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The term "research" literally means to search diligently, investigate or experiment to discover facts, revise accepted theories or laws in light of new facts, or discover a practical application of new facts, theories or laws. In essence you use research to get information to make decisions or implement a plan. Research gives you insight and eliminates risk.
Selecting Appropriate Research
There is a popular misconception, particularly in social scientific research, which includes the disciplines of market research, marketing research, industry research, opinion research and policy research, that certain disciplines or methodologies may be better than another or in some way compete. This is simply not true.
Every discipline and methodology has its uses. The implication that one is better than another is like saying that one's sense of taste is in some way superior to sight, touch or hearing. You can't taste the way something sounds or hear the way something looks. It is the same with research.
For all forms of research there are only two criteria used to select the most appropriate research discipline and methodology. First you use your information requirement to select the appropriate research discipline and then you use the properties of the population under study to define the most appropriate methodology. For any given set of criteria, only one combination of discipline and methodology will produce a valid finding.
It is important that one fully understands this concept because it will empower you to secure better research and develop a greater ability to apply the results to your decision making. It is the basic skill of the research buyer/specifyer.
Following are general descriptions of the applicable research disciplines which we will be using in this discussioin and included in each we will briefly discuss the relevant methodologies.
Of all the social scientific disciplines, market research is the most misunderstood. In popular usage the term is often misapplied to many of the other research disciplines including marketing research, industry research and marketplace research. Market research is a separate and distinct field. WS&A is one of only 200 or so providers of this discipline in the United States.
The cause of this misconception, however, is quite understandable because market research findings are most often used as control data in all the other disciplines. Without market data to provide a frame of reference, the data from a marketing study, for example, would be irrelevant or misleading.
Every research discipline requires control data. Market Research is no exception. For market research the control is an empirical count or census. For consumer studies, market research often relies on the US Census to provide the control model.
In many cases a control population or universe is defined by circumstance as in all engineers, all public employees or international air travellers. All testing and data gathering is done in either a direct proportion or in a predetermined (weighted) proportion to the control so that the ultimate findings produce a 1:1 relationship to the real world.
Market research measures populations and audiences to define incidence and distribution. Market research produces specific categories of factual information which fall into the categories of Recognition, Penetration and Intent (RPI). This allows concept testing and benchmarking.
Market research is the only discipline which produces direct numbers to the real world or is capable of producing an estimate of sales potential. Most market studies use a relatively large respondent base to provide sufficient data refinement for analysis. Further, because needs remain relatively constant for many years, (even though the way needs can be satisfied can change overnight), a market study has a relatively long life.
Since market research must be parametric and census proportional, the preferred methodology is a mail-out self-administered questionnaire using a monetary incentive. If the sample is large enough (5,000+) to eliminate interviewer interaction skew, market research has been conducted successfully using national CATI phone banks. The last major study using in-person interviews, once a standard when not everyone had a phone, was the Federal Reserve's Michigan Study which was abandoned in 1993.
Market research costs are usually determined by sampling size and incentive. A 1,000 base sampling will range between $75,000 - $100,000, a 10,000 base study will run between $300,000 to $500,000.
To summarize market research, it is a perspective which looks at the total universe and pinpoints your location. In a market study, if your actual share of the total market is, 2%, you will show up as 2% of the sampling. The goal of all market research is to achieve a direct 1:1 relationship with the real world or to the actual incidence of the markets you are observing .
Therefore, when you need to know about what will happen next, who is out there that you are missing, what else they do, in fact, anything where an accurate measurement is required, you need Market Research.
In some form or another, nearly every business or organization already conducts marketing research internally and the reporting is presented in sales reports, inventories, customer lists, and prospect activity reports and feedback from those who receive your services. While often presented in tabular form, marketing research measures the process of marketing and is almost always qualitative and non-parametric.
The benefit of marketing research is that it can be focused on a particular audience or around a specific issue. It allows great detail and open-ended questions. It can give you flavor, attitudes and relative ranking. You can probe motivations and gain tremendous insight into the effectiveness of your marketing process. It is a fantastic idea starter and feedback mechanism.
Marketing research produces an internal perspective on your marketing process or product. To achieve relevance marketing research must be performed using market research as its sampling frame or control before or after the sampling. This means that you either establish your marketing research parameters from a target previously quantified in your market model, or you allow your respondents to self-qualify and then see where they fit. Each has its uses.
Marketing research can test almost anything on almost anyone. Focus groups, advertising penetration and effectiveness studies, customer polling, mall intercepts, MAP testing, customer feedback mechanisms, and shopper surveys, Internet surveys are all marketing research methodologies offered by various polling, testing and research companies. It can take any form from a self-administered paper to full-interaction and role-playing.
Marketing research costs vary depending on methodology. Most charge a set-up fee $5,000 to $20,000 plus between $1.00 to $125 per sample. The $1.00 would apply to a self-administered bounce back or Internet survey and the $125 would be the cost for an in-depth interview or manipulative intercept.
To summarize marketing research, it is a narrow or focused perspective from the point of your business or offering and looks outward. It is the means you use to gauge performance and acquire lagging and concurrent indicators. In a marketing study your product or service may represent the lion's share of the data even if your actual share of the market is minimal.
If you have a marketing problem, need to fine tune your program, test satisfaction, need verbatums or fresh ideas, a marketing test is the best tool for your information requirement.
When you need information on share, sales effectiveness and relative appeal of different providers of goods and services, such as attractions, hospitality, tourism sites, etc., the appropriate discipline falls into the general category of marketplace research or competitive benchmarking/analysis. In private sector research, competitive benchmarking is how one businesses discerns the weakness of a competitor.
Competitive analysis uses two forms of control data: Market research, to compare RPI of various businesses; and Industry research to form a baseline to monitor trends and relative share.
Marketplace Research uses the identical methodologies as market research (and can be included in a benchmark market study) but it is not always necessary for the research methodology to be parametric. In fact, competitive research is often strongly weighted towards early adopters, trendsetters and industry leaders.
Since marketplace researchers frequently use secondary research, pricing is typically per report or per hour including time they expend conducting follow-up. Report costs range from $5,000 to $50,000 and $200 to $250 is a reasonable hourly fee.
There are very subtile differences in methodology as well as historical differences in applications between opinion reserch, attitudinal research and motivational research. Most in the fields, however, provide all three (which explain how Harris and Gallup stay in business when it is not an election year.) For this reason, we can group the field under Motivational Research.
Around this discipline has grown the field of psychographics. When you need to know how and why people respond or react to a specific stimulus or under a set of conditions in certain ways, you specify Motivational Research.
Many market studies today incorporate psychographic qualifiers, both because it adds an additional layer of insight to predict market trends and, to provide a control model for motivational tests.
Motivational research shares many of the methodologies of marketing research, but many practitioners add physical response (ie. eye dilation, salivation, and reward/association) to probe more deeply than Kenneth Starr.
This discipline can be tremendously effective in developing concepts for advertising, images and slogans. They can tell you why, not just what.
Like marketing research organizations, most motivational researchers charge a set-up fee, a unit cost per subject or group and out-of-pocket for facilities, meals, videotape or manipulative. Individual interviews typically run in the range of $300 each and groups may cost $2,500 per day for the facility and moderator plus $200 per participant.