4.4 Market Research

• Market research refers to marketing activities designed to discover the opinions, beliefs and preferences of potential and existing custoemrs.
• Primary market research involves gathering new and first-hand data for a specific purpose.
• Surveys include a series of questions in a document that is a type of primary market research.
• Interviews involve one to one discussions between an interviewer and interviewee to investigate their personal circumstances and opinions.
• Focus groups are small discussion groups used to gain insight into their opinions, attitudes and behaviors.
• Observations is the process of physically watching how people behave.
• Secondary market research involves the collection of second hand data and information that already exists.
• Market analysis reveals the trends and characteristics for a particular product or industry such as market size etc. It can be reviewed through market research firms, competitors or trade publications.
• Academic journals often discuss businesses and include peer-reviewed articles from industry experts and academics.
• Government publications publish broad data such as population censuses, inflation rates etc.
• Media articles are a type of secondary market research.
• Online content is a type of secondary market research.
• Qualitative research is receiving non-numerical answers from responders.
• Quantitative research is receiving factual and measurable information rather than people's opinions.
• Market sampling is selecting a small group of people for a primary research purpose.
• Quota sampling is when a certain number of people from different market segments are selected.
• Random sampling is when everyone in the population is given an equal chance of being selected for the sample.
• Convenience sampling uses subjects that are easiest to reach.