4.4 Market Research
Purpose: To identify customers’ needs and wants.
Primary market research
Advantages | Disadvantages |
Only the business holds the info. | Expensive. |
Formulate an appropriate strategy. | Requires time and efforts. |
| Advantages | Disadvantages |
Surveys (Questionnaire) | To gather large information in a short period of time. Completed easily. Can include any questions. | Will be useless when key questions are not included. Dis-honest. Costly in terms of time and money to build up. |
Interviews | Provide detailed information. One-to-one attention was provided. | Time consuming. May be biased. |
Focus Group | A large amount of information to a huge range of customers. Can provide specific information. Provides insights on the current position. | The customers might be subjective. |
Personal Observation | Firsthand. Fast. | Researchers cannot have all the information needed by observing. |
Secondary market research
Existing information from the market.
Advantages | Disadvantages |
Quicker way. | Out-dated. |
Available. | The information Might not satisfy your needs. |
| Some might be not reliable. |
| Advantages | Disadvantages |
Academic Journals | Reliable information (peer-reviewed). Available in different places. | The review process is time-consuming. Too specific. Require subscription. |
Media Articles | Cheap. Developed by experts. Availability. | Out-dated. Might be biased (received funding) |
Analysis Reports |
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Qualitative | Quantitative |
WHY?????: ??>>>?> | How many? |
Opinions | Numbers |
Subjective | Objective |
Focus is complex and broad | Focus is concise and narrow |
Sampling methods:
Quota: Segmenting and then choosing a specific number from each segment. (age, gender…)
Advantages | Disadvantages |
Quick, reliable. | Not always statistically representative of the population, may be biased. |
Random: Randomly from the population.
Advantages | Disadvantages |
Reduces bias, an easy way of obtaining a sample | May be too small and not consist of the target population |
Stratified: Divide the market into different segments by characteristics.
Advantages | Disadvantages |
Representative | Not easy to select relevant strata |
Cluster: To divide by geographical and select a few targets.
Snowballing: Follow the survey from the previous individual.
Advantages | Disadvantages |
Cost-effective method | The result doesn’t represent the whole market |