Methods Used For Market Research

There are many methods and ways to conduct market research. The methodology of business research can be categorized in the following five ways which are namely: surveys, focus groups, personal interviews, observation, and field trials techniques chosen to conduct these depend upon the type of data needed and how much money is sanctioned to conduct the business research.

Surveys. Surveys involve straightforward and concise questionnaires. These questionnaires can be analyzed to study the sample group representing the target market. The larger your sample, the more representative is the survey of the existing market sentiment.

In-person surveys. In person surveys are interviews conducted one-on-one which are generally conducted in higher traffic areas like shopping malls, colleges, schools etc locations. They represent the people’s opinion about the product samples, advertising or packaging. In person survey guarantee on the spot feedback and can sometimes generate a response rate of greater than 90 percent, but they are expensive as they require hiring of people. The cost of in-person interviews can sometimes run as high as $100 or more per person interviewed.

Telephone surveys. Telephone surveys tend to be the expensive alternative to in-person surveys, but are costlier than the e-mail surveys. It has increasingly become difficult to conduct telephone survey due to increased resistance to telemarketing. Yield response rates of fifty to sixty percent are generally achieved in telephone surveys.

Mail surveys. Mail surveys represent a comparatively inexpensive and easier way to reach a broader audience. Although they are cheaper than the in-person and the phone surveys, their response rates can be as low as three percent to fifteen percent. But due to cost effectives despite lower return rates, mail surveys tend to remain popular as a means of marker research.

Online surveys. Online surveys generate response rates that are unpredictable and participant data that is unreliable. The results are so because the participants are random and not a true representative of the target population.

Focus groups. In focus groups, moderators target the audience with a series of scripted questions to involve them in a discussion. It is conducted at neutral location with video conferencing facility. It lasts for an hour or two.

Personal interviews. Personal interviews include open-ended and unstructured questions that last for an hour or more and are usually recorded.

Observation. Individual response to surveys and the focus groups are not true representative of people's actual behavior. When an attempt is made to observe consumers, researchers start by videotaping the consumer in stores, at home or at work it gives a very accurate portrayal of consumer usage habits plus their shopping patterns.

Field trials. In field trials, new products are placed in a select number of stores to test consumer response in real-life selling environments. This can help businesses to adjust prices, improve packaging or make modifications to their products.