your book is one of publishing's most critical skills. But until our mind-reading device arrives in the mail, the next best thing is... Reedsy's Market Research Checklist for Authors .

Download: Market research checklist

Based on tried-and-tested methods used by indie authors and publishers, the steps outlined in this checklist will help you better understand:

• What books readers are buying;
• Which authors you'll be competing with; and
• How this information can positively influence how you write and publish your book.

To download the free market research checklist, simply enter your email address in the box below.

Download Reedsy's Market Research Checklist!

Enter your email address and get it in your inbox right away.

Bonus resources

For the skills you might need to complete your market research, check out the resources mentioned in our checklist (plus a few more):

How to Find Your Target Reader (Free course). Need some help figuring out that perfect hypothetical reader who can unlock your understanding of your target audience. Take this free 10-day course and worry no more!

How to Validate Your Book Idea (Free course). Kindlepreneur's Dave Chesson teaches you his methodical approach to making sure your book has the best chance of success.

Choosing Comp Titles (Webinar transcript). Editor Sam Brody shows you how to pick a suitable comp title for both market research and book-pitching purposes.

How to Market a Book by Ricardo Fayet (Free ebook). It is an essential read for all aspiring indie authors — and it just so happens to have been written by me, a Reedsy co-founder!

Hire a Book Marketer (Paid service). For the best inside information on your target market, hire a top marketer from the world of publishing. Lucky for you, they're already here on Reedsy.

For more information on successfully selling more books, check out our online guide to book marketing .

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Strategic Market Research: A Guide to Conducting Research that Drives Businesses Paperback – January 12, 2019

• Print length 136 pages
• Language English
• Publication date January 12, 2019
• Dimensions 6 x 0.34 x 9 inches
• ISBN-10 173138517X
• ISBN-13 978-1731385178
• See all details

Product details

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Independently published (January 12, 2019)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 136 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 173138517X
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1731385178
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 6.7 ounces
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 0.34 x 9 inches
• #506 in Market Research Business (Books)
• #865 in Marketing & Consumer Behavior

About the author

Anne e beall ph d.

Anne E. Beall is an award-winning author whose books have been featured in People Magazine, Chicago Tribune, Toronto Sun, and she’s been interviewed by NBC, NPR, and WGN. Her book, Cinderella Didn’t Live Happily Ever After: The Hidden Messages in Fairy Tales won a Gold award from Literary Titan. Her subsequent book, Only Prince Charming Gets to Break the Rules won a Silver award from Literary Titan. And her Heartfelt Connections book was named one of the top 100 Notable Indie books by Shelf Unbound. She has published in several literary journals including Minerva Rising Press, The Raven’s Perch, and Grande Dame Literary Journal. She received her PhD in social psychology from Yale University and is the founder of the strategic market-research firm, Beall Research.

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Customers find the book practical, useful, and concise. They also describe the content as a good reference guide and market research 101. Readers appreciate the emphasis on demystifying the research process and the accessible, clear, and succinct tables.

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Customers find the book's content practical, useful, and concise. They also say it provides a sense of the overall market research field, and is one of the best books on the subject. Readers also mention that it's an interesting read and a solid introduction.

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Klook-TikTok Collab: Now Book Travel Experiences Directly in the App

Peden Doma Bhutia , Skift

August 22nd, 2024 at 4:13 AM EDT

Social media isn’t all fun and games. There’s serious money to be made, and Klook is buying into the trend with its latest TikTok tie-up. Klook's message is clear: Come for the video, stay for the tour!

Peden Doma Bhutia

In a move it describes as shifting from “inspiration to action,” Asian experiences platform Klook has teamed up with TikTok to enable users in seven Southeast Asian markets and Japan to book travel experiences directly through the app.

As social media becomes the go-to channel for travelers seeking destination inspiration, Klook is intensifying its social-first strategy and driving innovation in social commerce.

Through its “Kreator” influencer program, Klook is integrating booking capabilities across various platforms, including the new TikTok booking feature.

“We are deeply attuned to the preferences of next-gen travelers — Gen Z and Millennials — who increasingly seek travel inspiration through social media,” Marcus Yong, Klook’s vice president of global marketing, told Skift.

What is the Klook Kreator Program?

Launched last year, Klook’s “Kreator” influencer program is an influencer marketing platform that enlists individuals to share travel deals and discounts on their respective platforms as a Klook affiliate.

According to Yong, the Klook Kreator program stands at the forefront of this latest strategy, enlisting over 20,000 content creators to share travel deals and discounts across their platforms.

“The program empowers a global community to produce authentic and relatable content that resonates most with their audience, while driving value for merchants seeking to tap into this diverse community,” he said.

Anyone with at least 5,000 followers on Facebook, Instagram, or TikTok can join the “Kreator” program. Upon signing up, participants receive a unique promo code to share with their audience, earning commissions on bookings and access to sponsored travel events and experiences.

As the program gains traction in markets like Taiwan, Australia, and the U.S., Klook is expanding its reach to include platforms like YouTube, reflecting its commitment to exploring new content formats and engaging a broader audience.

The company’s investment in Kreator Labs workshops further supports creators globally, fostering collaboration with merchants and offering influencers firsthand experiences of travel activities.

Social Media for Inspiration

The influence of social media on travel behavior is undeniable, with Gen Z and Millennials making up 70% of Klook’s 60 million monthly visitors . These younger travelers increasingly turn to short-form videos for inspiration, with many willing to spend over $3,000 per trip, according to the latest Klook Travel Pulse survey. The average age of Klook’s customers is 27.

The survey highlights social media as the primary source of inspiration for Gen Z travelers, with over half relying on these platforms to discover new destinations and experiences, rather than traditional travel guides or search engines.

Digital influencers continue to play a significant role in shaping travel decisions, with more than 80% of travelers basing their bookings on online reviews and recommendations from content creators.

In response to this trend, Yong noted that with over one-third of Asia Pacific travelers turning to short-form videos for activity ideas, integrating booking features within social media platforms is a logical step to seamlessly connect inspiration with action.

Influencer Marketing

Klook’s recent partnership with TikTok builds on a history of successful collaborations, such as the “Amazing Thailand Passion Ambassador” initiative with the Tourism Authority of Thailand.

This earlier campaign leveraged TikTok’s reach to encourage tourists and content creators to share travel videos, with participants vying for prizes, effectively blending user engagement with promotional incentives.

This also aligns with broader trends identified by Skift Research, which found that 57% of individuals now rely on social media for travel planning.

The shift towards visual inspiration as a key driver in trip planning underscores the growing importance of platforms like TikTok, where short-form video content resonates deeply with Gen Z and millennial audiences.

According to Skift Research, these generations, who have grown up in an era of influencer marketing, show higher levels of engagement with travel influencers. Gen Z demonstrates a pronounced preference for TikTok.

The broader industry context further supports Klook’s approach. Earlier this year, Expedia Group introduced Travel Shops , allowing influencers to earn commissions on hotel bookings, while the Tourism Authority of Thailand launched “TAT Connex,” an influencer marketing platform aimed at boosting Thai tourism.

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Tags: asia monthly , asia pacific , expedia , gen z , Klook , millennials , online travel agencies , online travel newsletter , social media , thailand , tiktok

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From bestselling novels to unpublished manuscripts, what is the secret to literary success?

Social media, celebrity book clubs and the conglomeration of publishing houses all make publishing tricky to navigate for writers old and new.

You might think releasing 20 books — including four American Girl books — carries some weight in the publishing world. Yet, Kathryn Reiss still has four books, including a thriller for adults, in her repertoire that remain unpublished.

Reiss, an associate teaching professor in creative writing at Northeastern University’s Oakland campus , has made her name writing suspense novels for kids and teens; she published her first novel, “Time Windows,” in 1991 after writing it while on a Fulbright Scholarship in Germany. But she’s bumped up against a wall when trying to branch outside her niche.

“(Publishers) have to think they can market it,” Reiss said. “So if I want to do an adult book, or if I want to do some literary fiction that’s not a typical Kathryn Reiss suspense novel … they go ‘Well, how will we market that?’ You almost get stuck.”

Creative writing is an art, but writers face the same problem many artists do: how they can create something they like that people will also want to buy. Like any other business, book publishers want to sell a good product that they can easily market, Reiss said. But this makes it hard for writers to break out of their shell, if they can even break into the industry at all.

“For a new writer, you have to prove to them you have a very marketable book,” Reiss said. “What people don’t understand is once you’ve had a book published, it doesn’t mean you’re a shoo-in for your next book. It means your publisher will look at your next book. 

“You have a one-up on someone who hasn’t published anything, but it isn’t a given. They have to think they can market it. … Publishers are really about making money. They care about their readers, but they want to sell books at the end of the day. That’s what they’re in the business to do.”

Lesser-known authors have a hard time

Public figures like Prince Harry will automatically generate intrigue and sales when they write something. Popular authors like Colleen Hoover and Emily Henry are also guaranteed hitmakers. 

But debut or lesser-known authors find they have a harder time. In 2021, there were only 15 novels by debut authors on the New York Times’ list of best-selling hardcover fiction books . Of these, 10 were celebrity authors or were part of a celebrity book club and benefited from the endorsement.

The evolution of publishing has created this scenario. In his recent book, “Big Fiction,” Dan Sinykin explores how publishing has changed since the 1960s when book publishers began conglomerating and becoming more corporate. The publishers of mass market books were acquired and larger publishers took over, focusing on sales over everything else. This led to the creation of “best-selling” authors who could churn out hit after hit.

Book production increased in the 2000s when publishing shifted from manual to digital production, added Juliana Spahr , an English professor at Northeastern’s Oakland campus. Making a book became a faster and cheaper endeavor and publishing houses went from publishing a few thousand fiction titles a year to churning out tens of thousands.

Publishing more books increases the odds

Both small and large presses alike started publishing more books to increase their odds of producing a commercial hit that would offset the costs of their other works, Spahr said. At the same time, major New York publishing companies continued to gobble up smaller presses. “The Big Five” remaining companies now have a stranglehold on the publishing world.

“They’ve had control for many years over major media things like the New York Times Book Review,” Spahr said. “It’s a very different landscape. … Publishing has always been hit or miss. Nobody knows what’s going to hit. So for larger publishers, it often made sense for them to publish more titles hoping that one of them will subsidize the costs of the other titles and a bestseller. There’s no more first books. It’s really hard.”

It also makes it harder for new titles to stand out.

“The internet is a wonderful thing,” Reiss said. “But it means there’s just so much out there all the time. You can’t keep up with new books. It’s not just the 10 big publishers with their 20 new books. So much is just coming out all the time.” 

There’s also the pressure to follow publishing trends. Spahr said certain topics and genres like vampire novels or romantasy (romance-fantasy) or books dealing with race have become popular at certain times and it can be hard for writers who work outside those trends.

‘I was as edgy as Jello’

Tanita Davis , who earned a master of fine arts from Northeastern’s Oakland campus and studied under Reiss, had published several books when she had a breakout hit with “Mare’s War,” a young adult historical fiction novel about two girls who find out their eccentric grandmother was in the African American battalion of the Women’s Army Corps during World War II. “Mare’s War” won Davis the Coretta Scott King Award and a nomination for the NAACP Image Award. 

But Davis found her editor had a different vision for her work going forward, wanting her to write something along the lines of “The Hate U Give,” Angie Thomas’ best-selling young adult novel about a young Black girl who sees her friend killed by a police officer.

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“My editor at the time kept saying ‘We want you to be an edgy writer,’” said Davis, who is Black. “I was as edgy as Jello. I felt like a lot of what people were looking for was a certain type of Black character. Part of being a writer for me was wanting to express my own thoughts. Not everybody has the same experiences or can write believably about the things and there are myriad experiences of Blackness in America, (just like) there’s nearly a myriad of experiences being an American.”

Davis ended up leaving that editor and finding another who lets her write in a way that she says is more true to herself. Her recent work has been middle grade novels, with her latest, “The Science of Friendship,” coming out this month.

Davis said many agents and editors look for “comp titles.” These are other books (or other types of media) that are similar to the one being pitched; the idea is to give editors and agents an idea of how to market a new work and whether there’s a demand for it.

“The regrettable part of publishing is that it’s always looking for something that is echoing something else,” Davis said. “It’s always the next thing, and similarities are what sells and so people always say when you write your pitches, you want to say something that is like ‘Mean Girls’ meets ‘The Devil Wears Prada.’ Publishing always reacts better if they look at it and say, ‘OK, that was a really high-grossing movie, so I will feel comfortable looking over this project.’” 

How to break outside existing molds

This makes it difficult, though not impossible, for writers to pitch works that break outside existing molds. Reiss’ daughter, Isabel Strychacz , followed in her mother’s footsteps and turned her thesis from her undergraduate from her time at Northeastern’s Oakland campus into her debut novel, “Starling,”   a young adult novel with fantasy, sci-fi and romance elements woven together. Her second novel, “House of Thorns ,” which is advertised as being “in the vein of The Haunting of Hill House” comes out this month.

But Strychacz’s experience selling her books is different from her mother’s first brushes with publishings. When Reiss published her first book in 1991, marketing was done by the publishing house and writers weren’t expected to get involved, she said. Instead, publishers would put out lists of their new titles each season. Authors would have events and signings. There’d be interviews and reviews in the local paper or on TV.

Strychacz said there’s now an understanding that writers will promote their work on social media, creating a “brand” through their posts.

“It’s almost not even mentioned because they’re just expecting that you will,” she said. “You can do as much as you want … but it’s definitely something I’ve had to think about. The reality of the industry is that like everyone wants their book to do well, so that they get another book deal and just the reality is that to do that, you almost have to be on social media to some degree and it always helps to be active in marketing your books.” 

Agent system isn’t as powerful

TikTok especially has been noted for its effects on book sales. Colleen Hoover’s novel “It Ends with Us” became a New York Times bestseller and made her a household name years after it came out, thanks to users promoting it on TikTok.

In addition to facing fewer publishing options, there’s also fewer direct paths to getting published, Spahr added. People who wanted to write literary fiction would get a master of fine arts degree and their program adviser would connect them with their literary agent who would place the student’s work at a publishing house. 

Now, Spahr said, the agent system isn’t as powerful and there are many writers competing for a few representatives working the market. Over the years, Reiss has taught noted writers like Nina Lacour and Aiden Thomas. But she’s struggled to place anyone she’s taught with her agent.

“Whenever I speak at conferences, people always have this question of ‘How did you break into publishing?’ That’s what everybody who wants to be a writer wants to know, as if that will be the magic key for them,” Reiss said. “Living in Germany, writing a book because I had nothing else to read, that’s not the way you’re going to break into writing. There isn’t one way.”

Erin Kayata is a Northeastern Global News reporter. Email her at [email protected] . Follow her on X/Twitter @erin_kayata .

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Nationwide today slashed mortgage rates across its range - with one of its deals now the cheapest on the UK-wide market.

A rate of 3.78% is now available to any new and existing customers looking to move home on a five-year fix. 

This is how that compares...

The building society says other cuts apply across buyer types.

Justin Moy, managing director at EHF Mortgages, told industry news agency Newspage: "These are significant headline-grabbing rates from Nationwide. These are rates we haven't seen for at least two years. 

"They will give borrowers plenty of confidence to get back into the property market."

Rates have been edging down in recent months as lenders price in forecast cuts in the base rate from the Bank of England.

Here's how average rates currently look - though it's worth saying that many buyers will be able to find deals lower than these averages...

McDonald's is to open more than 200 new restaurants across the UK and Ireland over the next four years.

It will be the fast-food chain's largest expansion programme for more than 20 years and will create 24,000 jobs.

New restaurant formats will be tested as part of the rollout, McDonald's said, including trials for smaller site formats and  "drive to" restaurant sites.

"We have come a long way since we first opened our doors in Woolwich 50 years ago," said Alistair Macrow, chief executive officer of McDonald's UK&I.

"I'm delighted that in this milestone year we are able to demonstrate our ongoing commitment to growth, and announce the creation of new jobs across the country."

The growth plan is driven by a £1bn investment by the chain and its franchisees.

McDonald's revealed a target of building 10,000 more restaurants globally by 2027.

It currently has 1,435 restaurants in the UK, with around four-fifths owned and operated by franchisees.

But this year it was overtaken by Greggs in the breakfast market - with the bakery chain now turning its focus to evening meal customers.

By James Sillars , business reporter

It's a positive start on the FTSE 100.

A 4% rise in JD Sports stock helped the index climb 0.2% to 8,300 points at the open.

Sports fashion retailer JD had earlier reported a 2.4% rise in underlying sales during its second quarter.

That uptick was not enough, however, to bolster the company's annual profit forecast.

Shares fell sharply in January when JD issued a profit warning, blaming higher costs and poor demand.

They remain about 20% down in the year to date.

Elsewhere, oil costs have continued their decline of the past week.

A barrel of Brent crude currently costs $76.

Fears of weak global demand have been largely responsible for the recent easing.

On the face of it, yesterday's public finance numbers provide a clear rationale for the course of action the chancellor has (according to those I talk to in Whitehall) already decided upon: more taxes and more spending cuts in this October's budget.

It will, I'm told, be pretty grim.

However, it's worth saying there is one other way for the chancellor to create extra headroom against her fiscal rules, which is to change the particular measure she's judging that headroom against.

A lot of economists believe the net debt statistic she inherited from the Conservatives is the wrong one to use in her fiscal rules - and that she should use the country's total national debt, not excluding any debt owned by the Bank of England.

Long story short, if she uses this other measure (and I'm told this is something she is considering) then she suddenly has a lot more headroom.

Even so, don't expect her to change the tune at the budget in October. There will be more bad news to come.

Read my full analysis here ...

The new government is considering whether to scrap health and safety regulations that are seeing homebuilders shrink the size of windows, or put bars on them, to stop people falling out, the Money blog can reveal.

The rules, introduced in December 2021 by the Conservative government, are in the first instance designed to guard against "unwanted solar gains" - or, to put it another way, homes becoming too hot as the climate warms.

This, critics say, is resulting in builders installing smaller windows on new builds.

But they also require builders to account for safety - and so upstairs windows in new-build homes must now be at least 1.1 metres (3.6ft) from the floor.

Former minister Michael Gove launched a review of the rules - with the consultation concluding before the Tories lost power in July.

The new government has yet to make a decision.

A spokesperson for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government told the Money blog: "We have closed a call for evidence on building regulations and are considering the responses before we make our decision."

Earlier this year, Nicholas Boys Smith, chairman of the Create Street thinktank on urban design, told the Telegraph the "foolish" regulations have "incentivised the building of extremely small windows".

"People are not able to look out of their windows if they are sitting down," he said.

"This means, in a normal-sized suburban house, first-floor rooms are darker and less pleasant. 

"It's making it nearly impossible to create houses that fit in with their 20th century, Edwardian, Georgian or Victorian predecessors. The majority of England's most beloved buildings would violate these regulations."

For Savings Guide this week, Savings Champion co-founder Anna Bowes looks at the best junior ISAs.

Most parents want to ensure their children have a strong financial footing when they are older, and there are many ways to support them.

What you choose depends on what access you want your child to have, as well as the risk you are prepared to take, but starting as soon as possible can make a huge difference. As can choosing the most tax efficient options, and a junior ISA (JISA) is often the most obvious option.

A JISA is a tax-free savings account for both the parent and the child, so it can be an ideal account to place funds that you gift to your child.

Most children's savings account could have tax implications

Children have their own personal allowance, so for the majority there will be no tax to pay on their savings interest. However, parents should be aware that there may be a tax liability to themselves on the interest earned on any money they gift to their children, until they reach the age of 18.

If the total gross interest earned on all cash gifted by each parent is more than £100 per year, then all of it (not just the excess) will be treated as that parent's interest for tax purposes and therefore they may need to pay tax at their marginal rate - if it takes them above their personal allowance and/or personal savings allowance.

If the gross interest earned is less than £100 for each parent's gift, it is considered so minimal that parents do not need to declare it.

This is a key reason why parents may prefer to place money they gift to their children into a JISA – as this tax rule does not apply.

What about gifts from other family members or friends?

Gifts from any other family members or friends will not be viewed in the same way. Instead, any interest earned will be treated as belonging to the child themselves and therefore can be earned tax free if they are non-taxpayers.

Something that parents should remember is that while in the JISA, the funds cannot be accessed until the child becomes 18, but at that stage they will have unfettered access to the funds.

But they can also transfer their JISA into an Adult ISA to continue to receive tax-free interest/investment returns.

If you, your friends and family were able to gift a total of £9,000 a year to a child from birth (the current JISA allowance), at a rate of 4.95% (the current best JISA rate), you could give them more than £264,000 when they reach 18. Now that's a gift worth having!

Top JISA rates have so far been unaffected by the recent base rate cut, but they are variable rate accounts, so it's important to keep an eye on the rates being earned going forward to make sure your child continues to earn a competitive rate.

A number of supermarkets and health and beauty retailers have been carrying out "concerning" loyalty scheme practices, Which? has said.

This include prices being increased for a product before they are sold on "offer" to members at their original price, according to the consumer group's investigation.

For example, Boots sold an Oral-B iO7 electric toothbrush at a non-member price of £400, while the members' price was £150. 

However, the product had only been £400 for 13 days beforehand, prior to which it was £150 for everyone, Which? found.

Which? says it analysed the pricing history of almost 12,000 products at health and beauty retailers and supermarkets over the past year to uncover how genuine the loyalty savings have been.

It found that some products on a loyalty offer had been at its non-member price for less than half the year.

This applied to one in six Superdrug products and one in 10 at Boots.

At supermarkets, it was 10% with Tesco, 5% at Sainsbury's and 3% at Co-op.

Which? says the guidance on consumer law regarding pricing promotions needs to be updated.

The UK competition watchdog is also currently analysing displayed savings.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is looking into whether non-member, or regular, prices are artificially inflated by supermarkets to make their loyalty prices appear more attractive, but its initial findings last month indicated retailers are unlikely to be misleading shoppers.

What have the supermarkets and retailers said?

A Superdrug spokeswoman said: "Our products are regularly on a mixture of member-only prices, multibuy promos, and price promotions open to all, to ensure all our customers can make savings on their favourite products throughout the year.

"Every month we give our loyal Health & Beautycard members access to hundreds of health and beauty products at a lower price, and the investigation highlights the value this offers our members."

A Boots spokesman said: "We have always been committed to offering customers great value, helping them save money across their health and beauty needs.

"All promotions, including Price Advantage, are assessed against all applicable laws and guidelines set out by the Chartered Trading Standards Institute."

A Tesco spokesman said: "All our Clubcard Prices promotions follow strict rules, including considering how they compare against prices in the market, to ensure they represent genuine value and savings, and these rules have been endorsed by our Trading Standards Primary Authority."

A Sainsbury's spokesman said: "More people are choosing to shop at Sainsbury's and we know our customers are savvy shoppers, who understand that factors like inflation, products falling out of season, or promotions can affect our prices.

"That doesn't stop us following pricing guidance for the industry and offering great value on the products our customers buy most - whether that's with our Low Everyday Prices, Aldi Price Match or Nectar Prices."

A Co-op spokesman said: "We know our member prices provide true value for our members.

"No base prices have increased to accommodate Co-op member pricing and, in fact, many of the 'all-customer' prices were decreased to ensure Co-op was competitive on key lines for all shoppers, whether they are a member or not."

Parents with children turning 16 have until the end of the month to ensure they keep receiving child benefit.

The money may still be available to you if your child is in full-time education or training, but it's not automatic.

You need to let HM Revenue and Customs know whether this is the case by 31 August.

Training is limited to unpaid work and traineeships, and approved types of education do not include BTEC Higher National Certificate qualifications or a university degree.

The benefits will come to a stop once your child finishes their education at one of four points during the year nearest to that date: February, May, August or November.

Child benefit can be extended in some circumstances, such as if they join the armed forces.

Claiming the benefit has the added bonus of earning you national insurance credits to put towards your state pension if you are earning less that £123 a week.

Holland Barrett is trialling the world's first express DNA test service at some stores in the UK.

The retailer will offer customers on-the-spot genetic information for skincare and improved sleep in five stores across the UK, Retail Week reports.

Testing will involve a £30 cheek swab and results will be sent securely to a customer's smartphone in just 20 minutes. 

The service is being provided by medical and consumer genetics testing firm DnaNudge.

The stores where the testing will be available are in Chelmsford, Bluewater, Birmingham Bullring, Princes Street Edinburgh, and Queen Street Oxford.

A savvy loophole allows Britons to save £75 on both National Trust and English Heritage membership at the same time. 

The hack involves buying an annual Heritage New Zealand pass as an "overseas resident", which not only grants access to historical sites in New Zealand, but also the UK and other countries.

That's thanks to a "reciprocal agreement" with the National Trust and English Heritage that unlocks access to hundreds of their tourist hotspots.

Given the National Trust increased its prices by more than twice the rate of inflation (8.5%) this year, this saving hack is particularly helpful for those looking to purchase a membership.

UK residents can buy a non-Kiwi membership from Heritage New Zealand for just £128. Purchasing passes separately from English Heritage and National Trust combined would cost £163.20 – a difference of just over £35.

Savings become greater for families, with a New Zealand Heritage membership costing £210. For the two English Heritage and National Trust family passes, it would cost £285 - a £75 increase.

After signing up, your Kiwi heritage card will be sent in the post and you can show it upon entry at all English Heritage and National Trust sites.

However, the Kiwi card does not cover parking, meaning you will need to pay for this on the day.

Terms and conditions on the New Zealand Heritage website reveal that Wakehurst, Sussex, which is managed by the Royal Botanic Gardens, is the only National Trust-owned property where free entry is denied.

The Kiwi card also unlocks access to international heritage sites in Italy, Germany, Canada, and South Korea.

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