Market Research

Market research

Market research is the collection of information or data to better understand your customers and what is happening in the market place.

A firm's marketing department needs to know about economic trends, as well as consumers' views.

Based on this information, they can put together a marketing plan, which will meet their own needs as well as those of their consumers.

 

Market Research The information required will depend on theproduct or service being offered and mayinclude the following:

• Personal factors, such as age, gender, culture, occupation, income, family size, lifestyle and leisure and activities.

• Location• Attitude to price• The products and services customers

currently use

• The potential market size

Types of research

There are two general types of research:  • Primary or field research

• Secondary or desk research

Use the internet to find a definition of the two types of research.

Primary or field research

Obtaining new data for a specific purpose.

The marketing department of a firm or a specialist research organisation can provide this.

Typically, the data is gathered by face-to-face interviews, by telephone or by post, using questionnaires. This is called a survey.

Sometimes potential consumers are asked to test products, and their responses are recorded.

 

Primary or field research

Primary research has the advantage that the firm itself has control over the whole process.

The firm decide:

•What information they want to collect

•What questions to ask

•Who they ask

The disadvantages are that it takes longer, and costs more.

Secondary or desk research

This is the use of existing data

that has already been collected.

It can be anything from a company's own sales statistics to Department of Trade and Industry reports.

Other secondary sources of information include journals, company reports, government statistics, and surveys published by research organisations.

Secondary or desk research

•Traditionally, these have been paper-based, but more and more information is now available on CD-ROM or on-line through the Internet.

•Desk research has the advantages of being cheaper and quicker than field research.

•The disadvantages are not knowing if the findings are accurate, or how relevant they will be to your product.

Task 1

You are about to start the first part of your report.

Using the definitions you researched earlier and the information provided above. Describe each

type of market research and explain the advantages and disadvantages.

Now I want you to write a paragraph on the types of primary and secondary research you could

carry out for your own business and the information you would like to find out. (M1)

The best methods would be questionnaire, internet research and you can pick the third

Task 1 – Help Sheet

Title - Market ResearchUse the Power point slides to help you – DO NOT COPY MYSLIDESMake sure you answer the questions in full sentences/paragraphs

NOTone-word answers and you MUST relate these questions to yourcompany!

1. Describe the two types of Market Research.2. What are the different methods of market research? (Face to

face) 3. What are the advantages and disadvantages of each type of

market research?4. Explain what types of Primary and Secondary Research YOUR

company could carry out – just choose three types. (M1)5. What information would you like to find out about your

potential customers and how will it help you? Remember this information is going to be used to help you set up your business so think carefully about it.

Merit 1 – Help

What do I need to do to get a merit?1. You must in detail explain the methods of market research that

would be best for you to carry out for your business i.e. Questionnaire

2. Then you must state why that method is going to be best and explain how it is going to help you find the best information out about your target market.

3. You must also include the advantages of the method.

Example – By using a questionnaire I am able to select the questions that best fit my business needs. I am able to ask specific questions such as; How much would you spend on a bracelet? How much do you earn? I can then use this information to select an appropriate price for my products that I know my customers can afford. This makes a questionnaire the most appropriate method of primary research for my business. However I must also consider the disadvantages of this method it can be very expensive and time consuming and as a new business I don’t have much money.

Task 2 – Part 1

Now that you know all about market research we are going to have ago ourselves for our businesses!

• We are going to produce a questionnaire for our own businesses to find out about our customers and what they want.

• We can then use this information to improve our business. What type of research are we doing if we

produce a questionnaire?

Your Questionnaire

Methods of collectingdata?

• Question and Tally• Longer response

Questions• Multiple Choice

Who are you going to ask?

How many Questions? (10)

What to collect?• Who is your target

market– Male, female, old,

young, middle age, rich, poor?

• What do they think of your business idea?

• How much would they be prepared to pay in your shop?

Plan your questionnaire in

draft

Primary Research

Homework• You must print out your

questionnaires and get people inside and out side of lesson to fill them in (Family and friends)

• Don’t ask lots of similar people!!

What did we find out?

Group Discussion Use the information that you collected

from your questionnaire to tell your partner what you found out?

Will this information make you change any elements of your business?

How useful did you find your research? Could you of asked better questions? Or changed your questionnaire to make it better?

Task 2 – Part 2

You are now going to write up the findings from yourprimary research.1. In your report started earlier you can now write a

small paragraph to say what you did!2. Insert a copy of your questionnaire.3. Explain why you asked these questions?4. Now tell me what you found out? (Analyse at

least 4 questions)5. Has the information you gathered changed how

you will plan your business or confirmed anything?

6. Could you have made your questionnaire better in any way?

Task 2 - Example

I produced a questionnaire to ask people about….. This helped me to find out about my potential customers wants and needs. I can then use this to……

I asked these questions because I wanted to find out….

From my questionnaire I can see that 75% of my customers will be female. I now know that I am better stocking more female jewellery than male.... This is because it is mainly females that purchase these kind of items. Or males buying for females.

You can produce graphs in Excel

Competition Very few businesses operate without some form ofcompetition. If any of your competitors are better atsatisfying customers than your business you could be introuble. For that reason, businesses need to know asmuch a they can about their competitors, and theiroperations.

Competitor Research

• Competitor research aims to identify who your main competitors are, where they are located, their products, prices and how they promote themselves

WWW.YELL.COM

• Using the worksheet and www.yell.com, find out all you can about your competitors.

Competition

Research 4 competitors in your local area. For

each competitor find out the following.

• Where is the competitor located?• What are their products/services and how

do they compare to yours?• What prices do they charge?• What is their customer service package?• What is their Unique Selling Point?

Use the worksheet to help you also

Write Up

How has your research helped you to identify the best location for your business?

Has your research helped you to identify anything else you can offer or change within your business.

Social Trends

As well as the research you have done we can also look atdata collected by the government on social trends. Lookingat Social trends tells you about what is happening overall

inthe UK, how people live, what they do, changes in societyetc

– Disadvantages: secondary research so it could be inaccurate/bias. You don’t get to set the questions so the data might not be exactly what you want

– Target Market: identify if my target market is growing (more OAPs in the uk), what my target market do with their time, how much money they have

– Useful: Gives an overall picture helps with…

Social Trends Household Income and Age

Looking at the top table you

can see the income of low and

high earners. The average income

is £30000 a year.

The bottom table shows the

spread of age groups over the years.

You can use this information to

help decide if your business is a

good idea and if people will be

interested.

Using the link below you are going to look at three social trends.

http://www.statistics.gov.uk/glance/uk-snapshots.asp

Social Trends Task 4

• Use the website to look at three social trends that you think might have an influence on your business.

• Explain the social trend and input the graph.

• Then explain how it may influence your business?

http://www.statistics.gov.uk/glance/uk-snapshots.asp