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Introduction

market research Market research is when you find out how many people would want to buy the product offered for sale. If there is not a very big market for the product, then a lot of money could be wasted on producing a product which not many people will buy. It could even cause a business to go bankrupt. Therefore, it is very important that market research is carried out very accurately. Usually, market research tries to answer the following questions: 1. What feature of the product do they like/dislike? 2. Are people willing to buy the product? 3. What price are people prepared to pay? 4. Location of the selling point of the product? 5. Type of customer who buys the product? 6. Type of promotion that will be effective? 7. What the competition is like? Businesses also need to know about the consumer wants to be more competitive. There are two main types of information that can be gathered from market research: Quantitative information: Information about the quantity of something e.g. 'What percentage of teenagers eats a certain type of chocolate?' Qualitative information: Information where an opinion or judgment is necessary, e.g. 'What do customers think about a particular product?' ...read more.

Middle

1. The interviewer can explain any questions the interviewee does not understand. 2. Detailed information about what the interviewees' opinions about the product can be gathered. 1. The interviewer might unconsciously lead the interviewee to answer in a certain way resulting in inaccurate results due to interviewer bias. 2. Can be time consuming and expensive. Samples A group of people who are selected to fill in questionnaires or get interviewed. This could be: 1. A Random sample: A random number of people are selected. The advantage is that everyone in the population has an even chance of being picked, but not everyone may be a consumer of the particular product being investigated. 2. A Quota sample: People are selected for some certain characteristics, for example, age, gender or income. Consumer panels Consumer panels are groups of people who agree to provide information about a specific product or general spending patterns over a period of time. They may even test it and give feedback on their likes and dislikes. 1. Can provide detailed information about consumers' opinions. 1. They can be time consuming, expensive, and biased if opinions of some is influenced by others. Observation This can take the form of: 1. ...read more.

Conclusion

The interviews are also more time consuming to carry out than questionnaires. I will not use consumer panels because I'm going to use questionnaires which will obtain more or less the same type of results. Also, using consumer panels can be expensive, time-consuming and biased if some people in the panel are influenced by the opinions of others. I will not be able to make observations (audits) in other desserts stores as I will not be able to count their stock and even if I did the results will not provide me with any reasons as to why the consumers made these decisions. The second type of primary research that I am going to use is carrying out experiments. I can walk around some streets or in Sporting Club giving out samples of my delicious donuts to consumers to taste. I then ask them for feedback about whether they liked it or not, are they likely to buy from my store when it opens or how the product can be improved. Setting up experiments is relatively easy and a good way of gathering the consumers first reactions to my donuts. I will make sure to go around places at different times in order to maximize the possibility of asking many potential customers to try my new donuts. Hesham Saleh ...read more.

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