Market Research Techniques
Market Research Overall
Market Research is defined as the gathering of information on a business' customers or clients in order to establish their preferences, purchasing powers, expectations, needs, wants, dislikes, affordability, etc., either prior to launching a new product or service to the market, or at any time during trading. Market research also encompasses gathering information on competitors in order to establish their processes, offerings, ways of working etc. in order to remain/become a leader in the field or simply to gather information on how to match or exceed competitor services/products.
Marketing is often defined as the promotion of products or services to help satisfy the needs of a particular market. To find out what the market's needs are, marketers must learn as much as they can about their customers to assist and improve marketing decisions. In any field, the basis for good decision-making is having effective information available for use. Almost any information collected for the purpose of marketing decision making, can be considered to be market research.
The process of market research involves gathering the required information, analysing the findings and providing action orientated feedback to the relevant people (clients). The information gathering stage can involve a number of different techniques, whether this be secondary research (pulling together information, which has already been collated e.g. market research report, industry specific information, sales data etc) or primary research which is the collation of information direct from respondents.
Primary research either consists of qualitative or quantitative information collection methods, each providing different types of information, each having differing roles in the whole research process, and each being equally as important in their own right. Some of the most valued research projects have involved a combination of the both methodologies.
There are endless ways in which a market research project could effectively be carried out and this is one of the many reasons why proposals written for the same client brief can often be completely different in terms of methodology and cost.
Quantitative Market Research
Quantitative research techniques are chosen over qualitative research techniques if evaluation is required rather than explanation (of behaviours, opinions, attitudes etc.). Quantitative research is used to make measurements or counts of satisfaction, loyalty, profiles, customer clusters with particular attitudes or preferences etc., rather than to discuss in detail the reasons behind responses (mainly the role of qualitative research). This type of research methodology involves the creation of a structured questionnaire with a fixed number of questions, each usually with a fixed number of responses from which the respondents can choose. However, to a certain extent, qualitative-like data can be collected via open-ended questions in a structured questionnaire e.g. ‘why do you say that?’ as opposed to a closed question e.g. on a scale of 1 to 5 where 1 is very satisfied and 5 is very dissatisfied, how satisfied would you say you are with the service?’ although there is a limit to the number of open questions you should include on a quantitative questionnaire due to time constraints, cost and respondent fatigue during an interview.
Quantitative data can be collected via a variety of different methods:
- Postal (self-completion)
- Telephone
- Face-to-face (on-street, in-home, in-store etc.)
- On-line (via e-mail or a web based survey)
Sampling
The principles of quantitative research involve separating the whole ‘population’ into smaller components (samples) to be used for study (analysis) and interpretation (meaning). It is impractical to obtain information about everyone in a given population. See sampling and statistics pages on this website for further information on sampling techniques.
Research Design Considerations
Some considerations and proposed modes of quantitative data collection are below:
Response rate:
Postal surveys traditionally achieve the lowest response rates, whilst
face-to-face interviews generally produce the highest.
Questionnaire complexity:
If you need to ask a complex question, a telephone interview will probably
perform quite poorly, whereas a postal, or even better, face-to-face
interview with prompt cards will tend to work most effectively.
Lengthy questionnaires:
Whilst long questionnaires should be avoided wherever possible, people
tend to be more tolerant of them in a face-to-face situation.
Geographically dispersed populations:
Postal or telephone interviews are preferred when the population is more
dispersed.
Potential respondents likely to be disinterested in the survey:
Postal surveys will suffer most in these situations.
Sensitive questions:
Postal surveys completed in private or face-to-face interviews where
rapport is establishes between interviewer and respondent work better with
sensitive questioning.
Minimising costs:
Postal surveys tend to be more economical, with face-to-face interviews
usually being the most expensive.
Importance of question order:
Either telephone or face-to-face interviewing should be used here as
respondents could skip to different questions in postal questionnaires.
Respondent observation:
Face-to-face interviews allow for the recording of potentially important
non-verbal information e.g. facial expressions, other physical reactions,
which would be impossible to obtain using telephone or self-completion
methods.
Constructing the questionnaire
Amongst other aspects of the research process, creating a well-formulated questionnaire is the key to a successful research project. All relevant aspects of the research subject should be covered in the questionnaire in order to meet the research objectives, and thus business objectives.
A questionnaire should contain simple, ‘to the point’ questions. Objectives should be remembered at all times and leading questions should be re-phrased. Enough information should be provided to the respondent so they can answer the question.
Quantitative questionnaires are also often produced to recruit respondents to a qualitative group discussion or one-to-one depth interview.
Interviewer briefing
It is important to explain to the personnel carrying out the interviews, whether this be face-to-face or telephone interviews, about the purpose of the research, any important factors to consider, sample layout, incentives, quotas etc. It is also useful to take the interviewers through the questionnaire in a face-to-face briefing session, so that any obscure questions can be discussed.
Pre-testing the questionnaire
It is always preferable to conduct a pilot survey of a few interviews to test the questionnaire in a real life situation. Alterations and improvements can then be made before rolling out the survey. If no changes to the questionnaire are required, the completed pilot questionnaires can be included in the total, however they should be removed if the questionnaire changes dramatically following the pilot.
Coding open-ended responses
Open-ended questions will often elicit as many different responses as there are respondents and sometimes the only meaningful way to analyse these responses are to list individual responses. Frequently, however, several responses can be grouped together into a single category, which can be coded and labelled to cover all common responses. These codes can then be analyses quantitatively by showing frequency counts of each.
Weighting the data
Often the data requires weighting, so that the overall sample is representative of the population being assessed. For example, if the study was to assess all people in the UK, but 25% of the sample consisted of males and 75% consisted of females, the data would need to be weighted to boost the male input to around 50% and reduce the female input to around 50%.
Qualitative Market Research Methods
If we class quantitative research as the bones, qualitative research is the meat on the bones i.e. quantitative provides hard data, i.e. percentages, scores etc., whereas qualitative provides exploratory information, it allows the researcher to have a conversation or discussion about the relevant issues where respondents can express their feelings and attitudes towards a particular product, service, brand etc. It provides insight into the characteristics of respondents and the way they think and feel; how they express themselves and the type of language they use.
Qualitative research involves understanding things rather than measuring them.
The format of qualitative research is usually a group discussion (focus group). Whereas large representative samples of a population are recruited for quantitative research, relatively smaller samples are recruited for more detailed, lengthy, in-depth discussions during qualitative research. There are usually 6 to 8 people in a focus group discussion or around 4-5 in a mini group discussion.
Qualitative research can also be conducted via an:
- interviewer and one respondent (known as a one-to-one depth interview)
- interviewer and two respondents (known as a paired depth interview)
- interviewer and three respondents (known as a triad interview)
The chosen method depends on a number of issues such as whether there is a requirement for respondents to bounce ideas off each other e.g. to come up with creative concepts, or whether the research would benefit from a discussion between people with opposing opinions etc. In these cases, a group discussion would be more appropriate. Whereas if the research topic is rather sensitive and people may feel embarrassed or inhibited talking about the issues, or if the research is among busy senior members of staff who are in and out of meetings and the office all day every day, it may be better to catch them for a one-to-one meeting (depth interviews), rather than attempt to co-ordinate a group meeting.
Much skill is required by the qualitative interviewer (known as the research moderator) to carefully ask the correct questions to tease out the required information without influencing the responses whatsoever. A psychology related background is always useful.
The researcher (usually the moderator) creates an unstructured questionnaire or discussion guide with maximum input from the client, which includes pointers of all relevant issues to be covered during the discussion. This is however only a guide as it is important that the moderator is flexible and open to discussions on other issues which the respondents bring up during the session, as these will obviously be important to them in terms of the service received, product provided etc. However, one of the most difficult jobs for a moderator is ensuring the conversation remains relevant to the research, as respondents often go off on a tangent and want to air their not always relevant views.
The session is usually tape recorded for the interviewer’s purpose (it is difficult to have a conversation and write comprehensive notes at the same time, it is also near on impossible to remember all of the points made). Some sessions are videoed or viewed behind a one-way mirror by the client so they can hear and see first hand the reactions of their customer representatives. Prior to any form of recording or videoing, permission must be obtained from the respondents.
Respondents are usually recruited to groups/depths using a recruitment questionnaire to ensure they are the correct type of people required e.g. have a dog and buy dog food from a particular supermarket at least once per month or are male between the ages of 18 and 25 years and exercise at least twice per week etc.
On deciding on the number of groups to recruit for and on the respondents to be invited to the groups, it is important to decide on any particular differences between respondent which may affect their responses during the discussion i.e. you may want to compare people in the North compared with people in the South, or females versus males. Also some people may feel inhibited or lacking in confidence if asked to speak in front of certain others e.g. senior and junior people within an organisation, males and females, or people of different socio economic grades. These factors should be taken into account and these different types of people should attend different group discussions if at all possible.
The Market Research Process
There are a number of stages through which a research programme progresses as follows:
Definition of research objectives and target population
Discussions (preferably face-to-face) with the client about the business or marketing objectives and how the results will ultimately be used is vital as an initial stage in the research process in order to define the research objectives which should be borne in mind by the person conducting the research at all stages of the process. Although it is useful to have hypotheses to test (pre-defined objectives), it is also important to be open minded to new information found in the data at the analysis stage.
The types of people required in terms of target populations (people to be interviewed) should be clearly defined and agreed between the agency and the client at the initial planning stages also, e.g. certain business sectors, females only, retired people, etc.
This is also a good time to make sure all involved are clear about timetables and costs.
Choice of research method
The research method chosen is dependent on the type of population to be surveyed, the sampling frame, the type of data to be collected and the resources available.
There are many factors that may contribute towards the decision to use one method over the other. These may include: the need to obtain percentage scores for use in a public relations initiative e.g. ‘97% of our customers say we provide a better service than our local competitors’ - quantitative research methods required; the need to discuss attitudes, feelings, reactions to adverts, concepts, a new service etc. - qualitative research methods required; the availability of a list of potential respondents with addresses but no telephone numbers - telephone interviewing would not be an option; the need to ask complicated questions - face-to-face interviewing would be preferable due to potential explanations required; the need to show stimulus material e.g. of an advert - face-to-face interviewing would again be required; a desire for a very high response rate - postal survey would not be an option as the response rate cannot be guaranteed etc.
Project management
It is vital that ongoing communication is maintained between the field force (interviewers), market research agency and client so that any problems can be ironed out at the early stages rather than reaching the end of the fieldwork period having achieved few interviews, collected inaccurate data, or failed to stick to the agreed objectives.
Analysing the data and reporting/presenting
On analysing the data and preparing the report/presentation, the initial research objectives should be again borne in mind. Also any notes from briefing meetings, subsequent meetings, telephone conversations etc. should be re-read, so that the mind is focussed on the reasons for carrying out the research.
Any additional analysis, which was planned for, should be carried out at this stage. For example regression, factor, cluster analysis etc.
When analysing data, a story should be told and answers to the specific questions (objectives) set at the initial stages should be answered. Simply transferring data from the tables to the presentation/report in not sufficient. Also input from the client is useful as they may provide additional information from previous research or internal industry knowledge, or there may have been changes within the organisation or to competitors, which could have affected the results. It is therefore useful to provide the client with a summary of the data prior to a presentation or final report for this reason.
The output received by clients will vary according to their specific needs, for example should the client require an explanation or discussion about the results or want to share the results with their internal clients, then a presentation would be more suitable. However if the client is simply interested in looking at league tables or percentage scores for example, which he/she wishes to disseminate internally, then the provision of a professionally written report may be adequate. Alternatively, the client may simply want to see the data set out in clearly labelled tables with no explanation, for example if he/she wishes to use the data to write their own public relations story for the media.
In any case, it is important that both client and agency are clear from the start of the exact requirements and expectations of the research project.
If you would like further information or require some advice on any aspect of market research, please contact us on +44 (0)1772 842157 or click on e-mail
