Market research

• A benefit of carrying out market segmentation is that it allows you to generate more sales as customers are more targeted.
• Factors that contribute to greater sales include greater profit, customer satisfaction, reinvestment into other areas of the business, greater customer loyalty, repeat sales, and less money spent on marketing.
• Sampling is a group of respondents to a market research exercise who are selected to be representative of the views of the target market as a whole.
• If the sample size is very large, the research will take a long time and may prove to be very expensive.
• If the sample size is too small, there is a greater chance that random factors will make the results inaccurate.
• A drawback of segmenting your market is that you're essentially putting all your eggs in one basket.
• Primary research is also known as field research and gathers first hand information.
• Secondary information involves the use of previously collected information.
• One advantage of primary research is that it provides a competitive advantage as only the business has access to how 581173 businesses were registered in 2014.
• A disadvantage of primary research is that it is expensive due to the cost of interviewers questioning new businesses.
• Secondary research is quicker than primary as the information already exists on how many businesses were registered in 2012-2014.
• A disadvantage of secondary research is that it could be outdated as the information is 8 years old.
• In conclusion, secondary research is more quantitative as they visit 25 locations across England, Wales and Scotland.
• Primary research gathers first hand information, meaning the data gathered is new and should be directly relevant to the needs of the business.
• Secondary research involves previously collected information, therefore the information gathered is not specifically for the business but is instead adapted for its use.
• An advantage of primary research is that it helps develop the product or service to be suited to the customers and audience.
• A disadvantage of primary research is that it can be influenced by personal bias, leading to unreliable answers on behalf of personal brand loyalties and therefore not providing information that could be used to aid the business’ progression.
• An advantage of secondary research is that it is low cost, allowing brands to reinvest in their product rather than their research and therefore have a better chance of success.
• A disadvantage of secondary research is that it can be accessed by everyone, leading to competitors using the same information to aid their business and therefore not creating any individuality or allowing them to stand out.
• In conclusion, primary research is better for a stable business as it helps them to stand out and become a better competitor.
• Secondary research is better for new businesses as it is cheaper and allows them to further develop their product.
• A negative of secondary research is that it's not specific to the business because it isn't first hand data, therefore the product won't be specific to the target market.
• To conclude, primary research is more reliable and specific, however it may be expensive to a beginner business.
• Secondary research may be more suitable depending on the business' budget.
• Context was a huge issue for most.
• Some made no reference to case study or very little.
• Capped at half marks for no context.
• A lot of us are being vague in our responses.
• Primary research is collected by yourself, and secondary research already exists as it has been carried out by someone else.
• A benefit of primary research is that it is more reliable as it is carried out by the business, leading to the information gathered being more relevant to the individual businesses needs, therefore enabling the business to make smarter, more informed decisions such as what products to release which will enable them to avoid failing in their first year like the majority of new businesses in the Uk do.
• A drawback of using primary is that it can be incredibly time consuming for a business as it requires the business owner or employees to do the research themselves.
• Secondary research involves the summary of existing research, which is contrasted with primary research in that primary research involves the generation of data, whereas secondary research uses primary research sources as a source of data for analysis.
• Primary market research is far more beneficial than secondary market research because the information you obtain is exclusive and new compared to secondary market research where the data might be outdated, leading to accurate understanding of the audience therefore the product is more suited to customers.
• A benefit of secondary research is that it is inexpensive and quite often free, leading to start-up business having more funds available to invest in other areas of the business such as offering a wider product range.
• A drawback to secondary research is that it's generic and not specific to the individual needs of a business because it has been researched by somebody else, leading to a business needing to carry out additional primary research if the available research isn't relevant enough, therefore costing the small start up business more and increasing their chances of failing within the first 12 months.
• Overall I think Primary research is the most useful as it gives a business the exact responses it needs which can help them to spend time on areas of running the business, like sales and finances, however this depends on the amount of time and money they spend researching for information themselves.
• In the future the business should use more secondary research as they will already have the established data from their own primary research and can use the secondary data to supplement it.