Business- Market Research

• Market research

  The act of gathering information about consumers, their wants and their needs
• Types of market research

  • Primary research (expensive and time consuming but directly related)
  • Secondary research (quicker and cheaper but not directly related)
• Types of data collected

  • Quantitative data (factual data)
  • Qualitative data (opinion based)
• Primary (field) market research methods

  • Observations (watching people's actions, e.g. footfall analysis)
  • Questionnaires (written forms respondents fill in)
  • Surveys (asking people about their views)
  • Focus groups (small groups discussing a product/service)
  • Consumer trials (consumers try out products and give feedback)
• Primary (field) market research

  • Benefits: directly related to consumers
• Secondary (desk) market research

  • Benefits: quicker and cheaper, but not directly related
• Secondary (desk) market research sources

  • Internal data (business-generated information, e.g. sales trends)
  • Books/newspapers/trade magazines (to keep up to date)
  • Competitors' data (annual reports, websites, menus etc.)
  • Government publications and statistics (demographic and economic data)
  • Purchased research material (e.g. Mintel reports, detailed but expensive)
• Customer feedback techniques


  • Social media/online communities (reviews and comments)
  • Online surveys, customer comment cards, telephone & email surveys
  • Comments made to staff members
  • Email contact forms
• Purpose of market research

  • To reduce risk (knowing what target market wants)
  • To understand the market (competitors, customers, wants and needs)
  • To promote the organisation (may make customers feel more involved and positive)
  • To aid decision making (product, pricing, where to sell, how to advertise)
  • To gain customers' views and understand their needs
  • To inform product development (finding out what people want in the future/how to improve products)
• Qualitative market research focuses on gathering non-numerical data to understand opinions, motivations, and underlying reasons for consumer behavior.
• Quantitative market research involves collecting numerical data that can be quantified and analyzed statistically.