Chapter 11 - Market Research
Lesson Objective: To understand the differences between quantitative and qualitative data
Primary and Secondary Market Research are essentially different:
Let's dive in more details on those two types of research/data:
Primary Research: collecting first-hand data that serves the research purpose:
Primary Research can be of two types:
- Quantitative Research, which produces numerical results and can be presented as tables, charts, and analyzed through statistics (33% of students don't deliver their homework);
- Qualitative Research, focused on gathering opinions and factors influencing purchase behavior and not numerical data.
There are mostly four methods of Primary of Market Research:
Focus Groups
Observation
Test Market
Interviews
1. Focus Groups: meetings with 10-15 potential or actual customers to discuss opinions on new products, packaging, brands, ads, etc.
- Good source of qualitative data;
- Time-consuming as many rounds are needed;
- No numerical data is generated.
2. Observation: observing customers as they shop and/or consume products in their 'natural environments'.
- Customers are behaving naturally and therefore findings are accurate;
- Time-consuming and expensive as it requires trained researchers to conduct;
- Observers do not interact with customers which doesn't give the possibility for asking questions.
3. Test Market: producing and selling products at a limited quantity in a selected location:
- To collect feedback from customers and improve before the mass launch;
- Increases the chances of a successful launch of the product;
- Time-consuming and allows competitors to catch up with similar products;
- It's expensive to do since the product needs to be made and sold for testing.
4. Surveys: which can be of different types, some of which will generate qualitative data and some will generate quantitative data:
Interviews - Qualitative Data:
- Asking and explaining open-ended questions;
- Collecting and recording answers;
- Expensive as it's a one-by-one method and requires multiple rounds;
- Can be misleading if the interviewer is not skilled for the job.
Online Surveys - Quantitative Data: questionnaires are sent online to people (email, social media, etc.) with close-ended questions (multiple-choice or scale questions):
- Allows businesses to research people in different geographical areas at the same time;
- Inexpensive;
- Can be instantly collected and analyzed;
- It can have a low-response rate when receivers tag it as 'junk' and ignore them.
Mail Surveys - Quantitative Data: questionnaires sent to peoples' homes to be answered and returned:
- Allows for gathering data from multiple geographical areas at the same time;
- More expensive than online surveys but less expensive than interviews;
- It oftentimes have a low-response rate as people tend to ignore them ('junk mail').
To-Do List:
Case Study "Kellogg's Crunchy Nut brand extension" (p. 158)
Chapter 11 - Market Research
Comments