1. Data Collection Techniques
Lecture 02 - Additional
K Pradhan

2. Lesson Outcomes
At the end of this session learners should be able to understand the:
Use of Research in Business
Various Research Methods
Sources for business research
Limitations of Research

3. Research Methods

4. Primary Research First hand information
Expensive to collect, analyse and evaluate
Can be highly focussed and relevant
Care needs to be taken with the approach and methodology to ensure accuracy
Types of question – closed – limited information gained; open – useful information but difficult to analyse
Information which not exist before
Can be either carried out by a business itself or by a market research agency
Most primary information is gathered by asking customers questions or monitoring their behaviour.

5. Primary Research methods
Several ways of collecting primary research data:
Personal Interviews (street, door-to-door)
Surveys (Postal, and online)
Focus Groups – talking to small group and asking their views about product/service
Questionnaires
Observation
Experiment (testing)
Most if not all, will use designed Questionnaires to capture the required information

6. Limitations of Primary Research Method
It is very expensive to conduct effective primary research
For results to be accurate very large samples (no. of people) are required
If the sample is too small, you have questioned the wrong people, conducted the research in wrong place/wrong time, if research people are not skilled, your results will be biased and worthless

7. Secondary Research

8. It is obviously cheaper and less time consuming than primary research
Secondary Research
Secondary research data are data that already exist or have been collected by someone often for a different purpose but which may be useful in our own research.
Secondary data can be collected from both internal & external sources
It is obviously cheaper and less time consuming than primary research

9. Internal Sources
Internal data are information already held within the company’s databases such as:
Customer records taken from invoices with details such as-name, gender, address, item & quantity ordered
Sales reports gathered from field sales representatives
Inventory records
Prior research reports
Company balance sheets or trading results
Examples include:
Company accounts
Internal reports and analysis
Stock records
Retail data-till data, loyalty cards
Customer complaints
Customer records

10. External Sources
External data are information available from outside sources, the marketer turns to external data when the internal data are not sufficient to solve the marketing problem at hand or answer some of the questions, they
include:
Government publications & statistics on trends, population, retail prices etc.
The media i.e. newspapers, magazines, T.V & Radio reports,
Directories i.e. yellow pages
The internet
Trade associations
Market research companies e.g. Mintel

11. The Internet
Data from many of the above sources can be accessed through the internet Data from competitors’ web sites Articles, reviews and analysis covering a wide range of business topics, references and situations are now available online although much on a subscription basis.

12. Secondary Research cont.
Advantages
Disadvantages
Inexpensive
Easy to access
Saves time and effort
Identifies issues for further investigation
Provides direction for primary research
Suggests methodologies for data collection
Provides historic or comparative data for longitudinal studies
Non re-active: does not alert rivals
Data may be incomplete
Often not detailed enough to aid decision making
Data may not be available
Data may not be directly comparable
The data was collected for another purpose
Problems over reliability, different definitions and interpretation of data.

13. Evaluating Secondary Data
Does it come from a reliable source?
For what purpose was the data collected?
When was data collected?
How was it collected?
Is the methodology included?
How reliable is the data?
Is the data comparable?
Can I test the data for accuracy?

14. Quantitative and Qualitative Data
Quantitative – based on numbers – 56% of 18 year olds drink alcohol at least four times a week - doesn’t tell you why, when, how.Factual data is called quantitative data.
Qualitative – more detail – tells you why, when and how! data collected about opinions and views are called qualitative data.

15. Quantitative Vs Qualitative Research
Statistical basis
Gathers statistically valid, numerically measurable data
Usually related to data on the market-size, growth and market shares
Sampling plays a key role
Data obtained through surveys
Concerned with obtaining hard data
Subjective and personal
Concerned with finding out soft information
Main purpose is to understand consumer behaviour, attitudes and perceptions
Obtained by methods designed to get detailed responses e.g. interviews
Research topics are usually explored in some depth