4.4 - Market Research

Academic journals

Periodical publications from educational and research institutions that publish data and information relating to a particular academic discipline.

Ad-hoc market research

Market research conducted as and when required in order to deal with a specific problem or issue.

Continuous market research

Market research conducted on an ongoing basis, rather than a one-off (ad-hoc) basis.

Convenience sampling

Research participants who are easy (convenient) to reach. It relies on the ease of reach because of the convenient availability of volunteers.

Focus groups

Forming small discussion groups to gain insight into the attitudes and behaviour of respondents. The group is typically made up of participants who share a similar customer profile.

Government publications

A type of secondary market research, referring to official documents and publications released by government entities and agencies.

Interviews

A type of primary research that involve discussions between an interviewer and interviewees to investigate their personal circumstances, preferences and opinions.

A market analysis

A form of secondary market research that reveals the characteristics, trends and outlook for a particular product or industry, such as market size, market share and market growth rate.

Market research

Marketing activities designed to discover the opinions, beliefs and preferences of potential and existing customers.

Media articles

A type of secondary market research referring to the documents (articles) in print or online media. They are written by skilled journalists and authors.

Observations

A method of primary research that involves watching how people behave or respond in different situations.

Online secondary market research

Sources available on the Internet for research purposes. These include media articles, government publications, academic journals and market analyses available on the Internet.

The population

(In marketing terms) all potential customers of a particular market.

Primary market research

Gathering new data for a specific purpose, using methods such as surveys, interviews, focus groups and observations.

Qualitative market research

Getting non-numerical responses from research participants in order to understand their behaviour, attitudes and opinions.

Quantitative market research

Collecting and using factual and measurable information rather than people's perceptions and opinions.

Quota sampling

Using a certain number of people (known as the quota) from different market segments for primary market research purposes.

Random sampling

Gives everyone in the population an equal chance of being selected for the sample.

A sample

A selected group or proportion of the population used for primary market research purposes.

Sampling

A primary research technique that selects a sample of the population from a particular market for research purposes.

Sampling errors

Mistakes made in the sample design, such as an unrepresentative sample being used or the sample size being too small.

Secondary market research

The collection of second hand data and information that already exists, previously gathered by others, such as media articles and government publications.

 A survey

A document that contains a series of questions used to collect data for a specific purpose. Surveys are the most common method of primary research.