INTRODUCTION

Success of marketing research project depends upon quality and relevance of data.
And, quality of data, to a major extent, depends upon methods and techniques used
for collecting data. Selection and use of methods for conducting marketing research
require a great deal of experience and expertise. Overall suitability of different
methods plays a vital role in their selection.

In addition of the Marketing will take a quick look at Primary Data collection. So far
w have been discussing data that is considered secondary. Secondary data was
collected by someone else. Whether it was sales department, or a com score research
report that purchased, it was created by someone else other than department. It did
not involve any of department interacting with existing and potential customers to
collect data. It was not collected with marketing objectives in mind.

There is nothing wrong with secondary data. It is to perform any Market Intelligence
without secondary data. It is a great and necessary starting point for any of
research. Secondary data is critical when you are defining the problems and
objectives that are the focus of Marketing Intelligence initiatives. However in most
cases, will need to collect primary data of some kind in order to have the information
need to make real decisions.

What is Primary Data?

Primary Data is research that has been conducted by an organization, first hand. It is
also known as Field Research. It is usually more reliable than secondary data,
because it is usually more accurate since it collected by someone himself. Primary
data is specific and relevant to organization products and services. However, Primary
Data is often very time consuming to collect, and usually costs more to create than
purchasing secondary data reports.Must take special care when collecting primary
data. It needs to be relevant, current, and as unbiased as possible.

Primary Data is relevant when it directly applies to company's products and

services. It is relevant when it relates to the problems are trying to be solved, and the
marketing goals of organization. Primary Data is current when it is recent, and
directly corresponds to the profile of customers TODAY. Primary Data is unbiased
when subjects have been honest and open during data collection. When

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constructing Primary Data collection plan, must consider research methods, contact
methods, the sampling plan, and research instruments.

The following are the method of collecting primary data

Observation; Observation is the collection of Primary Data through observing people,

their actions and the situations they are in. Observation may be the easiest research
to do. Typically, observation is also the most cost effective method. Observation
can also give data that people aren't usually willing to tell themselves, such as their
feelings, emotions, attitudes or the motives behind their buying decisions.

How does observation work? It's extremely simple. Take a restaurant franchise
owner. He may be planning on opening another location. He may also have little or
no money to pay for marketing research. However a lot of the data he needs he can
collect himself. He can get into his car and drive around town, observing the traffic
patterns. He can see where his clientele goes to shop. He can see what time the
traffic appears. He can call real estate agents and ask them for lease prices for
different properties. He can drive around and look for areas that don't have his type
of restaurant, looking for areas of little competition. He can do all of this for just the
cost of the gas in his car. A researcher can do this for himself.

Advantages and disadvantage ‘Observation’ Method for primary data Collection

Advantages of Observation:

(1) Simplest Method:

Observation is probably the most common and the simplest method of data collection.
It does not require much technical knowledge. Although scientific controlled
observation requires some technical skill of the researcher, still it is easier than other
methods. Everybody in this world observes many things in their daily life. A little
training can make a person perfect, to observe his surroundings.

(2) Useful for Framing Hypothesis:

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Observation is one of the main bases of formulating hypothesis. By observing a
phenomenon continuously, the researcher may get well acquainted with the observed.
He came to know about their habits, likes, dislikes, problems, perception, different
activities and so many other things. All these help him a lot to form a hypothesis on
them. Any researcher, therefore, has to be a good observer.

(3) Greater Accuracy:

In other methods like interview, questionnaire etc., the researcher has to depend on
information provided by the respondents. So these are indirect methods and here the
investigator does not have any means to examine the accuracy of the data supplied by
them. But in observation the observer can directly check the accuracy from the
observed. He can apply various devices to test the reliability of their behaviour. So
very often the data collected through observation is more reliable than these collected
through interview or questionnaire.

disadvantage of Observation:

(1) Some of the Occurrences may not be Open to Observation:

There are many personal behaviors or secret activities which are not open for
observation. For example, no couple will allow the researcher to observe their sexual
activities. In most of the cases people do not allow the outsider to study their
activities.

(2) Not all Occurrences Open to Observation can be Observed when Observer is
at Hand:

Such problems arise because of the uncertainty of the event. Many social events are
very much uncertain in nature. It is a difficult task on the part of the researcher to
determine their time and place. The event may take place in the absence of the
observer. On the other hand, it may not occur in the constant presence of the observer.
For example, the quarrel and fight between two individuals or groups is never certain.
Nobody knows when such an event will take place.

(3) Not all Occurrences Lend Themselves to Observational Study:

Most of the social phenomenon is abstract in nature. For example, love, affection,
feeling and emotion of parents towards their children are not open to our senses and

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also cannot be quantified by observational techniques. The researcher may employ
other methods like case study; interview etc. to study such phenomena.

When observation of is useful in marketing research

 When the nature of the research question to be answered is focused on

answering a how- or what-type question

 When the topic is relatively unexplored and little is known to explain the
behavior of people in a particular setting

 When understanding the meaning of a setting in a detailed way is valuable

 When it is important to study a phenomenon in its natural setting

 When self-report data (asking people what they do) is likely to be different
from actual behavior (what people actually do). One example of this seen in
the difference between self-reported versus observed preventive service
delivery in health care settings.

 When implementing an intervention in a natural setting, observation may be

used in conjunction with other quantitative data collection
techniques. Observational data can help researchers evaluate the fidelity of
an intervention across settings and identify when 'stasis' has been achieved.

Why observation is useful in marketing research

 To provide contextual information needed to frame the evaluation and make

sense of data collected using other methods.

 To develop insight into the L&T context, the environment, events, activities,
interactions, language used etc. This might point to issues requiring further
exploration using other methods.

 To collect information about how a change in L&T has been implemented,

independently of participant perceptions.

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  To learn about sensitive issues that participants may be unwilling to talk
about.

Surveys; Surveys are the most common method of collecting Primary Data. Surveys
are the best way to get the descriptive information that you need for your marketing
intelligence. Simply put, surveys collect data by asking other people a series of
questions about their personal knowledge, emotions, attitudes, preferences, and
buying behaviors. Surveys can provide you a wealth of data. There is always a
golden nugget, a piece of data that can give you the insight you need to figure out the
direction of your next campaign.

However, there are drawbacks to the data you collect via surveys. Often people just
don't recall some of the information that you are asking for, and as a result, they are
unable to answer the questions. Therefore the response that they give will not be the
complete truth, it may be something that they feel you want to hear. Sometimes
people are unwilling to provide information that they might deem "private". This
prevents completely truthful responses, and it skews the data that you are
analyzing. If the responses seem too good to be true...they just may be.

Advantages of Surveys

1. High Representativeness

Surveys provide a high level of general capability in representing a large population.

Due to the usual huge number of people who answers survey, the data being gathered
possess a better description of the relative characteristics of the general population
involved in the study. As compared to other methods of data gathering, surveys are
able to extract data that are near to the exact attributes of the larger population.

2. Low Costs

When conducting surveys, you only need to pay for the production of survey
questionnaires. If you need a larger sample of the general population, you can allot an
incentive in cash or kind, which can be as low as $2 per person. On the other hand,

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other data gathering methods such as focus groups and personal interviews require
researchers to pay more.

3. Convenient Data Gathering

Surveys can be administered to the participants through a variety of ways. The

questionnaires can simply be sent via e-mail or fax, or can be administered through
the Internet. Nowadays, the online survey method has been the most popular way of
gathering data from target participants. Aside from the convenience of data gathering,
researchers are able to collect data from people around the globe.

Disadvantages of Surveys

1. Inflexible Design

The survey that was used by the researcher from the very beginning, as well as the
method of administering it, cannot be changed all throughout the process of data
gathering. Although this inflexibility can be viewed as a weakness of the survey
method, this can also be a strength considering the fact that preciseness and fairness
can both be exercised in the study.

2. Not Ideal for Controversial Issues

Questions that bear controversies may not be precisely answered by the participants
because of the probably difficulty of recalling the information related to them. The
truth behind these controversies may not be relieved as accurately as when using
alternative data gathering methods such as face-to-face interviews and focus groups.

3. Possible Inappropriateness of Questions

Questions in surveys are always standardized before administering them to the

subjects. The researcher is therefore forced to create questions that are general enough
to accommodate the general population. However, these general questions may not be
as appropriate for all the participants as they should be.

A good example of this situation is administering a survey which focuses on affective

variables, or variables that deal with emotions.

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When survey method is useful in marketing research

If a researcher trying to determine exactly how to measure customers’ attitudes,

market research studies can help guide there too.

Before ask customers if they’re satisfied, need to know what their expectations are
about an experience with organization product or service. This will help not only
create a more impactful customer satisfaction survey, it can also guide in make
changes to the organization brand. can then track what, if any, impact these changes
had in customer attitudes over time.

In addition to driving the creation of customer satisfaction monitoring systems,

attitude and expectation surveys can also give insight into website’s performance,
service policies, names for new divisions or products, and tracking employee
attitudes.

Why survey is useful in marketing research

The number one reason for businesses to conduct market research is to keep
up-to-date with what customers want. With SmartSurvey’s advanced software,
organization can reach target audience anytime, anywhere. By sending survey
invitations via email and SMS, sharing them on social media and embedding them
directly into organization website, can gather relevant data and identify
opportunities as they happen.

Experimentation; Primary Data can also be collected via

experimentation. Experimentation is the practice of gathering data by selecting
matched groups of people, giving them different treatments or scenarios, controlling
related factors in their environments, and checking for differences in their
responses. Experimentation gives us what we call "causal" data. Causal data helps
us explain cause and effect relationships. Experimenting helps us try to answer
"why" someone is doing something, and what influences their buying behavior.

A common example of experimentation is price testing. To the buyer, price will be

the final emotional factor that determines whether or not they will give us their hard
earned money. Depending on the product and market segment, price may be the
most important factor. How do you know what price is the right price? You have to
test it. Many companies will test certain prices when collecting primary data on a

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new menu item that is being developed. How do you think McDonalds knows how
much to charge for a Big Mac? They tested how much they can charge for that Big
Mac, looking for that magic number that will provide the most sales and the most
profit.

In my next post we will continue this exploration of Primary Data by examining

different contact methods.

Advantages of Experimentation

1. It provides researchers with a high level of control.

By being able to isolate specific variables, it becomes possible to determine if a
potential outcome is viable. Each variable can be controlled on its own or in different
combinations to study what possible outcomes are available for a product, theory, or
idea as well. This provides a tremendous advantage in an ability to find accurate
results.

2. There is no limit to the subject matter or industry involved.

Experimental research is not limited to a specific industry or type of idea. It can be
used in a wide variety of situations. Teachers might use experimental research to
determine if a new method of teaching or a new curriculum is better than an older
system. Pharmaceutical companies use experimental research to determine the
viability of a new product.

3. Experimental research provides conclusions that are specific.

Because experimental research provides such a high level of control, it can produce
results that are specific and relevant with consistency. It is possible to determine
success or failure, making it possible to understand the validity of a product, theory,
or idea in a much shorter amount of time compared to other verification methods. the
outcome of the research are known because bring the variable to its conclusion.

Disadvantages of Experimentation

1. Results are highly subjective due to the possibility of human error.

Because experimental research requires specific levels of variable control, it is at a
high risk of experiencing human error at some point during the research. Any error,
whether it is systemic or random, can reveal information about the other variables and
that would eliminate the validity of the experiment and research being conducted.

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2. Experimental research can create situations that are not realistic.
The variables of a product, theory, or idea are under such tight controls that the data
being produced can be corrupted or inaccurate, but still seem like it is authentic. This
can work in two negative ways for the researcher. First, the variables can be
controlled in such a way that it skews the data toward a favorable or desired result.
Secondly, the data can be corrupted to seem like it is positive, but because the real-life
environment is so different from the controlled environment, the positive results could
never be achieved outside of the experimental research.

3. It is a time-consuming process.
For it to be done properly, experimental research must isolate each variable and
conduct testing on it. Then combinations of variables must also be considered. This
process can be lengthy and require a large amount of financial and personnel
resources. Those costs may never be offset by consumer sales if the product or idea
never makes it to market. If what is being tested is a theory, it can lead to a false sense
of validity that may change how others approach their own research.

When experimentation is useful in marketing research

when conducting such an investigation or test". It is testing a market that is segmented

to discover new opportunities for organizations. By controlling conditions in an
experiment, organizations will record and make decisions based on consumer
behaviour. experimentation is commonly used to find the best method for maximizing
revenues through the acquisition of new customers.

Why experimentation is useful in marketing research

Business owners do everything they can to meet the needs of their customers.
Companies introduce new products and services that they believe are an improvement
over what they offered before. But consumer reaction to new things, including new
marketing campaigns, can be a big surprise -- upside or downside -- to a company
owner. Experimentation on a small scale allows them to predict the outcome on a
larger scale, almost like sample precincts in an election. Companies don’t have
complete knowledge of the business environment. Experimentation allows them to
obtain more real-world data about their environment. For example they might test the
response of competitors to the company raising its prices in a given area.

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Interview; Interview involves a face-to-face interaction with the respondents.
Personal interview includes collection of data by personally contacting the
respondents. Here face- to-face communication and free feedback are possible. It is a
very effective and flexible method for conducting survey.

Interview is conducted using questionnaire, containing different types of questions.

Using probe questions like what, why, when, how much, where, with whom, etc.,
more information can be elicited from the respondents. Picture, chart, cartoons,
products, and other similar devices are used to get more clear and precise information
regarding their interest, attitudes, and opinions. Interviews may include personal
interview, focus group interview, primary interview, and in-depth interview.

In personal interview, at a time, only one interviewee is interviewed while focus

group interview includes interviewing more respondents at a time. Primary interview
is conducted to collect the primary (elementary or brief) information. In contrast, the
in-depth interview consists of the detailed discussion with the respondents. Success of
interview depends on ability, training, experience, and competency of interviewer.

Advantage of interview

1. Accurate screening. Face-to-face interviews help with more accurate screening.

Te individual being interviewed is unable to provide false information during
screening questions such as gender, age, or race. It is possible to get around screening
questions in online and mobile surveys.Online and mobile surveys that offer
incentives may actually encourage answer falsification. Individuals may enter
incorrect demographic information so they are able to complete the survey and gain
the incentive. The answers the individual provides may all be truthful, but for the
purpose of data analysis, the data will be inaccurate and misleading.

2. Capture verbal and non-verbal ques. A face-to-face interview is no doubt going

to capture verbal and non-verbal ques, but this method also affords the capture of
non-verbal ques including body language, which can indicate a level of discomfort
with the questions. Adversely, it can also indicate a level of enthusiasm for the topics
being discussed in the interview. Let’s discuss an employee job interview, for
example. Capturing non-verbal ques may make the difference between selecting an
employee that is less skilled, but displays a tremendous amount of enthusiasm for the
position. Capturing non-verbal ques is not possible in online or mobile surveys.

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Keep focus. The interviewer is the one that has control over the interview and can
keep the interviewee focused and on track to completion. Online and mobile surveys
are often completed during time convenient for the respondent, but are often in the
midst of other distractions such as

Disadvantage of interview

1. Cost. Cost is a major disadvantage for face-to-face interviews. They require a

staff of people to conduct the interviews, which means there will be personnel costs.
Personnel are the highest cost a business can incur. It’s difficult to keep costs low
when personnel are needed.

2. Quality of data by interviewer. The quality of data you receive will often depend
on the ability of the interviewer. Some people have the natural ability to conduct an
interview and gather data well. The likelihood of the entire interviewing staff having
those skills is low. Some interviewers may also have their own biases that could
impact the way they input responses. This is likely to happen in hot-topic opinion
polls.

3. Manual data entry. If the interview is administered on paper, the data collected
will need to be entered manually, or scanned, if a scannable interview questionnaire is
created. Data entry and scanning of paper questionnaires can significantly increase
the cost of the project. A staff of data entry personnel will need to be hired.
Additionally, data entry can prolong the analysis process. Mobile surveys on iPads,
tablets, or other mobile devices can cut-down on manual data entry costs and
information is ready for analysis.

When interview is useful in marketing research

Face-to-face interviews allow to build rapport with respondents and introduce

stimulus such as pictures or advertisements. According to market research consultants
PCP, the face-to-face interview is the most widely used technique in the industry. It
allows to get complete attention from respondents and eliminate distractions.
organization can conduct face-to-face interviews with select consumers in their homes,
by stopping people on the street or targeting respondents at an event. Use face-to-face
interviews when launching a new product or marketing campaign.

Why interview is useful in marketing research

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Expert opinions are needed, or to gather detailed information from customers or users
of competing products or services. In-depth interviews are used when, because of
geography, logistical issues, or the sensitive or complex nature of the topics to be
explored, conducting focus groups or face-to-face interviews is either impractical or
inappropriate

Conclusion

Primary sources can be used as direct evidence for (or against) a theory or hypothesis
which you are investigating. It may also be used to defend assumptions which will
underpin your research. Most research will draw upon a range of primary sources, and
even in experimental research it is likely that other primary (and secondary) sources
will be needed to justify your methods and questions.

Primary research is usually written up in journal articles, conference papers, and

theses. These formats tend to allow for faster and more specific publications. Whilst
academic books may also be based around primary data, this is less common (though
with important exceptions – particularly for older works). Edited collections of
primary research may also be published – focused around a particular theme.

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REFERENCE

Driscoll & Brizee. What is Primary Research? Purdue Online Write Lab. Retrieved
from https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/559/01/ on June 24th, 2017

BYU FHSS Research Support Center. Data Types and Sources. Retrieved from
https://fhssrsc.byu.edu/Pages/Data.aspx on June 24th, 2018

Thinking, Fast and Slow – Daniel Kahneman

Companion Encyclopedia of Marketing by Baker, Michael John, ed.

Call Number: Ref. HF5415 .C547353 1995

The Dartnell Marketing Manager’s Handbook by Levy, Sidney J., George R. Frerichs,
and Howard

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