Friday, December 23, 2011

How Should Market Research Be Used?


In its simplest form, market research is a decision making tool. Its primary goal is to enable more informed choices on a wide range of topics, especially for such key issues as branding, positioning, new product/service development, product use, segmentation, consumer attitudes and customer experience or behavior.

Researchers have developed a large number of tools and approaches to help answer the questions that marketers have. The two biggest “categories” are qualitative research and quantitative research. We’ll go into more depth on each of these in future posts but, basically, qualitative research is generally used to explore a topic in depth. Focus groups are the most well-known form of qualitative research, although one-on-one interviews, Laddering interviews, ethnographic interviews and “mini groups” are also often used.

Qualitative research relies on only a small number of participants, meaning that the results are not strictly “projectable” to the population as a whole. However, qualitative research is great at uncovering the linkages between consumer attitudes and behavior and really understanding how people feel about a particular topic. It can be used as the first step toward designing a more comprehensive quantitative survey or can help explain or further explore survey results that have already been collected.

Quantitative research can best be summarized as a measurement tool, with the results usually gathered through the use of a survey. Survey data can be collected in a wide variety of ways, such as online, by telephone, by mail and even in person. The two most critical factors when designing a quantitative survey are (1) sample definition, that is, who is being interviewed and (2) survey design, including the approach to be taken and what questions are being asked. We’ll delve into both of these topics in later postings.

Market research is most powerful when marketers have clearly defined their objectives. When defining a project, the decision makers don’t need to focus on the research approach, the discussion guide or the detailed survey questions they just need to be certain about what they want to know. An experienced research can then take those objectives and create a study design to meet them. It’s really, really important for everyone involved to keep the study objectives front-and-center through all stages of any research project!