WEEK 4

Market Research

• systematic process of collecting, analyzing, and interpreting information

• reduces uncertainty and enables organizations to better understand their market and environment

• specifies information required to address these issues; designs the method for gathering data

Market Research Process

• identify the problem and formulate objectives

• create the research design

• choose the method

• select sampling procedure

• collect the data

• analyze the data

• write and present the report

• implement the follow up

Exploratory Market Research

• used when a problem is not clearly defined and the objective is to gain initial insights, identify variables, and understand consumer perceptions

• qualitative approach

  • interviews

  • focus groups

  • observations

• flexible and unstructured

  • allows companies to explore motivations, attitudes, and hidden needs before designing more structured studies

EMR: In-depth interviews

• qualitative; one-on-one conversations to deeply understand individual motivations and perceptions

  • allows researchers to deeply explore individual perceptions, motivations, and experiences

• flexible and semi structured

  • allows for the interviewer to ask follow up questions and adapt the conversation

  • makes them useful in exploratory research where deeper understanding is needed

  • 30-90 minutes

    • introductory, key questions, probing, and closure

EMR: Focus groups

• group discussions guided by a moderator to explore shared opinions and reactions

• a qualitative technique where a small group of participants discusses a topic guided by a moderator

  • this method captures group interaction, shared opinions, and emotional responses

  • useful for testing ideas, concepts, or products

  • rich in insights, but they are not statistically significant

• moderator guides session through warmup, topic exploration, interaction, and final summary

Descriptive Market Research

• uses mainly quantitative methods (surveys, data analysis) to measure and describe characteristics of a market, such as customer profiles, preferences, behaviors, and market size

• data collection techniques are structured and include surveys, panels, questionnaires, and secondary data analysis

  • able to generalize results to a larger population; statistically significant

DMR: Surveys

• quantitative technique that collects structured data from a large sample using standardized questions

• they allow companies to measure variables such as satisfaction, preferences, and purchase intentions

  • they are scalable and can be distributed digitally and physically

• large scale quantitative data collection with a wide range of possible respondents

  • 5-20 minutes per person, structured sequence with intro, closed questions, demographic section, and completion

Casual Market Research

• uses quantitative research experiments to identify cause and effect relationships between variables

• identifies cause and effect relationships between variables, such as how changes in price, promotion, or product features impact on consumer behavior

• quantitative approach

A/B Testing

• randomized experimentation method that compares two versions (A/B) of a single variable to see which one performs better

Casual Market: Research Experiments

• controlled quantitative tests to identify cause-and-effect relationships between variables

• A/B testing and other experiments and other quantitative techniques used to establish cause-and-effect relationships by computing different versions of a variable under controlled conditions

  • allows companies to identify which option generates better results

• controlled quantitative tests involving two or more groups with hundreds or thousands of users

  • running from days or weeks, following a sequence of hypothesis definition, variable manipulation, measurement, and comparison of results