MarketResearch Techniques

Research is the process of going up alleys to see if they are blind.
Marston Bates

So here I am once again and I am sure, that you must have gone through the Primary Research Techniques……………………Did you?

Hmm …. If not, no issues ……….I will be telling you about that in this article.

So where were I………….Hmmm………..Ya primary research techniques.

Friends, as I have told you the Market research techniques can be of many types and they have been classified by many researchers according to there comfy and need and same goes with readers, users and other followers…………..they choose the type they understand better or you can say which fits better to their need.

I will be classifying them into 5 Types as Focus Groups, Surveys, Field Tests, Personal Interviews and Observation.

One thing keep in mind it’s very difficult to get the unknown data or we can say to get the data which does not already exist.

Primary research is that kind of research where data does not exist. It involves getting the ORIGINAL DATA directly about any Topic, Product or Market.

Now question that comes to our mind is …………….why we do Primary research and where?

Answer is simple …………just think for a minute where all we will be needing the primary research…………………..!!!!!!!!!

Ok let me tell you……….Primary research is done always to get answers of specific questions related to anything like business……….

Lets take an example ……………… you are a Soap company and you have launched a new soap in the market 2 months back…………Now to get answers to few of questions like

1. What proportions of customers using this soap?

2. Are customers happy with the Product?

Or they want some additional features?

And so on……………………………….

Such questions can not be answered by secondary research and hence we have to use Primary Research.

Now let’s discuss The Primary Research Techniques…………….

Focus Group: These are also known as the consumer panels…………………Hey are you not thinking but why this is used and when,what is the need of such panels, does it happen really, who facilitate it, who examine it,………..Blah……..blah…………

Believe me, when I started doing research I was unaware of the importance of different techniques but as the time passed I have started learning what exactly should be used and when?

This kind of research is used by a company to examine a product, Brand, etc. This kind of Research is mostly done when a new product or brand is being launched in the Market.

It’s not always Possible to ask these questions to the end customers and hence a group or panel is made with a facilitator who organizes and facilitates the meeting and then answers are found by asking in-depth questions.

Surveys: Surveys can be done online or Field Research. Online Surveys are carried out over the emails, or the internet. Such Technique is much faster and cheap to get the Primary data.On the other hand the Field research is popular for achieving the more accurate results, but its time consuming.

Interviews: Can be categorized into two types again…………..hmm……. One……. telephonic and other can be personal or we can say face to face interviews. Both type of interviews mainly based on asking a set of questions to the people on the roads, cafes, or public places, Offices etc. However; telephonic interviews are similar to the personal interview but the questions and very straight and short. Often close ended questions are asked.

Observations: A set of people are observed and conclusions are made on the research.

Field tests/Questionnaire:People are sent a mailer/post and a set of questions are to be answered by the customers according to their experience with the product. Mostly carried out post purchase as to know the feedback of the customers

So, these are the Primary techniques which we confront daily while doing a market research. But keep in mind these can be very specific and used as per required.

Guys……….I hope this would help you to clear few of your doubts about Market research techniques…………………………..But this is not the end………………….

We have learnt many things about market research till now. But this area is very vast and there are plenty of Research techniques, Types to understand and learn. No doubt, these would be more complex but believe me ……………..it will be very interesting to know what is the actual depth of Market research.

I will definitely come up with some more useful information in my proceeding articles.

Till then Keep learning, Keep Sharing ………………….and Keep Smiling.

Best Regards,

Vipul Sood