Methods of Market Research

Market research is inextricably intertwined with consumer culture. From its origins in the early twentieth century, the primary task of the market research industry has been to provide information and insights on consumers to client organizations. Indeed, market researchers argued that they played a key linking role between the consumer and the supplier. For example, Colin McDonald and Stephen King claimed that market research contributed to democracy through consumer enfranchisement. C. H. Wells (1999, 4), in his history of market research in the United States, concluded that “market researchers not only changed American business but also American culture.” Through their research studies, the pioneers of market research promoted a new view of society, one that defined people by their buying power and ability to consume rather than by their social class, “a vision of consumer society that remains with us today” (Wells 1999, 4).

Market researchers employ a wide range of research methods and techniques, only a few of which can be considered here. Specifically, questionnaire-based surveys and focus groups are discussed in some detail as well as some newer methods such as brain scanning and ethnographic studies. However, before considering these methods, it is important to consider the context in which they are developed and applied, namely, the market research environment. Most textbooks make a distinction between academic and [Page 962]applied research. The former aims to expand the limits of knowledge and does not usually attempt to generate solutions to pragmatic problems. Applied research, undertaken by market researchers, is conducted to help decision makers in client organizations with specific real-life problems. This distinction is important since it means that applied market research is largely client driven.

First, nearly all of the major developments and changes in the market research industry and the methods it employs have been “driven by changes in client needs and business circumstances” (Chadwick 2006, 391). For example, the 1980s saw significant developments in the methods and techniques used to research brands as client companies recognized the importance of branding in securing competitive advantage. This was the decade that saw the development of concepts such as brand valuation and brand equity. In 2006, Simon Chadwick estimated that some 30 percent of market research data collection in the United States is carried out over the Internet. He argues that speed and cost are the main reasons for the growth of Internet based research. By the time the findings from more traditional collection methods, such as face-to-face interviews, are delivered to the client, the problem may have changed. Secondly, clients place a premium on research findings and recommendations and particularly on the consumer insights that researchers generate. This means that clients focus less on the theory and methodology that informed the research design and its execution. Market researchers are not usually expected to provide in-depth theoretical or methodological justifications for their research design decisions in the ways that are required of academic researchers. Thus, market researchers have more flexibility to experiment with research design and execution.

Of course, market research is also influenced by consumer attitudes to and preparedness to participate in research studies. Declining response rates to survey research is a longer-term trend, meaning that researchers and their clients have had to find more unobtrusive ways of securing consumer information such as customer relationship management (CRM) databases and loyalty cards that record transaction data at the level of the individual consumer. Additionally, the difficulties of securing the co-operation of younger consumers to participate in focus group and interview studies became a key factor in market researchers' adoption of ethnographic research.

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