Market Entry Research Singapore & Southeast Asia

Market Entry Research Singapore — Assembled

Market Entry Research

Test your product with Singapore consumers before you commit capital

You have a product that sells well at home market. You want to know if it will work in Singapore and Southeast Asia. We put it in front of the people who will actually buy it, in their language, in their context, and tell you what they think before you spend on distribution, retail, and marketing.

Multiethnic focus group of Chinese, Malay, and Indian Singaporeans evaluating imported food products around a table with discussion guides and evaluation forms during an Assembled market entry research session — Consumer product evaluation session, Singapore. Participants compare imported F&B packaging against local benchmarks.

The Problem

What companies get wrong about entering Singapore

Most companies entering Singapore make similar mistakes. These three come up in almost every market entry project we run.

Pricing without local context

A price point that signals premium in your home market might signal overpriced or unfamiliar here. Singapore consumers comparison-shop across physical retail, Shopee, Lazada, and direct imports. Your pricing needs to make sense within that landscape, not just against your cost structure.

Packaging that reads differently here

Label copy, ingredient claims, visual hierarchy, serving sizes, even colour associations carry different meaning in a multiethnic market. A product that reads as "natural" in Europe might read as "unfinished" in Singapore. You need local eyes on the physical package before production.

Messaging that assumes your home market

How and where Singaporeans discover new products, who influences their decisions, what triggers trial versus repurchase. The consumer journey here is compressed, multilingual, and shaped by social proof. Your launch messaging needs to account for that or it gets ignored.

Cultural Navigation

We run research in the languages your consumers think in

Singapore is 76% Chinese, 15% Malay, 7.5% Indian. Each community shops differently, reads different media, responds to different cues. Our focus groups are conducted in the language your consumers actually think in, not the language your brief was written in.

Felicia moderates in English, Mandarin, and Hokkien. For Malay and Tamil respondents, specialist bilingual moderators work under her direct supervision. Every transcript and report is delivered in English.

English Mandarin Hokkien Malay Tamil

Bilingual market research focus group in Singapore with Chinese, Malay, and Indian participants discussing around a Southeast Asia map with bilingual sticky notes in English and Chinese on a pinboard — Multi-market planning session. Bilingual team mapping consumer segments across Southeast Asia.

Scoping session with an international client. Sticky notes mark priority markets for phased rollout.

Regional Coverage

One study, one contact, eight markets

You commission the study once, with a single point of contact. We design the methodology, standardise it across markets so results are directly comparable, and manage all fieldwork from Singapore. No need to hire separate agencies in each country.

Singapore

Malaysia

Indonesia

Thailand

Vietnam

Philippines

Myanmar

Cambodia

What the Work Looks Like

What the fieldwork actually looks like

Product evaluation sessions, packaging comparisons, store visits, and planning meetings with overseas clients. This is how the work happens.

Four scenes from Singapore market entry research: multiethnic focus group evaluating imported products, close-up of hands comparing foreign and local food packaging with scorecards, Singapore shopfront street scene with bilingual signage and diverse foot traffic, researcher with international client reviewing market entry proposal — From left: product evaluation with local consumers, packaging comparison against shelf competitors, Singapore retail environment, and market entry strategy session with an overseas client.

How It Works

How a market entry study works

Scoping call

You tell us what you need to decide. We tell you the fastest way to get a reliable answer. Proposal with methodology, timeline, and pricing within 48 hours.

Design and recruit

Discussion guide written in your consumers' language. Recruitment from our 100,000-member Singapore panel, screened to your target demographic. Ready in 1-2 weeks.

Fieldwork

Felicia moderates every session. Observe behind a one-way mirror or via live stream. All sessions recorded. Transcripts in English and Chinese.

Analysis and debrief

Topline findings within one week. Full report with data visualisation, segment analysis, and go/no-go recommendations. Presented directly to your decision-makers.

Questions

Common questions about market entry research

How do I research the Singapore market before entering?

Start with consumer validation, not desk research. Commission focus groups with 6-10 local consumers to test your product, packaging, pricing, and messaging against local expectations. We run bilingual sessions in English, Mandarin, and Hokkien with Singapore's multiethnic population. A typical market entry study takes 4-6 weeks and costs SGD 15,000-35,000 depending on methodology and sample requirements. If you're unsure where to begin, our guide on how to write a research brief walks through the process.

What does market entry research in Singapore cost?

A focused study ranges from SGD 15,000 to SGD 35,000. This typically includes 4-6 focus groups or 15-20 in-depth interviews, recruitment from our 100,000-member local panel, bilingual moderation, and a full analysis report with actionable recommendations. Multi-market studies across Southeast Asia start at SGD 50,000. We scope every project individually and provide detailed quotes within 48 hours. Request a quote here.

Can you test our product with Singapore consumers before we launch?

Yes. We run central location tests with 100+ consumers for product evaluation, sensory testing with ANOVA and JAR scoring, packaging comparison studies, and Van Westendorp pricing research. Participants are recruited from our proprietary Singapore panel and screened to match your target demographic. Our work across coffee, skincare, and plant-based food categories shows how product testing reveals gaps that surveys miss.

Do you work with companies from outside Singapore?

Most of our market entry clients are headquartered outside Singapore. We have supported companies from the US, Europe, China, Japan, and Korea entering the Singapore and Southeast Asian market. We also serve as a local fieldwork partner for global research agencies coordinating multi-country studies. Our team handles everything on the ground including recruitment, venue booking, moderation, simultaneous translation, and reporting. See our full expertise and capabilities.

How many markets in Southeast Asia can you cover?

We coordinate research across 8 Southeast Asian markets with Singapore as the operational hub. Our panel covers 6 ASEAN countries directly, and we partner with vetted local fieldwork agencies for additional markets. Multi-market studies use standardised methodology so results are directly comparable, with a single point of contact managing the entire programme. Our consumer trends research offers a snapshot of how behaviour shifts across the region.

What languages can you conduct research in?

Felicia Hu personally moderates sessions in English, Mandarin, and Hokkien. For Malay and Tamil-speaking respondents, specialist bilingual moderators work under her direct supervision. All transcripts and reports are delivered in English. Discussion guides are prepared in both English and the respondent's preferred language. This matters because respondents share more candidly when they speak in their most comfortable language.

What is the typical timeline for market entry research?

A standard study runs 4-6 weeks. Week 1 covers project design and discussion guide development. Weeks 1-2 handle recruitment from our 100,000-member panel. Weeks 2-4 cover fieldwork. Weeks 4-6 deliver analysis and final reporting using our approach to analysing Singapore FGD data. Topline findings are available within one week of fieldwork completion so your team can act on early signals.

How do you recruit local consumers for market entry research?

From our proprietary 100,000-member Singapore panel, built through 9 years of actual project participation. The panel includes 3,200 high-net-worth individuals, 4,800 healthcare professionals, 1,900 C-suite executives, 12,400 premium consumers, and 8,600 insurance policyholders. We screen and recruit matching respondents within 1-2 weeks, including hard-to-reach segments that global agencies struggle to access. For categories where traditional recruitment falls short, we also deploy mobile ethnography.