Data collection methods
Consumer panels
Questionaires
Emails
Sensors
Interviews
advantages
disadvantages
honest feedback, can ask detailed questions, panel are likely to be engaged as they agreed to be a part of it.
time consuming, panel might not be diverse enough to represent a normal society, expensive to run, each panel may require materials to test.
advantage
disadvantage
-you can customize the type of answer you receive
-you can get info from lots of people
-cheap and easy
-comparisons easy to view if boolean (yes/no,
true/false) or limited choice
-quick and simple to gather info
-you need to find people to do the questionnaire -they are limited by the questions asked
-could be unreliable by being biased or untruthful -text answers might take time to analyze
-internet connection required to complete
advantages
disadvantages
unless limited choice options are provided, data will need to be manually analyzed, emails may be ignored or mistakenly sent to spam folders, internet required
free, quick, can be sent to multiple people at once, most people have email addresses
advantages
disadvantages
constantly records information, sensor can work a lot longer than a human, cheap, once set up they can be left alone, the data collection is accurate
can be tampered with, needs a supply of electricity, may stop working without you realizing, a bad position might mean no data is collected
advantages
disadvantages
time consuming, expensive, hard to interview lots of people in a short space of time, physical locatio need (unless video interview online)
face to face meaning less likely to lie, can ask detailed questions,
Loyalty schemes
advantages
disadvantages
they might be off putting to customers if they are hard to sign up for, there need to be enough rewards to incentivize loyalty.
brand loyalty, may get customers buying more often, information is collected every time the customers purchases an item
statistical reports
advantages
disadvantages
the statistics are available and presented i an easy to interpret format, some analysis may have already been done for you
statistic are from a sample of people so they may not reflect the whole population, the report's statistics may not be totally relevant to your problem
secondary research
advantages
disadvantages
the data has already been collected making it cheap and easy, an expert in the field may have been involved in collecting, which may mean it more reliable and accurate
you may not be able to verify the source of the data, the data might not be reliable and the original creator might be biased, the data might not fully match your purpose.