Lesson 4 –
Market Research
Firms and other business
companies need to understand their
service offerings and their customers
to ensure that their services will be
adopted as solutions to consumer
needs. In order for the firms to
recognize the needs of the market or
the customers, they need to conduct
market research.
The Market Research or Marketing
Research Process can be defined as the
process of gathering, analyzing and
interpreting the information about the
products or the services to be offered for
sale to the potential consumers in the
market.
There are different ways to collect
the data. The most important methods
you
can consider are surveys, focus group
discussion and interviews.
In the previous lesson, you
learned the following:
✓ How to recognize and understand
potential market
✓ How to determine who the
customers are in terms of:
A. target market
B. customer requirement, and
C. market size
DATA COLLECTION is the most
valuable tool of any type of research
study.
Inaccurate data collection may
cause mistakes and ultimately lead
to invalid results.
TIPS in GATHERING DATA
• Organize collected data as soon as
it is available.
• Know what message you want to
get across and then collect data that
is
relevant to the message.
* Collect more data
• Create more data
• Regularly run experiments or collect
data
• Challenge your assumptions
• Set reasonable expectations
• Take note of interesting or significant
data
In this lesson, we will consider
the three different data collection
techniques – SURVEY
(Questionnaire), INTERVIEW and
FOCUS GROUP DISCUSSION – and
evaluate their suitability under
different circumstances
- What the customers want?
- What brand does well? What your
competitor does well?
SURVEYS are the most common
way to gather primary research with
the use
of questionnaires or interview
schedule. These can be done via
direct mail, over the
phone, internet (e.g. Google) or
email, face-to-face or on Web (e.g.
Skype or Viber)
When designing or
constructing your own research
questionnaire, remember
the following guidelines. (Edralin,
2016)
• Keep it simple as possible.
• Make sure it is clearly appealing
and easy to read.
• Cluster or block related
questions.
• Move from complex questions to
more specific questions.
• Make sure questions are concise
and easily understood.
• Avoid questions that are difficult
to answer.
• Make sure any response scales
used are consistent with categories
that are mutually exclusive
INTERVIEW is one of the most
reliable and credible ways of
getting relevant information from
target customers. It is typically
done in personal between the
researcher/entrepreneur and a
respondent where the researcher
asks pertinent questions that will
give significant pieces of
information about the problem that
he will solve.
The interview is also helpful even
when the business has already started
because the customers’ feedback
provides the entrepreneur a glimpse of
what the customers think about the
business.
Interviews normally last from 15
to 40 minutes, but they can last
longer,
depending on the participants’ interest
in the topic.
In a structured interview, the
researcher asks a standard set of
questions and nothing more.(Leedy
and Ormrod, 2001)
• Personal interviews are the
traditional method of conducting an
interview. It allows the researcher to
establish relationship with potential
participants and therefore gain their
cooperation.
It generates highest response rates
in survey research. They also allow
the
researcher to clarify indefinite
answers and when necessary, seek
follow-up information.
• Telephone interviews are less
expensive and less time consuming,
but the disadvantages are that the
response rate is not as high as the
face-to- face interview, but
considerably higher than the mailed
questionnaire.
FOCUS GROUP DISCUSSION (FGD)
– is an excellent method for
generating and screening ideas
and concepts. It can be a
moderated group interviews and
brainstorming sessions that
provide information on user’s
needs and behaviors.
The following are considerations in the
use of focus group discussions in
market research:
• The length of the session is between
90 and 120 minutes.
• Usually, conduct focus groups
discussion with 8 to 10 participants per
group.
• Assign an expert moderator /
facilitator who can manage group
dynamics..
• Use a semi-structure or open-format
discussion
• Strive for consistency in the
group’s composition (for example,
it may not be advisable to have
business customers and retail
customers in the same focus
group, their needs are very
different).
Aside from the main basic groups of
research methods (quantitative,
qualitative and mixed), there are
different tools that can be used to collect
data. Interviews can be done either in
personal or over the phone.
Surveys/questionnaires can be paper or
web based. Focus Group Discussions can
be moderated group interviews and
brainstorming sessions that provide
information on user’s needs and
behaviors.
GUIDED PRACTICE / ACTIVITY:
Conduct a survey among 15 high
school students in our school about
“Milk Tea”. Use the survey form below:
Thank
you…
