Observation
Customers
Blackberry can employ people or use different companies to observe the buying patterns of consumers when buying a new phone. People will be deployed to follow certain customers and gather information about what they buy and their buying behaviour, the person who is in charge of following the customer will remain anonymous therefore getting an accurate reading of the customers’ reactions.
Competitors
People that are sent out to observe customers in different stores can concentrate on customers that are approaching competitors stores and how they react to the tactics places by competitors enabling a company such as blackberry to improve on personal technique through help observing there own competitors and their strategies.
Market Environment
Blackberry can observe how competitors are operating and how they are selling their products. A general observation based on marketing, promotions, product features and the customers’ reaction to the products produced by competitors can help blackberry improve their own tactics and forma better plan that will help in selling more and more of their future releases.
Experimentations
Blackberry are always invited to technological events in order to showcase new products and watch customers reactions. This helps the company determine what the overall reaction of the customers would be towards that new product if released onto the market and whether people will decide to buy the product or not.
Personal Interviews
Personal interview and phone interviews allow the company to get an in-depth opinion about the product. This helps in finding out what interest consumers and what they’d like to see in upcoming products.
Focus Groups
Focus groups can be used to gather information on whether or not the target market is able to accept and use a new or re-launched products or services, reactions to new advertising campaigns or specific advertisements, or to gather consumer opinion and perceptions of a whole product class. They are generally used to gather data that is related to motivation, branding, and attitudes towards a product or service and sometimes to assist in developing a more structured survey.
Surveys
Surveys are the most widely used set of methods in market research. Surveys can be conducted by mail, face-to-face, telephone, email, Web, observation, focus groups, content analysis, or other methods. The questionnaire is the one of more common methods for collecting data from a survey, but is only one of a wide ranging set of data collection aids. Surveys can help a company get an overview of opinions of what consumers want and need and whether they’re prepared to pay for it or not.
Secondary Research
Secondary research is based on information gathered from studies previously performed by government agencies, chambers of commerce, trade associations, and other organizations. A company can find much of this kind of information in local libraries or on the Web, but books and business publications, as well as magazines and newspapers, are also great sources. Although secondary research is less expensive than primary research, it's not always accurate, or as useful, and specific as primary research. For example, secondary research will tell a company how much teenagers spent last year on different handsets, but not how much they're willing to pay for the handset design that the company is aiming to produce.
Newspapers/Magazines
News papers and magazines are a great way of performing secondary market research. A company such as Blackberry can gather information on what technological aspects are important to customers through the hype created by the media and spoken about in magazines and newspapers. Recent activity showed that a new type of screen called ‘OLED’ has gotten the attention of consumers and is on demand, therefore Blackberry can take this into consideration and integrate it into their future products, meaning that they will attract a large number of consumers. Newspapers and magazines can also be a great way of collecting data based on the users rating of the companies previously released products and can pick out any highlighted faults or problems and correct them in future releases.
Statistics
Internal
Internal statistics can provide a company such as Blackberry with valuable information such as how many people are using a certain network or how many people have purchased a certain product from a certain shop. Although this information is not in depth, it can still be useful and help in determining what consumers buy and what they look for.
External
External statistics are general information provided by the government or different companies on population size, types of customers, different competitors, market environment etc. This information can be used to determine the best way of marketing and releasing a product. Blackberry for example can produce adverts or aim their products at a different market then those aimed for by competitors resulting in a higher number of sales.