Market research
Market research
- Market research collects information about customers, competitors and the market.
- primary research — new data you collect yourself (surveys, interviews): fits your needs, but costs more and is slow.
- secondary research — data that already exists (reports, websites): cheap and quick, but may be old.
- quantitative data = numbers (easy to compare); qualitative data = opinions/reasons (deeper).
Practice
Primary research is:
Primary research is new and collected first-hand; secondary uses existing data.
Practice
Match each data type to an example.
Quantitative is numbers; qualitative is opinions and reasons.
Sampling
- A sample is the small group asked, chosen to stand for the whole market.
- random (equal chance), quota (set numbers per group), stratified (copies the market's make-up).
- A larger, well-chosen sample is more reliable; poor sampling causes bias.
Practice
A larger, well-chosen sample gives more reliable results and less bias.
Good sampling reduces bias; a poor or tiny sample can make findings wrong.
You've got it
Key idea
- primary research = new (yours, costly); secondary = existing (cheap, maybe old)
- quantitative = numbers; qualitative = opinions/reasons
- a sample stands for the market; bigger/better sampling = more reliable, less bias