P3 describe how a selected organisation uses marketing research to contribute to the development of its marketing plans.
Task 1
Definition: market research
Market research is a systematic, objective collection and analysis of data about your target market, competition, /or environment with the goal being increased understanding of them.
Market research is the study of markets (or groups of people) you would like to sell your product to. In other words, it is learning about your customers. Who are they? What do they want or need? What are their lifestyles?
Primary and secondary research
There are two types of research: primary and secondary. The difference between them relates to whether the research is original to Tesco conducting the research (they gathered the data) or whether it came from another source (the data had already been gathered). Within these categories, information can either be internal- from inside Tesco- or external- from another organistion or source outside Tesco.
Primary research is data and information that the Tesco has gathered first–hand and has not been gathered before. Internal primary research data sources include:
Sales figures for Tesco’s own products
Customer data held on a central
External primary research methods include:
Questionnaires and surveys
Interviews and focus groups
Mystery shoppers and other observation techniques.
Secondary research used data and information that has been collected before, either from within Tesco (internal) or by another organisation (external). Secondary research is sometimes referred to as’ desk research’ and sources include:
Reports from sales and regional representatives (internal)
Trade journals and websites (external)
Books and newspapers (external)
Industry reports from industry associations and government departments (external).
It is more cost-effective for a business to conduct