1.2.9 market research

• purpose of market research:

  • identify and understand customer needs
  • identify gaps in the market
  • reduce risk
  • inform business decisions
• quantitative research should be used for reducing risk (determining whether the market wants to product/if the demand is big enough to be worth development costs)
• secondary research:

  • finding out data that already exists
  • internet, trade magazines, government reports
• primary research:

  • asking directly for opinions
  • talk to existing customers, potential customers and potential retailers
• methods of primary research:

  • online surveys: cheap, used regularly, only answered by people with time eg old people
  • questionnaire: assess demand, identify target customers, takes a long time, questions might be bias
  • focus group: allows in depth answers, insight into customer behaviour, time consuming and expensive
  • observation: can show customer behaviour, time consuming and expensive