Surveys

Here we use "surveys" to describe a set of traditional market research techniques which involve testing a sample of respondents in order to come to generalisations about the whole market.

Here we use "surveys" to describe a set of traditional market research techniques which involve testing a sample of respondants in order to come to generalisations about the whole market.

In comparison to focus groups and spot or in-situe interviews, surveys are more quantitative in nature and generally involve a much larger sample size. The structured questionnaire is the most common research tool here, which often incorporates questions which have several alternative responses and can be easily coded into quantitative data. Surveys can be administered by mail or phone, and increasingly - the Internet.

Sample selection is key here, as the aim is almost always to generalise to the market population as a whole. While theoretically random sampling of a certain minimum proportion of the total market will acheive this, in practice pure random samples of consumer markets are rare. Stratified sampling, where respondants are chosen in proportion to the occurance of certain critical groupings in the market - (gender, age, residential, ethnic groups for example) is more common.

Surveys are often difficult to carry out in many Asian markets which are usually more diverse than European markets due to such factors as language differences, major differences in phone ownership and access to mail services. Existing data, as is usually provided by developed countries is generally less accessible in Asian markets. Freedom of Information Acts are few and far between, and budgets do not allow for regular or valid government surveys.

However, in some situations such as developing valid estimates of projected revenue for sales, and targeting promotion and advertising activities, surveys are the only acceptable methodology.