Best practice · 4 min read

7 Costly Market Feasibility Studies Mistakes Brands Make in India

Avoid the most common market feasibility studies mistakes in India: wrong audience, metro-only samples, poor translation, weak QC and reports nobody acts on.

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Quick answer

The most costly market feasibility studies mistakes in India are researching the wrong audience, covering only metros, relying on poor translation, skipping quality control, asking too many questions, ignoring regional differences, and producing reports that never lead to action.

At a glance

Guide type: Best practice · 4 minute read
Method covered: Market Feasibility Studies
Research family: Strategy research
Typical timeline: 6–10 weeks, longer where regulatory or land-approval enquiries are in scope
Typical sample: 15–25 stakeholder interviews plus a demand-side survey of 200–400 potential buyers
Written for: Teams whose last study disappointed · Researchers reviewing a design · Clients reading a draft report

Key takeaways

Metro-only samples rarely represent India
Translation quality directly affects data quality
Shorter, sharper studies produce better data
Plan for action before fieldwork starts

Reader intent

Who this guide is for

Three readers arrive here with different problems. Each should be able to act on this page without reading all of it.

Teams whose last study disappointed
Most market feasibility studies failures trace back to decisions taken before fieldwork, not to the fieldwork itself.
Researchers reviewing a design
A pre-field quality check to run against the questionnaire or the discussion guide.
Clients reading a draft report
What to probe when the findings feel thinner than the invoice.

The seven mistakes

Vague audience definitions
Assuming Mumbai and Delhi represent India
Literal translations that change meaning
No independent back-checks
Overlong questionnaires that cause fatigue
Ignoring regional and cultural nuance
Reports with data but no recommendations

How to avoid them

Treat market feasibility studies as a decision tool. Agree the hypotheses, the audience and the action plan upfront, and choose a partner whose quality control you can audit.

How Market Research India can help

Market Research India designs and runs market feasibility studies projects across 50 Indian cities and 30 industries. A senior research director leads every study, and our own supervised teams handle the fieldwork. You get clear recommendations, not just data tables.

Share your objective and we will send a scoped, fixed-fee proposal within 24 hours, with a recommended method, sample and timeline.

What goes wrong

Common mistakes in market feasibility studies

Most disappointing market feasibility studies studies fail for reasons that were visible in the design, not in the fieldwork. These are the ones we see most often, and what to do instead.

01
A top-down market size with no bottom-up check
Multiplying a published national figure by a share assumption is not an estimate, it is a hope. Build demand from units, outlets or households and reconcile the two.
02
Reading stated intent as demand
Purchase intent overstates behaviour everywhere, and by more in interview settings. Discount it, or triangulate against observed proxies such as current category spend.
03
Leaving the approval path out of the timeline
Licences, clearances and local permissions routinely add months. A case that ignores them is optimistic on both cash flow and launch date.
04
A single base case with no downside
A board cannot sanction a number with no range around it. Model base, downside and upside, and state what triggers each.
05
Findings that arrive after the decision
Research timed to land after the investment committee has met is an audit, not an input. Work back from the decision date and cut scope rather than slip.
06
Assumptions buried in the model
A number nobody can trace is challenged once and ignored thereafter. Every assumption on its own labelled line, with its source.

Run through this before sign-off

Your checklist before you brief anyone

A working sequence for a market feasibility studies project. Most of it costs nothing, and it saves the two weeks a re-field would take.

1
Write the go/no-go criteria before the research starts, and have them signed off.
2
Build demand top-down and bottom-up independently, then explain the gap between them.
3
Interview the supply side — distributors, suppliers, competitors — not only prospective buyers.
4
Price the regulatory and approval path in both money and months.
5
Name the two or three conditions under which the recommendation would flip.
6
Name the two assumptions the conclusion is most sensitive to, and test them explicitly.
7
Agree in writing who acts on each finding, and by when, before the debrief ends.

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Answers

Frequently asked questions

The questions buyers ask us most often before they commission market feasibility studies.

What is the single biggest mistake?

Starting without a clear decision for the research to inform.

From guide to project

Where market feasibility studies actually gets commissioned

If this guide has settled the method, these are the pages worth opening next: the service itself, and the markets where market feasibility studies is most often run for our clients.

Keep exploring

7 Costly Market Feasibility Studies Mistakes Brands Make in India

Who this guide is for

The seven mistakes

How to avoid them

How Market Research India can help

Common mistakes in market feasibility studies

Your checklist before you brief anyone

Frequently asked questions

Where market feasibility studies actually gets commissioned

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