Errol will need to analyse the data he collects and put them on tables and create graphs where he can then find out what he set out to find. Surveys can be most useful when finding out about collecting information about potential customers as you will be able to receive personal feedback from them.
Interviews; Interviews can be used differently to surveys as they can find out what the customers felt about the product and in Errol’s case the service. They will feature prepared and mostly open questions to get the interviewees full opinion.
Focus Groups; Focus groups are like interviews but feature groups instead of interviewing individuals. This will help Errol receive feedback about his service.
Consumer panels; Consumer panels are used over a time period where consumers give their view of a product over time. Like focus groups it helps receive a feedback about the good or service.
Observation; This is where customers are observed to see what promotions attract them this can help Errol see how people react to his adverts as well as what products they like.
Product sampling; this is where customers get a sample of the product or service and have to feed back on it. This helps businesses see customer’s wants and needs.
Secondary Research Techniques
There are 2 types of secondary research; “Internal”; meaning secondary resources available to Errol only and “External”; meaning secondary sources publicly available for people to look at.
The internet: puts information on every item or service available. Research can be conducted with minimal costs and enough information can be acquired easily. Information from all around the world is included on the web; therefore this method is very informative and effective if you know what you are looking for.
Articles: Special reports in newspapers such as the Financial Times. (A newspaper more to do with businesses-stock market-trade) Businesses could gain information about competition and different trends by looking at these kinds of sources. With the information they collect, businesses adjust/develop products and services to meet the high standards of customers.
*I am now going to explain the benefits and drawbacks of what method I think Errol should use if he wishes to go ahead with secondary research, (internet.)
Internet
If Errol is considering using secondary research I would advise him to use the internet. He can easily find out about his potential customers needs and want and he can observe the competition round him. Using the internet is time consuming but it hardly costs and that is a benefit for Errol.
The overall benefits of the Internet are; always free and there to use, no restrictions on when you can and cannot use it. It is also cost-effective and generally easy to use.
The overall drawbacks of the internet are; some information on there can be out of date therefore no use to you and wasted your time. There is also a wide range of information on the web and it is not very specific, it would take you a long time to find out what you particularly want. (Competition within your local area-Harrow)
Questionnaires:
Advantages:
Using questionnaires will give Errol many advantages. Errol can decide what questions he would like to ask the participants and therefore he can include these questions in it. This is an advantage as he can ask questions which are directly related to the type of business he is going to start. This will be more beneficial for Errol as he can think of questions which will help him with his research rather than, if he never chose what questions to ask the questionnaire might not be helpful for him as the questions won’t be related to anything to do with his business.
Using questionnaires will also help Errol with using the market research to aid him in starting his business. It will be easier for Errol to analyse the answers and the type of response he gets from the questionnaires. Questionnaires are one of the easiest types of surveys to analyse; especially if you use closed questions as this limits the type of answer the participant gives you. This brings me on to my next point which is that Errol doesn’t have to choose different questions to ask each individual; everyone is asked the same question so Errol won’t have to think of different question for each questionnaire he makes. Lastly, another advantage for Errol with using questionnaires is that if the participant is used to face to face or over the phone, the two way communication help to make sure the respondent understands the questions fully.
Disadvantages:
However, as well as advantages there are also the same amount of disadvantages with using questionnaires. Firstly, the questions that Errol decides to include, may be brief and impersonal and may not be related to the purpose of making questionnaires (market research). Therefore, Errol will have to think carefully to ask the correct type of questions, otherwise he will be at a financial lost as he will have wasted money on producing questionnaires which are in no way related to his objective of finding out about his market and competition.
Secondly, Errol may not get back a full 100% response as there is a low return rate for postal and newspaper questionnaires. There are 2 possible reasons as to why this is. Firstly the participant may not bother at all to fill out the questionnaire or might not even look at it thinking it is junk mail and put it in the bin. Secondly, the participants may fill out the questionnaire; however they may forget to post it back to Errol.
A third disadvantage of using questionnaires is the fact that it is quite time consuming as well as expensive. Errol needs to be sure he has asked the most appropriate and on targeted questions in the questionnaire so at the end of the day all the money and time used, pays of and was not simply just a waste of time.
Lastly, Errol should choose exactly which type of questions he will include in his questionnaires. He needs to decide whether they’re going to be open questions, closed questions or perhaps a mixture of both. Moreover, the last possible disadvantage of using questionnaires comes in if Errol decides to use closed questions. Errol will be at a disadvantage at this point because closed questions do not really allow or give people the opportunity to express their own opinions. Therefore this may not be helpful for Errol when he has to look back through the questionnaires for feedback.
Interviewing:
Advantages
There are fairly lot advantages of interviewing. The first advantage is that the interviewer can help the interviewee, (in this case Errol can help the participant), to understand the questions and also gives Errol the chance of explaining the questions in depth, also uncovering the purpose, giving the participant the chance to answer the questions to the best of their ability.
Views and opinions can also be easily expressed through interviews; whether they’re open or either closed questions. Therefore Errol can get more positive and informative feed back form the participants to help him with his market research.
The last advantage of using interviews is that the responses Errol will get more detailed responses which will, again, help him with his market research.
Disadvantages:
The disadvantages of interviews are that interviews are costly and furthermore extremely time consuming, as Errol will have to go to each individual participant and interview them and it will take time to interview each participant and there is no idea of how long it’ll take.
Secondly, interviews are very difficult to analyse as Errol will get different responses from each participant. Also, not to mention, that this will take up a lot of Errol’s time; therefore this factor will also make it time consuming.
Lastly Errol may not be given an honest opinion or answers to his questionnaire. This is because the participant may be intimidated by the fact that the person (Errol) is right in front of them and therefore may not their honest thoughts and answers.
Focus Groups:
Advantages:
Focus groups have far less advantages than interviewing as well as questionnaires. The first advantage of using focus groups as part of market research is that they are a relatively cheap way of gaining the views of customers. This way Errol will not have to spend too much money for doing his market research as this is not as costly as the other methods and he will also be able to get a moderate detailed and amount of response.
The second advantage of using focus groups is that customers are more likely to respond to this than a postal questionnaire. This will be beneficial for Errol as he will be guaranteed a response from the participants which will help him with his market research.
Disadvantages:
However, there are more disadvantages than advantages for using focus groups. The first disadvantage of using focus groups is customers/participants may have their opinions changed by other members of the group as they can be influenced by other group members. This will not be good for Errol’s market research as he will not be getting a definitive or honest opinion from many customers/participants; so he will not know if their opinions are their own or what the majority think.
Also, it may be difficult for Errol to find people who are prepared to give up time for a focus group session. This may take time for Errol to find a group of people.
Lastly, the opinions and response that Errol gets will only be a small number of customers and may not reflect and represent the views of the majority of customers, and therefore it may be a bit of a gamble.
Observation:
Advantages:
There are only two possible advantages for using observation as part of Errol’s market research. The first benefit for Errol is that a larger number of people can be analysed as Errol can observe as many people he wishes. And secondly, observation is an extremely cheap method of market research. It will not cost Errol far as much as it will to use other methods of market research.
Disadvantages:
There is only one main disadvantage of using observation which is, it only gives customer reactions and not the reasons for those reactions. Therefore Errol may be at a loss and may be confused or puzzled as to why the customers have made a specific decision as he will not know the reason.
Secondary Methods:
Advantages of Secondary Research:
The advantages of using secondary methods of research are, firstly, it is often
Obtained without cost so it is cheaper than primary research. This will be very beneficial towards Errol as it’ll mean he will be saving money which he can then spend on other factors to help him in starting up his business.
The second advantage of using secondary methods is that it is usually instantly available. This means that Errol will not have to spend too much time in obtaining and collecting the information and can get straight on to analysing the information and responses.
Errol has to take in account many issues when choosing which market research technique is best suited to him and his needs. The market research technique most useful to Errol could be Surveys. Surveys are probably the most useful to Errol as they will allow him to answer all his questions on market research as other techniques might only result in him finding out about one sector of market research for example product sampling could look at the service for sale but couldn’t establish anything about the state of the market or competition Errol will face. When designing his survey he can make sure he asks questions which will get the information Errol is looking for. This might not always work as people would give opinions not facts. The internet would be useful for finding facts as would most secondary research methods.
Socially Errol will have to worry about designing the questionnaire to make sure it doesn’t offend any body and when handing out face to face surveys Errol might not get true opinions as the people might become nervous and tell Errol what he wants to hear not what they feel. A way around this problem is to ask people to post the surveys back so they are anonymous however this will take away one major advantage of surveys which is the fact if someone doesn’t understand a question they could be helped. Another problem derived from this is there is a low postal return rate for surveys as people are not gaining anything by posting surveys back. Errol could give gifts to people who return them but as he doesn’t have much money he wouldn’t be able to afford that; he could offer a raffle where every one who sends the survey back is entered this is a cheaper way to boost replies.
Financially handing out surveys will cost Errol a lot and it will take up a lot of time to analyse. This is the biggest drawbacks of surveys as there are very few things that can be done to minimize costs and save time. Some things that can help include using ICT to process the information shortening the time taken and to cut costs Errol could send his questioners through e-mail and hand them out on the street instead of using the phone or newspaper as these cost more money.
Surveys are also normally brief and impersonal but the way around this would be to add more open questions however this would then put people of completing the survey.
Errol could improve his survey by using a variation of closed and open questions to get developed opinions from the open questions while still keeping peoples attention and making it easier to analyse from closed questions.
To conclude Errol has many types of marketing research available to him giving him a lot of information which will greatly help him and his business. To maximize its use Errol should use both primary and secondary research techniques improving the techniques to tailor his needs and limitations. Surveys would help answer his questions but will cost him money and will take up time while internet might not be able to answer his specific questions but will not take up as much money and time. If Errol uses both techniques he can get a range of information allowing him to achieve his market research objectives relatively quickly while not using up a lot of money.
