Essay
UNIT 22: Market Research - Assignment One
- Institution
- PEARSON (PEARSON)
A: Examine the types of market research used in business
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Rebecca Linfoot Unit 22 Market research assignmentWhat is market research?
Market research means ‘gathering data from different sources which is then analysed and
evaluated to identify trends.’ Businesses will monitor their competitors to see what they are
doing and why. This is important because, a business will learn about potential gaps in the
market. Furthermore, a business will able to see what threats other businesses oppose and
have the opportunity to alter or improve their provided products or service. Businesses may
also research their consumers to understand customer behaviour and feedback. In addition
to this, market research also allows a business to find out information such as sales data,
effects on the price market and thirdly promotional methods. Market research is critical for
any businesses start up, to see if they are likely to survive. If a business doesn’t do any
research before starting up, there may already be a competitor providing the same product
or service, meaning that they are at a large disadvantage. Research is also useful for
businesses that are developed, as there is the chance of being able to increase profit. There
are four types of market research a business can use to find out important information that
is useful to making positive alterations. This includes: Primary, Secondary, Qualitative and
Quantitative research.
Primary research
Primary research is where a business will compose and collect significant information first
hand. A business may ask questions which are easy to analyse through methods such as
surveys, questionnaires, interviews and also through focus groups. Primary research is
beneficial, because it allows a business to focus on a specific purpose. As the questions are
written by the business, it means that other competitors are unable to access the collected
information. The data is not shared online and therefore other businesses don’t have the
opportunity to improve their provided service or products, using the same questions. On the
other hand, primary research is expensive to collect as material is not already available. This
means that a business must conduct their own research which costs money. In addition to
this, the process of creating a survey, finding consumers to answer the questions and then
having to analyse the data, is time consuming. However, through doing an in-depth analysis
to help address a certain problem, the information collected can help a business determine
which products are most profitable or in demand. Even more so, it shows gaps for
improvements in their service, meaning that there will be a result in a reduction of the
overall problems that the business wanted to elaborate on initially.
Secondary research
Secondary research involves analysing statistics and data from secondary sources. This can
be from any data available on the internet, looking in books at public libraries and also
through commercial information sources, such as magazines or newspapers. In comparison
to primary research, this method is more cost effective and less time consuming, as the data
can be quickly accessed. Information on the internet in particular, can be posted by anyone
in the world and there is both a positive and negative to this. On the plus side, data is largely
available however, it could be out-of-date or be unreliable. It can be hard to trust what is
posted online and therefore a business should make sure they check dates about posts and
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, Rebecca Linfoot Unit 22 Market research assignment
look at the author before considering to use their information. Secondary research is the
starting point for primary research. A business should find out material about competitors
and consumers and this can be through social media apps such as Facebook or Instagram, or
even reading a local newspaper. It is important that a business looks at information already
available so they know what type of questions to write up. This then means that they can
look at bigger issues such as needing to develop a new product or promote their brand.
Qualitative research
Qualitative research is where a business will use methods such as in-depth interviews, open
ended surveys, direct observation and focus groups, to understand their consumers feelings.
It is where a business listens to consumers opinions in order to find out reasons why there
may be problem with their products or service. Using qualitative research is a good way to
reach into a deeper level of understanding and find out consumers views on how to improve
the business. This will then mean that a business can study consumers attitudes, to then
determine buying trends whilst also thoroughly understanding customer behaviour. On the
other hand, disadvantages of using qualitative research, involve holding several sessions
such as in focus groups. This shows that like primary research, the method is time
consuming.
Quantitative research
Methods such as surveys and observations, make up quantitative research. This is similar to
qualitative research in the respect that a business will ask their consumers for their opinions
about their provided products and service. The difference however, is that quantitative is
specifically about statistics and numbers. The questions are well structured, suited to be
answered by a large number of people. The information collected can be evaluated
mathematically and this is useful to a business because results can be quickly interpreted
into graphs and charts. On the negative side, quantitative research requires a large group of
consumers to be able to gather a large amount of information. For small businesses in
particular, it may be difficult to gather enough consumers to ask the closed ended
questions, therefore this type of research is likely to be unnecessary and therefore better
suited for business with a medium-large scope.
Aims and Objectives
My chosen business is a small independent café and farm shop located half a mile from the
town of Pocklington. It is called ‘The Mile’ and was established over 20 years ago. It is a
family owned business run by the Barnes family of two generations. Currently there are 11
employees working from Monday-Saturday 8.30am-6.00pm and Sunday 9.00am-1.30pm.
The business is split into six main sections: The Smile Café, the feed barn, the shop, the
campsite, photos and gifts and also children’s parties. The Barnes family have fully
embraced the changes seen in farm shops over the past decade and have introduced new
and modern services to meet the needs of the community. An example of this is adding the
Smile Café from the original farm shop and extending the size of the shop to offer more
products to customers. As of 2019, the Mile’s aims and objectives include making a profit,
continue to be a growing concern and to continue adding services. The business needs to
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