Market Research

The first 200 words of this essay...

Market research

Market research is the collection of information or data to better understand what is happening in the market place. A firm's marketing department needs to know about economic trends, as well as consumers' views. Based on this information, they can put together a marketing plan, which will meet their own needs as well as those of their consumers.

There are two general types of research:

* Primary or field research- Obtaining new data for a specific purpose. The marketing department of a firm or a specialist research organization can provide this. Typically, the data is gathered by:

Interview: This is the technique most associated with marketing research. Interview can be:

> Telephone: Telephone ownership is very common in developed countries. It is ideal for collecting data from a geographically dispersed sample. The interviews tend to be very structured and tend to lack depth. Telephone interviews are cheaper to conduct than face-to-face interviews (on a per person basis).

Advantages of telephone interviews

* Can be geographically spread

* Can be set up and conducted relatively cheaply

* Random samples can be selected

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