How market research
works in Singapore
Singapore is one of the most researched consumer markets in Southeast Asia. Every year, multinational companies commission primary research before entering the market, adapting products, or repositioning brands. This guide covers the main research methods available, what they cost, how long they take, and how to evaluate which agency is right for your project.
Drawing on Assembled's experience across 235+ projects since 2016, working with 150+ clients across healthcare, F&B, financial services, skincare, retail, and technology.
The six methods used most in Singapore
Every research method answers a different question. Focus groups tell you why. Surveys tell you how many. Ethnographies show you what people actually do versus what they say. The right method depends on the decision you need to make, not the budget you want to spend.
Focus groups
Small-group discussions of six to eight participants, moderated by a local researcher. In Singapore, bilingual moderation in English and Mandarin is standard. Malay, Hokkien, and Cantonese capability becomes necessary for certain demographics, particularly older consumers, heartland audiences, and Malay-Muslim segments.
A typical project runs four to six sessions across different consumer segments. Sessions last 90 to 120 minutes. Focus groups surface insights that surveys cannot capture because the group dynamic provokes reactions participants would not articulate alone.
In-depth interviews
One-on-one interviews lasting 45 to 90 minutes. Used when the topic is sensitive, the audience is hard to recruit in groups, or the subject matter requires individual attention. Healthcare decisions, financial planning, luxury purchasing behaviour, and executive perspectives are all better explored in IDIs than in group settings.
In Singapore, IDIs are often the right method for high-net-worth individuals, physicians, C-suite executives, and other professional audiences. Scheduling six busy executives into one room at the same time is impractical. Individual interviews produce richer personal narratives.
Ethnography and in-home immersion
Observational research where researchers visit participants in their homes, workplaces, or shopping environments. Ethnography reveals behaviours people cannot articulate in a focus group because they happen automatically. How someone organises their kitchen, where they store skincare products, what they actually cook versus what they say they cook.
In Singapore's compact urban environment, mobile ethnography has become increasingly common. Participants use their own smartphones to capture daily routines through photos, short videos, and voice notes over several days.
Product testing
Participants evaluate products in a controlled setting, often called a Central Location Test. Common for food and beverage, skincare, personal care, packaging design, and digital products. Testing can be monadic, sequential monadic, or paired comparison depending on research objectives.
In Singapore, CLTs are typically run at accessible central locations. Sample sizes range from 80 to 200 participants depending on the number of product variants and statistical requirements. For food products, sensory evaluation with structured scoring sheets is standard.
Mystery shopping
Trained evaluators visit physical locations posing as regular customers to assess service quality, staff knowledge, brand standards compliance, and the end-to-end customer experience. Evaluators follow pre-defined scenarios and record observations against structured criteria.
In Singapore, mystery shopping is used by retail chains, automotive showrooms, F&B groups, financial services branches, and healthcare providers operating across multiple outlets. Programmes can be one-off benchmarks or ongoing monthly evaluations tied to staff performance frameworks.
Online surveys
Quantitative research using structured questionnaires distributed to a targeted sample. Surveys validate hypotheses from qualitative research, measure brand awareness, benchmark satisfaction, and quantify consumer preferences across segments. They provide the statistical confidence that focus groups and IDIs cannot.
In Singapore, a survey achieving 95% confidence with a 3 to 5% margin of error typically requires 400 or more respondents for general population studies. Survey design matters as much as sample size. Poorly worded questions produce clean data that means nothing.
How to choose a market research agency in Singapore
Singapore has a concentrated market research industry. Global agencies like Ipsos, Kantar, and Nielsen maintain local offices. Boutique agencies like Assembled, Blackbox Research, and Milieu Insight focus on Southeast Asian markets. The right choice depends on your project, not on agency size. Here is what actually matters.
Who does the work?
At global agencies, the partner who pitches your project is rarely the person moderating sessions or writing the report. A junior executive scopes the methodology. A different person moderates. An analyst writes the report. The partner presents findings. Five people touch your project, and none of them saw everything.
Ask who will moderate your sessions. Ask who will analyse the data. Ask how many handoffs happen between your briefing and the final presentation. Fewer handoffs mean better pattern recognition across your data.
Panel quality and recruitment speed
The quality of your research depends on the quality of participants. Ask whether the agency maintains its own panel or outsources recruitment to third-party vendors. Agencies with proprietary panels recruit faster, typically one to two weeks versus three to four, and screen more carefully for articulation and relevance.
For specialist audiences like physicians, C-suite executives, or high-net-worth individuals, ask for the panel size in that specific segment. A general panel of 50,000 is less useful than a specialist panel of 3,000 verified HNWIs.
Assembled's proprietary panel has 100,000 members built over 10 years, including 3,200 HNWIs, 4,800 healthcare professionals, and 1,900 C-suite executives. It is not purchased from a third-party vendor.
Local cultural expertise
Singapore's consumer market is multilingual and multicultural. Research moderators need to navigate English, Mandarin, Malay, and dialect groups depending on the audience. A moderator who cannot switch between Mandarin and English mid-sentence will miss nuance from bilingual participants. A moderator unfamiliar with Singlish will misread tone.
Cultural fluency in moderation directly affects data quality. A participant who is not comfortable will not share honestly. The 700+ five-star Google reviews Assembled has received from research participants consistently describe sessions as "comfortable" and "inclusive," a signal of moderation quality, not just hospitality.
Cost transparency
Reputable agencies provide clear pricing structures. In Singapore, typical starting points for primary research are as follows.
| Method | Starting From |
|---|---|
| Desk research from official Singapore sources | SGD 3,500 |
| Online surveys (95% confidence, 3–5% margin of error) | SGD 8,000 |
| Product testing (structured CLT with reporting) | SGD 10,000 |
| Multiple focus group discussions with local moderators | SGD 12,000 |
| Market entry research (desk + primary research) | SGD 15,000+ |
Prices vary based on audience difficulty, number of sessions, reporting depth, and specialist recruitment requirements.
Track record and reviews
Check Google Reviews for the agency, not just website testimonials. Participant reviews reveal how the research experience actually feels, which correlates with data quality. Client reviews reveal delivery reliability and insight quality. An agency with hundreds of participant reviews has a track record you can verify independently.
Research for companies entering Singapore
International companies expanding into Singapore typically need research at three stages. Each answers a different question and requires a different methodology.
Before committing capital
Desk research from official sources like Data.gov.sg, Department of Statistics, and MAS provides the macro picture. Primary research through focus groups or surveys validates whether local consumer demand matches your assumptions.
Adapting your product
Concept testing, sensory evaluation, pricing research, packaging validation, and brand positioning studies. Singapore consumers respond differently to messaging that works in other Asian markets. A single creative concept rarely works across all four language communities.
After launch
Ongoing tracking studies, customer satisfaction surveys, mystery shopping programmes, and competitive intelligence. Consistent methodology allows meaningful year-over-year comparison rather than starting from scratch each time.
Assembled has supported market entry decisions for companies from the US, Europe, China, Japan, and Korea across 235+ projects since 2016.
What makes this consumer market different
Population of 5.9 million with English, Mandarin, Malay, and Tamil. A single focus group composition rarely represents the full market. Most projects require two to three groups segmented by language and ethnicity.
One of the highest smartphone penetration rates globally. Mobile-first survey design is not optional. Mobile ethnography captures behaviours that lab-based research misses entirely.
Small geographic footprint means consumer trends spread faster. A new F&B concept that takes months in Indonesia or Thailand can saturate Singapore in weeks. Timing of research matters more here.
High cost of living creates significant differences between mass and premium consumer segments. The top 15% of household income earners represent a disproportionate share of spending in skincare, dining, and financial products.
Data.gov.sg and Singstat provide robust secondary data. Most market entry studies begin with desk research from these official sources before moving to primary fieldwork.
Cultural fluency in moderation directly affects data quality. Participants who are not comfortable do not share honestly. Moderator capability in Singlish, Hokkien, and Cantonese matters for certain segments.
About Assembled
Singapore-based market research agency founded in 2016. The person you brief is the person who runs your research. Brief to report in four to eight weeks.
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