Experiments
This is where a business will change some parts of a product and see what the response from customers is. For example a cereal company might want to change the colour of their product so they will choose a certain area then make sure the products they send there are a new colour without the box saying the cereal has had any alterations and see what response the people from that area give them. The disadvantage with this is that the sample isn’t broad enough so it won’t give a good enough view of the opinions for the whole of the UK.
Surveys
This is where a business will decide on a set of questions that it will ask its existing and potential customers. The questions will be the same for every person interviewed. This type of research involves taking a sample of the population and asking them the pre-set questions. There are four types of surveys, they are:
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Personal interviews – this is where an interviewer asks individuals (customers or potential customers). The questions are asked face to face. The advantages of personal interviews are: any problems or questions that weren’t understood correctly can be dealt with and also the body language of the person being interviewed can be observed. The disadvantages are: it is expensive to carry out and also the interviewer can be biased and try to persuade them to chose a specific answer.
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Postal surveys – this is where a letters and questionnaires are sent to house owned by the sample of population chosen. The letter states what the company does and why the person has been chosen to do a survey. It also gives them information on how and who to contact with any queries or problems. The advantages of this survey are: It can cover a wide geographical area which means there is a broader sample, It is relatively inexpensive, The respondents have time to complete the survey so they won’t feel intimidated. The disadvantage is that the response rate is very low because many people will just throw it in the bin.
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Telephone Surveys – this is where an interviewer calls the sample population by phone and the interviewed is carried out over the phone during the call. The advantages are: It can cover a huge area so the sample of population can be spaced out and the size can be greater, It is relatively cheap to do. The disadvantages are: The survey is limited to only the people who have a telephone.
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Panel surveys – this is where a group of people are asked questions regularly. The advantages of this are: They can monitor the views of the members over time, More truthful answers are usually received. The disadvantages are: Panel members may change over time, Members may be set in their views.
When you carry out a survey there are various sampling techniques to get a sample of the population. The two basic types of sampling are random or non-random.
Random or Probability samples- this is where every member of the population has an equal chance of being chosen. In this type of sampling there are various methods they are:
- Simple random sampling- this is where a sample is drawn at random from the population, usually with the help of a computer.
- Systematic sampling- this is where a numerical formula is used to select the sample of the population e.g. every tenth person is chosen to do the survey.
- Stratified sampling- this is where a sample is taken from a particular strata (type of people) of the population e.g. those in the age group of 25-35.
- Cluster sampling- this is where the population is divided into a number of distinct clusters, e.g. certain villages, and the samples are taken from these clusters.
Non-random or Non-probability samples- this is where every member of the population does not have an equal chance of being part of the sample as the sample is chosen by a researcher who may be biased. In this type of sampling there are two main methods they are:
- Quota sampling- this is where interviewers will choose respondents according to whether they fulfil certain criteria. For example a survey be of 50 women, 30 married and 20 not married.
- Convenience sampling- this is where the interviewer selects a convenient place, where large groups of people might congregate, in order to conduct a survey.
The primary and secondary research I will require to produce a marketing strategy for CCL computers ltd are: information about potential and existing customers, ways of advertising products to attract new customers, information about rival companies, information on the sales of computer parts and information on the market trends.
I will collect information on potential and existing customers and ways of advertising products to attract new customers by producing a questionnaire and I will gather the other information from books and from the Internet. The sampling technique that I will use when carrying out my survey is stratified sampling because I will use the 16-19 age group and I will ask 30 people to give me a good size survey and sample to use as primary research.
Here are some of the questions I chose to use in the questionnaire and the reasons why I chose them:
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How old are you? – I chose this question because I wanted to find out the areas of the market that have the biggest interest and are potential customers. I wanted the results to be from students because I wanted to see how many students own a computer and how many of them buy parts for their computer. This will help me because I will know whom the adverts and marketing should be aimed at. This will help me to decide the right method of advertising and this will help with the marketing strategy. My results showed that out of the 30 people I asked, 25 of them were 16-17 year olds and 5 of them were 18 or above. Here is a chart to show my results:
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Are you male or female? – I chose this question because I wanted to find out, out of all the people I asked how many were males and how many were females so that when I reviewed the questionnaire I could find out how many males own a pc and buy parts for it and also how many females own a pc and buy parts for it. This would help me to decide on whom to aim the marketing strategy at. My results showed that out of the 30 people I asked 17 were males and 13 were females. This meant that the number of males and females asked were nearly the same giving me a good sample to work with. Here is a chart to show my results:
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Do you have a pc in your house? – I chose this question because I wanted to see out of all the people I asked how many of them had a pc in their household. This would help me because if the people answered no to this question I could thank them for their time and go and ask somebody else. It would also help me because it would show me out of the sample how many had a pc and how many didn’t so that I could see how many potential customers there would be. My results showed that out of the 30 people I asked 23 of them owned a pc and 7 of them didn’t. This showed me that the majority of my sample had a pc in their household. Here is a chart to show my results:
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Do you buy parts for your pc (e.g. harddrives, cd drives etc.)?- I chose this question because I wanted to see how many people aged 16-19 buy parts for their pc. This would help me because I would know how many people would probably be attracted to CCL through advertising. My result showed me that 15 0f the people buy parts regularly, 3 don’t buy parts and 5 sometimes buy parts. Here is a chart to show my results: