Market Research

Question 1

market research

Answer 1

the process of gathering primary and secondary data on the buying habits, lifestyles, usage and attitudes of actual and potential customers

Question 2

benefits of market research

Answer 2

•can identify opportunities and threats
•can be used to monitor sales after a promotional campaign
•can help them find alternative routes to overcome a problem
•identify target market
•reduce risk of failure

Question 3

benefits of market research

Answer 3

•can identify opportunities and threats
•can be used to monitor sales after a promotional campaign
•can help them find alternative routes to overcome a problem
•identify target market
•reduce risk of failure

Question 4

drawbacks of market research

Answer 4

•research doesn’t guarantee success
•costly in time
•costs money
•research can be unreliable

Question 5

why is understanding the market place a major priority for businesses?

Answer 5

•the expense of launching new products
•importance of maintaining market share
•importance of preserving the profile and brand value of existing products

Question 6

reasons to carry out market research

Answer 6

•aid to decision making
•find out about customer wants and expectations
•suggest introduction of new products or modification of existing products
•find out how much customers are willing to pay
•gaining competitive advantage
•predictive reasons- what’s likely to happen in the future
•exploratory reasons- new possibilities in a market
•descriptive reasons- what’s happening in the market
•explanatory reasons
•reduces risk

Question 7

reasons against market research

Answer 7

•may predict that an idea will succeed but it isn’t the case
•data can be based on an unrepresentative sample- bias
•data doesn’t always meet specific needs of a business in secondary research
•primary research can be expensive to gather
•secondary data can be outdated
•time consuming to gather, especially primary

Question 8

primary research and examples

Answer 8

collecting primary data and info that doesn’t already exists- it is collected for a specific purpose
•usually questionnaires, interviews, surveys, focus groups, consumer panels

Question 9

advantages of primary research

Answer 9

•research carried out is only available to that business- gives market advantages over rival firms
•up to date info so helps with better decision making
•can be targeted for specific needs that the business may have identified

Question 10

disadvantages of primary research

Answer 10

•can be expensive to collect
•time consuming to collect (fast changing market?)
•problems of bias

Question 11

secondary research and examples

Answer 11

identifies, collects and collates info that already exists- can be collected internally or externally
•existing documents, official publications, yellow pages, industry magazines and online desk research

Question 12

advantages of secondary research

Answer 12

•inexpensive to collect and quick to obtain
•enables cost-effective analysis of several data sources

Question 13

disadvantages of secondary research

Answer 13

•often out of data
•might not be available
•little control over quality
•problems of interpretation

Question 14

how is marketing linked to human resource department

Answer 14

marketing will influence the numbers and skills of employees required

Question 15

how is marketing linked to production department

Answer 15

marketing helps to determine what to produce, when to produce it and how much money can be spent producing it

Question 16

how is marketing linked to finance department

Answer 16

marketing generates the money for the firm through sales revenue and helps to forecast future sales revenue

Question 17

how is marketing linked to purchasing department

Answer 17

marketing will influence how much in the way of raw materials will be needed

Question 18

how is marketing linked to transport department

Answer 18

Marketing will influence the number of lorries and drivers required

Question 19

quantitative research and common methods

Answer 19

involves the collection of data that can be measured- the collection of statistical data such as sales figures and market share
•surveys, government publications/existing statistics

Question 20

quantitative research characteristics

Answer 20

•researcher uses tools like questionnaires and surveys to collect numerical data
•researcher knows clearly in advance what they’re looking for
•recommend during latter phases of research projects
•usually regarded to be less open to interpretation
•data is in the form of numbers and statistics

Question 21

qualitative research and common methods

Answer 21

involves collection of data about attitudes, beliefs and intentions
•focus groups, participant observation and interviews

Question 22

qualitative research characters

Answer 22

•researcher may only know roughly in advance what they’re looking for
•recommend during earlier phases of research projects
•can be time consuming to collect and difficult to draw general conclusions
•information gathered is often open to high degree of interpretation
•data is in the form of words, pictures or objects

Question 23

sample

Answer 23

a group of respondents to a market research exercise who are selected to be representative of the views of the target market as a whole

Question 24

why is sample size important

Answer 24

•if sample size is large, the research will take a long time and may be expensive
•if the sample size is too small then there’s a greater chance that it will become inaccurate through random factors

Question 25

quota sampling

Answer 25

the population is segmented into a number of groups that share specific characteristics

Question 26

quota sampling characteristics

Answer 26

•the sample is often segmented through age or sex/ demographic profile
•relatively cheap method of sampling
•results can’t be seen as statistically representative of the population as they aren’t randomly chosen

Question 27

random sampling

Answer 27

every member of the population has an equal chance of being interviewed

Question 28

random sampling characteristics

Answer 28

•isn’t easy to achieve
•drawn from local electoral registers and interviewees are contacted at home
•interviewer must call 3 times before giving up on the address
•attempting to achieve randomness creates expensive fieldwork costs

Question 29

bias

Answer 29

something that may cause data within a sample to be weighted towards one side