3.2 Market research Flashcards
What are the uses of market research information?
Identify customer needs
Discover current + future market size for product
Provide information about business’s existing products + markets
Identify strengths + weaknesses of competitor products Decide how to price product + promote product
Predict how changes + trends in customers tastes may affect future demand
What is ‘primary research’?
the collection of first-hand data for the specific needs of the firm
benefits + limitations of primary research?
+ data is up to date
+ data collected for specific purpose that is relevant to business
+ not available to other businesses → competitive advantage
- costly
- time consuming
- risk of inaccurate data
What is ‘secondary research’?
collection of data from second-hand sources
Name methods of primary research
Focus groups Observation Test Consumer surveys Interviews Postal surveys Online surveys The need for sampling
Name methods of secondary research
reports
internet
documents
newspaper
benefits + limitations of secondary research?
+ fairly cheap to obtain
+ easier and quicker to obtain
- may not be up to date
- may not be directly relevant to the business
What are the factors that can influence the accuracy of market research data?
Sample chosen may be too small
Business may have chosen wrong type of method to collect data
People may not answer questions truthfully
Questions asked may be bias, which forces interviewee to not give true view
Language may be unclear
Secondary data may be out of date
Data may be recorded incorrectly
Ways of analysing / presenting data?
Tables Bar charts Pie charts Pictograms Line graphs