Current Best Practices That Are Followed When Undertaking Surveys - Essay Example

? Current best practices that are followed when undertaking surveys Best practices in undertaking marketing surveys Structured abstract paper Conducting market research using primary data Context Market research is conducted to address one of the ‘4 Ps’ of marketing, the purpose of the research should be clearly defined, and information collected through marketing surveys. For instance, agricultural producers seek to identify the potential customers’ characteristics such as income levels, attitudes and family size. Market surveys identify what appeals to the customers, when customers make purchases, the preferred distribution and promotional outlets of the products. Secondary data is usually available in either electronic or publicized form and includes company reports, newspaper articles and government agencies data. Primary data is collected purposely for solving the marketing problem and involves use of surveys, focus groups, interviews and experiments. Aims The main aim of the research paper is to identify different types of marketing surveys, their advantages and disadvantages in collecting primary data that is useful in market research. The paper also aims at outlining several survey strategies and examples of multiple choice and open-ended questions in surveys. The paper includes the use of rating scales, bar charts, pie charts in data analysis. Methodology The paper has utilized previous literature in order to identify different types of marketing surveys. Surveys are the most common method used by organizations in primary data collection and include mail surveys, telephone surveys, internet surveys, and face-to-face surveys or interviews. The less formal methods of surveys include informal interviews and observation. The selection of survey method will depend on factors such as the budget, the purpose of the study, the characteristics of target population and time availability. Mail surveys reach a large population and surveyor mails the written questions to the sampled population. The mailing list can be prepared from local phone book, yellow pages or past customer contacts. The main disadvantage of mail surveys is that many respondents may not return the completed survey. Telephone surveys entail calling the individuals and responses can be analyzed immediately as the caller will encourage the respondent to provide more details. However, telephone interviews are expensive for small companies. face-to-face surveys entail in-person interviews, but may require a lot of personnel thus are expensive. Internet surveys reach large random population and some web surveys offers tools for data analysis. Observation entails taking note of consumers shopping behavior in order to determine their preferred products. Survey strategies involves having a focus group or pilot surveys that identify if the questions are worded correctly. Conclusion The purpose of the above paper is to offer insight of survey methods and primary data analysis for marketing research. Critique paper Title: conducting market research using primary data Authors: Kyunda R. Curtis, Ph.D. (Department of Resource economics, University of Nevada) Published: The above research paper fails in outlining the best practices that are involved in conducting marketing research. I believe the first step entails defining the problem and objectives of the survey. The researcher must specify the sources of data and information that will be used in the research. The researcher should assess the time and cost involved in carrying out the research through a cost-benefit analysis before committing huge resources towards the study. The knowledge of objectives makes it easier to generate the survey questions and choice the target population (Ferrell & Pride, 2012). The researcher should also select a sample among the target population. The researcher should consider the expected margin of error and costs in selecting the size of the sample (Smith & Albaum, 2005). The researcher should use the appropriate sampling method in order to avoid sampling errors, survey non-response errors and frame errors. In this case, a large sample will decrease the sampling errors. Accordingly, best practices avoid selection errors since many companies are tempted to survey the loyal customers, the close friends and accessible customers who may not provide negative information about the company products (Wild & Diggines, 2009). The research should edit and code the responses in order to facilitate tabulation of data and analysis. The above research paper lacks a clear research methodology. Best practices in market research should identify the focus groups, research hypothesis and research methodology that involves data analysis methods and interpretation (Zikmund & Babin, 2013). The methodology should identify the acceptance margin of error and how hypothesis will be validated. The other critical best practice is creating easy to understand questions in order to attain high response rate from the responders (Zikmund & Babin, 2013. The clarity of questions, the questionnaire length and number of questions determine the attitude of the responder thus; researchers should ensure that the questions are not lengthy in order to increase the likelihood of participating in future surveys (Ferrell & Pride, 2012). The research paper has not focused on the best practices that should be used in conducting he surveys such as the need to ensure responders’ confidentiality by concealing their identity and using the findings of the survey only for the intended purpose (Wild & Diggines, 2009). The best practices entails notifying the respondents the purpose of the survey and requesting for the free consent of the respondents in order to participate in the survey (Smith & Albaum, 2005). The author has ignored the opinion of other researchers on the same subject since literature review of other scholars would be useful in understanding the findings of previous research on the same subject matter (Ferrell & Pride, 2012). The paper has an excellent flow of ideas, but it is shallow on the definition of each survey methods and associated advantages and disadvantages. The author fails in offering advice on the wording of survey questions. Excellent questions should be short, more open-ended and not leading the respondents to the answers. The researcher should communicate effectively and politely in order to encourage high response rate. In addition, best practices in marketing research utilize data from different sources such as sales information, reference libraries, chamber of commerce, past communication with customer, national income statistics, family spending surveys and competitor information (Wild & Diggines, 2009). In this case, the management must be capable of identifying the market size, the market scope, channels of product distribution, customer buying decision characteristics, and prices and discounts offered by competitors (Ferrell & Pride, 2012). Reference List: Curtis, K.R. “Conducting market research using primary data”. (Web): http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&ved= 0CCgQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fag.arizona.edu%2Farec%2Fwemc%2Fnichemarket s%2F07conductingmarketresearch.pdf&ei=y9atUs- KLeP_ygPYt4GoDA&usg=AFQjCNHVKoif5AUF4N8lLvkfbS_tv9GXDw&bvm=bv.57 967247,d.bGQ. Ferrell, O & Pride, W.M. 2012. Marketing. Mason, OH: South-Western Cengage Learning. Smith, S.M & Albaum, G.S. 2005. Fundamentals of marketing research. London: Sage. Wild, J & Diggines, C. 2009. Marketing research. Cape Town: Juta. Zikmund, W.G & Babin, B.J. 2013. Essentials of marketing research. Mason, OH: South- Western Cengage Learning. Read More