Marketing Research Approach
Market research is essential for every business that plans enhance its services or introduce a new product. Through market research an enterprise is provided with the capability to design its services and products in such a way that customer needs are fully met. There are two broad types of marketing research which an enterprise can utilize to evaluate customer preference and also gauge their response relative to the services or products offered. The two include secondary research, which entails using readily available information, and primary research, which encompasses collection of new information aimed at meeting specified needs. Data for secondary research is mainly obtained from published articles which include books, journals, magazines, newspapers among others. On the other hand primary research collects data through questionnaires, surveys, interviews, focus groups and many others (Kent, 1993).
Considering Janet’s case, primary marketing research is most suitable as will provide first hand information within a short period time. Data for the research will be collected using interviews, questionnaires and surveys. Despite surveys consuming a lot of time to develop, they are easy to administer thereby making them suitable for this research (Gorman, 2003). A combination of different primary data collection techniques will come in handy in increasing the accuracy and precision of the research. Different research techniques vary in terms of their accuracy, precision and reliability thus by combining different methods their weaknesses are reduced thereby resulting in a more enhanced method.
The questionnaires need to be designed in such a way that they provide adequate information that enables the researcher to draw conclusions regarding the customers’ preference and opinion on elliptical walker. As a result of most customers being busy, the questions need to be brief and direct to the point thus saving a lot of time. Despite the fact that closed interviews consume little time, open ended interviews are the preference for this marketing research as they provide adequate information. In addition to that, they are flexible as they allow the researcher to frame or modify the questions in a way that ensures satisfactory answers are obtained from the interviewee. Conducting interviews on all customers is cumbersome and also entails using a large number of researchers to collect sufficient data. Sampling will therefore be essential in using the interview method as will focus on specific customers. Surveys also need to be constructed wisely for them to provide excellent information for the research.
The three primary research techniques will provide adequate information to evaluate the response of customers to elliptical walker. Surveys will provide quantity information which can be statistically analyzed. It will provide information on the number of customers expected to use the elliptical walker and the frequency of usage. Through the questionnaires and interviews, information regarding customer’s preference and taste will be obtained. In addition, information concerning expectations of the customers and their opinions regarding ways of meeting their needs will also be provided. Customers might be expecting more than an elliptical walker, by using this primary methods the researcher will be provided with an understanding of the customers’ needs and the best way to fulfill them. Such information will provide the researcher with sufficient material to gauge customers’ response to the launching of elliptical walker machine.
Primary marketing research was selected as the most suitable research method for gauging customer response on introduction of elliptical walker machine, however, it comprises of numerous limitations relative to secondary research method. Among its limitations include high cost and time consumption. On the other hand, secondary research also has immense disadvantages with regards to the primary counterpart. Secondary research is usually not timely thus having a higher chance of providing outdated information. In addition to that, the quality of the research is questionable and in most cases the research is diversified thus not focusing on specific research needs. Despite secondary research being faster and cheaper, it provides information of low accuracy and precision relative to primary research. Therefore, primary research method is the best choice for conducting the company’s research as it provides timely information and high accuracy.
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