Analyzing Market Data Josh Knight

Quantitative and Qualitative Data

Quantitative refers to quantity. Quantitative data is when data is recorded in large numbers, and answer questions such as 'How often?' or 'How much?'. An example of quantitative data would be how much income somebody gets per year or how many computers are in a school.

Qualitative data refers to data that isn't relative to numbers. For example some qualitative data would be what someones favorite colour is.

Primary and Secondary Research

Primary research is business research that you have done yourself. Some examples of    primary research are:

• Questionnaires/ surveys - these are when a business hands out a set of questions to people in order to see what customers enjoy, and what they don't enjoy.
• Focus Groups - Focus Groups are a group of people selected by a company to test products and fill out surveys.
• Product testing - This is when a business gives products to people for testing and giving feedback. These are often done for video games as Beta tests. Alpha tests are when only a small group of people are chosen to test and report any errors, while beta tests are given to the public to see if they like the game.

Secondary research is when you take information from another source. www.wikipedia.com is a source of secondary research. An example for secondary research for a business would be:

• Mintel Reports - Mintel is a company in which helps other businesses out by doing the market research for that company, tests their products, then hands the data back to them for a fee.

Advantages/Disadvantages

Advantages for primary research:

• Ensures control over how accurate the results are
• Ensures control on the method of the test
• You can test your own product specifically instead of finding a similar product

Disadvantages of primary research:

• Time Consuming
• Need to hire more people to do it (usually)

Advantages of secondary research:

• Fast and simple
• No need to hire people to do this research
• You may find very accurate results from a large scale test

Disadvantages of secondary research:

• May not be accurate for your specific product
• Possibly time consuming to find research done on a similar product to your own
• Once you find a test done, the results may be inaccurate.