4.4 Glossary of key terms
- Focus groups involve forming small discussion groups to gain insight into the attitudes and behaviour of respondents. The group is typically made up of participants who share a similar customer profile.
Government publications are a type of secondary market research, referring to official documents and publications released by government entities and agencies.
Interviews are a type of primary research that involve discussions between an interviewer and interviewees to investigate their personal circumstances, preferences, and opinions.
A market analysis is a form of secondary market research that reveals the characteristics, trends, and outlook for a particular product or industry, such as market size, market share, and market growth rate.
Market research refers to marketing activities designed to discover the opinions, beliefs, and preferences of potential and existing customers.
Media articles are a type of secondary market research referring to the documents (articles) in print or online media. They are written by skilled journalists and authors.
Observations are a method of primary research that involves watching how people behave or respond in different situations.
Online secondary market research refers to sources available on the Internet for research purposes. These include media articles, government publications, academic journals, and market analyses available on the Internet.
The population, in marketing terms, refers to all potential customers of a particular market.
Primary market research involves gathering new data for a specific purpose, using methods such as surveys, interviews, focus groups, and observations.
Qualitative market research involves getting non-numerical responses from research participants in order to understand their behaviour, attitudes, and opinions.
Quantitative market research is about collecting and using factual and measurable information rather than people’s perceptions and opinions.
Quota sampling involves using a certain number of people (known as the quota) from different market segments for primary market research purposes.
Random sampling gives everyone in the population an equal chance of being selected for the sample.
A sample is a selected group or proportion of the population used for primary market research purposes.
Sampling is a primary research technique that selects a sample of the population from a particular market for research purposes.
Sampling errors are caused by mistakes made in the sample design, such as an unrepresentative sample being used or the sample size being too small.
Secondary market research involves the collection of second-hand data and information that already exists, previously gathered by others, such as media articles and government publications.
A survey is a document that contains a series of questions used to collect data for a specific purpose. Surveys are the most common method of primary research.