Market Research
Qualitative and Quantitative
Secondary research
Quantitative data is numerical e.g. percentages from closed yes or no questions.
Benefits
It provides a business with detailed information that cannot be expressed in a graph or chart.
Qualitative is people’s opinions and comes from open-ended responses.
Drawbacks
It can be time consuming and costly to gather and analyse.
Benefits
It has the benefit of being simple and quick to analyse. It can also be analysed in a way that gives easy-to-understand results.
Drawbacks
Quantitative data lacks specific opinions and doesn’t always allow a business to see exactly what its customers think.
Primary Research
Focus groups
Primary research is new research that a business undertakes itself. It involves collecting new data and information that has not been collected before.
Questionnaires
Interviews
Benefits
Businesses can get a more detailed answer to questions and can get multiple opinions
Drawbacks
If the group is too small not enough opinions will be gathered. If the group is too big, some people may not get a chance to contribute.
Benefits
They can get customers opinions on things that the businesses is looking to sell
Drawbacks
They can be time consuming when only interviewing one person at a time
Benefits
Can ask closed questions to get yes/no responses- this is easy to analyse.
Drawbacks
Can be time consuming to get a wide range of responses- this can be very costly to carry out.
Observations
Benefits
It is a direct opinion from customers and can observe their reaction so the data would be up to date
Drawbacks
This can be time consuming as it may be hard to get customers to try out products and let them asses them
Secondary research is gathering existing data that has already been produced.
Market reports
Internet research
Government reports
Drawbacks May not be relevant to your company
Benefits
Can include good facts about people and what they like
Benefits They are specific to a certain industry
Drawbacks
The points may be biased to certain companies in that industry
Benefits
Can take information from competitors and provides a business with an overview of information relating to its industry and the types of products and services other businesses offer.
Drawbacks
The information could be out of date