Methods of research

The methods named by the course

Observations, questionnaires, focus groups, testing, interviews, surveys, desk top research, statistics, journals, sales reports and government information. The last five are secondary; the rest are primary.

Questionnaires and surveys

• A set of written questions, distributed on paper or online, answered without a researcher present.
• Best for: numbers — how many, how much, how often, which option.

Advantages	Disadvantages
Reaches many people quickly and cheaply	Poorly worded questions produce meaningless data, and you cannot clarify
Answers are consistent, so results are easy to count and compare	Low response rates, especially online
Respondents can be anonymous, so answers are more honest on sensitive topics	You learn what people think, rarely why
No interviewer present, so no interviewer bias	People may not read carefully, or may tick through to finish

Interviews

• A researcher asks questions directly, one to one, and can follow up on answers.
• Best for: reasons — why someone would or would not buy.

Advantages	Disadvantages
You can probe an interesting answer with a follow-up question	Time-consuming, so sample sizes are small
Misunderstandings can be corrected immediately	Interviewer can lead the respondent without meaning to
Rich, detailed information	Respondents may give the answer they think is wanted
Very high response rate once someone has agreed	Hard to compare and count answers across interviews

Focus groups

• A small group (typically six to ten) discusses the product together, guided by a facilitator.
• Best for: reactions and language — how people talk about a product, what appeals, what confuses.

Advantages	Disadvantages
Participants react to each other, raising points a survey would miss	Dominant participants can shape the whole group's stated views
Efficient — several people's views in one session	Not representative: a group of eight cannot stand for a market
You can show a prototype and watch reactions	Requires a skilled facilitator to keep it useful

Observation

• Watching what people actually do — which items they pick up, where they stop, how long they queue, what they buy together.
• Best for: behaviour, which is more reliable than what people say they do.

Advantages	Disadvantages
Records real behaviour, avoiding the gap between stated intention and action	Explains what happened but never why
Does not rely on respondents' memory or honesty	Time-consuming, and the observer may misinterpret what they see
Can be done without interrupting customers	Raises privacy considerations — see the Privacy Act 2020 if people are identifiable

Product testing

• Producing a sample of the product and letting people try it, ideally at the real price.
• Best for: new products, because it converts a stated intention into an observed choice.

Advantages	Disadvantages
The strongest primary evidence available for a new product	Costs money to produce the samples
Reveals problems with the actual product that no questionnaire would find	Small scale, so results may not generalise
Participants respond to the real thing, not a description	Novelty can inflate the response — people try something once

Choosing a method

• Match the method to the question, not to convenience:
  • How many / how much → questionnaire
  • Why → interviews or a focus group
  • What do people actually do → observation or sales records
  • Would they buy this specific thing → product testing
• Most good projects use two methods: a quantitative one for scale, and a qualitative one for the reasons behind it. That combination is also easier to evaluate, because each method's weakness is partly covered by the other.