market research

Question 1

why is having an understanding of the market important?
(3)

Answer 1

1. to identify the expense of launching a new product
2. it’s important to know market share
3. to preserve an image and brand value of existing products

Question 2

what are the objectives of market research? (7)

Answer 2

1. discover the needs of customers
2. understand the structure of the market
3. identify if there’s demand
4. establish the product lifestyle stage
5. test consumer response to new products and services
6. asses effectiveness of previous campaigns
7. monitor competition

Question 3

define primary research

Answer 3

gathered first hand and face to face

Question 4

1.what’s the advantage of primary research

2.what’s the disadvantages to primary research?

Answer 4

1.specific to customers

2. time consuming and expensive

Question 5

give 3 examples of primary research and briefly explain them

Answer 5

1. questionnaire - gains specific information based on a series of questions
2. focus groups- meet regularly and have chaired discussions on themes set by a market researcher
3. test marketing- trial release of the product in a restricted area

Question 6

what is secondary research?

Answer 6

a collection of data that already exists

Question 7

1. what are the advantages of secondary research?
2. what are the disadvantages of secondary research?

Answer 7

1. cheap and fast
2. not specific to customer

Question 8

give 3 examples of secondary research and briefly explain them

Answer 8

1.official publications- census reports and social trend surveys found online

2. industry magazines- industries provide there own industry magazines which provides a wealth of information on specific retail and product areas
3. yellow pages- a telephone listing that gives basic details of businesses operating in different market sectors

Question 9

1.what is quantitative research?

2.what is an advantage?

3. what is the disadvantage?

Answer 9

1.research that aims to gather information based on facts that can be tested. It is often numerical and uses closed questions

2. subjective judgements can be eliminated
3. questions asked are often closed not leasing to fuller responses and fails to encourage continuous investigation

Question 10

1.what is qualitative research?

2. what are the advantages ?
3. what are the disadvantages?

Answer 10

1. research that aims to gather opinions and views. it is gathered using focus groups and open questions
2. helps gain a more realistic understanding of the world of the consumer
3. interpreting data can be difficult

Question 11

what is a sample a sample group?

why is sample size important?

what can be a problem with sampling?

Answer 11

1. a sample group is a group of people selected to represent the target market as a whole
2. too big- time consuming and expensive
   too small- greater chance of inaccurate results
3. bias- causes data within a sample to be weighted towards one side and occurs when a sample has an overweighting towards one subgroup

Question 12

1.what is random sampling?

2. whats the disadvantages?

Answer 12

1. every member of the population has an equal chance of being interviewed
2. not easy to achieve and the interviewer must call the house 3 times, so it can be expensive

Question 13

1.what is quota sampling?

2. what the advantage?
3. what’s the disadvantage?

Answer 13

1. the population is segmented into a number of groups which share specific characteristics e.g. age, sex
2. cheap method
3. cannot be regarded as statistically representative of the population