Market Research Data – Defining the Backbone of Market Research
September 19, 2009 – Market research data gathering can be an overwhelming task for any company when one considers that the world is populated with over 3 billion unique individuals.
To produce the most accurate market research data, a market research company must use several types of data gathering methods like polls, the old-school focus group, real-time intelligence drawn from consumers’ actions, telephone surveys, internet surveys and many more.
The best data gathering method to use will depend on the sampling method selection and the type of data an institution is looking for.
Before we delve further into the process of data collection, let us take a look at the market research process to properly understand the value of accurate market research data.
The market research process is made up of 9 basic steps which are:
- Defining the Problem
- How will the market research data be collected?
- Sampling method selection
- How will the data be analyzed?
- Deciding a budget and Timeframe
- Collect the Data
- Conduct the analysis of the data
- Check for errors
- Write a report
These steps are essential in order to draw a good conclusion which will all companies, government agencies and even scientist to make educated guesses as to what was, what is and what will be on topics ranging from whether a housewife will purchase this new type of soap to whether the economy will improve and to the next global climate change.
Obviously, collecting accurate market research data is what will make the market research report a good one or a bad one because if the data is corrupt, the report itself will be corrupt. However, one must not forget that even if the market research data is accurate, it is still useless if the correct questions are not answered.
Most market research companies rely on market research data not just from their own market research data resources but also from other companies that specialize in the gathering of market research data.
The science of accurate market research data is expensive to obtain. This is why many companies are turning to offshore data collection companies to obtain the market research data in order to cut down on the cost. For this reason, the business of data collecting can be very profitable.
Take Datascension, Inc. for example, it is a data collection company that has been providing accurate data collecting services for many market research companies for several years and is still going strong because of the high demand for accurate market research data.
Allison Kim is an internet marketing consultant with over 6 years of online marketing experience and has worked for some of the top Fortune 500 companies in the world. You can contact her at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .