MARKET RESEARCH

The collection, collation and analysis of data relating to the marketing and consumption of goods and services.

WHAT A START UP NEEDS TO KNOW!!

How big is the market/sales/volume?

Growth of market..?

Competitors and shares..?

How is the market segmented..?

Who is their target audience/market?

QUALITATIVE- Opinion

QUANTITATIVE- Numeric

PRIMARY- Collected first hand, tailored specific needs of business, specific purpose.

SECONDARY- Already exists, collected previously

                      - Involves the manipulation of secondary, which has been gathered                           for some internal purpose.

                         (Internal-already exists within the company)

External: Trade associations and publication/competitors/newspapers/libraries

Gov. statistics, census of population. Annual abstract.

Internal- sales figures, reports direct from customer contact, feedback, annual reports and accounts-stock movements, focus groups...

Primary research- more expensive..

field...observation (mystery shoppers)

         Experimentation- test marketing

                                  - Product trials

          Interviews

          Surveys

(+) reduced risk, customer, personal fulfil.. Provides link with consumer, public relations, size of markets...

(-) Reliability

Social desirabilty..

Validity...

***A sample is a group of people that is intended to represent the overall target population...

Random: Gives each member of the population an equal chance to be chosen.

Quota: Involves the population being segmented into groups of specific characteristics. The research focuses on sample size.

Stratified sample: Interviewing those with key characteristics required for the sample.