Summary Journal : Market Research by Paul Hague

Introduction

In this chapter you will learn about:
• The role of market research in helping business decisions through the systematic and objective collection of data.
• The applications of market research and how many studies are to help show the size of markets, to measure the satisfaction of customers with products, to guide new product development and to show people’s use of and attitudes to products.
• The Market Research Society’s Code Of Practice which sets out guidelines for protecting people who are interviewed and clients who commission research.
• The Data Protection Act that protects enforces data collection and analysis procedures to ensure that people’s wishes for confidentiality and anonymity are upheld.

It is the systematic and objective collection and interpreta- tion of data to help reduce risk in marketing decisions.
As with all definitions, this one is loaded with meaning. Market researchers do not just poke around in a market to see what is going on. They have research designs and plans. They are therefore sys- tematic in what they do. Furthermore, they seek to uncover the truth which may be hidden under a pile of assumptions or bias. It is the researcher’s task to be objective.

This needs converting to information so that it tells us something. More than this it needs to become intelli- gence so it helps us make smart moves. Market researchers collect statistics and opinions; they then work out what these data mean, and draw conclusions which

lead to improved business decisions.

How market intelligence helps in business decision making

Understanding customers’ and potential customers’ needs through market research is one of the best ways to obtain a sustainable competitive advantage.

Key definitions
The following definitions are important if you are to understand how the Data Protection Act (1998) relates to market and social research.

• Personal Data: this is any information which can be used to identify an individual person. Examples of your personal data include your name and your address. On its own, your age is not personal data because it alone cannot identify you.
  
• Processing of Data: this covers a number of activities, including collecting or gathering data from individuals, recording the individual’s data and carrying out any type of work using the data by whatever means1.
  
• Data Subject: This relates to the individual person. For example, if you have given your personal details to join a store’s loyalty card system, you are a data subject.
  
• Data Controller: This is the person who makes decisions about how and why personal data will be processed. For example, in a company which has a database of its customers, at least one person must be identified as being responsible for how that data is used.
  
• Notification: All data controllers in the UK must register with the UK’s Information Commissioner and inform the commissioner about the full range of types of personal data which they or their organisations hold. This registration process is called ‘notification’.
  
  • Transparency: All data controllers must ensure that data subjects know exactly why their data is being collected and how it will be used. In other words, they must ensure that there is ‘transparency’ for the data subject.
    
  • Informed Consent: Before data is collected, individuals must understand why the interviewer or researcher needs the information and how this information will be used. They must then agree to give the required information. This is called giving ‘informed consent’ 

  
  

How to comply
If you do any of the following then you will need to notify your data controller or the DP Registrar:

• Sample from client databases to which you add any research findings or data on things like contact or availability
  
  • Have your own list of respondents or buy other lists
    
  • Hold any data collected during a research project in a manner in which it remains linked to data subjects
    
  • Create your own databases (from scratch, through purchase or through addition to a client’s database for example)
    
• Own identifiable data
  You probably don’t need to notify if you:
  
  • Never hold identifiable data in any form
    
  • Never conduct any processing in your own name 
    

Understanding customers’ and potential customers’ needs through market research is one of the best ways to obtain a sustainable competitive advantage.