Why is Innovation important in Marketing

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yy5fXWks4j8
the speaker in the video has not only emphasized the importance of innovation in marketing but also discussed some useful ideas for bringing innovation in traditional marketing techniques and media.Check the video.

Mapping Lahore

This should be a very interesting event

http://www.local.com.pk/mappingparty

Regards
Mannan.

Innovative Market Research Techniques to appeal to college students

Hey guys,

I found something interesting about doing the right research. This material can help us in our Brand management assignment...Plz do see it..

http://www.brainreactions.com/innovative-market-research-techniques-to-appeal-to-college-students.html

Use demographics to understand your target market

Hey all,
After a long pause I'm posting here a useful link for all of you. This article gives some useful tips about Identification of a particular target audience for your product and then studying their behavior based on thier demographics. It also provide some useful insight in targeting the right consumer for your product.
http://www.allbusiness.com/marketing/segmentation-targeting/848-1.html

Merry Christmas

I wish all my chiristian friendzzzzzzz a very happy Christmas. :) May all ur wishes come true on that Christmas n thank you today for that wonderful party. :)

We wish you a Merry Christmas

and a Happy New Year.

Good tidings to you, wher ever you are

Good Tidings for Christmas and a Happy New Year

* In Market Research, Use Numbers With Caution

This article shows a clear mistake that most of us will be making in our reports; i.e. using quantitative data. It holds its importance, but qualitative data, as quoted in the article, ' can also help to identify non-obvious ways to delight current customers'.

Read the article and please post your thoughts.



http://blogs.harvardbusiness.org/anthony/2009/09/in_market_research_use.html

'Shift from company-branded products to customer-branded solutions'

I was going through an article on Harvard Business review and this statement reminded me of what sir Ahmad shuja said in his guest speaker session. He said that the things that were present 2 years ago, when he delivered his first lecture to the Batch of 2010, those things were non-existing now.

Similarly, Marketing research done today is not as useful tomorrow.

http://hbr.org/product/a-plan-to-invent-the-marketing-we-need-today/an/SMR283-PDF-ENG?Ntt=marketing+research

Guest Speaker Session

Hi

There is a guest speaker session coming Tuesday 22nd December at 5pm in E-25. The speaker is Mr Jazib from Tintash. All the marketing research students are expected to be there.

Thank you

identify the problem

observe

ideate

test

iterate

IDEO

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M66ZU2PCIcM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_civr9fr4iw&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bwd-yk6VHXU&feature=related

any one who attended the guest speaker session, please write a brief outline of it

my group couldn't attend the guest speaker session, becuase of an already scheduled meeting with Mr. Ahsan, owner of Labanees Corner. I would like to request those who attended the lecture, please post the outline about it. Both the fun and functional part of the lecture. anxiously waiting for your comments

kind regards,
kashif

Guest Speaker Session

Hi

This is to inform all marketing students that we have a guest speaker session tomorrow at 5pm in S-009. We are being visited by Mr Raza Saeed, CEO Confiz Technologies. All of you are requested to attend.

Thank you

Google Goggles

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hhgfz0zPmH4&feature=PlayList&p=3498A4277F856019&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=38
What kind of a research Google must have done to find out there is a need for a product like Google Goggles? I remember Miss Syma shown us a video in which some students from MIT did almost the same trick performed by Google Goggles.

Top 100 global brands

i found the list while searching on net of top 1oo brands of 2009. the most interesting part is that they also tell us 2008 ranking in that list which showed ups n downs of the brand like google make it way to the 7th spot..3 places above the last year ranking.
As one of our major course this sammster is Brand managemnt so i hope this list will find u interesting n up to date regarding brands globally :)

http://www.interbrand.com/best_global_brands.aspx

Tips for making a good questionnaire

Hey Guys,
I am sharing a link with all of you that will give you an idea about the necessary ingredients for designing a good questionnaire.
http://mgmt280.blogspot.com/2009/10/what-makes-good-questionnaire.html

Visit the link and start commenting in a constructive way because this will help all of us in designing our questionnaires.

About My Campus

Hey guys I am facing some problems in signing up for My Campus netwrok(mycampus.pk). I got an email after three days when I was actually thinking that something is wrong with the process I am following or may be the website is under mainatainace. The email says I cannot register with my University name. Anyone in you guys signed up and faced the same problem? Can anybody help me with this issue?

i really found this piece of information to be simple but informative. It gives marketing research in six simple steps.
do give it a look and give me your feedback..

http://www.polarismr.com/education/steps_index.html

Guest Speaker Session

Hi

This is to inform all the marketing students that there is a guest speaker session tomorrow Tuesday, 8th December at 5pm in E-25. Sir Mannan has said that attndence is mandatory for all. Please be punctual.

Thank you

Marketing Research make up class

Hi

This is to inform all marketing students that there is a make up class tomorrow Tuesday, 8th December at 6pm. You are expected to read chapter 22 from the book before coming to class.

Thank you

Want to Understand Your Customers? Go Psycho.

Customer research is now a days more psychographic then demographic. Now customer value, openion n life style is more important to know 4 a company then any other thing.
Here is a link which tell us all about that changing trend
Hope u like it!!!

http://blogs.harvardbusiness.org/tjan/2009/05/want-to-understand-your-custom.html

Make up Marketing Research class

Hi

This is to inform all the Marketing Research students that we have a class tomorrow Monday, 7th December at 5. The duration of the class is expected to be 2 and a half hours. I'm not certain about the room number right now but most probably it will be the Executive Lounge. I'll inform you of that through sms.

Thank you.

Why Apple Won't Care About Slow Chinese iPhone Sales

yesterday i published a post regarding to mobile phone market in which its stated that iphone n china mobiles have a scope of capturing more market share in coming future. This article explain why apple is not afraid of china iphones

Hope u all like it


http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/kit-eaton/technomix/why-apple-wont-care-about-slow-chinese-iphone-sales

Market research on the cheap

In this article the writer John Tozzi has basically suggested five practical ways of saving money on market research.

Guys check this out!!

Just click on the link http://www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/content/jan2008/sb2008019_352779.htm
to read the article.

60-Second Guide to Conducting Market Research

Market research is a valuable planning tool for businesses of all sizes and types. What's more, you don't need a huge budget to gather data about your customers' perceptions and preferences and how they make buying decisions. Market research can also help you with decisions about where to direct advertising .Chek this Out Guys.
In just 60-seconds, we'll show you how to develop a market research strategy for your small business.

0:60 What Information Do You Want to Know and Why? What information about your current or potential customers will help you serve them better? Demographic data and travel patterns can help you determine the feasibility of opening a new location, while knowledge about their daily schedules can help you set more convenient hours of operation.
0:44 See What's Already Been Discovered. There is probably more published information available about your type of business and target market than you realize. Among the best sources are the U.S. Census Bureau, national and regional business publications, trade organizations, and your local chamber of commerce.
0:39 Build on What You're Doing It's easy to make market research a part of your day-to-day activities. Retailers can use sales receipts, delivery orders, and charge slips to identify where customers live, or monitor inventory trends to gauge the popularity of certain product lines. Tracking orders of daily specials helps restaurant owners determine which dishes are most popular on a weekly or seasonal basis.
0:24 Watch the Competition You can gain some valuable insights by studying the practices of successful competing businesses. No espionage is required. Just be observant about when and where they advertise, the setting and layout of their various locations, operating practices, etc. Remember that their approach may be driven by circumstances substantially different from yours.
0:16 Talk to Your Customers As a small business owner, you're face-to-face with your customers. Your market research can be as informal as observing customers in the store or doing a survey and as elaborate as conducting a full-scale research program with focus groups and computer-generated maps. A market research firm or ad agency will cost more than a "homemade" strategy, of course, but you will have the benefit of the consultant's experience and objectivity.
0:03 Ask SCORE Many of the information resources mentioned above can be found at your local SCORE chapter office. And, by working with a volunteer counselor, you will gain a better understanding of the stories behind the numbers and how they relate to your business. Counseling is free, and available at a SCORE chapter near you
http://www.allbusiness.com/marketing/market-research/2716-1.html

Google, Yahoo and Microsoft to Include Tweets in Web Searches

The companies, which lead the U.S. search market, letting users get Twitter messages, called tweets, in query results. Microsoft also plans to include Facebook Inc. messages in its Bing search engine.Twitter, the San Francisco-based company is most wanted now a days and thats why the companies like google, yahoo n microsoft include this in web searches to make searching more easy for the users.


http://bx.businessweek.com/marketing-strategy-in-web-20-age/view?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bloomberg.com%2Fapps%2Fnews%3Fpid%3Dnewsarchive%26sid%3DaMdM5JgA2my0

Nokia Sees Flat Market Share as Apple Gains

Nokia said it expects its market share to stay the same in 2010 amid an overall handset market set to grow by 10%. They will focus next year on expanding its services business, improving margins and pushing smart phones globally.
So who will be the leader in the coming future.....Nokia,I phones or China mobiles!!!!!!

http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/dec2009/gb2009122_882587.htm

Survey Design

http://www.surveysystem.com/sdesign.htm

This is the Survey Design chapter from The Survey System's Tutorial, revised May, 2009. It is reproduced here as a service to the research community. Copyright 2009, Creative Research Systems.

Knowing what the client wants is the key factor to success in any type of business. News media, government agencies and political candidates need to know what the public thinks. Associations need to know what their members want. Large companies need to measure the attitudes of their employees. The best way to find this information is to conduct a survey.

This chapter is intended primarily for those who are new to survey research. It discusses options and provides suggestions on how to design and conduct a successful survey project. It does not provide instruction on using specific parts of The Survey System, although it mentions parts of the program that can help you with certain tasks.

The Steps in a Survey Project

1. Establish the goals of the project - What you want to learn
2. Determine your sample - Whom you will interview
3. Choose interviewing methodology - How you will interview
4. Create your questionnaire - What you will ask
5. Pre-test the questionnaire, if practical - Test the questions
6. Conduct interviews and enter data - Ask the questions
7. Analyze the data - Produce the reports

This chapter covers the first five steps. The Survey System's Tutorial Chapters 1 and 2 cover entering data and producing reports.

Establishing Goals

The first step in any survey is deciding what you want to learn. The goals of the project determine whom you will survey and what you will ask them. If your goals are unclear, the results will probably be unclear. Some typical goals include learning more about:

• The potential market for a new product or service
• Ratings of current products or services
• Employee attitudes
• Customer/patient satisfaction levels
• Reader/viewer/listener opinions
• Association member opinions
• Opinions about political candidates or issues
• Corporate images

These sample goals represent general areas. The more specific you can make your goals, the easier it will be to get usable answers.

Selecting Your Sample

There are two main components in determining whom you will interview. The first is deciding what kind of people to interview. Researchers often call this group the target population. If you conduct an employee attitude survey or an association membership survey, the population is obvious. If you are trying to determine the likely success of a product, the target population may be less obvious. Correctly determining the target population is critical. If you do not interview the right kinds of people, you will not successfully meet your goals.

The next thing to decide is how many people you need to interview. Statisticians know that a small, representative sample will reflect the group from which it is drawn. The larger the sample, the more precisely it reflects the target group. However, the rate of improvement in the precision decreases as your sample size increases. For example, to increase a sample from 250 to 1,000 only doubles the precision. You must make a decision about your sample size based on factors such as: time available, budget and necessary degree of precision.

The Survey System (and this Web site) includes a sample size calculator that can help you decide on the sample size (jump to the calculator page for a general discussion of sample size considerations).

Avoiding a Biased Sample

A biased sample will produce biased results. Totally excluding all bias is almost impossible; however, if you recognize bias exists you can intuitively discount some of the answers. The following list shows some examples of biased samples.

The consequences of a source of bias depend on the nature of the survey. For example, a survey for a product aimed at retirees will not be as biased by daytime interviews as will a general public opinion survey. A survey about Internet products can safely ignore people who do not use the Internet.

Quotas

A Quota is a sample size for a sub-group. It is sometimes useful to establish quotas to ensure that your sample accurately reflects relevant sub-groups in your target population. For example, men and women have somewhat different opinions in many areas. If you want your survey to accurately reflect the general population's opinions, you will want to ensure that the percentage of men and women in your sample reflect their percentages of the general population.

If you are interviewing users of a particular type of product, you probably want to ensure that users of the different current brands are represented in proportions that approximate the current market share. Alternatively, you may want to ensure that you have enough users of each brand to be able to analyze the users of each brand as a separate group. If you are doing telephone or Web page interviewing, The Survey System's optional Sample Management or Internet Module can help you enforce quotas. They let you create automatically enforced quotas and/or monitor your sample during interviewing sessions.

Interviewing Methods

Once you have decided on your sample you must decide on your method of data collection. Each method has advantages and disadvantages.

Personal Interviews

An interview is called personal when the Interviewer asks the questions face-to-face with the Interviewee. Personal interviews can take place in the home, at a shopping mall, on the street, outside a movie theater or polling place, and so on.

Advantages

• The ability to let the Interviewee see, feel and/or taste a product.
• The ability to find the target population. For example, you can find people who have seen a film much more easily outside a theater in which it is playing than by calling phone numbers at random.
• Longer interviews are sometimes tolerated. Particularly with in-home interviews that have been arranged in advance. People may be willing to talk longer face-to-face than to someone on the phone.

Disadvantages

• Personal interviews usually cost more per interview than other methods. This is particularly true of in-home interviews, where travel time is a major factor.
• Each mall has its own characteristics. It draws its clientele from a specific geographic area surrounding it, and its shop profile also influences the type of client. These characteristics may differ from the target population and create a non-representative sample.

Telephone Surveys

Surveying by telephone is the most popular interviewing method in the USA. This is made possible by nearly universal coverage (96% of homes have a telephone).

Advantages

• People can usually be contacted faster over the telephone than with other methods. If the Interviewers are using CATI (computer-assisted telephone interviewing), the results can be available minutes after completing the last interview.
• You can dial random telephone numbers when you do not have the actual telephone numbers of potential respondents.
• CATI software, such as The Survey System, makes complex questionnaires practical by offering many logic options. It can automatically skip questions, perform calculations and modify questions based on the answers to earlier questions. It can check the logical consistency of answers and can present questions or answers choices in a random order (the last two are sometimes important for reasons described later).
• Skilled interviewers can often elicit longer or more complete answers than people will give on their own to mail, email surveys (though some people will give longer answers to Web page surveys). Interviewers can also ask for clarification of unclear responses.
• Some software, such as The Survey System, can combine survey answers with pre-existing information you have about the people being interviewed.

Disadvantages

• Many telemarketers have given legitimate research a bad name by claiming to be doing research when they start a sales call. Consequently, many people are reluctant to answer phone interviews and use their answering machines to screen calls. Since over half of the homes in the USA have answering machines, this problem is getting worse.
• The growing number of working women often means that no one is home during the day. This limits calling time to a "window" of about 6-9 p.m. (when you can be sure to interrupt dinner or a favorite TV program).
• You cannot show or sample products by phone.

Mail Surveys

Advantages

• Mail surveys are among the least expensive.
• This is the only kind of survey you can do if you have the names and addresses of the target population, but not their telephone numbers.
• The questionnaire can include pictures - something that is not possible over the phone.
• Mail surveys allow the respondent to answer at their leisure, rather than at the often inconvenient moment they are contacted for a phone or personal interview. For this reason, they are not considered as intrusive as other kinds of interviews.

Disadvantages

• Time! Mail surveys take longer than other kinds. You will need to wait several weeks after mailing out questionnaires before you can be sure that you have gotten most of the responses.
• In populations of lower educational and literacy levels, response rates to mail surveys are often too small to be useful. This, in effect, eliminates many immigrant populations that form substantial markets in many areas. Even in well-educated populations, response rates vary from as low as 3% up to 90%. As a rule of thumb, the best response levels are achieved from highly-educated people and people with a particular interest in the subject (which, depending on your target population, could lead to a biased sample).

One way of improving response rates to mail surveys is to mail a postcard telling your sample to watch for a questionnaire in the next week or two. Another is to follow up a questionnaire mailing after a couple of weeks with a card asking people to return the questionnaire. The downside is that this doubles or triples your mailing cost. If you have purchased a mailing list from a supplier, you may also have to pay a second (and third) use fee - you often cannot buy the list once and re-use it.

Another way to increase responses to mail surveys is to use an incentive. One possibility is to send a dollar bill (or more) along with the survey (or offer to donate the dollar to a charity specified by the respondent). If you do so, be sure to say that the dollar is a way of saying "thanks," rather than payment for their time. Many people will consider their time worth more than a dollar. Another possibility is to include the people who return completed surveys in a drawing for a prize. A third is to offer a copy of the (non-confidential) result highlights to those who complete the questionnaire. Any of these techniques will increase the response rates.

Remember that if you want a sample of 1,000 people, and you estimate a 10% response level, you need to mail 10,000 questionnaires. You may want to check with your local post office about bulk mail rates - you can save on postage using this mailing method. However, most researchers do not use bulk mail, because many people associate "bulk" with "junk" and will throw it out without opening the envelope, lowering your response rate. Also bulk mail moves slowly, increasing the time needed to complete your project.

Computer Direct Interviews

These are interviews in which the Interviewees enter their own answers directly into a computer. They can be used at malls, trade shows, offices, and so on. The Survey System's optional Interviewing Module and Interview Stations can easily create computer-direct interviews. Some researchers set up a Web page survey for this purpose.

Advantages

• The virtual elimination of data entry and editing costs.
• You will get more accurate answers to sensitive questions. Recent studies of potential blood donors have shown respondents were more likely to reveal HIV-related risk factors to a computer screen than to either human interviewers or paper questionnaires. The National Institute of Justice has also found that computer-aided surveys among drug users get better results than personal interviews. Employees are also more often willing to give more honest answers to a computer than to a person or paper questionnaire.
• The elimination of interviewer bias. Different interviewers can ask questions in different ways, leading to different results. The computer asks the questions the same way every time.
• Ensuring skip patterns are accurately followed. The Survey System can ensure people are not asked questions they should skip based on their earlier answers. These automatic skips are more accurate than relying on an Interviewer reading a paper questionnaire.
• Response rates are usually higher. Computer-aided interviewing is still novel enough that some people will answer a computer interview when they would not have completed another kind of interview.

Disadvantages

• The Interviewees must have access to a computer or one must be provided for them.
• As with mail surveys, computer direct interviews may have serious response rate problems in populations of lower educational and literacy levels. This method may grow in importance as computer use increases.

Email Surveys

Email surveys are both very economical and very fast. More people have email than have full Internet access. This makes email a better choice than a Web page survey for some populations. On the other hand, email surveys are limited to simple questionnaires, whereas Web page surveys can include complex logic.

Advantages

• Speed. An email questionnaire can gather several thousand responses within a day or two.
• There is practically no cost involved once the set up has been completed.
• You can attach pictures and sound files.
• The novelty element of an email survey often stimulates higher response levels than ordinary “snail” mail surveys.

Disadvantages

• You must possess (or purchase) a list of email addresses.
• Some people will respond several times or pass questionnaires along to friends to answer. Many programs have no check to eliminate people responding multiple times to bias the results. The Survey System’s Email Module will only accept one reply from each address sent the questionnaire. It eliminates duplicate and pass along questionnaires and checks to ensure that respondents have not ignored instructions (e.g., giving 2 answers to a question requesting only one).
• Many people dislike unsolicited email even more than unsolicited regular mail. You may want to send email questionnaires only to people who expect to get email from you.
• You cannot use email surveys to generalize findings to the whole populations. People who have email are different from those who do not, even when matched on demographic characteristics, such as age and gender.
• Email surveys cannot automatically skip questions or randomize question or answer choice order or use other automatic techniques that can enhance surveys the way Web page surveys can.

Many email programs are limited to plain ASCII text questionnaires and cannot show pictures. Email questionnaires from The Survey System can attach graphic or sound files. Although use of email is growing very rapidly, it is not universal - and is even less so outside the USA (three-quarters of the world's email traffic takes place within the USA). Many “average” citizens still do not possess email facilities, especially older people and those in lower income and education groups. So email surveys do not reflect the population as a whole. At this stage they are probably best used in a corporate environment where email is common or when most members of the target population are known to have email.

Internet/Intranet (Web Page) Surveys

Web surveys are rapidly gaining popularity. They have major speed, cost, and flexibility advantages, but also significant sampling limitations. These limitations make software selection especially important and restrict the groups you can study using this technique.

Advantages

• Web page surveys are extremely fast. A questionnaire posted on a popular Web site can gather several thousand responses within a few hours. Many people who will respond to an email invitation to take a Web survey will do so the first day, and most will do so within a few days.
• There is practically no cost involved once the set up has been completed. Large samples do not cost more than smaller ones (except for any cost to acquire the sample).
• You can show pictures. Some Web survey software can also show video and play sound.
• Web page questionnaires can use complex question skipping logic, randomizations and other features not possible with paper questionnaires or most email surveys. These features can assure better data.
• Web page questionnaires can use colors, fonts and other formatting options not possible in most email surveys.
• A significant number of people will give more honest answers to questions about sensitive topics, such as drug use or sex, when giving their answers to a computer, instead of to a person or on paper.
• On average, people give longer answers to open-ended questions on Web page questionnaires than they do on other kinds of self-administered surveys.
• Some Web survey software, such as The Survey System, can combine the survey answers with pre-existing information you have about individuals taking a survey.

Disadvantages

• Current use of the Internet is far from universal. Internet surveys do not reflect the population as a whole. This is true even if a sample of Internet users is selected to match the general population in terms of age, gender and other demographics.
• People can easily quit in the middle of a questionnaire. They are not as likely to complete a long questionnaire on the Web as they would be if talking with a good interviewer.
• If your survey pops up on a web page, you often have no control over who replies - anyone from Antartica to Zanzibar, cruising that web page may answer.
• Depending on your software, there is often no control over people responding multiple times to bias the results.

At this stage we recommend using the Internet for surveys mainly when your target population consists entirely or almost entirely of Internet users. Business-to-business research and employee attitude surveys can often meet this requirement. Surveys of the general population usually will not. Another reason to use a Web page survey is when you want to show video or both sound and graphics. A Web page survey may be the only practical way to have many people view and react to a video.

In any case, be sure your survey software prevents people from completing more than one questionnaire. You may also want to restrict access by requiring a password (good software allows this option) or by putting the survey on a page that can only be accessed directly (i.e., there are no links to it from other pages).

Scanning Questionnaires

Scanning questionnaires is a method of data collection that can be used with paper questionnaires that have been administered in face-to-face interviews; mail surveys or surveys completed by an Interviewer over the telephone. The Survey System can produce paper questionnaires that can be scanned using Remark Office OMR (available from CRS). Other software can scan questionnaires and produce ASCII Files that can be read into The Survey System.

Advantages

• Scanning can be the fastest method of data entry for paper questionnaires.
• Scanning is more accurate than a person in reading a properly completed questionnaire.

Disadvantages

• Scanning is best-suited to "check the box" type surveys and bar codes. Scanning programs have various methods to deal with text responses, but all require additional data entry time.
• Scanning is less forgiving (accurate) than a person in reading a poorly marked questionnaire. Requires investment in additional hardware to do the actual scanning.

Summary of Survey Methods

Your choice of survey method will depend on several factors. These include:

Questionnaire Design

http://www.quickmba.com/marketing/research/qdesign/

Basics of Market Research

http://www.dobney.com/Research/MR_basics.htm

Market research surveys are the stock in trade for gathering any sort of market information. The aim is to gather information from a small sample of a market in order to be able to predict what the whole market wants.

In principle anyone can conduct their own market research surveys given the time, an openness to listen and a little bit of learning. We have a number of other DIY resources.

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Types of market research

Market research surveys can be divided in two - quantitative research and qualitative research (a third category is observation studies, but these are less common).

Quantitative research (quant) is about getting the hard measures of a market - market share, how many people think... , how many people saw our advertising, how many people would buy... . Qualitative research (qual) is about the softer issues exploring why people do things or think the way they do. These types of survey are usually complementary - you might explore the reasons why people buy in qual, then measure how important these reasons are in quant.

Quantitative surveys mean getting people to answer fixed questions in questionnaires. These questionnaires can be completed over the telephone, face-to-face, through the post or via the Internet. Because the objective is measurement it is important that all people answer the same question. Changes to wording can dramatically change your measurements. Consequently quantitative interviewers are trained not to stray from the script and good questionnaire design is extremely important.

Qualitative surveys are about exploring an issue with people. There are no fixed questionnaires and interviewer use their interviewing skill to draw views and opinions from people using a discussion guide (there are some differences in the US and UK views of how qualitative research is conducted). There are two main approaches to qualitative research -depth interviews (one-on-one interviews) and the focus group (aka discussion group) where the group dynamics means that individuals spark ideas and discussion off each other to explore a topic. It is important that the qualitative interviewer doesn't bias the discussion and lets the interviewee(s) describe things in their own terms - how something is said can be as important as what is said. Qualitative work is typically carried out in person, but it can be conducted over the telephone or over the Internet.

Both quantitative and qualitative research are based on the notion of sampling to identify who to talk to and the idea of the interviewer as an unbiased observer or collector of information.

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Samples

At the core of market research is the idea of a sample. A sample is a group of people drawn at random from all those people who are in your chosen market. By "drawn at random" we mean that each person in the market has the same probability of being questioned as any other. For instance if you had a database of customers and wanted to select customers "at random", you might put this list in alphabetical order and take every nth person.

Some care is needed in choosing how to select a sample. If you do not make the sample random, you risk introducing bias and so get misleading results. For instance if you choose 1 in n people from a telephone book, you miss out all the ex-directory phone users, who are more likely to be the wealthier individuals. Typically a researcher will use their judgement and experience to trade off the quality of the sample against the cost or difficulty of contacting the right people.

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Sample size

If you took a random sample of UK voters and 25% said they would vote for the Blue party you would want to know how accurate this was. Random samples are subject to known statistical laws which describe how accurate each sample is likely to be.

If your sample was 10,000 people you would be 95% confident that this reflected the views of all voters +/- 0.85 percentage points. In other words there is a 19/20 chance that the "real" share of the vote for the Blues would be 24-26%. (95% is the usual level of confidence quoted, but you can estimate accuracy to any confidence level - 99 in 100, 999 in 1000 etc).

Because contacting people and making interviews costs money, there is a trade-off between sample size and required accuracy. If in the example above the sample size was different you would have different levels of confidence.

	Sample size	Error (95% level)	Accuracy range of "25%" result
	10,000	+/-0.85	24-26%
	5,000	+/-1.20	24-26%
	1,000	+/-2.68	22-28%
	500	+/-3.80	21-29%
	100	+/- 8.49	17-33%
	50	+/-12.00	13-35%
	10	+/-26.8	0-52%

If you look at the table above, there is practically no benefit in going from a sample of 5,000 to a sample of 10,000 yet your costs would have doubled. In fact, accuracy doubles every time you quadruple your sample so accuracy can be very expensive.

Nonetheless, the sample size you use depends on the type of survey you are trying to carry out. If you are trying to assess the impact of small price rises or changes to attitudes after an advertising campaign, or changes to satisfaction then you may want real fine accuracy (to +/-2%). But if you just want a "yes/no" decision you can take a broader view of results and accuracy of +/-10% may be entirely suitable. For most quantitative market research studies a common rule of thumb is that you aim to talk to 100 people for each significant subgroup in your market.

Note that the sample size is pretty much independent of the size of the market you are looking to research (unless there are very very few customers - under 500). So the error in researching a market of 100m customers is almost exactly the same as in researching a market of 100,000. You can't cut the sample for a smaller market.

For qualitative research, the aim is not measurement but exploration. Consequently sample size is less of an issue. Of more importance is to get a complete picture of how a market works. However, clearly if you only talk to 5-6 people the usefulness of the research will be less than if you talked to 12-16 people.

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Quantitative questionnaire design

Good questionnaire design makes it easy for the person answering to answer and is clear, unambiguous and doesn't lead the person answering in one direction or another.

Common problems are to ask questions that are too difficult to answer (eg "Would you buy X in five years time?"), or unclear in their meaning ("Do you think relationships will change the world?"), or have double meanings ("How hot was your spicy pizza when you ate it?"), or contain two questions ("Do you think corrupt politicians and charity workers should be eradicated?"), or lead in some way ("Do you use your air-polluting gas-guzzling car less often than you use to?"), or fail to address the problem from the interviewees point of view (ignoring key service elements is common).

The order in which questions is asked can also be important. The adverts that can be remembered without prompting (ie spontaneously - Which ads can you remember seeing) are more likely to be top-of-mind than those remembered with prompting (Which of these ads can you remember seeing). Questionnaires, therefore typically run from the very general to the very specific as this also helps the flow which reduces the time taken to complete the interview. Consequently, interviewers are trained not to lead the interviewees and to probe to get fuller answers (Why is that? Could you clarify that for me? Could you explain), without prompting (Did you say Mustang or Mazda?).

Ideally all questionnaires should be piloted. To find that questions don't work after speaking to 1000 people is not very helpful. However, a good initial test even before a pilot is to ask a member of your family to complete the questionnaire as this will typically highlight the most glaring of problems.

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Qualitative research designs

The design of qualitative research depends on the subject and the audience and the skills of the interviewer/moderator. If the subject is personal or private then depth interviews will be better than group discussions, if the subject is more widely considered and discussed then focus groups may be best as the stimulation for discussion comes from the group members. For certain types of respondent (eg business people), a face-to-face group discussion may be not be feasible although telephone conferences or email groups may be alternatives.

Interviewers themselves are also important in the qualitative process as the level and quality of probing and questions will depend on the interviewers understanding of the subject at hand, in order to identify areas that need clarification or further exploration and to provide a point of reassurance to draw more out of the interviewee. It is difficult to discuss the issue of hedging with a financial director unless you recognise that this might have something to do with exchange rate risks and to have some understanding of what the implications of hedging could be.

Often in qualitative research, it can be difficult for the interviewee to express themselves adequately in words particularly where you are looking at the emotional appeal of something as opposed to its practical features and benefits. Researchers use a lot of games and prompts to draw out different views. For instance in projective techniques researchers might ask someone to say "If X were an animal, what type of animal would it be?"and then explore the reasons behind these views. Most researchers have a kitbag of tools and techniques that they find useful to help capture views and responses. Typically the closer you are to the creative design arena, the more exotic these techniques become. But for most work, plain vanilla qual with an interviewer who knows the subject area (but doesn't lead the respondent) are to be advised.

Group discussions add another twist as the interviewer in the guise of a moderator has to ensure that the group captures and includes the views of all the participants. There are dangers that one or two voices pre-dominate negating the benefits of the group environment.

A key element of qual research is that you should record the discussion and then transcribe notes later. Relying on memory is often not good enough and listening to the discussion guide a second time can change your opinion of what the interviewee really meant. Typically qualitative research is reported as finding supported by quotes.

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Doing it yourself

Typically the main problem with DIY is not so much not being able to do it, but not having the experience of what works and what doesn't. For more advanced subject areas, design expertise can be crucial. Having said that if the first run is not crucial, then the experience will be really helpful subsequently whether you do-it-yourself later or buy in expertise.

The key steps are:

1. Select the type of research you need (Qual/Quant)

2. Choose how you want to get in contact/recruit the relevant people

3. Design a questionnaire/discussion guide

4. Recruit the relevant people/interview them/send out the questionnaire

5. Amalgamate and analyse the results.

The recruiting/interviewing task is the biggest. There are many companies that will just do fieldwork for you or arrange interviews if you provide them with lists. There are also many DP/transcription companies that will process your completed questionnaires or transcribe your interviews for analysis. All these steps can be carried out by hand, but the biggest issue is normally time which is where sharing the workload will help.

In terms of cost, most market research is charged on a time basis plus a management/design fee. If you took a general face-to-face population study of 1000 people. You might allow 15 minutes for the interview, 20 minutes finding/contact time, 10 minutes for processing each questionnaire - so 45 minutes per interview or 750 hours of time (100 days), on top of which would be added time for questionnaire design, production and dispatch, interviewer briefing and management, creation of tables, analysis and presentation. Typically on a straightforward survey these elements should add about 15-20 days, although at a higher daily rate.

For more complex studies, contact time can have a far larger impact on the cost than the actual questionnaire length. However, questionnaires that are too long demotivate interviewers and put respondents off research and typically need high levels of incentives to encourage completion. For on-line surveys, sample cost can be a extremely large element of the final bill.

Qualitative research is charged on a similar basis to quantitative research, but as sample sizes are smaller it is typically less expensive. However although recruitment is far less expensive, the interviewer is more expert and interview and analysis time and costs are typically higher reducing the difference in cost between small quant and larger qualitative work.