Question

Share your thoughts about marketing research from two perspectives: (a) As a consumer, which research method do you find welcoming (meaning that you would not mind participating in the study as a consumer)? Will the right incentive lure you into a study? (b) As a marketing professional, which research method would you prefer to utilize?

Answer 1

Market research is an activity that involves systematic gathering and interpreting information about persons and organizations through the use of statistical and analytical methods and applied social science techniques with the aim of gaining insight to support in decision making. There are various market research methods for example surveys, focus groups, interviews, observation, and experiments among others. The methods are preferred differently by those involved.

    Interviews are preferred by most consumers. The interviews are seen as welcoming methods of marketing research. The researcher should have the know-how of carrying out the interviewing process.

    The market researcher should try to do the interview as short as possible so that the customer will not feel that his time is being wasted while he is being involved in answering the researcher’s questions.

    Interviews are welcoming since they provide the researcher an opportunity of engaging the consumers in a way that is friendly. The consumers are given an explanation by the researcher regarding the importance of the market research. Further, the consumer is given an assurance that the responses he will give will only be used for the interview and that the information will be confidential. This makes the consumer to feel free of giving his responses to the researcher.

The right incentives will lure consumer into participating in the study as a respondent. He will feel that his time in the interview is being compensated and thus his participation is not being taken lightly. Thus it is an important factor that a suitable incentive is brought into the picture while conducting a market research for an incentive will attract more respondents.

A good number of marketing professionals prefer utilizing interview while carrying out market research. The reason behind this is the fact that interviews bring more advantages to the research by availing much information.

The marketing professional gets the chance of explaining to the consumer the purpose as to why the research is being carried out. When a good explanation is given, the consumers have the urge to participate in the interview as respondents. Additionally, they realize the need of the questions that are posed to them and see the importance of laboring in though with the aim of providing the suitable answer.

The marketing professionals get an opportunity to capture the verbal and non-verbal when they use the interviews. The non-verbal cues that the professional can capture during an interview include body language, which can indicate whether the respondent is comfortable or not. Body language can also indicate whether the respondent is enthusiastic or not regarding the topics which are being discussed.

Use of interviews gives a chance to the researcher to ask for clarification if there is something that the respondent has said in the response and has not come out in a clear way. In this way, the researcher can get a satisfying impression of the response that has been given.

The researchers have a chance to ask suitable questions which may be as a result of a response that has been given. When a response is given, the researcher may build a new question from this current response that has been given. In this way, the researcher gains more information and harness as many details as he can.

Many market research methods exist. Interviews are preferred by researchers since they harvest many details that enable the researcher to fill the information gaps.