Lesson 10 - Customer Needs/MR

Question 1

Define ‘market research’

Answer 1

Market research is the process of finding and analysing information about customer wants and needs and the nature of the market.

Question 2

Why is market research undertaken?

Answer 2

To help businesses to make decisions that will appeal to customers and allow them to be competitive.

Question 3

Identify one way that market research allows a business to achieve its objectives.

Answer 3

1. Allows businesses to gain insight into an industry and assess the potential success of the concept.
2. Aims to provide qualitative and quantitative data.
3. Provides a more detailed understanding of the industry and customer tastes, allowing businesses to make more informed decisions and adapt to what the customer wants.

Question 4

What are the two types of market research?

Answer 4

Primary and Secondary

Question 5

Define ‘primary research’ and provide two examples of how primary research data can be collected.

Answer 5

Primary research is the collection of information first-hand by a business for a specific purpose.

Collected using → surveys, questionnaires, interviews, observations

Question 6

Identify two advantages of conducting primary research.

Answer 6

1. Data is accurate and up to date
2. The data is specific to the purpose for which it was collected.

Question 7

Identify two disadvantages of conducting primary research.

Answer 7

1. It is time consuming to conduct primary research
2. As it is time consuming, it is also expensive
3. The research results could be biased if the business is inexperienced in carrying out research
4. The data may lack validity if it was not conducted using a large and relevant audience

Question 8

Define ‘secondary research’ and provide two examples of how secondary research data can be collected.

Answer 8

Secondary research is the use of information that has already been collected previously. This could be information collected by another organisation/business or for a different purpose.

Collected from → newspapers, reports, websites (internet), journals, statistics

Question 9

Identify two advantages of conducting secondary research.

Answer 9

1. Often cheaper than conducting primary research.
2. It is also quicker than conducting primary research as the information is already available.

Question 10

Identify two disadvantages of conducting secondary research.

Answer 10

1. Secondary research is not completely applicable to the specific requirements of the business.
2. The business is not aware of the conditions under which the research was conducted.

Question 11

Define qualitative and quantitative data.

Answer 11

Qualitative data is non-numerical data including opinions or written responses.

Quantitative data is numerical data, such as figures and statistics that can be more easily analysed.