4.4(market research)

Market research 

Process of collecting, analyzing and reporting data related to a particular market

Primary (field research)

Collection of first-hand information from the market. Used to find out specific buying patterns of customers and anticipate any changes in their spending behavior over a given period.

Information directly from the customers

expensive, time-consuming and requires specialists

Secondary (desk research)

Collection of second-hand information from the market. Involves analyzing data that already exists. 

Faster and cheaper than primary

Out of date, unreliable or not collected for same purpose data.   Data can be accessed by competitors.

(Primary) Surveys

Questionnaires were sent to a particular target audience to gather useful information. Mail, phone, online etc. 

Large data over short time, easily completed by respondents

Can be poorly constructed, can be bias, costly and time to construct

(Primary) Interviews 

Conversation with a person being interviewee

More in depth and detailed information  Hight response rate  More clear questions

Time consuming  Biased interviewers

(Primary) Focus groups 

Small group of people representing specific product or idea. Share opinions and answer questions

Cheap and easy.  Can be used to measure reaction.  Help to identify key product requirements.  Insights on the position of competitors on customer mind.

Few people represent whole market.  People may not express their honest opinion in discussion.  Costly to set up.

(Primary) Observation 

Gathering information by carefully watching and trying to understand people’s behavior.

Large number in short time  Cost-effective

Complete answer to question cannot be obtained by observation alone.

Academic journals 

Articles by experts etc

Peer review, so reliability is higher.  Less time to publish than books.

More specific information rather than general.  Peer-review can be time consuming.

Media Articles 

Newspapers, magazines etc

Printed are usually reliable.  Widely available

Time consuming so not always in real time.  Can be biased.

Government publications 

Documents produced by government on variety of topics

Details about government policy.  Statistical information on variety of topics.  Up to date.

Can be difficult to gain access to government documents.

Market analyses 

Publications or market intelligence report

Accurate and recent. Carried out by specialist research agent

Costly research agents charge a lot.

Online content 

Gather information from internet or websites

Up to date on news, topics etc.  Easy to access and quickly provided.

Anyone can publish on the web