Market Research Overview

Market Research

• Involves gathering, analyzing, and presenting information about marketing and consumption.

• Aims to identify customer needs, predict demand, and understand consumer behavior.

• Helps determine buying frequency, price points, customer types, sales channels, and desired product features.

Types of Market Research

Primary Research: Collecting new, original data for a specific purpose.
Secondary Research: Collecting existing data from sources like business records or published sources.

Primary Market Research Methods

• Questionnaires/Surveys: Postal, online.

• Focus Groups: Discussions with groups of customers.

• Consumer Panels: Ongoing feedback as a product evolves.

• Face-to-Face/Telephone Interviews

• Product Trials: Testing by consumers before launch.

• Test Marketing: Initial sales in a small area.

Secondary Market Research Methods

• Website Information: Competitor pricing, product details.

• Social Media: Data trends, consumer comments.

• Newspapers & Magazines: Articles on industry sectors.

• TV/Radio: Documentaries, consumer trends.

• Market Intelligence Reports: Detailed sector trend information.

• Government Statistics: Freely available data on various topics.

Primary Data: Advantages & Disadvantages

• Advantages:

  • Collected for specific business questions.

  • Confidential; not accessible to competitors.

  • Only way to find specific information.

• Disadvantages:

  • Time-consuming and costly.

  • Potential sampling errors.

  • Risk of bias from question phrasing.

Secondary Data: Advantages & Disadvantages

• Advantages:

  • Quick, low cost, and easy to collect.

  • Multiple sources can be compared.

  • Useful for refining primary research questions.

• Disadvantages:

  • May not be precisely what the business needs.

  • May be outdated or irrelevant.

  • Potential for bias.

Quantitative & Qualitative Data

• Quantitative Data: Numerical data for easy measurement and analysis.

  • Easy to chart or graph trends.

  • Often from surveys or government statistics.

• Qualitative Data: Opinions and beliefs.

  • Requires interpretation.

  • Provides valuable insights into consumer behavior.

  • Difficult to analyze.

  • Often from focus groups or interviews.

Problems with Survey Design

• Leading questions.

• Unclear questions (jargon).

• Closed questions (data coarsening).

• Irrelevant questions.

• Surveys that are too long.

• Bias from incentives.

• Sampling errors.

Using Databases for Market Research

Databases store electronic records of business transactions.

• Businesses can use their own or buy data from other sources.

• Advantages:

  • Relatively easy to use; can be primary data.

  • Trends can be analyzed over several years.

• Disadvantages:

  • Data may be outdated.

  • Data may not be in a useful format.

Sampling Methods

Sampling saves costs and time, and can be accurate if done correctly.

• Random Sampling
  Randomly choosing participants; each has an equal chance.

  • Reduces selection bias.

  • May include people outside the target market.

  • Requires a larger sample for accurate results.

• Quota Sampling
  Targets specific groups of a population that represent a market segment/group.

  • Saves time and cost.

  • May be inaccurate due to the lack of random selection.

• Stratified Sampling
  Divides the population into subgroups (strata) based on shared characteristics and randomly samples each.

  • Creates a more representative sample.

  • Allows comparison between sub