Types of Research

Types of research:

There are different types of marketing research depending on the objectives that the research is designed to achieve and the sources of data which are to be used. Marketing research may also be either qualitative or quantitative depending on the form of data generated and the degree of mathematical accuracy level to which it is subjected. The most widely used category of marketing research is based on the functional objective of investigation.

Marketing research can be defined as:
1. Basic vs. Applied Research
2. Qualitative vs. Quantitative Research
3. Exploratory, Descriptive and Causal (EDC) Research
4. Predictive Research

1.    Basic vs. Applied Research

Basic or Fundamental Research: It is also known as Fundamental or Pure research. It is Scientific in research and applicable on universal level. Basic research is mostly conducted to enhance knowledge. It covers fundamental aspects of research. It is theoretical. It adds knowledge in existing research. The main motive of this research is knowledge expansion. It is a non-commercial research and doesn’t facilitate in creating or inventing anything but its results may be used in commercial purpose.

For example- Any experiment is a good example of basic research. Law of demand.

Applied or Problem solving Research: Applied research focuses on analyzing and solving real-life problems. This type of research refers to the study that helps solve practical problems using scientific methods. This research plays an important role in solving issues that impact the overall well-being of humans because its application is implemented in real life problems. It works in development of technology and products or services.

For example- Finding a specific cure for a disease or Political or Economical problem based.

2.    Qualitative vs. Quantitative Research

Qualitative Research: Qualitative research is a process that is about inquiry that helps in-depth understanding of the problems or issues in their natural settings. This is a non- statistical research method.

For example – Motivation level of people.

Qualitative research is heavily dependent on the experience of the researchers and the questions used to probe the sample. The sample size is usually restricted to 6-10 people in a sample. Open-ended questions are asked in a manner that one question leads to another. The purpose of asking open-ended questions is to gather as much information as possible from the sample.

Following are the methods used for qualitative research:

1.    One-to-one interview

2.     Focus groups

3.     Ethnographic Research

4.    Content/ Text Analysis

5.     Case study research

Quantitative Research: Qualitative research is a structured way of collecting data and analyzing it to draw conclusions. Unlike qualitative research, this research method uses a computational, statistical and similar method to collect and analyze data. Quantitative data is all about numbers.

For example- Age, Height, Numbers based research.

Quantitative research involves a larger population as more number of people means more data. In this manner, more data can be analyzed to obtain accurate results. This type of research method uses close-ended questions because, in quantitative research, the researchers are typically looking at measuring the extent and gathering foolproof statistical data.

Online surveys, questionnaires, and polls are preferable data collection tools used in quantitative research. There are various methods of deploying surveys or questionnaires. In recent times online surveys and questionnaires have gained popularity. Survey respondents can receive these surveys on mobile phones, emails or can simply use the internet to access surveys or questionnaires.

3. Exploratory, Descriptive and Causal Research

a. Exploratory Research:

Exploratory research gives valuable insight, generates ideas and hypotheses rather than measuring or testing them. “Exploratory research is concerned with identifying the real nature of research problems. Problems are undefined and perhaps of formulating relevant hypotheses for various tests”. It develop platforms to descriptive and causal research.

Ex. Sales are declining

b. Descriptive Research:

Descriptive research is concerned with measuring and estimating the frequencies with which things occur or the degree of correlation or association between various variables. It has been seen that market research reports are often descriptive and they measure market size, market structure, and the behaviour and attitudes of consumers in the marketplace. In general as the data obtained by descriptive research is put to various statistical analysis, it is very necessary to make a list of the variables to be investigated and how these variables will be measured. Primary data is collected in this research. It describe the statistical data and researcher has no control over variables.

Ex. What product features are attracting our customers?

c. Causal Research(Experimental or Explanatory) :

Causal research is basically concerned with establishing cause and effect relationship and an attempt to explain why things happen.

Ex. Will customer buy our product in blue packaging in India?

Ex. 2- To what extent the price elasticity of demand or the degree to which advertising campaigns have affected the sales may be explained by causal research.

However, there are two important aspects of causal research:

(i) Necessary condition and

(ii) Sufficient condition which should be kept in mind.

An event may be considered as the cause of another event, if its occurrence is the necessary and sufficient condition for the latter event to take place. A necessary condition means that the caused events cannot occur in the absence of the causative event. A sufficient condition means the causative event is all that is needed to bring about the caused event.

4. Predictive Research:

The main purpose of predictive research is to arrive at a forecast or prediction or some measurement of interest to the researcher. The ultimate target may be the future sales level of the firm. Other goals of predictive research may involve industry sales level, projection or growth or defining of firm’s product line and the use of a test market to predict the likely success of a new product.