Marketing research is defined as a systematic approach of supporting and guiding business decisions and actions. It is an organized technique that helps detect, anticipate and solve marketing problems and helps in marketing techniques and research. Marketing research pdf templates include surveys, focus groups and questionnaires.
Marketing research is a set of activities designed to assist companies or organizations in making sound business decisions. It focuses on collecting and analyzing information about business operations, the sales process, customer demographics and behavior. Marketing research helps a company gather useful information for making good marketing strategies. The aim of marketing research is to gather information to help firms understand their customers’ behavior and needs better and accordingly take decisions that will align with those needs and expectations.
Online surveys
Online surveys are a form of quantitative research aimed to gain feedback and insight on a specific objective. Web surveys are designed, programmed, and administered – you guessed it – online.
With the rise of technology, most surveys online are equipped to be taken on smartphones and tablets as well.
Advantages of surveys online
A major benefit of conducting surveys online is reaching a mass audience at low costs and in little time. Traditional survey methods like phone or mail often require a large budget to achieve successful and accurate results.
An organization can obtain quick feedback from customers with a web-based questionnaire at little to no cost. With plenty of free market research tools, organizations can create, send, and receive results all in a matter of days.
Respondents may be more opt to provide honest feedback with online surveys as well.
Being that there is no moderator or interviewer, survey participants feel more inclined to offer up raw emotions and opinions on a company, products, or services. This eliminates any bias injected by an interviewer.
Online survey disadvantages
As much as technology has progressed through the years, it’s nowhere near perfect. Technical mishaps happen every day and online surveys are no exception.
A poor user experience associated with technical problems such as a slow page load time, or worse timing out, can subsequently affect the online survey data.
Unfortunately, these online glitches aren’t always apparent at first sight. Significant errors within online platforms often don’t show up until the survey results are complete.
It’s also a good rule of thumb to keep your online surveys short and sweet.
Unless informed otherwise, participants are less likely to stay fully engaged for a survey that takes more than 10 minutes to complete. With little real-estate, it’s difficult to obtain detailed answers to key business questions.
Phone surveys
Phone surveys began as a core market research methodology decades ago and still prove to be at the forefront of market research methodologies.
This form of qualitative or quantitative research centers around collecting deeper feedback from a two-way active communication between the interviewer and respondents.
Phone survey advantages
The advantage of conducting a phone survey lies in the high quality of data it provides. As opposed to other market research methodologies, phone surveys allow for an active and personable conversation between the interviewer and participant.
In comparison to online surveys, interviewers are able to receive additional feedback from respondents.
In other words, you are at the mercy of how much or how little participants are going to answer a question online – whereas phone surveys allow interviewers to ask respondents to explain their answer in greater detail.
Respondents are more likely to answer the questions in greater detail because it takes less time to voice your opinion than it would be to type or write.
Phone surveys are also at no mercy of locale. Especially with the move from landline to mobile phones, phone survey companies are able to connect with respondents whether they are traveling, on their lunch break, taking a walk outside, etc.
Phone survey disadvantages
Where phone surveys may provide high quality and immediate results, it is not as cost-effective or time-efficient as other market research methodologies.
Phone survey companies must collect a long list of participants to speak to, to then spend hours having detailed conversations or leaving voicemails.
Phone surveys may also be constrained by time. This meaning, phone survey participants will likely only be available to speak outside of business hours.
Other factors such as taking care of children, going to the gym, running errands can limit the available time respondents have to complete a phone survey.
Omnibus surveys
Omnibus surveys or piggyback surveys are a type of online survey. However, instead of one company sponsoring the market research, the survey includes questions from multiple different organizations.
This type of market research allows several brands and businesses to purchase a few questions as part of a much larger survey.
- Company A wants to ask respondents about their recent car purchases
- Company B wants to ask respondents about home mortgages
- Company C wants to ask respondents about coffee preferences
A market research company, like Drive Research, takes these different objectives to create an online survey. When the survey is complete, each company is only given access to results from the questions they sponsored.
This type of market research typically take 3 to 7 days to complete. The length of the timeline depends on how quickly the survey draft is signed off on and how difficult the target audience is to reach.
Advantages of omnibus surveys
Omnibus surveys carry many of the same advantages as online surveys: cost-effective, timely results, large sample of respondents.
These aspects become even more advantageous being that only a handful of questions are asked in most cases. Responses from a general population can be gathered in minutes.
If you are looking for a low-budget market research methodology, omnibus surveys are as cheap as they come. It is a common approach for brands that want to use exclusive research for public relations.
Disadvantages of omnibus surveys
Because several organizations are purchasing questions to create an omnibus survey, the questionnaire can become quite unruly.
There is no guarantee that your questions will be asked at the beginning of a survey when respondents are most engaged. There is a chance respondents will have answered 50 questions, before answering yours.
At this point, many respondents are disengaged and are not providing quality feedback. Realistically, they’re rushing to complete the omnibus survey to receive an incentive.
To avoid this, find an omnibus survey company like Drive Research that creates shorter surveys and can guarantee a goal number of responses.
Oftentimes when a client is looking to conduct an omnibus survey, our market research firm does not wait till other organizations join in. We can field your survey questions within 24 to 48 hours.
Mail surveys
Emails, text messages, voicemails. Our inboxes are flooded with them. What about physical mail? What once was labeled as an antiquated form of communication, mail surveys are back with a vengeance.
Mail surveys are a quantitative marketing research data collection method in which respondents complete questionnaires on paper and return them via the mail.
Mail survey advantages
Depending on the industry, say banks and credit unions, businesses cannot reach their audience through online outlets due to organizational restrictions. Mail surveys offer a personalized, credible solution to this problem.
Direct mail surveys also earn a good response rate.
Where most think direct mailers receive a 1-2% response rate, a mail survey company like Drive Research has seen an average response rate of 10-15%. When potential participants actually open and hold the mail survey in their hands, many will opt to reply.
An email or online survey is much easier to ignore.
Mail surveys may seem like an archaic methodology, but they do offer some intriguing benefits.
Mail survey disadvantages
Before you run to the post office, it should be noted that the average data quality and time invested in mail surveys deter non-restricted industries from choosing this market research methodology.
When choosing to participate in mail surveys, respondents are less likely to provide detailed answers as they would on the phone or online because it takes less time to talk or type a response, than it is to write one.
The process behind conducting mail surveys can be long and strenuous.
Only after you create and format the survey for mail, return for postage, fill and send the direct mail piece, and finally wait for responses to return are you able to start entering data.
Intercept surveys
Intercept surveys are a form of quantitative research focused on capturing “in-the-moment” feedback from respondents.
Intercept surveys are typically used after people attend an event or eat at a restaurant to collect perception information. This type of feedback can also be collected before or during a participant’s experience.
The data received from intercept surveys are usually collected via tablets or paper and pencil interviewing techniques.
If utilizing tablets or other electronic devices, be sure the survey platform you are using has offline functionality.
Do not rely on Wi-Fi offered by large venues such as concerts or sporting events, because you will be fighting to connect to the internet with thousands of people.
Intercept survey example
Compared to other market research methods, intercept surveys allow for immediate, top of mind feedback from your customers.
For example, to test the success of a digital billboard at a New York Mets game, an intercept survey company representing Pepsi can conduct market research outside of Citi Field.
After the game, interviewers will approach fans as they are leaving the stadium to ask questions like:
- What billboard(s) did you remember seeing inside Citi Field?
- What type of food or beverage did you consume during the game?
- Are you more likely to choose Pepsi or Coca Cola? What is the reason for this choice?
Drive Research conducted intercept surveys at 5 college football stadiums across the country.
Intercept survey advantages
By approaching an audience remotely after the experience you are trying to test, the context is top of mind.
Interviewers in turn receive a fresh, candid response. Often times online or email surveys aren’t sent until days/weeks/months after an event has taken place.
This space in time can allow for a misguided representation of what actually happened.
Recommended Reading: Key Benefits of Offline Surveys.
Intercept survey disadvantages
With this specific example, Pepsi would need permission from Citi Field to conduct this survey. Without permission, there is no survey and they’re back to the market research drawing board.
Another drawback to intercept surveys is lower participation rates compared to other market research methodologies. If people are leaving a venue, they are ready to go home or to their next destination.
They likely are not prepared or willing to stop and take an unsolicited survey. Rewards or trinkets are important to offer here.
Conclusion:
With marketing research you get the answers to your questions directly from your prospects. Marketing research also helps make your marketing efforts more efficient and effective. Whether you’re just starting out in business or are looking for ways to hone your marketing skills, the marketing research pdf below is a great place to start. Learn about the components of marketing research, how marketing research can help you achieve your business objectives, and the basics of conducting the marketing research itself.