MARKETING

RESEARCH METHODS
 INTRODUCTION
• Marketing research involves collecting, organizing, analyzing and
communicating information that can be used in order to make an informed
marketing decision.
• Performing market research will complement your marketing mix strategy as
it enables you to make educated decisions regarding selecting markets, your
image or branding and products or services.
 ONLINE RESEARCH

• The use of computer networks, including the

Internet, to assist in any phase of the marketing
research process including development of the
problem, research design, data gathering, analysis,
and report writing and distribution.
 5 key steps in Marketing Research
1. Define the Problem
2. Collect the Data
3. Analyze and interpret the data
4. Reach a conclusion
5. Implement your research
 1. DEFINE THE PROBLEM
• In this stage you need to identify the actual problems that are relating to the
apparent symptoms.
• What information is needed in order to solve the problem?
• For example, poor sales within a business are not the problem, they are the
symptom of a larger issue such as a weak marketing strategy.
 Further business problems may include:

• Who are your target customers?

• What method could be implemented to reach these customers?
• Who are your customers and what advantages and disadvantages do they
have over your business?
• What size is the consumer market you are trying to engage?
An Overview of Market Research Methods

There are several ways to categorize the various market research methods. •
There are two types of market research that can be performed:
1. PRIMARY RESEARCH
2. SECONDARY RESEARCH
 1. PRIMARY MARKET RESEARCH
Involves collecting information from sources directly by conducting interviews and
surveys, and by talking to customers and established businesses.
The vast majority of techniques fit into one of Five categories:
i. SURVEY
ii. FOCUS GROUP
iii. INTERVIEWS
iv. OBSERVATION
v. EXPERIMENTS/FIELD TRIALS
 I). SURVEYS

• Surveys are perhaps the most widely known and utilized

method when it comes to market research. Surveys come
in a wide variety of shapes and sizes, from that little
“feedback card” on the table at your favorite restaurant to
those never-ending web surveys that make you want to
punch your computer.
Surveys make a lot of sense when the following
conditions are true:
• You want to measure something objectively (or quantitatively).
• You have something specific to measure. In other words, you are
beyond the exploratory portion of your research and you now
want to test more specific questions.
• You have a relatively large sample to query.
• You have the resources (time and money) to conduct a survey.
 Surveys are not a great research tool when:
• You are still exploring your topic. In this case, you don’t know the right
(specific) questions to ask in a survey. Instead, you might conduct a focus
group to get a better understanding of the topic. First we have to explore the
topic and discover the attributes, you can then measure their relative
importance with survey devices.
• You don’t have the luxury of time and/or money to run a
survey.
• Your available audience is too small (for now, let’s define
“too small” very simply as less than 30 people. If you are
curious why I picked the number 30, here is my
rationale).
• Surveys can be used effectively for satisfaction research (customers
or employee), measuring attitudes, pricing research, fact gathering
(e.g. the census), and much much more. You’ll find surveys
administered in all sorts of ways, including snail mail form, web
forms, face-to-face (that guy at the mall with the clipboard), over
the phone (the guy who calls during dinner), on the sidebar of a
blog, and even on mobile devices via text message or
otherwise. Surveys can be self-administered (the respondent reads
and answers questions alone) or they can be administered by a
person who records your answers.
ZARA QUESTIONNAIRE
 II).FOCUS GROUP
• A focus group is a small, but demographically diverse group of people and whose
reactions are studied especially in market research or political analysis in guided or
open discussions about a new product or something else to determine the reactions
that can be expected from a larger population.
• It is a form of qualitative research consisting of interviews in which a group of
people are asked about their perceptions, opinions, beliefs, and attitudes towards a
product, service, concept, advertisement, idea, or packaging.
• In it Questions are asked in an interactive group setting where participants are free
to talk with other group members. During this process, the researcher either takes
notes or records the vital points he or she is getting from the group.
A focus group is a common qualitative research technique used by companies for
marketing purposes.
A focus group typically consists of a small number of participants, usually around six to
12, from within a company's target market.
The consumers are brought together and led through discussions of important company
and brand topics by a moderator.
For example:
Let's say you're beginning a research project on the popularity of Apple products. Perhaps
you want to conduct in-depth interviews with Apple consumers, but before doing that,
you want to get a feel for what kinds of questions and topics will work in an interview, and
also see if consumers might bring up topics that you wouldn't think to include in your list
of questions.
A focus group would be a great option for you to talk casually with Apple consumers
about what they like and don't like about the company's products, and how they use the
products in their lives.
Focus Group Features
• Within a focus group, a moderator poses a series of questions
intended to gain insight about the way the group views the brand,
product and related images, slogans, concepts or symbols.
• As a representative sample of consumers targeted by the company, a
focus group can offer insights consistent with those shared by the
broader target market.
• Focus group moderators should pose questions in a way that does
not lead group members to provide desired responses, but rather
honest and insightful responses.
Benefits
• A focus group is generally more useful when outcomes of research are very unpredictable and the
researcher is looking for more open feedback, as opposed to comparisons of potential results as in a
quantified research method.
• A focus group also allows consumers to express clear ideas and share feelings that do not typically
come out in a quantified survey or paper test.
• As a socially oriented research method, it captures real-life data in a social setting.
• It is flexible.
• It has high face validity, meaning that it measures what it is intended to measure.
• It generates quick results.
• It costs little to conduct.
• Group dynamics often bring out aspects of the topic or reveal information about the subject that
may not have been anticipated by the researcher or emerged from individual interviews.
Drawbacks

• As a socially oriented research method, it captures real-life data in a social setting.

• It is flexible.
• It has high face validity, meaning that it measures what it is intended to measure.
• It generates quick results.
• It costs little to conduct.
• Group dynamics often bring out aspects of the topic or reveal information about
the subject that may not have been anticipated by the researcher or emerged from
individual interviews.
 III). INTERVIEWS
• Interviews are semi-structured discussions with an individual. They include
open-ended questions where the interviewer can probe further to understand
underlying perceptions and behaviours.
• Like focus groups, interviews are useful for exploratory research. Use this
market research method when you are interested in digging into a specific
issue very deeply, searching for customer problems,
understanding psychological motivations and underlying perceptions, etc.
• Not to be confused with "telesales" (which is a method of selling), the telephone
interview allow quicker feedback than a postal survey. However, potential
customers are often wary of being called and may be reluctant to give anything
other than short answers
• When preparing for and interviews, you need to develop a list of questions and
key points so that you can have a productive conversation with your participants.
To get the most out of a or interview:
• ask open-ended questions - ones that can't be answered with 'yes', 'no' or another single
word (e.g. rather than ask 'are you happy with our products?' ask 'which of our products are
you happy with and why?')
• repeat participants' answers to make sure you understand what they are saying
• ask follow-up questions if you need more information about a participant's answer.
• Plan where and when you will conduct or interviews and
think about who will conduct them. You may decide to
use a professional market research company to help if you
are unfamiliar with the process. Make sure you record the
answers from the interview and conversations in the focus
group. You might do this with a sound recorder or take
written notes. Typically focus groups last 1-3 hours and
focus group participants are usually paid to attend.
 BEST USES OF INTERVIEW
Interviews are a more expensive alternative to focus groups and are generally used in the following
situations:
• The topic is too personal or sensitive to be discussed in a group, or confidentiality of the
participant is required.
• A person's opinion may easily be influenced by others in the group.
• It is as important to learn as much about what people don't know about a subject, as what they
do know. In a group setting, knowledgeable participants may inhibit less knowledgeable ones
from participating.
• Logistic problems may make groups impractical. For example, if participants are geographically
dispersed, travel time and costs may be prohibitive.
• The interview subjects are executives from competing
firms who would be reluctant to open up in a group
situation.
• The interview subjects are busy and it is difficult to
schedule group sessions, or it is important to visit
interview subjects individually at their convenience.
 CONSIDERATION
• It can be helpful to use a list of mostly open-ended questions to be asked in
person or by telephone.
• An in-depth interview gives participants the opportunity to express their
views.
• Interviews typically last from 15 to 40 minutes, but they can last longer,
depending on the participant's interest in the topic.
• This technique allows the interviewer to get detailed descriptions of
individual experiences.
 IV). OBSERVATION
• Observational research can come in a different shapes and sizes. In general,
there are two categories: strict observation with no interaction with the
subject at all, or observation with some level of intervention/interaction
between the researcher and subject. The greatest benefit of this technique is
that researchers can measure actual behavior, as opposed to user-reported
behavior. That’s a big deal, because people will often report one thing on a
survey, but behave in another way when the rubber hits the road.
Observational research is a direct reflection of “real life,” so these insights
are often very reliable and useful.
• There are many examples of observational research. Here are a few:
• Usability testing – Watching a subject use a prototype device is one form
of observational research. Again, this can be done with or without
intervention.
• Eye Tracking – Let’s say you have come up with a website. You might
ask people to navigate your website, and you will use eye tracking
technology to create a “heat map” of where their eyes go on the
website. This information can be used to re-design and optimize the
page elements.
• Contextual Inquiry – This is a hybrid form of research that
involves interviewing subjects as the researcher watches
them work or play in their natural environment
• In-Home Observation – Watching a family member go
through the morning routine in their home might turn up
useful insights into pain-points that need solving
• In-Store Observation – Simply watching shoppers in action
is another form of observational research. What do
shoppers notice? How do they go through a store? etc.
 EXAMPLE

• Mystery Shoppers – This involves hiring a regular person

to go into a store and pretend to be an everyday shopper.
They will then report on aspects of their experience, such
as store cleanliness, politeness of staff, etc. In the case,
the mystery shopper is the researcher and the store is the
subject being observed.
 V). EXPERIMENTS/FIELD TRIALS
• Experiments and field trials involve scientific testing, where specific
variables and hypotheses can be tested. These tests can be conducted in
controlled environments or out in the field (natural settings).This form of
market research is always quantitative in nature.
• Experiments and field trials can be a hairy topic with lots of jargon , but
here’s a simple example that demonstrate an effective online experiment: in
his first presidential campaign, Obama used “ A/B “ testing to optimize his
campaign donation page. Some website visitors would see one image and
others (at random) would see a different image.
• The webpage team was able to measure which image was resulting in more
donations, and they could quickly decide to use the more favorable image for
all users. By employing this simple market research experiment on which
website images performed better, Obama was able to maximize
contributions in a major way.
• Another example might be a cereal company making two different packaging
styles and delivering each one to limited test market stores where their
individual sales can be measured.
Marketing experimentation is a research method which can be defined as "the
act of conducting such an investigation or test".
• It is testing a market that is segmented to discover new opportunities for
organizations.

• By controlling conditions in an experiment, organizations will record and

make decisions based on consumer behavior.

• Marketing experimentation is commonly used to find the best method for

maximizing revenuesthrough the acquisition of new customers.
• For example; two groups of customers are exposed to different advertising
(test). How did consumers react to advertising compared to the other
group? (measurable). Did the advertising increase sales for each group?
(result).
 SECONDARY MARKET REASEARCH
• Secondary research is simply the act of seeking out existing research and
data. Secondary data could be US Census data, Twitter comments, journals,
and much more. The best thing about secondary research is that is it often
free and it usually can be done quickly. Your job as a secondary researcher is
to find existing data that can be applied to your specific project. It is
possible that you might not be able to find secondary data that is suitable for
your research needs. If that’s the case, you’ll need to conduct your own
primary research
 SOURCES OF SECONDARY RESEARCH
• Information on the internet
• Existing market research results
• Existing data from your own stock lists and customer database
• Information from agencies such as industry bodies, government agencies, libraries
and local councils.
• Literature Review
• A literature review is a text of a scholarly paper, which includes the current knowledge
including substantive findings, as well as theoretical and methodological contributions to a
particular topic.
 PROS AND CONS OF PRIMARY
RESEARCH
prō contrā
Can aim questions directly at your Expensive: £10,000+ per survey
research objective
Latest information from the marketplace Risk of questionnaire and interviewer
bias.
Can assess the psychology of the Research findings may only be usable if
customer comparable backdata exists.
 PROS AND CONS OF SECONDARY
RESEARCH
prō contrā
Often obtained without cost Data may not be updated regularly

Good overview of a market Not tailored to your own needs

Usually based on actual sale figures, or Expensive to buy reports on many

research on large samples different marketplaces