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Market research (Accuracy of market research data that has been collected…

- - - - Opinions of distribution and public relations personnel
      - Finance department
      - Sales department sales records, pricing data, customer records, sales reports
      - Customer Service department.
  - - - Newspapers may have useful articles, e.g, about the general state of the economy and whether customers are expected to increase or decrease their spending in the near future.
      - If there is a trade association for the industry, it often provides information for the business in that industry. E.g, there might be an agricultural association which helps farmers who grow particular crops.
      - Government statistics are a detailed source of general information about such things as the population and its age structure. This is available in most countries.
      - Market research agencies are specialist agencies who carry out research on behalf of companies or anyone who commissions them. They sometimes publish reports of their research into particular markets. However whilst the reports contain very detailed information about the market, they are expensive to buy.
      - The internet provides an easily accessible source of a very wide range of information, including information on companies from their own websites, on government statistics, newspapers, etc. In fact, any paper-based sources of information can often be easily and quickly accessed through the internet. However, care must be taken to check information it is not always accurate.
- - - - Audits - e.g, the counting of stocks in shops to see which prducts have sold well.
      - Advantage: It is quite an inexpensive way.
      - Watching - includes such activities as counting how many different types of people pass into a particular shop and also come out having bought something.
      - Disadvantage: The information only gives basic figures. It does not prove the business with reasons for consumer decisions.
      - Recording - e.g, meters can be fitted to monitor which television channels are being watched.
    - - Advantage: They can provide detailed information about consumers' opinions.
      - Disadvantage: Can be time-consuming, expensive and biased is of some people in the panel are influenced by the opinions of others.
    - - Interviews can be carried out with one person or in groups, where there is a single interviewer putting the questions to a group of people. This is less expensive than asking people individually, but it does run the risk of answers from people not being what they really think, but being influenced by what the others in the group say.
      - Disadvantages:
        
        Whether consciously or unconsciously, the interviewer could lead the interviewee into answering a certain way, resulting in inaccurate results due to interviewer bias.
        
        Interviews are very time-consuming to carry out and therefor, they are often an expensive way of gathering information.
      - Advantages:
        
        Detailed information about what the interviewees like and dislike about the product can be gathered.
        
        The interviewer is able to explain any questions that the interviewee does not understand.
      - Samples would have to be selected as it would be too expensive and impractical to try to include all the relevant population. This could be:
        
        A random sample. This means every member of the population has an even chance of being selected. People are selected at random(often by computer), e.g, every 100th name in a telephone directory. The advantage is that everyone has an even chance of being picked, but not everyone in the population may be a consumer of the particular product being investigated.
        
        A quota sample. This is when people are selected based of certain characteristics, e.g, age, gender or income. Researchers are given a quota.In street interviews, researchers can choose who to interview, providing they ask a certain number of people with certain characteristics. E.g, they may be required to interview 20 people from the age group 10-25, 30 from age 26-45, and 20 from age 46-60. The researchers can then find out the views of these specific people.
    - - Deciding what questions to ask to obtain accurate results is difficult. Some may not be clear, some lead the respondents to answer in a certain way which may not be what they really think. The researcher also needs to decide who to ask.
      - Disadvantages:
        
        If questions are not well thought out, the answers to them will not be very accurate. It may be very misleading for the business if it is thought that a product is liked by consumers, when in fact the respondents were only saying they thought the product was quite attractive but they would not actually buy it.
        
        Collating and analysing the results is also time-consuming.
        
        Carrying out questionnaires can take a lot of time and money.
      - Advantages:
        
        They can be linked to prize draw websites to encourage people to fill in the questionnaire.
        
        Detailed qualitative information can be gathered about the product or service.
        
        They can be carried out online, which makes it cheaper and easier to collate/present the results.
        
        Customers' opinions about the product or service can be obtained.
      - Online surveys can be carried out on specialised websites that allow researchers to put questionnaires. Researchers will then email people to ask them to go onto the online survey.