Market research
| English | Chinese | Pinyin |
|---|---|---|
| market research | 市场调研 | shì chǎng diào yán |
| secondary research | 二手调研 | èr shǒu diào yán |
| primary research | 一手调研 | yī shǒu diào yán |
| surveys | 问卷调查 | wèn juǎn diào chá |
| focus groups | 焦点小组 | jiāo diǎn xiǎo zǔ |
| qualitative | 定性 | dìng xìng |
| quantitative | 定量 | dìng liàng |
| sampling | 抽样 | chōu yàng |
| sample | 样本 | yàng běn |
| representative | 有代表性的 | yǒu dài biǎo xìng de |
Asking before you act
- Launching a product on a hunch is gambling. Smart firms find out what customers want first.
- That is market research 市场调研 — turning guesses into evidence.
Market research cycle
Follow how a business turns customer data into a marketing decision.
Conducting a new customer survey is an example of:
Primary research collects new first-hand data.
Using existing government statistics is:
Secondary research uses data that already exists.
Primary vs secondary research 二手调研
- Primary research 一手调研: new data collected first-hand (surveys 问卷调查, interviews, focus groups 焦点小组). Specific but costly.
- Secondary research: existing data (reports, government stats, internal sales). Cheap and fast, but not tailored.
Market research: primary (first-hand) versus secondary (already exists)
Research that explores WHY customers feel as they do is:
Qualitative research captures opinions and reasons.
Qualitative 定性 vs quantitative 定量
- Quantitative: numbers — how many, how much (sales figures, survey counts).
- Qualitative: opinions and reasons — why customers behave as they do (interviews, focus groups).
A mass market targets everyone; a niche serves a small specialist group
A sample that is not representative can give misleading results, however large it is.
Representativeness matters as much as sample size.
A small group chosen to represent the whole market is a ______.
Sampling avoids the impossible task of asking everyone.
Sampling 抽样
- A sample 样本 is a small group chosen to represent the whole market — you can't ask everyone.
- A bigger, more representative 有代表性的 sample gives more reliable results, but costs more.
Bad sampling ruins good research. If the sample isn't representative (e.g. only asking existing customers), the results mislead — no matter how many people you ask. Sample design matters as much as sample size.
You've got it
- primary research = new first-hand data; secondary = existing data
- quantitative = numbers; qualitative = opinions and reasons (the "why")
- a representative sample stands in for the whole market — design beats size