Market Business Research Overview

Definition:

Market Research requires that data be gathered from both secondary sources (existing literature) and Primary sources (gathered from market participants directly).

Uses: 

Data gathering is necessary to provide the information required for all forms of marketing research analysis. 

Limitations:

Demonstrations:

Step-by-step process:

  • Gathering data: Always start with Secondary data, then collect Primary data only if necessary
    • Create a Data Plan of what information is required to complete the analyses that you have planned.
    • Always start with Secondary Sources of data
      • Review Public Sources of data on the internet, government reports, trade data, magazines, articles, associations, competitor and customer websites, other publically available sources.
      • Identify proprietary sources of information from reports, databases, multiclient students, subscription services, etc.
    • When necessary utilize the more resource-intensive Primary Resources
      • Expert Interviews are a great way to test the trends and initial findings from your secondary research. They can highlight important issues and players.
      • Focus Groups are one of the best places to try out new ideas to see how a subset of the market might react. It is most often used to identify the ranges to be used on a survey and the factors that should be included in the lists of topics in a survey. You should test the survey topics on focus groups to be sure you understand how the more expensive survey questions will be perceived by the target market.
      • Quantitative Surveys are used to collect data that can be used to project opinions of the target market. If you have a random sample of the target market that is large enough to give you a narrow accuracy range with 95% confidence, then you can anticipate how the target market as a whole will respond to your anticipated stimuli. Survey research is expensive, complex, and resource-intensive. It should almost always be the very last thing you do so that you can leverage everything else you have learned to make sure that your survey will provide accurate answers to the most important questions.
  • Analysis of data: The analysis of the data will be dependent on the type of research analysis tool you are planning to use.
  • Interpretation of results: will follow the type of planned analysis tool
  • Presentation of results: Should always include the sources of the data and the confidence you have in the sources that provided the data you used in your analysis.

Template for capturing data:

Capturing the data in a template will be unique based on the data plan you developed. Most data can be captured in a standard spreadsheet.

 Output representation and recommendations:

Output representation and recommendations should always include the sources of the data and the confidence you have in the sources that provided the data you used in your analysis and recommendations.

 Examples:

Your school library should have access to many databases that have extensive resources for finding existing secondary data. Search your library website for databases. There will probably also be guides telling you which databases are best for finding specific kinds of data.

Secondary Sources Available in BYU Library: Business Library

Additional resources:

Data Gathering for Primary Research

Data Gathering Overview 

Primary Sources

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Access it online or download it at https://ensign.edtechbooks.org/projectbasedinternship/market_business_research_overview_.