Research Approaches

Observational Research

1. The gathering of primary data by observing relevant people, actions, and situations.
2. Ethnographic research:
Observation in “natural environment”
3. Mechanical observation:
People meters
Checkout scanners

Survey Research
1. Most widely used method for primary data collection.
2. Approach best suited for gathering descriptive information.
3. Can gather information about people’s knowledge, attitudes, preferences, or buying behavior.

Ethnographic research
It is a particular observational research approach that uses concepts and tools from social sciences to provide deep understanding of how people live and work.

Behavioral Data
- Customers leave traces of their purchasing behavior in store scanning data, catalog purchases, and customer databases. Much can be learned by analyzing these data.
- Customers’ actual purchases reflect preferences and often are more reliable than statements offered to marketing researchers.

Experimental Research
1.Tries to explain cause-and-effect relationships.
2. Involves:
selecting matched groups of subjects,
giving different treatments,
controlling unrelated factors, and
checking differences in group responses

Focus Group in Session

1. A focus group is a gathering of six to ten people who are carefully selected based on certain demographic, psychographic, or other considerations and brought together to discuss various topics of interest at length.
2. A professional research moderator provides questions and probes based on a discussion guide or agenda to ensure that the right material gets covered.
3.Moderators attempt to track down potentially useful insights as they try to discern the real motivations of consumers and why they are saying and doing certain things.
4. The sessions are typically recorded.