Market Research

• What is market research?

  The organised gathering, recording and analysis of data in order to better understand the behaviour of customers
• What is primary research?

  New information collected first hand
• What is secondary research?

  Existing information collected by somebody else
• What are some advantages of primary research?

  • Private
  • Ask what you like
  • Opportunity to ask more detailed questions than what is found online (specific to business)
• What are some disadvantages of primary research?

  • Risk of survey bias
  • Time consuming (meaning costly)
  • Sampling may not be representative
• What are some advantages of secondary research?

  • Often free and easy to obtain
  • Good source of market insights
  • Quick access and use
• What are some disadvantages of secondary research?

  • can quickly become out of date
  • Not tailored to business needs (very generic)
  • Specialist reports often quite expensive
• What are the strategic purposes/reasons for market research?

  • to reduce the business risks
  • to aid decision making
  • to promote the organisation
• What are the marketing purposes/reasons for market research?

  • to understand the market
  • to gain customers' views and understand their needs
  • to inform product development
• What are the benefits of producing/selling a product that customers want and like?

  • increased sales/revenue
  • gain competitor advantage
  • opportunity to re-invest back into business
  • increased customer attention and loyalty
  • increase in reputation
• What are the methods of primary research?

  • Observations
  • Consumer trials
  • Questionnaires/surveys
  • Test marketing
  • Focus group
• What is a pro and con of observation?

  PRO: the observer can look at the non-verbal behaviour of individuals, which may allow more information around the reactions of customers towards a product

  CON: high cost per unit of observation and the length of the observation may be prolonged to a long amount of time
• What is a pro and con of consumer trials?

  PRO: may save a business money in the long run if they find out there isn't a demand for a specific product. Can also catch higher levels of customer attention

  CON: still costly to set up and may be time consuming to carry out
• What is a pro and con of questionnaires?

  PRO: cheaper than interviews and can easily target a particular customer

  CON: difficult to get back completed forms and questions may not be understood
• What is a pro and con of test marketing?

  PRO: reduces the risk of a full-launch failure (which can be extremely costly) and it provides a way to tweak the product before a full-launch

  CON: test market may not be representative of the full market, which may lead to inefficient decision making and therefore low consumer demand
• What is a pro and con of a focus group?

  PRO: the data is usually very accurate and the group that is chosen genrally represents the target market

  CON: the groups may be small which may mean they may noy fully represent all customers and data collection id expensive per person. It takes a long time to select the participants.
• What are the methods of secondary market research?

  • Competitors data
  • Books, newspapers, trade magazines
  • Government publications and statistics
  • Mintel publications
  • Internal data
• What is a pro and con of internal data?

  PRO: it is already avaliable for analysis and therefore quite quick to access, this enhances ability to make fast decisions

  CON: if the business is fairly new, the internal data may be limited, therefore not bringing favourable results
• What is a pro and con of competitors data?

  PRO: allows you to monitor the performance of brands in your niche, which opens opportunities to compare stratergies with competitors'

  CON: you may be faced with an immense amount of from a number of competitors. It may be possible to misinterpret some of the data.
• What is a pro and con of books, newspapers, trade magazines?

  PRO: May provide a business with information on current fashions preferences. This may be useful for developing products suited to the latest customer trends.

  CON: If it's not regularly updated, it may lead to the collection of inaccurate data.
• What is a pro and con of government publications and statistics?

  PRO: Data collection time and costs can be saved as these are already existent and are easily accessible.

  CON: May be out of date, leading to negative impacts on decisions
• What is a pro and con of Mintel publications?

  PRO: Covers ever industry and guarantees a vast amount of data collection for a business

  Con: May not always give precise answer to a company's question, meaning a business may not be able to find the exact information they may be looking for.