Market research 1

• Primary research is the gathering of data that has not been collected before.
• Divide by the number of data points.
• Techniques used in primary research include questionnaires, surveys, focus groups, and interviews.
• Questionnaires can be sent to consumers in the post or put in with guarantee forms for products.
• Advantages of questionnaires include that they are cheaper than interviews to collect data and can easily target particular consumers.
• Disadvantages of questionnaires include that it is difficult to predict how many completed questionnaires will be available and the people filling in the forms may not understand the questions being asked.
• Surveys are somewhat similar to questionnaires however data is presented on a chart rather than with consumers own answers.
• Focus groups are small groups of people who are carefully selected to represent the target market for a product or service.
• Advantages of focus groups include that they are chosen to represent the target market for a business, the data from them is usually very accurate and can be relied upon to make important decisions.
• Disadvantages of focus groups include that they are small groups which makes the collection of data from them more expensive per person than interviews and questionnaires.
• The selection of people to take part in a focus group is time-consuming and costly.
• Interviews involve customers being asked questions and the interviewer filling in the answers.
• Group interviews are sometimes used where a group of customers are asked the same questions at the same time.
• Interviews can also take place over the telephone.
• Secondary research involves looking at research information that has been collected by another organisation.
• Techniques used in secondary research include census, internet research, trade publications, and government reports.
• Census is a collection of data about every person living in Britain, including information on their income and lifestyle, which is conducted every ten years.
• Internet research involves using the internet to gather information about a company or product.
• Secondary research is usually cheaper to collect than primary research as a wide range of data is readily available, especially with the growth of the internet.
• The mean (average) of a data set is found by adding all numbers in the data set and then dividing by the number of values in the set.
• Convenience sampling is a non-probability sampling method where units are selected for inclusion in the sample because they are the easiest for the researcher to access.
• Systematic sampling is a probability sampling technique in which a random sample, with a fixed periodic interval, is selected from a larger population.
• Disadvantages of trial marketing include it is still costly and the area chosen must fully reflect the target market of the business.
• Cluster sampling is a method of probability sampling that is often used to study large populations, particularly those that are widely geographically dispersed.
• Disadvantages of secondary research include the research information might not be exactly what a business wants, the data may not be up to date, and the data might not be in a form that the business can analyse easily.
• Random sampling is a technique in which each sample has an equal probability of being chosen and attempts to achieve an unbiased representation of the total population.
• The standard deviation of a data set is found by first finding the mean, then for each data point, finding the square of its distance to the mean, and then summing the values from the previous step.
• Sampling is a method of collecting opinions from a number of people, chosen from a specific group, in order to find out about the whole group.
• Stratified sampling is a type of sampling method in which the total population is divided into smaller groups or strata to complete the sampling process.
• Quota sampling is a purposive or non-probability sampling technique where subjects are selected based on certain mutually exclusive criteria.
• Trial marketing is conducted in a small area, a business may save money by having a trial for a product or service, just in case it finds out that customers don’t want what the business has for sale.
• Trade publications are a regular published collection of articles that address topics of interest to members of a particular profession, such as law enforcement or advertising or banking.
• Government reports are documents required to be filed by any Subject Company with any Governmental Authority.