Market research

Do you know the techniques you can use for doing market research? What differences are involved in
doing qualitative research as opposed to collecting quantitative data?
Read the text and then do the exercise below.

1
Companies carry out Market Research to gather and analyse data to understand and explain what people
think about products or adverts, to find out about customer satisfaction and to predict how customers might
respond to a new product on the market.

2
Market Research can be categorised under two subheadings – Quantitative Research and Qualitative
Research. The questions asked with Quantitative Research are structured whereas Qualitative Research
questions are much more open and can often reveal consumption habits which the researchers hadn’t
previously considered. You carry out Quantitative Research when you need to know how many people have
certain habits and the Qualitative Research when you need to know why and how people do what they do.

3
Companies involved in Market Research include the Research Buyer and the Research Agency. The
research agency carries out the market research in ways previously discussed with their clients – the research
buyer. Sometimes companies only need their own data analysed, or are simply looking for advice on how to
carry out their own research. Points that are discussed between the two parties can include:

The time duration of the research

The budget available
Who the target groups are
Predictions of results
How the results will be helpful

4
Street Surveys - stopping people in the street
Phone or postal - people fill in questionnaires and send them back
Internet surveys - a relatively new technique which functions in a similar way to other surveys except that a
large number of people are interviewed at the same time

5
Am I asking the right groups of people?
How many people should I speak to in order to get representative answers to my questions?
Are my questions easy to understand?
How am I going to analyse the data?

6
Focus groups - discussion between a small number of people about a product, or advert etc. to find out their
views or habits
Personal interviews - in-depth discussions on a one-to-one basis
CAPI - computer assisted personal interviewing where questions are ‘asked’ by the computer and the
answers are typed by the interviewee directly into the database for analysis
Observation - this can be used as a complement to asking questions to see how people do what they do

7
Are my questions open enough to get personalised answers?
Have I restricted my target group?

Do I only need to find out ‘why’ people do what they do or should I also do some quantitative research?
Question

A. What title would you give to each paragraph?

1. Ways of collecting qualititative data.

2. Qualitative research: questions to ask yourself
3. Who does market research?
4. Why carry out market research?
5. Quantitative research: questions to ask yourself
6. Types of data
7. Ways of collecting quantitative data

B. What is meant by primary source of information?

C. What is meant by secondary source of information?

D. What are the primary and secondary sources of information for conducting research?

Home-work

Questions

Research and answer the following questions:

1. a. Define feasibility study.

b. Explain the following reasons why a feasibility study is important:
i. to ascertain its viability
ii. to determine the possible costs attached to the project/business
iii. to get possible sources of finance