Market research

Market research

Market research : The gathering, recording and analysis of information about consumer preferences for a good or service, in order to make informed decisions about a potential market.

Benefits of carrying out market Research :

• Info about customer's needs and wants
• Predict demand
• Consumer reactions to changes
• Info about competition
• Best price to charge customers
• Promotion techniques
• Likely level of sales

Types of market research :

1. Field research 2. Desk research

1. Field research :

• Involves going into the marketplace.
• Aka primary research
• direct contact with (potential) customers

Advantage	Disadvantage
Get up-to-date info	Time - consuming

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Market research

E.G

• Surveys: Face to face or written
• Focus groups: meeting with a group to discuss a product
• OBSERVATION: Looking at customer buying habits.

Involves questioning consumers in relation to products and services. Question types include: closed (yes / no) multiple choice open-ended (own Response)

• It would be impossible to survey all consumers, so Market researchers usually select a sample of the population to represent all consumers. This is called sampling.

Carrying out surveys:

Method	AD	Dis
Personal interview	Allows for detailed response	Time consuming consumers may feel uncomfortable
Postal survey	Cheaper	Low response rate
Telephone survey	Wide geographical area	Difficult to get response quick responses to get over with
Online survey	Responses analysed automatically	Many consumers ignore screen pop-ups

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Market research

FOCUS GROUPS :

A group of consumers brought together to discuss a particular product or service.

Ad	Dis
Gather reactions and opinions from a group of people	Some members may dominate and influence other opinions.

OBSERVATION :

Involves watching customers in action

EG :

• No. of customers selecting a specific product
• Time it takes to select a product.

Ad	Dis
Cheap Large group can be observed	Time consuming Limited info

DESK RESEARCH :

• Involves looking & analysing info that has already been gathered for another purpose / from another source.
• secondary research
• can be internal or external

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Market research

Table 1: Secondary Research Analysis

Ad	Dis
Easy to obtain Quick Cheaper than field	Info gathered = not for specific needs of business = not relevant info may be outdated Researcher has lots of reading

E.G.

Ad	Dis
Business sales report	Identify most / least successful products sold by the business in the past
Newspaper & magazines	Contain info about competitors / consumers
Internet	Checking competitions prices & info on market size and trends
Central statistics office (CSO)	Info on pop of cities, age, gender marital status of pop

USES OF MARKET RESEARCH :

• Identify what's happening in a market
• Identify what may happen in future
• Explain causes of change in the market.
• Investigate new market possibilities