Market Research Key Terms

Market research

the process of collecting, recording and analysing data about customers, competitors and the market

Primary research

the collection of first-hand data that is directly related to the needs of the business

Secondary research

the use of existing data that was originally collected for another purpose

Qualitative data

non-numerical data, which provides insight into the detailed motivations of consumers and helps to explain their buying behaviour or opinions

Quantitative data

numerical results from research that can be statistically analysed

Sampling

the process of selecting a group of respondents from a larger population

Sample

a group of people taking part in a market research survey selected to be representative of the overall target market

Sampling bias

when a sample is not a good representation of the whole population, because it is chosen in ways which give some people a greater chance of being selected

Arithmetic mean

the value calculated by totalling all the results and dividing by the number of results

Mode

the value that occurs most frequently in a set of data

Median

the value of the middle item when data has been ordered or ranked. It divides the data into two equal parts

Range

the difference between the highest and lowest value

Coding

the process of labelling and organising qualitative data to identify the main themes and the links between them