Market Research Methods
Before risking money on a new idea, a business finds out what customers actually want. Learn the methods of market research, primary and secondary, and how to pick the right one for the budget and the question.
Revise this, the fun way
Play it interactively, earn XP and build a streak, free.
Start revising freeWhat you'll cover
Ask before you spend 📊
Starting or growing a business is risky. Before spending money on a product, a smart owner finds out whether customers actually **want it**, what they will **pay**, and who the **competition** is. That is what **market research** does. Good research helps a business **identify customer needs**, **spot gaps** in the market, **reduce risk** and **make better decisions**. This module covers the methods and how to choose the right one.
The words you need 🗂️
Market research splits two ways: where the data comes from, and what kind of data it is.
Why do market research? 🎯
Which of these is a main purpose of market research for a business?
- To identify customer needs and reduce the risk of a decision
- To calculate how much corporation tax the business owes
- To decide how many staff to make redundant
- To work out the rent on the business premises
Match each method to what it is 🔗
- Focus group
- Questionnaire
- Observation
- Government report
- A small guided discussion giving in-depth opinions
- A set list of questions answered by many people
- Watching how customers actually behave in a shop
- Existing national data already published by the state
Primary vs secondary ⚖️
The first big split is where the data comes from. Each type has a trade-off between cost, time and how well it fits the exact question.
Which are primary research? ✅
Select the TWO methods that are primary research.
- Running a customer survey
- Holding a focus group
- Reading market data on the internet
- Looking up a government report
Numbers or opinions? 💬
The second split is the **kind** of data: - **Quantitative** data is **numbers** you can count: how many, how much, what percentage. Great for spotting trends. - **Qualitative** data is **opinions in words**: why customers like or dislike something. Great for understanding reasons. Whichever you use, check the data is **reliable** - a big, recent, unbiased sample can be trusted; a tiny or out-of-date one can mislead. **Social media** is now a cheap, fast way to gather both kinds from many customers.
Match each idea to its meaning 🧩
- Quantitative data
- Qualitative data
- Market segmentation
- Market mapping
- Numerical data you can count and measure
- Opinions and reasons expressed in words
- Dividing customers into groups with shared characteristics
- Plotting competitors on a chart to find a gap in the market
What kind of data? 📈
A cafe holds a focus group and records customers explaining why they prefer oat milk. What type of data is this?
- Qualitative data, because it captures opinions and reasons in words
- Quantitative data, because a cafe collected it
- Secondary data, because it came from customers
- Sales data, because it is about a drink
Order the research process 🪜
An interactive activity.
Research in one paragraph 📝
Data a business collects first-hand, such as a survey, is called _____ research, while data reused from existing sources is _____ research. Numerical data you can count is _____, whereas opinions in words are _____. Before trusting any findings, a business should check the data is _____.
Choose the right method 🧭
An interactive activity.
Your turn: justify a method ✍️
An interactive activity.
The grade-9 habit 🌟
Weaker answers just **list** research methods. The best answers **justify a choice**: they pick a method and explain why it suits *this* business, given its **budget**, its **timescale**, and exactly **what it needs to find out**. So a cash-strapped start-up leans on cheap, fast options - observation, a short questionnaire, a social-media poll, or secondary reports - while a business wanting deep reasons chooses a focus group. Always weigh the **reliability** of the data too, and, in segmentation questions, use **market mapping** to point to a real **gap** rather than just describing the customer groups.