Tuesday, 30 September 2014

Research Techniques

Primary Research


Primary research is when you go out and get the information yourself. This means that if you ask

someone a question and they answer, it would be primary because you've gotten the answers yourself.

Primary research is the most reliable but can also be unreliable as well because you don't know if that

person answering your question is lying or not. The reason primary research is used is so that you can

back the fact that you've gone out and gone to the effort of getting the research yourself rather than

going onto the internet and searching for it (This is Secondary research). Another reason that Primary

research is used is so you can ask different people the same questions and get different opinions.

One advantage of using Primary research is that you can get your answers first hand and record them

on a phone or professional video recorder.


Secondary Research

Secondary research is when you're using text based research such as books, the internet and is basically

the research you gather from someone else at any point. If you're borrowing someone's work for

examples on your own work, then it's secondary research. One reason that secondary research if used is

to back up your own evidence not only with your work, but someone else's work as well. One

advantage of secondary research is that you can gain easy access. Books, the internet, etc. It's very easy

to get ahold of the secondary research that you need in todays society. Another advantage of secondary

research is that it doesn't cost much money or could possibly not cost any at all. A disadvantage of

secondary research is that the work may be low quality. Another disadvantage is that the information

that you gather might not be complete and may have important bits missing that you need.


Quantitative Research

Quantitative research is a method of collecting numerical data and putting it into research. Some

examples are  bar charts/pie charts, surveys, statistics etc. A reason that quantitative research is used

is to show statistics in a presentation/your research (95% of the public agreed that Gillette was the best

razor yet). An advantage of using quantitative research is that the researcher can gain more in depth

data of numerical research. Another advantage of qualitative research is that this type of research looks

into context and how it effects people. A disadvantage to quantitative research is that it is very time

consuming and could take weeks, months and even years. Another disadvantage of this method of

research is that the researcher interprets the gathered research according to their own biased views.


Qualitative Research

Qualitative is word based research. One of the many methods of collecting word based research is

by social media; this helps you get thousands of responses. Another method for Qualitative is

Interviews and books. A reason qualitative research is used is to get an idea of the wider context of

things if not a whole context of things. An advantage of of qualitative research is that it proves depth

and details; recognising and recording attitudes, behaviours and feelings. Another advantage of

qualitative research is that it tries to avoid pre-judgements and if used with quantitative research it will

attempt to try and explain why a certain response was given. A disadvantage of qualitative research is

usually fewer people tend to use this method of researching and normally go with primary research and

secondary research because gathering qualitative research is time consuming. Another disadvantage is

that it's difficult to make systematic comparisons (e.g. if people were to give very different responses

that are highly subjective). 


Audience Research

Audience research is a method of research that is any communication that is conducted on a specific

audience segment to gather the right information; in this case it would be research on knowledge,

behaviours, interests etc. One method of gathering audience research is a website called BARB

(Broadcasters' Audience Research Board). BARB is a website that you can get viewing figures on.

Another way of gathering audience research is by using surveys which you can gather opinions with

and information. An advantage of audience research is that the researcher can get views from a higher

audience. Another advantage is that the information the researcher would get would be easy to evaluate

on most parts. A disadvantage of audience research is not all audiences may reply or participate.

Another disadvantage is sometimes editing the research can be time consuming and may take hours,

days, weeks and possibly even a year.


Market Research

Market research is any organised effort to gather information about target markets or customers. One

way of gathering market research is yet again surveys. If a TV programme has a higher viewing

audience, it simply means that it has a higher viewing audience. It doesn't mean that the programme is

better than another programme.  Other ways of gathering audience research is through interviews,

books etc. An advantage of market research is agility of the researcher (e.g. companies using an internal

marketing research department to obtain built in agility to modify research during the investigation

/research time).  Another advantage is that if you're paying someone, you can request a customisation

(e.g. you want only secondary research using questionnaires, you pay someone to do it for you to save

time, they get what you want/need). A disadvantage of market research is the recourses, market

research firms may have access to proprietary software, research pools and expert analysis not available

within the company. Another disadvantage geographical limitations, for example, you might not be able

to travel to the country or place you need the information from and so then the researcher will have to

find another solution. 

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