Market Research Types
Market research is the process of collecting important data from consumers and business clients. Companies conduct market research to measure customers' satisfaction level with their products or to garner information about the industry and competitors. There are several different types of marketing research. A company may use any one of these types, depending on the situation.
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Secondary Research
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Secondary research is information that is already available on the market, including case studies or industry-wide research. Companies obtain secondary research from data gathering sources like Nielsen, The NPD Group, Forrester or Simba, depending on the industry information required. Companies often use secondary research to determine how much competition exists in a particular market they want to enter. The secondary research information may include the size of the industry in dollars or the market share of key competitors.
Primary Research
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Primary market research is information that companies collect on their own or by contracting with market research agencies. Company managers may first meet and decide what types of information they want to obtain from customers. For example, a consumer products company may want to test the potential success of a new health cereal on the market. Consequently, the marketing research manager, or agency representative, may devise a questionnaire to obtain the desired information. The questionnaire would subsequently be used to conduct either a qualitative or quantitative study -- the two main types of primary research.
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Qualitative Research
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The objective of qualitative research is to determine the likes, dislikes and common motivators of the customers, according to Smallbusinessnotes.com.Companies may use qualitative research to determine which concept to use for a larger market research study. For example, a restaurant company may have four chicken meals with a side dish and drink, and a qualitative study might narrow that down to just one meal to test in the larger study. Qualitative research is usually conducted with small groups of consumers or businesses -- it could include just a few dozen individuals. Focus groups are an example of qualitative research. Focus groups are studies that are conducted through one-way mirrors, so company managers can watch how consumers behave without company representatives in the room.
Quantitative Research
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Quantitative Research is a highly comprehensive type of research. The objective in quantitative research is to garner the opinions and feedback from large numbers of customers or consumers. Quantitative research is often used to project the potential success of new product introductions, for example. The larger number of surveys conducted in quantitative research is more projectible than qualitative research. In other words, quantitative research results better represent the general opinion of the population. Types of quantitative research include personal, phone, mail and Internet surveys.
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