Marketing Research
Marketing research is related with collecting facts and figures from the market to assist the managers to make correct decisions.
Need for Marketing Research
There may be many reasons for carrying out market research.
It may be carried out find out
- the likes and dislikes of the customer
- s,appropriate price for the produc
- how many people might buy the produc
- finding the profile of the customers
- the places they buyabout competitors and
- the promotion techniques which might be most effective.
Types of Information
Market research collects two types of data:
- Quantitative data: finding the quantity or ‘how many’
- Qualitative data: finding out the opinions and judgement or reasons for particular action.
Primary research
Also known as field research, it involves collection and collation of original data through direct contact with potential or existing customers.
Methods of Primary research are:
- Questionnaire: a set of questions focusing on finding information. It can be postal, telephonic or face to face
- Interviews: Prepared questions asked by an interviewer and detailed input is collected.
- Consumer Panels: Groups of people who are willing to provide their input and feedback on particular products or services.
- Observations: recording, watching or auditing a particular activity or product.
- Experiments: for new products to a limited geographical area or limited number of customers and finding out their feedback.
Secondary research
Also known as desk research. It involves collecting information that has already been collected by others and is available for use.
Secondary data can be collected from internal and external sources.
Internal sources
Information which is available for inside the business such as
- Sales department records, customer records and sales reports
- Opinions of distributors and public relations departments
- Financial statements and records
External sources
These include:
- Newspapers
- Government statistics and census reports
- Media reports
- Market research agencies’ reports
- Employers’ association reports
Accuracy of Marketing Research
The accuracy of marketing research data collected depends on the following factors:
- The size of the sample: the bigger the better.
- Type of sample: Quota sample may be more accurate then random sampling.
- Testing the questionnaire on a small sample and improving it and then going in for an actual survey will be more accurate rather than going straightaway for data collection.
- Primary Research tends to be more accurate than secondary research because the later might be carried out by someone else for other purpose. Moreover you can never be sure of the methods of collecting it.
- Newspaper articles may be biased, Statistics may be outdated.
