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1 All rights reservedCopyright Paul HaguePaul Hague is hereby identified as author of thiswork in accordance with Section 77 of the Copyright, Designsand Patents Act 1988 This book is published byGrosvenor House Publishing Ltd28 30 High Street, Guildford, Surrey, GU1 book is sold subject to the conditions that it shall not, by way oftrade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out or otherwise circulatedwithout the author s or publisher s prior consent in any form of binding orcover other than that in which it is published andwithout a similar condition including this condition being imposedon the subsequent CIP record for this bookis available from the British LibraryISBN 1-905529-30-9 ContentsPagePreface3 Chapter 1 The Basics of Market Research5 Chapter 2 research Objectives19 Chapter 3 research Design39 Chapter 4An Introduction to ResearchMethodologies59 Chapter 5 Introduction to Qualitative Research75 Chapter 6 Introduction to Quantitative Research94 Chapter 7 Introduction to Sampling112 Chapter 8An Introduction to QuestionnaireDesign129 Chapter 9 Turning Data into Findings150 Chapter 10 Reporting and CommunicatingFindings164 Chapter 11 Professional Development and theMarket research Industry177 Bibliography18712 PrefaceI was fortunate to find market research .

2 It is the only work I haveever done and it has kept me interested all my life. My first job waswith the Dunlop Rubber Company, where I had the title MarketingExecutive and where I spent happy days researching markets forthe General Rubber Goods Division. I remember, as if yesterday, myvery first assignment; I was asked to research the market for dockbay seals. I had no idea what they were and, as a new graduate, wastoo timid to ask. Furthermore, it was 1969 and there were few textbooks telling me how I should go about the soon learned that with a tongue in my head I could easily ask andkeep asking and eventually I would find the answers. I found outthat dock bay seals are foam rubber surrounds that fit around load-ing bays so that trucks can reverse against them and make a seal tostop warm air getting into cold stores. This led me to cold store oper-ators and soon I was speaking to them and building a picture of themarket. It was like being a commercial detective and I was moved from Dunlop to a steel company and there I learned thetrade of an industrial (now business to business) market , with terrifyingly few years of experience under my belt, I setforth on my own and established Business & Market research , amarket research agency which carried out all types of ad hoc con-sumer and business to business surveys.

3 Twenty five years later Isold B&MR and after a short period as a consultant, formed B2 BInternational where I have worked for the last eight years. This potted history of my career is to convey to you my enthusiasmfor the subject of market research . Over the 35 years I have beenworking, I have probably managed more than 2,000 research pro-jects. Each one different, but with more common ground betweenthem than you may think. They all had a research design geared toa set of objectives. All had a method that in many cases involved amixture of secondary and primary research or qualitative or quanti-3tative research . In every case, data had to be analysed and clearlyreported to the sponsor so that they could move forward with moreconfidence and less risk in making you are reading this book you will have an interest in marketresearch. Possibly you have a market research project to completeand need help with how to go about it.

4 You may be studying for abusiness degree and market research is part of your course. You maybe taking the Market research Society/City & Guilds Certificate inMarket & Social research . Whatever the case, I hope that the knowl-edge that I share with you in this book will help you succeed. This is an introductory text covering the whole subject of marketresearch. Anyone with a serious interest is urged to broaden theirknowledge by reading widely and the references at the end of thebook point to where you can obtain more detail. The book is designed around the curriculum for the Market ResearchSociety/City& Guilds Level 2 Certificate in Market & Social Researchand,as a complement to this book, readers will find it very helpful tosign up for the on-line course on are three main sections to the book: An introduction to market research covering the basics ofmarket research , setting research objectives, research designand an introduction to research methodologies.

5 The tools of the market researcher covering qualitative andquantitative tools, sampling, interviewing methods andquestionnaire design. Completing the market research process covering dataanalysis and interpretation, reporting and communicating thefindings and a background to the market research writing the book I pay tribute to my former partner in business,Peter Jackson, who shared the authorship of many of the previousbooks I have written. Peter is now, deservedly, walking the hills ofDevon. Many times when writing I have referred back to his notesand always found them instructive and helpful. So too I have drawnon much of the good material written in books and white papers byNick Hague, Matt Harrison and Carol-Ann Morgan, my colleaguesat B2B HagueB2B International, StockportMarch 20064 Chapter 1 The Basics of Market ResearchIntroductionIn this chapter you will learn about: The role of market research in helping business decisionsthrough the systematic and objective collection of data.

6 The applications of market research and how many studiesare to help show the size of markets, to measure thesatisfaction of customers with products, to guide newproduct development and to show people s use of andattitudes to products. The Market research Society s Code Of Practice which setsout guidelines for protecting people who are interviewed andclients who commission research . The Data Protection Act that protects enforces datacollection and analysis procedures to ensure that people swishes for confidentiality and anonymity are role of market researchGoodness knows when market research was invented . It would bereasonable to suppose that for ever, sensible people in business haveresearched their markets. They will have asked their customers whatthey want and asked them if they are satisfied with the productsand services they supply. They will have done some crude assess-ment of the potential for their products. They will have judged thebest price to charge by carefully watching the always have been the most important part of a , if you do not put the customer at the centre of your business,you will, over time, have no business.

7 In other words, marketresearch or market intelligence has always been with , market research is a bit more than the informal assimila-tion and interpretation of intelligence that is a natural consequenceof keeping eyes and ears open. Market research is structured andpurposeful. It is the systematic and objective collection and interpreta-tion of data to help reduce risk in marketing with all definitions, this one is loaded with meaning. Marketresearchers do not just poke around in a market to see what is goingon. They have research designs and plans. They are therefore sys-tematic in what they do. Furthermore, they seek to uncover thetruth which may be hidden under a pile of assumptions or bias. Itis the researcher s task to be objective. Market researcher s stock in trade is market research should not stopwith data. Data are the collection of factsand opinions that are accumulated in thesurvey process. This needs converting toinformation so that it tells us than this it needs to become intelli-gence so it helps us make smart researchers collect statistics andopinions; they then work out what thesedata mean, and draw conclusions whichlead to improved business Role Of Market ResearchThis widely accepted definition of market research makes the sub-ject a relatively new tool in business planning.

8 References to marketresearch as we know it begin to be made around the turn of the lastcentury. The first nationwide market research survey into grainproduction was carried out in the USA in 1879 by advertisers N WKey pointGood marketresearch turns datainto & Son. Since that time, the market research industry has ben-efited from advances in psychology, sociology and technology. Thedevelopment of marketing as a key business element has also hadan important impact on the development of both market and socialresearch. The result is that market and social research now encom-pass a wide range of quick and reliable ways of gathering informa-tion to help improve decision the 1930s the audit firms of Nielsen and Attwood developedtechniques for measuring sales of consumer goods through to these audits were able to track the market size fortheir products and calculate their market shares. The marketresearch industry was market intelligence helps in business decisionmakingAll businesses need information to guide decision desperately trying to understand increasingly complexand Global markets, need more useableinformation than everbefore.

9 Because of this, the research sector plays a valuable role inthe commercial, social and political world information can be likened to that which we need when we aredriving. The dials on the dashboard are the equivalent of the finan-cial barometers that tell us what sales and profits we have achievedwhile the map on the front seat is the market research report thatshows us the best way a world where there are very few technological secrets, it is notsurprising that cans, computers and cars all look the success is dependent more than ever, not on techno-logical superiority, but on a better understanding of customers needs and using this information to guide decision research needs are obvious. You are launching a newproduct and you need to know customers reactions. Will they likeit? Will they buy it? How much will they pay? How much will theybuy? What will trigger their purchase? Launching a product withoutthis information and basing it on internal hunches and opinion(usually optimistic) could be a is sometimes easier to look from the outside into a company andrecognise their need for research than to arrive at this realisationwhen on the inside.

10 Managers of companies build a picture of their7markets in their head. They feel that they know what is going onbetter than any outsider can tell them. There can be significantprejudice and resistance to research from people who have vestedinterests in an research is the map by which busi-nesses can navigate. In the same way thatmaps can be large or small scale, marketresearch can be high level or detailed. Ofcourse, the map doesn t guarantee thatyou will arrive safely at your destinationbecause you have to successfully avoidcollisions and ensure no wrong some cases the map may lack the detailthat is required or even be out of date. Obviously market research is concernedwith decisions in the marketing functionrather than in production or financialmanagement. Because marketing is socentral to any business, the consequences of marketing decisionsspill over and affect other functions. Also, the techniques that areused in market research can be used in some other areas of the busi-ness.