Page 161 - Cambridge IGCSE Business Studies

11: Market research

The need for sampling
When carrying out primary research it is often too expensive and too time-

KEY TERM consuming to get the views of every consumer in the market. This problem can be
overcome by selecting a sample from the total market. There are diff erent methods

Sample: a representative sample of sampling, such as random sampling, stratified sampling and quota sampling.

of the target market selected to
The method chosen must produce a sample which is representative of the whole

take part in market research.
population. If the sample chosen is not representative of the population then this
may produce results which are biased and misleading.
EXPLORE!
You are going to carry out some market research involving students in your school.
Your class might choose their own research topic. For example, if you were setting up a shop in school, what products would fellow
students want to buy? How much would they spend in the shop per day/week? How many times a week would they use the shop?
Alternatively you could use the following questionnaire as a guide.

1 How do you usually travel to school?
Walk Car Bus Train Other (specify)
If you could only do one of the following activities, which one would you choose?
2 go shopping
listen to music cinema play a sport watch a sport

3 On average, how many hours of TV do you watch during a school day?
0–1 1–2 2–3 3–4 4+
4 Do you own a mobile phone? Yes No

If Yes 159
5 Which brand of mobile phone do you own?

You can add more questions, or change the questions, but remember that people do not like answering questions which are too
personal, for example about how much money they have to spend each week. As a class you should survey between 50 and 100
students. Remember the bigger the sample size, the more representative the results are likely to be of the whole school population.
When you select your sample you should also make sure that it is representative of the whole school, so it should include all ages and
both male and female – unless yours is a single-sex school.
Once you have completed your survey you need to present the results in tables, charts or graphs. You could publish your findings in
your school magazine if you have one, or on school notice boards.
Finally, write an account of your experiences. You should cover the following points:
■ Which survey method did you use and why?
■ How did you select the sample?
■ What problems did you have when carrying out your market research?
■ What are the main findings of your research?

■ If you were to do this exercise again, would you do anything differently? If so, what and why?

Accuracy of market research data
We have seen how important it is for businesses to collect, record and analyse
market research data to help in the decision-making process. However, it is
important for users of market research data to recognise that the data may
sometimes be inaccurate. This can be due to one or more of the following reasons:

■ The sample chosen may be too small or not representative of the population.
■ The business may have chosen the wrong type of method to collect the data.
■ People who are interviewed as part of the market research process may not answer
questions truthfully.