Research Design The quality of any research project will be enhanced by a good understanding of the research design.

If we agree that research is not a single thing but a process, we can then begin to appreciate that research is an activity requiring a whole set of different actions. From the very beginning, when you identify a subject you wish to investigate, you will follow an organized and creative journey which will result in the presentation of your findings. Each step of the process has its own outcome and enables you to confidently move on to the next stage of the journey. The building blocks of intelligence which includes secondary as well as primary data. The applications for qualitative and quantitative research. How to match the research design to the research method. Things to look out for when choosing a quantitative research method. How a company used a range of different research designs to launch and track the success of a new product.

Choosing a Research Design

Sources of market intelligence secondary and primary data Every day companies make decisions without market research. In fact, the number of business decisions that are underpinned by formal market research is probably very small. This is not necessarily the result of cavalier management, taking decisions without due care and attention; it is most likely because the investment in market research is not judged to be necessary. There are four sources that management can turn to for intelligence that will help their business decisions. Before spending time and money on market research, managers will scan the quality of information that sits underneath their noses in the company. This could be factual (such as sales figures, number of enquiries, lists of prospective customers etc) or it could be opinion (such as the views of the sales force). If these sources are considered reliable, there will be no need to look externally for the data. Questionnaire preparation: Questionnaire design template comes in handy when a company, organization or individual wants to carry out a survey in order to find out specific information from a chosen population. A good questionnaire needs to have a good design in order to be effective. Our questionnaire template will give you a step by step guide about how to write your own specific questionnaire. This template is a good example of the kind of design you should use. The design and form of the questionnaire should be excellent so that the responses you receive will be in line with the survey. Sample Questionnaire Name of the respondent: _____________________________ Age: _____________________________________________ Job title: __________________________________________ Marital status: ______________________________________ Economic status: ____________________________________ Location: __________________________________________ Purpose of the survey: ________________________________________________________________________ Aim of the survey: ________________________________________________________________________ Goals to be achieved by the survey: ________________________________________________________________________ Duration of the survey: ________________________________________________________________________ Guidelines set for the survey: ________________________________________________________________________ Parameters set for the survey: ________________________________________________________________________ Strengths of the survey: ________________________________________________________________________ Limitations of the survey:

Conducting a survey Basically we conduct Survey through online as well as offline. Based on the questionnaire we conduct survey within a stipulated time frame, where we need to submit the report to our clients. Below are the methods, we use for our survey process. Personal interviews Group or focus interviews Mailed questionnaires Telephonic interviews

The numbers of interviews that separate quantitative and qualitative research is not a clear cut but most researchers would accept that sample sizes of 200 or more are most certainly quantitative while those of 50 or less are qualitative. In between is the grey area of qual/quant.
Qualitative & Quantitative Research

Data analysis and compilation: Data is of two types one is quantitative data and qualitative data. Where the data is quantitative there are three determinants of the appropriate statistical tools for the purposes of analysis. These are the number of samples to be compared, whether the samples being compared are independent of one another and the level of data measurement.

Levels of measurement Measurement scale Nominal Ordinal Interval Ratio Measurement Level Frequency counts Ranking of items Relative differences of magnitude between items Absolute differences of magnitude Examples Producing grading categories Placing brands of cooking oil in order of preference Scoring products on a 10 point scale of like/dislike Stating how much better one product is than another in absolute terms. Mathematical properties Confined to a small number of tests using the mode and frequency Wide range of nonparametric tests which test for order Wide range of parametric tests All arithmetic operations

Report preparation: No universally accepted standard format or style for research writing. Different researchers may prepare their reports differently. The personality, background, expertise, and responsibility of the researcher and those of the decision maker for whom the report is written interact to give each report a unique character. Report formats are likely to vary with the nature of the project itself. However, the research report closely resembles the steps of the marketing research process.

Final Report Preparation

Writing up Research

Use Research Reporting Guidelines

Disseminating Research

Presentation

Making findings known to users

Market Research Product Life Cycle S PreBirth/Introduction Youth leading to Growth A L o Market o Channel Analysis E Assessment Studies o Promotional Research S o Needs Analysis o Customer Satisfaction o Pricing Research o Use & attitude surveys o Competitor Research

Maturity leading to slowdown o Brand Positioning o Needs based segmentation

Old age leading to decline o New market entry studies o Acquisition & Diversification studies

TIME

Building a CRM: Features in the CRM Customer relationship Contacts We have to send the mailers Newsletters Create and build relationships Conduct surveys Invite views / feedback Invite them the respondents for events

Using SPSS in Market Research: How can we help using SPSS ?

Increasing the targeting and effectiveness - of cross-sell or up-sell campaigns Reducing customer defection or churn Minimizing the impact of fraud by focusing the work of investigators on the most suspicious cases Improving the efficiency of law enforcement by providing more precise guidance to officers or agents in the field Helping educators more clearly identify and meet student needs and manage their institutions more effectively

What kind of analysis we can do ? How differences are used for market segmentation decisions Understand when t tests or z tests are appropriate and why you do not need to worry about this issue using SPSS Test the differences between two percentages or means for two independent groups Paired samples difference test Comprehend ANOVA and how to interpret ANOVA output Perform differences tests for means using SPSS Why Differences Are Important ? Small Sample Sizes: The Use of a t Test or a z Test Testing for Significant Differences Between Two Groups Differences Between Percentages with Two Groups Using SPSS for Differences Between Percentages of Two Groups Differences Between Means with Two Groups (Independent Samples) Differences Between Two Means Within the Same Sample (Paired Sample) Online Surveys and DatabasesA Significance Challenge to Marketing Researchers Testing for Significant Differences in Means Among More Than Two Groups: Analysis of Variance

Sample report or outcome Model Summary Model R R square Adjusted R square .000 Std. Error of the Estimate 2.91122

1 Anova Table Model

.022

.000

Sum of squares Df

Mean square

Sig

Regression Residual Total

42.176 886430.077 86472.853

1 10198 10199

42.176 8.475

4.976

.026

When analysing the Anova table it is possible to observe that when analysing the sig one can conclude that it is less than 0.05 and therefore we can reject the null hypothesis, thus concluding that there is a relationship between the variable 1 and the variable 2. Co- efficients Table Model Unstandardized Coefficients B 1 Constant Female 7.042 .130 Std.Error 0.44 .058 0.22 Standardized Coefficients Beta 161.644 2.231 .000 .026 t Sig.

What other analysis we do in SPSS ? Simple correlation, Multiple correlation Analysis Simple/Linear Regression, Multiple Regression Analysis Forecasting Complete use of all pictograms Hypothesis Testing, Significance testing Z-test, T-test, F-test, X2 test Time series Analysis

Description: Market segmentation implications underlie most differences analyses. It is important that differences are statistically significant, but it is also vital that they are meaningful, stable, and a basis of marketing strategy. We then describe how differences between two percentages in two samples can be tested for statistical significance. Then we describe the same test procedure using means. In addition, you were introduced to the t test procedure in SPSS that is used to test the significance of the difference between two means from two independent samples. We can learn about a paired samples test and how to perform and interpret it using SPSS. When a researcher has more than two groups and wishes to compare their various means, the correct procedure involves analysis of variance, or ANOVA. ANOVA is a flagging technique that tests all possible pairs of means for all the groups involved and indicates via the Sig. (significance) value in the

ANOVA table if at least one pair is statistically significant in its difference. If the Sig. value is greater than .05, the researcher will waste his or her time inspecting the means for differences. But if the Sig. value is .05 or less, the researcher can use a post hoc procedure, such as Duncans multiple range test, to identify the pair or pairs of groups where the means are significantly different.

There are two ways to apply the Descriptive Statistical results to the entire population: The data is closely matched with past empirical results such that the extent of similarities and differences can be verified and conclusions from the primary data analysis can be drawn. Such an approach is used in Triangulation Methodology which is the mix of Qualitative as well as Quantitative Research methodologies. This approach of applying Descriptive Statistical data on the entire population is employed in scientific as well as phenomenology research techniques and is normally employed in the Interpretive and Realism Philosophical approaches to conducting the research. The Descriptive Statistical analytics can be applied to the entire population by carrying out additional statistical analytics that are primarily employed to prove or reject Hypotheses. Some of the examples are: Chi-Square test, ANOVA, ACOVA, Regression Tests, Student's T test, etc. The Inferential Statistical analytics are employed in pure quantitative research studies in which all the results are based on statistical analytics only and human interpretations of the textual responses are not employed. These techniques are employed in Positivist's approach of conducting the research. We can help you to conduct both Descriptive and Inferential statistical analysis for your Research Project. The process followed is the following: (a) You may send us your primary research data in whatever form you have collected - in hard copies (scanned), in MS Word tables or in MS Excel sheets. (b) We will organise the data in a separate MS Excel sheet in such a way that it can be readily imported into SPSS. If there are any errors in the primary data, we will help you to rectify them. (c) We will help you to import data in the SPSS package on your computer (you will need to have a licensed copy of SPSS Academic version on your computer) and will help you to generate the results in tables as well as graphs. (d) We will conduct an analysis of the data and write the report which will be sent to you. If you want us to analyse the data with respect to the Literature Review carried out by you, we can do so at additional costs. The cost of our efforts will depend upon the sample size and the corresponding data volumes that needs to be organised in MS Excel and then imported into SPSS on your computer for descriptive and inferential statistical analysis. The cost will also depend upon whether you only want descriptive statistical analysis (mostly used in "Triangulation" or "Mixed" methodology) or want to conduct inferential statistical analysis as well (mostly used in "Pure Quantitative" methodology, i.e., research studies that require proving or rejecting hypotheses). For grounded theory approach (comparing the

primary data and its statistical analytics with past empirical theories) and for writing up the entire report, the charges shall be extra based on the number of words required by the customer. We can also evolve the conclusions and generalisations based on our analysis and present to you our opinion in the write up. You may however like to confirm yourself if our opinion justifies your research aims and objectives. We will take accountability of the accuracy of all analytics and the conclusions drawn but the final success will depend upon whether your research aims and objectives have been met or not.