____________________________________________________________Publication Guidelines:
You may use this article as long as
byline, resource box, and links remain intact. If article does not fit your Web site/newsletter guidelines, please request adjustments. mailto:bobette@WebSiteMarketingPlan.com .
Please notify author of use and provide a sample copy of publication.
Word count: 943
Formatted 60 characters per line.
Email questions to mailto:bobette@WebSiteMarketingPlan.com.
Author Photo: Available to copy from Web site. Color: http://www.websitemarketingplan.com Black and White: http://www.websitemarketingplan.com/about_bobette.htm
Autoresponder: mailto:MktResearch@WebSiteMarketingPlan.com
HTML: http://www.websitemarketingplan.com/Arts/MktRsrch.htm
Copyright 2002 Bobette Kyle. All rights reserved.
____________________________________________________________
Affordable Market Research by Bobette Kyle
Until recently, limited budgets kept most types of market research out of reach for entrepreneurs and other small- budget businesses. Today, through Internet, small-budget businesses have more research options. Secondary research sources are easier to find. More affordable primary research methods - both qualitative and quantitative - are available online as well.
** Market Research Categories **
There are four broad types of research, categorized by where research originated and how research is conducted.
* Where market research originated - primary versus secondary.
Primary research originates with your company. Generally, results are proprietary and belong to you. You may find, however, that some research firms will conduct limited but relatively inexpensive primary research with requirement that they can make results available to other companies. An alternative to conducting primary research is to find secondary research, or research that originated elsewhere. You can obtain secondary research either by purchasing information or finding it through free resources.
* How market research is conducted - qualitative versus quantitative.
Qualitative research tends to be exploratory and directional in nature. It is designed to bring out issues associated with subject matter as well as clue you in to best general direction to proceed. Quantitative research, on other hand, is designed to be analytical and rigid. This type of research produces results that are more statistically accurate than qualitative research results. Often, companies first conduct qualitative research when developing a concept or looking for ideas then later complete quantitative research to fine-tune and optimize.
* Combining two categories.
Combining primary/secondary and qualitative/quantitative categories results in four types of research. These are: primary quantitative, primary qualitative, secondary quantitative, and secondary qualitative research.
** Secondary Market Research **
As a small-budget business, much of your research will be limited to secondary research. Both good news and bad news is that there is a lot of it out there. By doing a targeted Internet search you are likely to find a lot of free, useful information.
Potentially, you can find secondary research from numerous sources. Press releases and news articles often quote studies. Industry leaders and suppliers publish white papers or other studies. Annual reports are also good places to look for industry information. Research firms’ sites are another source of secondary research. Their main business is conducting primary research for clients or compiling and selling detailed syndicated reports. Often, they have top line data available in form of press releases or executive summaries. The Federal government is another increasingly useful source of secondary data. At last count, 100 different government agencies publish freely available data.
