Data Protection Act 1998

This Act covers the regulations involved in processing information relating to individuals and how such information should be obtained, held, used and/or revealed. To read the Act follow the logo link below to the Internet document:

The DPA have an enquiry/information line that you might find useful: 01625 545 745. You can use the menu below to explore some of the key ideas and issues covered by the Act.

Key definitions
The following definitions are important if you are to understand how the Data Protection Act (1998) relates to market and social research. Personal Data: This is any information which can be used to identify an individual person. Examples of your personal data include your name and your address. On its own, your age is not personal data because it alone cannot identify you. Processing of Data: This covers a number of activities, including: i. collecting or gathering data from individuals ii. recording the individual's data iii. carrying out any type of work using the data Data Subject: This relates to the individual person. To be a data subject, a person must: i. be alive ii. be 'natural' (ie be a real - not fictitious - character) iii. have data held about them So, if you have given your personal details to join a store's loyalty card system, you are a data subject. However, if you completed the application using a false name, you would not be classified as data subject. Data Controller: This is the person who makes decisions about how and why personal data will be processed. For example, in a company which has a database of its customers, at least one person must be identified as being responsible for how that data is used. Notification: All data controllers in the UK must register with the UK's Information Commissioner and inform the commissioner about the full range of types of personal data which they or their organisations hold. This registration process is called 'notification'. Transparency: All data controllers must ensure that data subjects know exactly why their data is

being collected and how it will be used. In other words, they must ensure that there is 'transparency' for the data subject. Informed Consent: Before data is collected, individuals must understand why the interviewer or researcher needs the information and how this information will be used. They must then agree to give the required information. This is called giving 'informed consent'.

Key principles
There are very strict guidelines which govern the gathering, recording and storing of personal data for market and social research. These include: Personal data must be processed in accordance with the law. It can only be used for the purposes for which it was gathered. This means that a researcher cannot use the same personal data for two different projects, unless the respondent was informed about the second project at the original interview. Researchers and clients can only ask for information which is relevant and necessary for the purpose of the research. Personal data cannot be transferred outside the European Economic Area (EEA) unless it is protected by very specific safeguards. This means that if your organisation is based outside the EEA it must meet very strict guidelines in order to access data held in the UK.

Data collection categories

Category 1: "Classic" confidential survey/market research Category 2: "Classic" research - samples drawn from client databases/other lists Category 3: "Classic" research - client databases used for sampling Category 4: "Classic" research - feedback on complaints/dissatisfaction (eg customer satisfaction projects) Category 5: "Classic" research - client receives research findings at an individual respondent level Category 6: Attributable data collection projects

Primary data
What is primary data for the purposes of the DPA? Questionnaires Audio/video/digital/CCTV tapes Transcripts, where individuals may be identifiable Hand-written notes containing personal data Projective material Recruitment/sampling/research records Researchers must get respondents' permission in writing at some time during the research for primary data to be handed to a third party, including: Explicitly to whom the data will be passed Who will see it What it will be used for Getting full consent from respondents is important because it is difficult to get permissions changed after the research has been completed (and may be unlawful).

Primary data collected in a market research project can only ever be used for market research purposes. Both clients and researchers need to understand this restriction. For example, if a group discussion on the topic of customer service has been videoed as part of a market research project, the client cannot use the video later as part of a customer service training programme for staff. Business to business research The 1998 Act does not apply to data held about corporate or other types of organization BUT sole traders and partnerships are regarded as individuals. Individuals in their corporate capacity do have data protection rights. Data collection conditions Strict rules govern the ways in which data is gathered from individual respondents. The respondent must always give his or her informed consent to being interviewed. This means that he or she must understand why the data is being collected, and how it will be used before agreeing to the interview. If you think you may want to interview a respondent for a second time, you must always get permission for this re-interview at the initial interview. This means that, if you forget to ask a question in the first interview, you cannot recontact the respondent unless you have already gained their permission. You must always have the respondent's permission before passing any of their personal data on to another agency. This means that you cannot give the names or addresses - or any other personal data - of your respondents to any other person or organization if the respondent has not given permission. Clients who commission research can only use the respondents' personal data for the purposes for which the respondent has given permission. For example, a client company cannot send information about its products to a respondent who has not agreed to be added to its marketing mailing list. Data controllers (not data processors) have prime responsibility and clients are the data controllers for customer databases. Research agencies are data controllers for any lists they buy or acquire rights for, any databases created from scratch, and any new databases created (for example, by merging any clientsupplied data with survey results and all data collected during research as long as it remains linked to individuals). Remember that there may be more than one data controller per project! A direct marketing agency will typically generate mailing lists for a client who will subsequently try to sell to the named individuals. A market research agency operating to the Industry Code of Conduct is not allowed to release the name of respondents, where the client's intention is to try and sell to them. Data across borders Strict rules govern the transfer of data from one country to another. Data controllers must make sure that they comply with the law in the country where the data is being processed and, if the research is being carried out internationally, in the country where the data controller is based. This means that, if you are based in the UK but gathering data from France, you must make sure that you work within both UK and French law.

Personal data cannot be transferred outside the European Economic Area (EEA) unless it is protected by very specific safeguards. This means that, if your organization is based outside the EEA, it must meet very strict guidelines in order to access data held in the UK.

How to comply If you do any of the following then you will need to notify your data controller or the DP Registrar: Sample from client databases to which you add any research findings or data on things like contact or availability Have your own list of respondents or buy other lists Hold any data collected during a research project in a manner in which it remains linked to data subjects Create your own databases (from scratch, through purchase or through addition to a client's database for example) Own identifiable data You probably don't need to notify if: Never hold identifiable data in any form Never conduct any processing in your own name How do I notify? UK notification online: www.dataprotection.gov.uk The fee is 35 a year, renewable annually. In your notifcation you will need to include: Purpose (description of category of processing) Data subjects (people about whom data is processed) Data classes (types of data being processed) Recipients (to whom data may be disclosed) Ethics Researchers are responsible for making sure that respondents are not harmed or badly affected by a research project. Respondents should be informed of the subject for discussion unless it will bias responses. Be aware of generally sensitive topics and also identify topics that some respondents will be particularly sensitive to. Respondents should be told the subject if it is thought to be sensitive and given the opportunity to withdraw. During interviewing respondents should be reminded they do not have to answer questions and are free to leave at any time. Be aware that if a respondent finds a topic sensitive it may effect their responses and lead to response bias. Their agreement should be obtained if the interview is being video-ed or viewed. Respondents must be able to check the identity and credentials of the researcher. Assurances as to how long an interview will last should be kept. You can read the full MRS Code of Conduct, which deals with ethics and good practice in much more detail, here in the Resource Centre. Remember that ESOMAR also have a code of conduct, for research within a European and world context.

Quantitative research
Quantitative research provides numerical data. When you have finished a quantitative project you will be able to say what proportion or percentage of the population fall into different groups - those who want something, those who would be likely to buy something, those who are in favour of a particular policy or plan, etc. In quantitative research every respondent is asked the same series of questions. It is not enough to talk to a couple of dozen people - you need more! And they should be of various ages, and probably from different parts of the country, to get a cross-section of the relevant population. In the early days of research, people tended to be contacted using random sampling techniques. These involve taking a list of all the potential respondents and selecting a sample of them at random, maybe by choosing every 10th or 20th name. But this is an expensive approach, so these days most surveys are done using quota methods. Quota methods involve interviewing certain types of people. If the population whose views you need are men and women under 50, with children under 11, the interviewers will be asked to find and interview people of the same type. When they have finished you will have a sample - a set of respondents - all of whom are under 50, half of whom are women, and all of whom have children under 11. It is a small cross-section of all the people you're interested in.

Qualitative research
Qualitative data will help to find out what it is that people like - or dislike - about a product, or advert, and why they feel that way. It can also help to pinpoint what they would prefer. It can be used for everything from testing reactions to a new advertising campaign, to exploring staff attitudes to new management structures or procedures. There will be no fixed set of questions and therefore no assumptions about what is, or is not, important. Instead you use a list of topics, problems, or possibilities to be explored. The discussion will be heavily influenced by the respondent's own concerns or assumptions. Because you talk to fewer people than you do in quantitative research, and because you're having exploratory discussions rather than everybody being asked the same questions, qualitative research cannot provide numbers. What it can do however is provide greater understanding of what people need, want, feel and care about, which can be valuable information in its own right. Qualitative research can be used on its own or it can be used in advance of a quantitative study, to help the researchers decide what questions to ask and how to ask them. It can also be used alongside or after quantitative research, to help explain the data trends. It is worth remembering that qualitative research will sometimes discover things that the research team had not previously thought about at all.

Research objectives
Hypotheses
You will often find researchers stating objectives in the form of a hypothesis, for example, "The sales of women's lingerie are directly related to seasonal events, like Christmas and Valentine's day". A hypothesis can be a formal means of helping to fix the overall direction of the research. Kerling has suggested two criteria that a hypothesis should meet. The hypotheses should be: Statements of possible relationships between variables Testable If you come up with a hypothesis this will directly effect the choosing of your data collection techniques. But it is not always easy, or indeed possible, to decide on a sensible hypothesis

Research process
The research process can be broken down into roughly eight stages: 1. Identify the problem 2. Create the research design 3. Choose the research methodology 4. Select the sampling procedures 5. Collect the data 6. Analyse the data 7. Write and present the data 8. Follow up

Research design
Data types
Primary Primary data is information collected specifically for your research project. To get primary data you will need to question respondents directly or observe their behaviour in some way. Secondary Secondary data is data that has already been collected and published for another research project or for some other reason. There are two types of secondary data, internal and external. To get secondary data you have to identify and source information from internal business reports, databases, publications, professional associations, industry bodies and the Internet etc. Pure Pure research is aimed at expanding your knowledge rather than solving a specific problem. You carry out pure research to get data that can test or prove ideas and assumptions like "birth rates are linked to social status ". Pure research is often undertaken in academic institutions such as university business schools as part of masters or MBA programmes. Applied Applied research aims to solve specific problems, leading to reduced uncertainty in the decisionmaking process. You carry out applied research to get data that can tell you things like "What is the level of success of our advertising campaign, the objective of which was to try and persuade consumers that our breakfast cereal can be enjoyed at any time of the day? " Applied research is often particularly useful in a business environment where knowledge and insight is rarely wanted for its own sake but for the competitive advantage it can produce. Qualitative Qualitative research is exploratory research and involves using unstructured techniques based on statistically small samples in order to understand a problem better. Qualitative data will help to find out what it is that people like - or dislike - about a product, service or advertisement, and why they feel that way. Qualitative research often takes the form of in depth interviews or group discussions (focus groups), where small numbers of people are carefully recruited to represent a particular category of the population. Quantitative Quantitative research is often conclusive research and involves collecting statistically large samples of data, by questionnaire, whether self or interviewer administered, and usually carrying out some form of statistical analysis. Quantitative research is often used in conjunction with qualitative research to provide statistical answers which can validate or shed more light on people's attitudes, behaviour, preferences or experiences. Quantitative research provides numerical data. This often takes the form of postal, telephone, face-to-face or Internet surveys.

Categories of research
Exploratory Exploratory research helps the researcher or the client develop initial ideas. It provides direction for any further research which might be needed. Exploratory research can involve either primary or secondary data collection and helps to identify business or social problems and can be used, for example, to try to get a better understanding of the consumer, the market, the buying process or the economic and social environment. Some examples of exploratory research questions include: Thinking about the growth of the EU, what is the market potential for certain products or services? Who are the customers, and what is their current behaviour? Where are the products purchased and consumed? Best practice says that the problem itself should determine whether research can or should be exploratory or conclusive. Conclusive Research which leads to final decisions is referred to as conclusive research. This is intended to confirm ideas and to help decision-makers to select a specific course of action. For example the effects of a price reduction can be measured, as can customer attitudes, with usage and attitude surveys. Some examples of questions which require a conclusive answer are: Should we launch in France or Italy first? Will the retailers accept one pack size? Is the price 4.00 or 3.9 Euros? Is the labelling understood by our potential customers? Best practice says that the problem itself should determine whether research can or should be exploratory or conclusive. Conclusive research is often looked upon as the correct approach for making strategic or important decisions, but this is not always the case. Look and think before you leap. Ad hoc and continuous Ad hoc research is one-off research designed for a specific project, while continuous research is undertaken continuously, or repeated at regular intervals. Although ad hoc research will always be important, there is currently a trend towards taking a more systematic approach to market research by using continuous data management. This trend was discussed by Webber at the Advertising Research Foundation Conference in 1987: "(I see a shift) from ad hoc information gathering to the development of marketing information and research systems. We are increasingly seeing value in using a systems approach. By a systems approach I mean making sure that each piece of information, each piece of research investigation integrates and builds upon other information into relationships so that it can be used in a coherent overall framework. This is not to say that there will be no more ad hoc research studies. It is to say that those ad hoc studies will need to build into a coherent framework of knowledge about the business and its relationship to the marketplace. Accessing that knowledge base via information technology will reduce the need for special studies."

Research proposal
Background In this section, the researcher needs to demonstrate that they really understand the client's problem and the business or social context in which the problem has appeared. To do this, the researcher needs to read the brief thoroughly and may need to go back to the client for more information which he or she sees as relevant to the problem. The researcher might also do some secondary research to increase their expertise in the subject area. For example, if a local council is considering whether to build a new sports centre, the researcher might investigate the local area to get a clearer picture of what sports facilities are already available in the area. Research objectives This section should show exactly what the proposed research can provide to the client. For example, if a local college wants to know if it should open evening classes for adults, the research objectives might be to: Identify key groups of people who would attend the evening classes Identify the range of subjects which are most appropriate to those groups Identify any potential obstacles to people attending evening classes (eg class times; days of the week) Research design The research design provides an overview of what research methods will be used to collect the relevant data. The research design should cover the research approaches (qualitative or quantitative; ad hoc or continuous; client specific, syndicated or omnibus; postal, telephone, face-to-face or Internet, CAPI or CATI) you are suggesting for the different areas covered (geographical areas, separate categories of the population). You will need to suggest sample sizes, or ranges, and cover issues such as how recruitment will take place and what incentives might be offered etc. The methodology suggested can often be a key decider in which approach to go with - a creative approach to the research design, whether qualitative or quantitative, can make the difference between run of the mill research and research which really delivers. Methodology This section should provide the client with the reassurance that the method which the researcher has chosen is the most appropriate to the research problem, and that it will generate reliable information. The methods which the researcher chooses also need to be appropriate to the client's budget. Therefore, this section needs to include a short description of the methods to be used (eg will it be quantitative or qualitative, or both? How will the sample of respondents be chosen? Will it be conducted via the telephone or in face-to-face interviews?). It should also contain a short explanation of why these methods are most appropriate.

Data analysis procedures Although this is not always included, most clients will want a summary of how the data is going to be processed. As most agencies have their own approach to data processing and the procedures used, the information that clients will want to know includes whether data processing is going to be done in-house or outside and whether particular packages or files (eg Quantum, Quanvert) are going to be used. They will want to know how you are intending to make sure that no errors are made as you input or code the data, as well as how valid, reliable and generalisable the results will be. Personnel This section should reassure the client that the people who are working on the project are the right people for the job! Therefore, it should include information about each individual's experience and any professional qualifications which they hold. As a minimum, the personnel section should tell the client something about the project manager and the person who will manage the fieldwork. If a large number of people are to be involved in the project, the cvs of other key figures (eg main researchers; analysts) should also be included. Time schedule You should find some idea of when the results are required in the brief. If this information has not been included, you should ask the client directly as they may not realise how much time is needed to conduct effective research. A time schedule is useful to help people get an idea of the progress of the research, and find out when they will get updates and reports. In some parts of the public sector the briefs used will not always indicate the required timescale, and sadly it is not always possible to telephone or email a public sector client, as this may be against their departmental rules. It is important to do your best to make your assumptions clear, and to indicate the degree of flexibility you have, so a client can make clear decisions to optimise their time and budget. International research always takes longer than domestic research (UK only) so remember to add in extra time and money for topic guides or questionnaire translation, agency briefing and liaison, data processing, data cleaning and data analysis time. Costs Research can be an expensive business and clients need to know what they are going to get for their money. This section of the proposal should contain information on the total costs of the project, clearly divided into sections such as materials, staff and expenses . Many research agencies will offer clients a range of options within the proposal. For example, the proposal may suggest an exploratory stage prior to a quantitative survey. If this is the case, this section of the proposal should contain a clear breakdown of the costs of the different options. By and large, clients prefer to see these cost alternatives rather than one expensive quote. Some clients will tell you in advance how they want their costs broken down and can be very prescriptive about it, while others will leave it open. It is always worth investigating what the budget is likely to be for any research project, though not all clients will tell you this - they might want to see what the agency comes back with!

Exploratory designs An exploratory design is useful when some initial investigation is needed. These designs can use primary and secondary or qualitative and quantitative data. You only undertake conclusive research when you have a clear picture of the type of information that you need. Exploratory research, as the name suggests, helps to develop your initial ideas, and to provide direction for any further research. At least some exploratory research is useful when trying to understand a potential client's problem - it can identify what each element of the problem is and how they interact with each other. Exploratory research designs can include: Interviews or group discussions Focus groups Observation techniques Literature search Experience survey or key informant survey (eg. ask the experts!) Analysis of selected cases Descriptive designs Descriptive designs carry out conclusive research, when you have a clear picture of the type of information that you need. This type of design provides the researcher and the client company with a picture of the market they are interested in. For example, if a large supermarket chain wants to launch a brand new product - let's say its own travel agency - it needs to understand the current state of the travel agent market. Conclusive research using a descriptive research design, can provide them with evidence that the risks they are taking are as small as possible. There are two types of descriptive studies: Longitudinal studies Where a fixed sample of elements - a panel - is measured repeatedly over a period of time Cross-sectional analyses Where various characteristics of the members in a sample are measured once The main uses of descriptive designs: Describes the characteristics of certain groups Estimates the proportion of people in a population who behave in a certain way Makes specific predictions Causal designs Causality means: does one variable cause another to change? For example does a change in the weather change the demand for ice cream? Of course, many other variables might also affect the demand for ice cream. However, even if other influences exist, the researcher might be able to identify a particularly strong relationship between two variables. In our example, we might know that some children have had their pocket money increased and are buying more ice cream. However, good weather is still likely to be the most plausible explanation for an overall increase in ice cream sales. Causal research design is commonly used to research problems stated as hypotheses.

There are a number of test designs used to determine cause and effect. The list below starts with the most rigorous and reliable tests: Before and after testing with controls Before and after testing without controls After tests with controls After tests without controls These tests are known as experiments and you can find out more about these experiments here in the Resource Centre. Experiments If a cola drink manufacturer wants to establish the right blend of ingredients for the product, a number of tests can be carried out. These tests are listed below in order of reliability: Before and after tests with controls Stage one Before: Groups one and two will taste the original drink and answer questions about the taste. Group one will be the control. Stage two After: Group one, the control, will be given the same drink as in stage one and group two will be given a different drink. Both groups will be asked the same questions again. This provides the most reliable data because changes in opinion can be monitored to see if the groups have simply assumed or imagined a taste difference during stage two. Before and after tests without controls These tests use two groups again and the test can measure assumed/imagined differences as before, but they do not allow for changes in perception which result from other factors not being measured. After tests with controls These tests also use two groups but do not measure opinions and perceptions for the original drink ingredients. After tests without controls These tests generally use one group and measure only the perception of the modified drink without any reference to original taste perceptions. Commercial designs To find out more about the many research designs used in the commercial world, just pick one from the menu below: Consumer panels A consumer panel is a sample of people whose purchases or product usage are recorded over time. There are two types: True panels - repeatedly measure the same variables in a continuous survey Omnibus panels - used over a number of surveys to ask different questions Panels can provide accurate measurements of issues like consumer spending as well as allowing the analysis of behaviour over time. This is very useful for guiding marketing decisions about things like pricing, advertising effectiveness and brand-share predictions. Panels are rarely changed. It is common practice when setting up panels to have, for example, three panels made up of the same types of people, in the same mix. These groups are then rotated

to make sure no-one gets tired and bored with the survey. So if the panel is held on a monthly basis, each panel member will only take part every third month. The most important thing to avoid when choosing a data collection method is a method that is not boring for the panelists. Good methods include: Diaries Interviewer-based panels EAN coding (electrical article numbering or bar coding) Retail audits This is a method of collecting information about the movement of products into and out of shops. Its main use is to measure a brand's performance by: Sales volume Brand share Level of distribution The data can then be analysed by variables like geographical region and type of shop. Stores are usually persuaded financially to take part in the audits. An auditor (an observer rather than an interviewer) visits the stores regularly and at each visit will take a thorough but straightforward measurement, for example: Past stocks + purchases - present stocks = sales data Although this data can show that 200 jars of Wacky Bean coffee were sold in a supermarket during April, it will not tell you anything about the individuals who bought them. So you don't know if the jars of Wacky Bean were bought by 200 different consumers, or by one student faced with a massive backlog of essays! Simulation studies An example of a simulation study: Respondents are invited to a town hall and are shown a series of stimuli - printed adverts, radio jingles, TV adverts etc. They are then taken to a simulated shop display of the brand under analysis and its competitors. Respondents use "coupon money" to make purchases. Those who purchase the brand under investigation are given the brand to use at home. Following a suitable trial period, the respondents are contacted and asked a set of brand preference questions. Finally, crunch time - the respondents are given the opportunity to purchase the brand using their own money. Will they or won't they? Simulation studies are often used at the experimental design stage. One of the main problems with simulation is in trying to get people to follow their "normal buyer behaviour patterns" in what is obviously an artificial environment. Will buyers respond to the brand in a normal way when they realise who the research client is? The effect of gratitude for free samples is difficult to calculate - when does it take effect, and how much does it bias the responses? Costs are high compared to in-home and on-street surveys. This is less of a problem in the USA where hall-test centres are commonly built in shopping malls.

Omnibus surveys The omnibus survey usually takes the form of a long questionnaire, with questions about a very wide range of topics. In this survey, respondents may be asked about anything from the type of soap they use to the different television channels they watch. The reason for this variety is that each set of questions has been paid for by a different client company. By joining an omnibus survey, the client company can gather some research data without having to spend a great deal of time and money commissioning a full research project. Omnibus surveys are continuous research surveys and they have the following advantages: Costs are shared by a number of clients A new client can step in at any point A client pays only for the number of "seats" they wish take up They are widespread and can be used in exploratory and conclusive research, as well as in performance monitoring Added-value Offering added-value is currently very important in the market research consultancy arena. If a researcher is from an outside agency then the proposal may well be part of a process of bidding or tendering for the work, against other researchers. In those cases the proposal should make recommendations, not only about the focus of the current research project, but about implications. Added value can come from providing a continuous stream of knowledge to the client, setting their particular results in the context of what they already know, or by providing strategic or tactical insights that might make a difference. Example Here is a very short extract from a proposal prepared for a retail company. The company planned to run an in store promotion for a new range of products. The marketing manager wanted to do some research to determine customers' reaction to the promotion. In the proposal the researcher makes some suggestions about how to approach the research: Videotape the promotional display in order to observe customers' behaviour Conduct face-to-face interviews in store with customers who bought the products on promotion Record electronically (using the check out scanners) the number of products sold before the promotional period, during it and after it. Depending on the brief you receive from the client, the proposal may need to contain several approaches to gathering the data needed to address the client's business problem. On the other hand, setting out one approach may be all that is needed.

Research methods
CAPI Computer assisted personal interviewing (CAPI) is one way of carrying out face-to-face interviews, and initially the novelty value can improve your response rates! The questions are held in a computer programme and the data is entered directly into the system - often by interviewers with laptops. This means it is immediately available for analysis, so the whole survey process is speeded up. CAPI allows increased control, especially over respondent selection, data collection, administration and innovations in research. Because the interviewing is done on a computer, more complicated techniques can be used which might have been too complicated to administer by pen and paper in the past. Having a computer to hand also means that stimulus material like adverts, music and pictures of products or situations, can be shown in a "live" way that has not been possible before. Another advantage of using CAPI is that it is easier to ask sensitive questions because you can simply hand your machine to the respondent and they can complete the questions themselves. Examples might be questions about contraceptive use, sexual habits etc. The big drawback is, of course, that interviewers need to be equipped so CAPI is never a cheap option! Even so the market research community is expecting CAPI to become increasingly popular and in some places, like the Netherlands, it is already a very commonly used method of data collection. CATI Computer assisted telephone interviewing (CATI) holds survey questions in a computer programme and the respondent data is entered directly into the system. CATI requires an interviewer to read out the questions and to type in the responses. CATI has made telephone research more reliable for a number of reasons. Firstly, the interviewer follows a standardised script and procedure, so this can help to reduce interviewer error. The researcher or supervisor is also helped by being able to listen in to interviews and to keep a very close track on the number of interviews which have been completed. The short lead times and fast response rates mean that surveys can take place immediately after topical events, which is important in advertising tracking and opinion polling. Electronic measurement True electronic data collection involves no interviewer at all. The majority of supermarkets and other large retailers now use tills linked to systems such as EPOS (Electronic Point of Sale) or EFTPOS (Electronic Funds Transfer Point Of Sale, where customers pay by debit card). These systems allow the retailer to track the movement of products by reading bar codes and recording the data contained in the code.

Face-to-face The end of face-to-face interviewing has been repeatedly predicted but it is still the most popular quantitative collection method in the UK! Face-to-face methods include mystery shopping, observation, focus groups and interviews, whether in-house, on street, or in hall. Face-to-face interviewing has many advantages over other methods of data collection. The element of personal contact can encourage respondents to participate, and the presence of the interviewer can make sure that the questions are answered appropriately and in the correct order. However, there are some disadvantages. Face-to-face interviewing can be costly and time-consuming, because interviewers have to be briefed and may have to travel great distances to carry out the interviews. In addition, if interviews are carried out well, they can generate a large amount of data which takes time and resources to analyse. If they are not carried out well, the interview can (inadvertently) bias the respondent towards particular answers. In order to improve the quality of interviewing in the UK, leading research companies, in association with the MRS, developed the Interviewer Quality Control Scheme (IQCS) which, along with the MRS's Accredited Interviewer Training Scheme (AITS), provides guidance on the training and supervision of interviewers. Note that if face-to-face interviews are held on the street or in shopping centres and halls, then they will probably not be that much more expensive than telephone interviewing. A lot of the cost can come from the respondent recruitment processes so if interviews can be done on the spot then this reduces the cost too. Internet The Internet has effectively increased and developed the research market. It is true that it might eventually replace some other methods, in certain cases, but its major effect has not been as a substitute for research previously carried out in another way, but an addition to the huge array of tools available! Often it is done by people who might not have used research before, or for new reasons. E-mail and Internet surveys are quick and can cost less than postal surveys. They are commonly used in specialist consumer markets like computing, or in business markets, because these groups of people usually have Internet access at work or at home. Survey tools are now available which allow computer assisted questionnaires to be carried out online and a small number of agencies are using the Internet to carry out group discussions over the web too. Many market research companies are also investing in online panels. Online interviewing can be: Inexpensive Fast Automated - in terms of data quality as well as interviewing etc Many researchers in the industry hold the view that the Internet may threaten the market research industry in the future, while others believe it will expand the market and may mean that research is undertaken more often than it would have been before. Clients are increasingly attracted to the idea of using Internet research because of its speed and cheapness. However they tend to be keen to use this medium for researching the general population - rather than just specialist groups. As Internet penetration is still only around 50%, it is not always sensible to use this medium for general population research, so careful thought needs to be given before this method is chosen over another, for surveys of that type.

There may always be a need for personal interviewing where human contact is an important element as sometimes online discussion groups are slow and not as interactive as verbal ones, where eveyone can see each other. The uses for Internet research are only just beginning to be explored! Postal The Internet may be increasingly popular, but postal surveys are still a commonly used method for all kinds of research - especially where organisations want to approach a large or geographically diverse sample in as economic a way as possible. Not everyone has Internet access and postal research, like Heineken beer, can reach people that other methods cannot reach! Self-completion questionnaires can be very useful in certain situations. They can help the researcher reach a large sample of respondents relatively cheaply, and appeal to particular groups of respondents who are used to communicating by post. However, response rates to postal questionnaires are notoriously low and the savings made in contacting people by post may be used up in the design and printing of the questionnaire itself and in providing respondents with incentives for completing and returning the questionnaire. Telephone In the US telephone surveys have been the most popular data collection method for a long time. In the UK its popularity is increasing slowly as clients demand speedier research and as more business-to-business surveys are carried out. Telephone methods include directory-based dialling and random digit dialling. Telephone surveys have three main advantages over face-to-face data collection: They are more efficient and cost-effective because interviewers can be briefed and work from a central location instead of moving from location to location. Telephone samples can provide access to places where interviewers may not wish to venture to carry out face-to-face interviews. This could include notorious or crime-ridden areas in a city or widely-spread villages in the country. The sample is easier to track and manage because all of the interviewers are working from a central location. However, there are disadvantages: Interviewers cannot use visual material or test products on the respondents. Respondents in telephone surveys tend to spend less time answering questions than those in face-to-face interviews. In the UK, more and more people are opting to go 'ex-directory' and refusing to take calls which they view with suspicion. The increase in direct marketing by telephone has had a severe impact on the number of people agreeing to participate in telephone interviews.

The tools
Qualitative research
What is qualitative research? Qualitative research involves a wide variety of approaches and techniques. However, qualitative researchers have very similar views on the aims of qualitative research. Yvonne McGivern, in The Practice of Market & Social Research: An Introduction defines it as research which is "..concerned with rich and detailed description, understanding and insight, rather than measurement. [Qualitative research] aims to get below the surface, beyond the spotaneous or rational response to the deeper and more emotional response." Consultant qualitative researcher Ruth McNeil goes further: "Qualitative research is what stays in the mind when the statistics have fallen out of it. It is the anecdote, the surprising quote, the unexpected nature of the human respondent that stays with you long after percentages have fallen by the wayside. It is a peep into the human psyche." Ruth McNeil Uses Today, qualitative research is most frequently used in the following ways: To evaluate a market, product or consumer where no information exists To identify and explore concepts To identify behaviour patterns, beliefs, opinions and motives To establish priorities amongst categories of behaviour, beliefs, opinions and attitudes To identify problems in depth and develop models for further research To separate the possibles from the probables To create data on beliefs and attitudes To put flesh on the bones of points arising from a pilot or major survey To provide verbatim comments and anecdotes from participants - so that the research findings can be brought alive for the client To test how a questionnaire works by going through question by question asking about routing, signposting, understanding and ambiguity Where direct questioning will not give us personal or hidden details about respondents Qualitative data collection Group discussion Many decisions are made not by individuals thinking alone, but as a result of people talking with friends, family and work colleagues. Group discussions (also known as 'focus groups') aim to mirror this type of interaction in research projects. A typical focus group may have between 6 to 10 members, all recruited according to criteria drawn up for the project. For example, they might be all women between the ages of 25 and 40, who are married and who work full time. The discussion is guided by a trained

moderator, who, with the help of a written discussion guide, encourages the participants to explore the issues which the researcher wants to have discussed. Participants are encouraged to reveal their true feelings about the topic being discussed, which could range from new product advertising or packaging to the provision of social services in their area. Commonly nine to ten people are recruited so that groups end up with around seven or eight which is an ideal number for everyone to have a chance to voice their opinions.

Individual interview These can take the form of: One-to-one individual interviewing Mini depths - these are shorter than most interviews and are often used to assess changes Semi-structured interviews - these obtain a mix of statistical information and more qualitative feedback Paired interview (duos) - the respondents prompt each other's memories, contrast experiences and challenge each other. These are often useful with partners or joint decision makers Triangular interviews (trios) - often used in social research across generations, for example a grandmother, mother and daughter might discuss and interpret events and compare views. These can also involve manufacturer, retailer and user type trios Individual interviews usually last about one hour and are tape recorded.

Observation Observation is a data collection technique which can be used to collect both quantitative and qualitative data. Examples of observation techniques include: Video or CCTV viewing: these can be viewed to count the number of times the subject(s) display certain behaviours (quantitative research) or to observe and interpret behaviour (qualitative research). Accompanied shopping: in this technique, the subject is accompanied by an interviewer. The interviewer observes the subject's behaviour, and also asks them questions from an interview guide. This type of data collection is useful because the interviewer can record behaviour and then ask questions about attitudes and opinions. This can help the researcher to match opinions to behaviours. Moderators What is their role? The part that a good moderator plays in group discussions is to: Direct the flow of the discussion to cover all the areas of interest in the allocated time Recognise important points that come up and encourage the group to explore and elaborate on them Observe all non-verbal communication taking place Create a relaxed atmosphere to encourage respondents to talk freely Restrain enthusiastic respondents, and those that talk too much, diplomatically Bring in and involve quieter respondents regularly Ensure an accurate recording of the discussion is made (video, audio tape or written transcripts made by an assistant) Psychology

Generally, the less structure used in questioning, the more flexibility an interviewer has to create better opportunities to investigate subjects. But even this has its limits, and then indirect questioning in the form of motivation research is the only remaining option. This diagram shows the deeper levels of the mind and how easily (or not) they are explored by structured interviewing:

Projective techniques Projective techniques are so-called because they ask the respondent to project their ideas onto a different person or character. For example, instead of asking a direct question like "What is the best tourist attraction in London?", the researcher might say "Mr B is visiting London with his wife and two children. Which would be the best tourist attraction for him to visit?" This technique allows a respondent to give information about themselves as they describe how a third person might think or react. This can allow a respondent, consciously or subconsciously, to talk about subjects without embarrassment. In a modern commercial context, these approaches are helpful when respondents' feelings are: Subconscious Irrational Too frightening or too personal Too embarrassing (the respondent is too shy or too polite) Techniques include: Method Way it works Sentence or story completion Respondent asked to complete a sentence, eg 'People who work long hours are' or a story. Word association Respondent given a word and asked what other word first comes to mind. Personification Respondent asked to give a product or an organisation a personality, eg 'If this brand of soft drink were a person, what sort of person would it be?' There are many more that we don't have time to mention here - writing CVs or obituaries for products for instance! Different agencies and different people have developed different approaches. Stimulus material

Three very different types of stimulus materials are generally used in qualitative research: Open material - words and picture sorts, collage boards and mock interviews Existing products or campaigns - products, advertisements and promotional material New products or campaigns - advert concepts, story boards, animatics, dummy packs, promotions and magazines, taste tests and product brochures etc Material relating to existing products and promotions is the easiest to use, as respondents can have a product experience of some kind and then form some opinions. Test material relating to new campaigns or new products is valuable to help gauge potential customer reactions. Of course mock ups need to be done well so that they look realistic - if they are too far from the finished article people might get hung up on the execution rather than on the idea itself.

Data analysis
Video; Audio; Paper; Holistic; Creative; Using computers Video Videos are used particularly with focus group discussions. Always remember that you need to obtain the express permission of respondents to be filmed though. CCTV videos can also be interpreted by the researcher. Video recording logs behaviour and an analyst will use it to look for two areas of activity: Verbal interaction Body language Verbal interaction will usually be recorded as an audio recording. You can read more about audio analysis here in the Resource Centre. To interpret body language expertise is needed. This is usually the realm of anthropologists and psychologists. You can use video to help describe different activities performed by those being filmed. These activities fall into two main categories: Repeated behaviour: the researcher can identify the usual or average behaviour (eg how the majority respond in the given situation) and use analysis to identify why respondents behaved like this. Unusual behaviour: after compiling a summary of "average" behaviour, the researcher can also identify behaviour which is unusual in the situation. Further analysis can help identify why the subjects respond in these unusual ways. In this type of qualitative research, the data analyst is looking for similar things to the quantitative analyst - ie the average and the range of activity. Like the quantitative analyst, the qualitative analyst also needs to base his or her interpretation on this average and range. Audio Tape-recordings of in-depth interviews and focus groups are usually transcribed to give a permanent record of the data. Discussions can be difficult and time-consuming to transcribe, particularly if the recording equipment does not capture all the speakers clearly. However, it is important that the completed transcription is a true record of what was said - even if the written text looks disjointed and ungrammatical. Paper

This involves either recording discussions word for word (verbatim) on a portable computer, or making brief notes of what was said. When you are note-taking you do not keep a complete record - only a summarised version of what was heard. In the case of verbatim transcription everything said is recorded, like recordings taken at court proceedings, and these provide a detailed summary which is often then analysed with other software. Holistic Holistic data analysis usually involves looking at qualitative data, after a larger quantitative survey, to get help with interpreting unexpected findings. It involves collecting and assembling all the data that may have a bearing on a project and looking at it in the context of the complete picture. Creative data Creative data analysis searches for ideas, themes and trends by examining the findings to try to tease out, identify, and interpret, for example: Ideas for advertising New product development Product/service line extensions Using computers One example of a programme designed to help qualitative research is QSR-Nudist. This allows a researcher to input data into a base file and then allocate chunks of the data to relevant sections, which the researcher can identify as they work through the data. The programme then provides a tree diagram which shows how the data has been allocated. Computer programmes can carry out a number of tasks besides coding. These include search and retrieval, database management, memo-ing, data linking, and matrix and theory building. It is important to remember that the main point about qualitative research is that good analysis usually relies on the skills and experience of the qualitative research team members!

Comparison table
Qualitative vs quantitative research Quantitative Relatively large Structured and standardised; mostly closed with some open ended Team often involved: research executive, data processing executive, fieldwork executives, fieldforce Questionnaire, computer generated tables, statistical analyses Relatively high Relatively low Issues Sample size Questions Administration Qualitative Relatively small Unstructured or semistructured; mostly open ended with some closed Design, fieldwork and analysis usually handled by research executive Interview or discussion guide, audio and/or videotapes, notes, content/narrative analysis Relatively low Relatively high

Data conversion tools

Replicability/reliability Validity

Quantitative research

Quantitative data collection At-work surveys At-work surveys are carried out with respondents whose work gives them particular insight into the product or issue being researched. For example, a pharmaceutical company is likely to want to interview doctors if they want to research the market for a new drug. However, respondents for this type of survey can be difficult to find and, if the researcher wants to interview people at different levels within an organisation, some companies may be wary about inviting their employees to participate. At work surveys need to be approached with some thought. Political sensitivity and the careful handling of both setting up and undertaking the interview is vital. This is often done by executive interviewers. If face-to-face interviews are planned, this would normally mean making an appointment to see someone at work. This can take a long time, as most people have busy schedules these days. A useful alternative is telephone interviewing. Of course your survey may have too many questions for this to be practical. Another approach that is sometimes taken is the postal survey. It is particularly useful when you can limit the number of questions and/or a large sample is needed. In this type of work, the ultimate justification is that the views and opinions provided help to produce better products and services for everyone in that industry. Many people respond to that approach, but some will expect a financial incentive before parting with their views! Another form of at-work survey is the in-house staff survey, where people are usually interviewed in groups at work or off site, or asked to undertake self-completion surveys given to them by their managers. In this case it is vey important that the respondents receive a clear explanation of why the research is being done. Electronic measurement True electronic data collection involves no interviewer at all. The majority of supermarkets and other large retailers now use tills linked to systems such as EPOS (Electronic Point of Sale) or EFTPOS (Electronic Funds Transfer Point Of Sale, where customers pay by debit card). These systems allow the retailer to track the movement of products by reading bar codes and recording the data contained in the code. Face-to-face surveys Personal interviews are important in maintaining public goodwill for market research. Respondents usually enjoy the interview experience as they are made to feel that their opinion is important. The interviewer can also reassure the respondent that the survey is legitimate and their replies are anonymous. When a tight time schedule, or small budget, restricts the type of personal interviews that are possible, you can combine a personal interview with other data collection methods.

Face-to-face

The end of face-to-face interviewing has been repeatedly predicted but it is still the most popular quantitative collection method in the UK! Face-to-face methods include mystery shopping, observation, focus groups and interviews, whether in-house, on street, or in hall. Face-to-face interviewing has many advantages over other methods of data collection. The element of personal contact can encourage respondents to participate, and the presence of the interviewer can make sure that the questions are answered appropriately and in the correct order. However, there are some disadvantages. Face-to-face interviewing can be costly and time-consuming, because interviewers have to be briefed and may have to travel great distances to carry out the interviews. In addition, if interviews are carried out well, they can generate a large amount of data which takes time and resources to analyse. If they are not carried out well, the interview can (inadvertently) bias the respondent towards particular answers. In order to improve the quality of interviewing in the UK, leading research companies, in association with the MRS, developed the Interviewer Quality Control Scheme (IQCS) which, along with the MRS's Accredited Interviewer Training Scheme (AITS), provides guidance on the training and supervision of interviewers. Note that if face-to-face interviews are held on the street or in shopping centres and halls, then they will probably not be that much more expensive than telephone interviewing. A lot of the cost can come from the respondent recruitment processes so if interviews can be done on the spot then this reduces the cost too. CAPI Computer assisted personal interviewing (CAPI) is one way of carrying out face-to-face interviews, and initially the novelty value can improve your response rates! The questions are held in a computer programme and the data is entered directly into the system - often by interviewers with laptops. This means it is immediately available for analysis, so the whole survey process is speeded up. CAPI allows increased control, especially over respondent selection, data collection, administration and innovations in research. Because the interviewing is done on a computer, more complicated techniques can be used which might have been too complicated to administer by pen and paper in the past. Having a computer to hand also means that stimulus material like adverts, music and pictures of products or situations, can be shown in a "live" way that has not been possible before. Another advantage of using CAPI is that it is easier to ask sensitive questions because you can simply hand your machine to the respondent and they can complete the questions themselves. Examples might be questions about contraceptive use, sexual habits etc. The big drawback is, of course, that interviewers need to be equipped so CAPI is never a cheap option! Even so the market research community is expecting CAPI to become increasingly popular and in some places, like the Netherlands, it is already a very commonly used method of data collection.

Cold calling

Approaching members of the public without making an appointment first is known as cold calling. This can be done in person, or by telephone. This is tiring for the interviewer and in some areas, potentially dangerous. However, cold calling is widely used. It is especially important for random sampling where the interviewer needs to choose an alternative strategy if they get a non-response from the original sample. This usually involves picking, for example, the third house down from that of the intended subject, if the original respondent is not at home etc. In-home surveys In-home surveys are held in respondent's homes as the name suggests! When there is a test product available, an in-home survey is very valuable, especially when the product is used specifically in the house (toiletries). Respondents are more likely to be relaxed in their own homes and this should lead to longer interviews. They are also useful when lots of stimulus material (things like adverts and videos) is to be shown - people can react more "naturally" in their own home setting. Respondents are often offered an incentive to encourage them to take part in home interviews, for example a small cash gift or a free sample. On-street surveys A stroll through most town centres shows why on-street surveys are so popular with researchers. If there is a good flow of people, the chances are that all the elements of the population as a whole will be represented, though of course this does depend on the time of day and the day of the week. In the US, shopping mall based surveys are especially popular. A good flow of people also means that an interviewer can stay in one place, while respondents come to them, which reduces travel time. Recruitment is much quicker that with other methods, and quota sampling is often used, so a specific number of interviews in a specific number of named locations can be planned. Street surveys can be a non-reactive as well as a reactive method of data collection. People can be observed on the street to see, for example, which shop window displays take their interest. Hall tests Quite simply, hall tests involve interviewing people in halls, which have been hired for the purpose, usually in busy urban areas. In a typical hall test interviewers approach potential respondents on the street and invite them inside to be interviewed. The key difference between this and a street interview is that respondents are normally shown something that would be difficult or impractical outside. Respondents in hall test interviews are often offered incentives (unlike street interviews), because of the extra time an individual has to give up for them. Hall tests are economical and quick, as long as the location has a decent flow of potential respondents. However it is important to be aware of the constraints before you decide to use hall tests, especially as these relate to accuracy and depth of information:

Samples drawn from the street during the day are bound to contain biases. For example, what about all the individuals who are at work? Not everyone is willing to give up 15-20 minutes, for example those on their lunch hours. In theory hall tests are field experiments, but in practice, what usually takes place is really a survey, where respondents are interviewed and their responses recorded. It is interesting to note that "halls" can be anything from rooms in hotels or pubs, to church and village halls!

Mystery shopping Mystery shopping is an observation-based data collection technique used in both the retail and public sectors, usually to gather data related to customer service. Mystery shoppers act like a typical customer, buying goods or asking for help. They then record the relevant aspects of their experience. This could include the length of time taken to deal with a call, the number of staff members required to deal with a problem or the way in which a problem was addressed by staff members. Mystery shopping is one of the techniques which companies and organisations can use to measure customer satisfaction. Mystery shopping can be conducted on site or by telephone - any location where there is an interaction between customer and client that can be recorded. There is a very strict code about mystery shopping, with no cloak and dagger stuff allowed! It is important for instance that no company is damaged by mystery shopping (mystery shoppers taking up too much staff time for instance) and that if a company undertakes mystery shopping they must tell their staff that it is taking place. Of course they do not have to give out full details as this ruins the concept - but people must be aware if a scheme is in operation.

Observation
Observation measures observable behaviour, compared to interviewing which usually tries to identify and measure attitudes and usage. Retail audits are a prime example of observation, as is RAJAR. This involves measuring how people access television and other media (TV viewing figures etc). Retail audit A method of obtaining information about the movement of consumer products into and out of retail outlets. It uses a panel of shops or other kinds of retail outlet. Audits are carried o

Self-completion surveys In the table below Peter Mouncey shows how various factors can lead to an increase in response rates for these surveys:

Internet The Internet has effectively increased and developed the research market. It is true that it might eventually replace some other methods, in certain cases, but its major effect has not been as a substitute for research previously carried out in another way, but an addition to the huge array of tools available! Often it is done by people who might not have used research before, or for new reasons. E-mail and Internet surveys are quick and can cost less than postal surveys. They are commonly used in specialist consumer markets like computing, or in business markets, because these groups of people usually have Internet access at work or at home. Survey tools are now available which allow computer assisted questionnaires to be carried out online and a small number of agencies are using the Internet to carry out group discussions over the web too. Many market research companies are also investing in online panels. Online interviewing can be: Inexpensive Fast Automated - in terms of data quality as well as interviewing etc Many researchers in the industry hold the view that the Internet may threaten the market research industry in the future, while others believe it will expand the market and may mean that research is undertaken more often than it would have been before. Clients are increasingly attracted to the idea of using Internet research because of its speed and cheapness. However they tend to be keen to use this medium for researching the general population - rather than just specialist groups. As Internet penetration is still only around 50%, it is not always sensible to use this medium for general population research, so careful thought needs to be given before this method is chosen over another, for surveys of that type.

There may always be a need for personal interviewing where human contact is an important element as sometimes online discussion groups are slow and not as interactive as verbal ones, where eveyone can see each other. The uses for Internet research are only just beginning to be explored! Postal The Internet may be increasingly popular, but postal surveys are still a commonly used method for all kinds of research - especially where organisations want to approach a large or geographically diverse sample in as economic a way as possible. Not everyone has Internet access and postal research, like Heineken beer, can reach people that other methods cannot reach! Self-completion questionnaires can be very useful in certain situations. They can help the researcher reach a large sample of respondents relatively cheaply, and appeal to particular groups of respondents who are used to communicating by post. However, response rates to postal questionnaires are notoriously low and the savings made in contacting people by post may be used up in the design and printing of the questionnaire itself and in providing respondents with incentives for completing and returning the questionnaire. Telephone surveys The telephone is a very useful and commonly used research method whether in consumer or business markets. In business research particularly, the telephone is being used more and more, as is the Internet. If you can offer a busy executive some incentive, like a copy of the survey results, then you will more likely get the co-operation you need. Generally telephone surveys only work as well if they are less than around 25 minutes long. After this the respondents get tired and data quality is affected. In the US though, telephone surveys are often a bit longer than in the UK or Europe. Click through to any of the topics below for more information: Telephone In the US telephone surveys have been the most popular data collection method for a long time. In the UK its popularity is increasing slowly as clients demand speedier research and as more business-to-business surveys are carried out. Telephone methods include directory-based dialling and random digit dialling. Telephone surveys have three main advantages over face-to-face data collection: They are more efficient and cost-effective because interviewers can be briefed and work from a central location instead of moving from location to location. Telephone samples can provide access to places where interviewers may not wish to venture to carry out face-to-face interviews. This could include notorious or crime-ridden areas in a city or widely-spread villages in the country. The sample is easier to track and manage because all of the interviewers are working from a central location.

However, there are disadvantages: Interviewers cannot use visual material or test products on the respondents. Respondents in telephone surveys tend to spend less time answering questions than those in face-to-face interviews. In the UK, more and more people are opting to go 'ex-directory' and refusing to take calls which they view with suspicion. The increase in direct marketing by telephone has had a severe impact on the number of people agreeing to participate in telephone interviews. CATI Computer assisted telephone interviewing (CATI) holds survey questions in a computer programme and the respondent data is entered directly into the system. CATI requires an interviewer to read out the questions and to type in the responses. CATI has made telephone research more reliable for a number of reasons. Firstly, the interviewer follows a standardised script and procedure, so this can help to reduce interviewer error. The researcher or supervisor is also helped by being able to listen in to interviews and to keep a very close track on the number of interviews which have been completed. The short lead times and fast response rates mean that surveys can take place immediately after topical events, which is important in advertising tracking and opinion polling. Directory-based dialling In directory-based dialling, the researcher bases the sample on entries in the telephone directory. For example, the researcher may choose to select every 10th entry in the directory. Because the directory lists all of the phone users in a wide geographical area, it provides access to some potential respondents who might otherwise be inaccessible to the researcher. When using telephone surveys to research respondents abroad, you will find that directories are not always available in the same way as in the UK. Also the number of home telephone lines in some countries is much lower than in the UK where we take national coverage for granted.
Random Digit Dialling (RDD) selects telephone numbers by using a computer -based random number generator. Some of the numbers generated may not exist and business and residential numbers will be mixed together. However, RDD can give the researcher access to respondents whose numbers may not be listed in the telephone directory. As a result, RDD can provide access to a wider, unbiased sample of respondents.

Random digit dialling

Data analysis SPSS This programme provides tools for producing a range of different tables and charts in one window, and the results are then processed and presented, more or less immediately, in another window. It offers a very comprehensive range of statistics. Workflow Traditionally quantitative data analysis has followed this model (Hague and Jackson):

Electronic data workflow Electronic data collection and online analysis has a workflow like this: The last stage - multivariate analysis - is sometimes, but by no means always, undertaken. It is still important for a researcher to verify their analysis, but the need for mass reporting is completely removed in many cases. Also analysing the data and reporting the results becomes more of a dialogue between the researcher and the clients, with the different stages overlapping each other.

Multivariate Multivariate data comprise observations for each of which three or more variate values are recorded. Multivariate statistical methods are those which simultaneously examine the relationships among a number of variables. Software reviews In the UK, Research Magazine publishes an annual guide to research software, which lists most of the programmes available, as well as carrying independent software reviews on a monthly basis. The Association for Survey Computing also publishes a register of software that is available from their website. Preferred methods The table shows the relative popularity of several methods of data collection. As you can see the postal questionnaire came top. Bear in mind that just because the public prefer one method of data collection to another, this will not necessarily mean that more people will respond to that method. They may say they prefer postal questionnaires because they are easy to ignore!

Sampling and interviews

Sampling plan The following steps suggest that an orderly procedure is needed to produce a sampling plan, but this is not always possible. For instance, if during your first attempt to design a sample plan you find that no sample frame exists for the product you are researching, then you might have to agree to postpone the project, so that you can carry out some exploratory research to create a suitable sample frame. The population of interest is often described using a combination of the following characteristics: Demographic - income, age, social status, occupation Geography - regional distribution Product/services use - users/non-users of product, buyers/consumers Awareness - media publics The diagram below provides examples of these characteristics in use:

There are times when definitions like this are not that easy to come up with. This tends to happen more in industrial markets, where market segmentation is very complicated compared to consumer markets. There will always be people that you do not want to include in the population of interest. For example most commercial companies, for security reasons, will not carry out research on individuals working in the marketing or advertising industry.

The first question you should ask yourself when designing a sample plan is "Does a suitable sample frame (or list) exist for the population under investigation? " Your task will be made that much easier if the answer is yes! Sample frames usually: include a complete up-to-date list of the members of a population, with no repetition contain information about each individual so the required sample can be choosen In an ideal world, you would source a list of population members, pick a representative sample and then survey each member. So much for the ideal world - in the real world you often find that the list you need does not yet exist! The electoral register and the Postcode Address File (PAF) are the most commonly used sample frames for researchers (in the UK). From these you can pick samples of the general population of domestic establishments or private individuals. Businesses interested in sampling their own customers can use their customer databases - but remember that this will not tell them about noncustomers! You will need to be creative to build up new and successful sampling frames. In practice you can overcome difficulties by taking a systematic and impartial approach, and at the same time recognising that the list will not be complete. When choosing a sampling method you have two alternatives: a probability (or random) sample, or some form of non-probability-based design. Probability samples are choosen using objective procedures - where you know, in advance, what the probability of selecting each individual from the sampling frame is. The probablity of selecting an individual must be greater than zero for this to work. Probability-based sampling will allow you to make statements about the validity and reliability of the findings in relation to the population of interest. It lets you calculate statistical measures of error or bias. The main problem with probability-based techniques is that they are difficult and complicated to carry out, time-consuming (on a large scale) and expensive. So it is not that surprising that the research industry is now using non-probability-based samples more and more. Non-probability samples are produced using subjective procedures - where the probability of selecting an individual is unknown. You will always see some degree of researcher-influence in a sample chosen like this. You cannot be sure of the actual views of the whole population of interest unless you undertake a census, and a census is not often an option in market research - though sometimes they are used in very small markets or segments. In practice you can make a prediction, based on sample data, and come up with an estimate of how likely it is that the sample result (the prediction) mirrors the actual world (population value). Three general rules apply: The larger the sample the more accurate the prediction The more similar (homogeneous) the population, the greater the likelihood that the sample will reflect the population

The more homogenous a population, the smaller the sample you need to produce accurate results Deciding on sample size is often done statistically, and this is based on calculating the standard error. The standard error is the difference between the sample average and the population average. The main issue here is to determine how many (or few) people you need for your sample to provide you with sufficiently robust results. Obviously this depends on what margin of error is acceptable - in social or government research, often large samples are needed to be as near 100% accurate as possible, but in commercial resesarch, 100% accuracy is not always demanded.

With any sample, the people using it should find it clear and unambiguous, with no opportunity for the process to include bias or interference. Interviewer bias can also be limited by using as many interviewers as is practical. The key is to use professional field forces, who understand and stick to industry guidelines. In quota sampling, interviewers are asked to fill quotas assigned to them, and so they play an even more important role in achieving the required response. An interviewer must try to stay completely impartial and avoid influencing respondents in any way. Remember that each step of your sampling plan will be influenced by your choice of data collection method - so sampling and data collection methods are unavoidably linked when undertaking any live research. Probability-based techniques Probability samples are chosen using objective procedures - where you know, in advance, what the probability of selecting each individual from the sampling frame is. The probability of selecting an individual must be greater than zero for this to work. Probability-based sampling will allow you to make statements about the validity and reliability of the findings in relation to the population of interest. It lets you calculate statistical measures of error or bias. Despite producing more robust results, probability-based techniques are more complicated to carry out as well as being more time-consuming and costly. So the choice as to whether to use this approach is often a trade-off between accuracy and cost. Simple random sampling Simple random sampling is used when every individual in a population has a known and equal probability of being chosen for the sample. So in very small populations, for example ten individuals, where a sample of two or three is required, it is possible to undertake a simple random sample fairly quickly and easily. If the population is large, you can use a random number to help build the sample. This makes sure that the laws of probability are kept to. In either case, success relies completely on a full list of your population being available.

Stratified random sampling This probability-sample method is used when the chosen sample needs to contain individuals from each of the different segments (or strata) of a population in set proportions. It can be used in two ways - either to ensure that each stratum within the sample is in the same proportion as in the population, or to balance the strata in a different way to the population. There are two types to choose from, proportionate and disproportionate. Proportionate stratified random sampling This simply involves choosing individuals from each population strata (group) in proportion to the total number of individuals within it. So... The population of interest is divided into strata by an appropriate characteristic like age, type of car owned etc. The units in one strata are all alike, and units across separate strata are different. A sample is taken from across the separate strata - a certain number from each. The samples from each strata are then treated as a mini-population and a simple random sample is used to select the individuals to be part of the study sample. The main weakness of this technique is that it only considers the size of the strata when it is used, and does not take into account any other differences. Disproportionate stratified random sampling This is the selection of individuals from each population strata (group) according to how varied the units within the strata are. Although this approach is more complicated than proportionate sampling it is well worth the effort because of improved efficiency. The main difference between proportionate and disproportionate sampling is that disproportionate sampling chooses individuals on the basis of their relative variables, rather than on the size of the population strata. An example would be where we deliberately over-sample large businesses within a sample of all businesses. We would do this because there will be more variability in the characteristics we are trying to measure amongst larger companies, rather than smaller ones. So using disporportionate sampling here will improve the accuracy of our results. Another example would be where we sample disproportionately across regions to ensure that the sample for each region is large enought for further analysis. In the UK, the East Anglia region accounts for only 3% of the total population. In a sample of 1000, there will only be 30 people from this region - not enough for subsequent analysis. Often, samples are designed to contain 100 people for each of 10 regions. This has the advantage of providing enough respondents in each region for sub-analysis. The data would then need to be weighted back to correct this imbalance.

Cluster sampling Cluster sampling is a procedure where clusters of the population are selected at random and then all or some of the individuals in the chosen cluster are studied. Within each cluster you are hoping to find a mini representation of the total population. The drawback of cluster sampling is its inefficiency. Taking a census of a few randomly selected sub-areas in no way guarantees that the clusters actually represent the larger population. Think about interviewing all the people in your street. The people you talk to there are more likely to be similar to each other, than to represent the different views of your whole neighbourhood. For example on another street, all the people living there might have said similar things to each other, but different things to those living in the first street! So unless you are careful, the cluster can be non-representative of the whole area, because of the particular cluster you actually choose. Another example might be if we wanted to survey passengers on cruise ships. It is expensive to put interviewers onto all the cruise ships for a week! So we would want to carry out as many interviews as possible, by accessing as few cruise ships as possible. So we might use cluster sampling, where we select a sample of cruise ships and then interview everyone on each of those selected ships. In this way, we make as efficient use as possible of the interviewer's week-long stay on the ship! One-stage sampling A good example of how a one-stage cluster method might work is to look at how a study of the attitudes of the pupils attending a certain school might be carried out. The different age ranges within the school are easily identified by the years in which they are placed in the system. A random selection of, say four of the years, would be made, and all the pupils within each of those four years would then be interviewed. Area sampling Area cluster sampling is where the clusters are choosen on the basis of geography and location. One-stage Think about how the national sales force of a large organisation might be studied. Each sales territory could be identified, and from those, a random selection of, for example, six would be made. All the sales reps from each of those six territories would then take part in the research. Two and multi-stage Two-stage and multi-stage sampling involves two or more stages of random selection. For example, when sampling the population of a region it is common to pick a sample of towns or districts, and then to also pick a sample of the individuals in those chosen towns. Systematic random sampling Systematic random sampling is a simple technique which can be used to sample a large population at random. You need to know the number of people in your population, and the number of people whom you want in your sample.

Begin by deciding on your sampling interval - for example, you might want to select every 10th person on your list. Choose a starting point. Beginning at the first person on your list can make your sample too predictable. However, if you take your starting point as, let's say, the sixth person on your list, you can make the sample truly random. Start at person 6. This is the first member of your sample. Then count 10 more names, to person number 16. This is the second member of your sample. Continue in this way through the list of names. This is a useful technique when you want to sample a long list, like a directory or the membership list of a professional body. It is less useful when the population list is organised by an important variable (e.g. where the members of the population are listed according to their salary).

Non-probability-based techniques It is often said that non-probability-based techniques are not as precise or accurate as probability surveys, but they can still be an extremely powerful data collection service for decision-makers. The reliability of non-probability samples cannot be measured, though some judgement can be made about how generalisable the data is. If field forces stick strictly to quota or judgement sample guidelines (see below) then this can increase objectivity and bring the sample nearer to randomness. Although this cannot be measured directly it can be investigated by the client, who is often re-assured by a rigorous fieldwork process. Judgement sampling Convenience and judgemental sampling are usually carried out when the basic purpose of the research is to find out trends in thoughts and opinions, with a relatively small sample. In judgement sampling, the researcher or some other "expert" uses their judgement in selecting the units from the population for study, based on the population's characteristics. This type of sampling technique might be the most appropriate if the population to be studied is difficult to locate or if some members are thought to be better (more knowledgeable, more willing, etc) than others to interview. This is often decided on the advice, and with the assistance, of the client. For instance, if you wanted to interview incentive travel organisers within a specific industry, to find out their needs or destination preferences, you might find that not only are there relatively few, they are also extremely busy and may well be reluctant to take time to talk to you. Relying on the judgement of some knowledgeable experts may be far more productive in identifying potential interviewees, than trying to develop a list of the population in order to randomly select a small number. Quota sampling Quota sampling involves giving the interviewer a quota to fill, rather than a list of names and addresses. This should instruct them to conduct a set number of interviews with people in various categories, for example "Find six people with the following characteristics - women aged under 35 living in Chelmsford. " The actual process of creating a sample frame (ie how you want the sample broken down - 100 of X and 250 of Y for instance) for quota sampling is relatively straightforward:

1. The population of interest is divided into segments (cells) by certain characteristics, like age, sex, level of education etc. 2. A quota of the units is then selected, to reflect the proportions found in the population. 3. Interviewers are asked to fill these quotas, assigned to each cell. The interviewer is given some freedom in selecting the sample individuals. Think about undertaking some qualitative research recruitment for a toothbrush manufacturer. You might decide to hold four group discussions with eight people each time, two in the north and two in the south, two with housewives aged 20-35 and two with housewives aged 36 plus. On the basis of these quotas the recruiter would go and look for women who fitted the criteria - it might well be in this instance that the toothbrush manufacturer also wants only people who regularly buy their product. Setting quotas that reflect the sample you want in the research is always an interesting design issue for both a researcher and a client. Quota sampling can be difficult if the research requires too many specific control characteristics. If the population to be surveyed contains 60% women and 40% men, and each interviewer needed to obtain 10 interviews, then the interviewers would each be given quotas to fill of six women and four men. Also if the age distribution of the population is 30% 15-34yrs, 40% 3554yrs and 30% 55+yrs - then the interviewers would be asked to interview three 15-34yrs, four 35-54yrs and three 55yrs+. Convenience sampling Convenience and judgmental sampling are usually carried out when the basic purpose of the research is to find out trends in thoughts and opinions, with a relatively small sample. In other words, these are appropriate for qualitative data collection. Convenience sampling is used where it is not practical to try to get a random sample. In this case, people are selected for interview as they fall to hand, rather than by rigorous design. For example, if we are trying to interview people who own kit cars (ones that they construct themselves), it may be the case that no lists exist from which we can take a sample. Also, they exist in such small numbers that it is uneconomic to screen a random sample of the population to find them. Instead we might send interviewers to shops which sell parts and accessories for such cars and ask them to interview any car owners they can find. The likelihood of the sample being an unrepresentative population of kit car owners would be quite high. So the major disadvantage is that we have no idea how representative the information collected about the sample is to the population as a whole! However the information could still provide some fairly significant insights, and be a good source of data in a situation where it would be too expensive and impractical to use proper random sampling techniques. Pseudo-probabilty based techniques Pseudo-probability sampling techniques aim to preserve some of the precision of random techniques whilst introducing the flexibility and cost-effectiveness of quota (non-random) techniques. There are two main approaches: Random walk or route sampling Here, interviewers are given:

An area definition, in terms of permitted streets or defined boundaries One or more (randomly selected) starting addresses Instructions for systematic selection of successive addresses Random routes can be very effective in urban areas, less so in rural areas. They can be supplemented by call-back procedures if non-contacts need to be minimised. It is more costly and time-consuming than a pure quota method, but is more accurate. However, random walk sampling has some drawbacks: Difficult to follow, especially in rural areas If call-backs are used, then it is not much cheaper than random sampling If call-backs are not used, it is biased like quota samples

Random location sampling Interviewers are issued with blocks of addresses, typically whole streets, within which interviews may be conducted subject to quotas like time of interview, sex and working status, but allowing freedom on others like age and social class. As with random route sampling, a minimum sampling interval between successful interviews is set to prevent tight clustering. In comparison with random route sampling, this method offers better control of sample location. The low number of quota controls, and the use of compact areas, increases the speed of the fieldwork. However, any non-effective addresses within those issued tend to cluster highly (eg shopping parades, demolitions) and therefore hit a few interviewers severely. Non-sampling error Measurement error This is the difference between the information being sought (true value) and the information obtained in the measurement process. This type of error can be caused by a poor definition of the problem during research design. Measurement instrument bias also effects this, and is caused by poorly written questionnaires, with leading questions. If you asked people how many rooms they have in their home, some will include the bathroom, the kitchen and the loo(s), and some will not. By asking "How many rooms do you have in your home, including the bathroom, kitchen and loo(s)? ", you can make the question clearer and so reduce the chance of error. Processing errors can also happen during data entry. Editing and data checks can help avoid these errors, also hole counts, which are a kind of reality check. To do this you might look at all (or a large number) of the answers for one question, "Do you own a DVD?". If you see that more people over 70 are saying they own DVDs than those under 40, it would be a good idea to have a look at the data, check that it is correct and that no error or slippage has occurred! Using your common sense is a great thing in research! These factors are influenced by the researcher. Non-response errors Non-response errors happen when not everyone in the sample actually responds to the research. Response errors, on the other hand, happen when respondents give inaccurate answers or don't know what answers to give and feel they have to make things up.

Very few studies ever achieve 100% response success rates. This causes error because those who actually take part in the study may be different in some way from those who do not take part. A point of view on the research problem may then be missed. The higher the response rate the lower the probability of non-response error effects. However response rates are not the only measure of non-response error, they cannot tell us whether the respondents are good representatives of the target sample, for example. Sometimes researchers will do several stages of research to try and reduce non-response error as much as possible, and to get in as representative and large a sample as possible. Other times they may do a parallel piece of research, to check that the original is valid. This technique is particularly used in postal research, if the response is very low. Often the research agency does a smaller piece of telephone research to check that the respondents of that work are the same sort of people, or give similar answers, to the original postal questionnaire. This factor is influenced by the respondents and the researchers. Sample design error Errors can occur in sample designs for the following reasons: Frame errors, eg as a result of using an out-of-date telephone directory for selection of the sample Population specification errors, eg when a product designed for men only (eg electric razors) is surveyed on a mixed population Selection errors, eg the list of possible respondents was sorted by postcode when it was meant to be sorted by age These factors are controlled and influenced by the researcher. Response errors People give inaccurate responses on purpose and by accident. For example, a respondent might deliberately not give their real, considered answer because they want to help or please the researcher. This happens a lot in new product tests. In another case, response error can happen because of poor memory, tiredness, poor question format or even unclear question content. It can also arise when people have little or no experience of a survey topic, for example asking a low-income respondent about their experience of luxury sports cars. Interviewers can also influence answers, record answers wrongly and even make up answers! People might also be influenced by their attitude to the organisation conducting the study, if they know who this is in advance. Lastly, most people have a need to give socially acceptable answers to sensitive or potentially embarrassing questions and this can also lead to response errors. This factor can be influenced by both the respondents and the researcher. The Census A census is a study of all the individuals within a population, while the Census is an official research activity carried out by the Government. The Census is an important event for the research industry. The Government publishes a sample of individual Census returns, and these help researchers to see behind the total data also available. They can then examine the true patterns present.

You can view both SARS (samples of anonymised records) and SAS (small area statistics). The SARS are the sample of individual returns and the SAS (or output areas) are grouped counts of small areas (usually about 150 people). So the sets of data that the Census contains go down to fairly small numbers (micro-data) and this micro-data opens up great opportunities. For example: Creating accurate sample frames to develop the appropriate proportions for precise target populations in surveys Monitoring sales performances by providing bespoke tables and statistics relevant to a company's needs Life tables for occupational sub-groups, especially useful in the pension and insurance industries Sample sizes Usually, in quantitative research, the larger the sample, the more robust and reliable the data will be. But there is a law of "diminishing returns" that means that once you reach a cut-off point of a certain size, the data reliablity no longer increases with increasing sample size. The Handbook of Market Research (ESOMAR) has grids with sample sizes and their significance that can help you. It provides a useful rule of thumb when thinking about "diminishing returns". Commonly, to reliably sample the UK population, when MORI or other opinion pollers do research they usually approach no more than 2000 people - to represent a population of over 55 million! As long as the sample correctly represents the population in terms of demographics (age, gender etc) and region (north, south etc), then sampling can provide amazingly accurate results.

Questionnaire design

Basically you need data that will help you to fulfil your research objectives, and so you must design a questionnaire that will enable the respondents to give you that data. To decide exactly what data is needed, you must understand fully the different types of data you can obtain using questionnaires. You can read about this in the tell me more question How do I use a questionnaire to meet research objectives? - in the Learning Centre. You may also need to think about the size of your sample (the number of respondents) and the way the questions are asked. Open ended questions will produce data in the form of verbatim answers, whilst closed questions will give you the kind of data you can more easily convert into statistics.

Generally data accuracy can be instantly improved by having: Clear, simple and consistent questionnaire and interviewer instructions A user-friendly layout for both interviewer and respondent A user-friendly layout for editing and coding A user-friendly layout for data entry

There are some simple things that you can do to ensure that the layout is user-friendly for everyone:

Number all questions Clearly indicate any filter questions (routing) Instructions to the interviewer should be highlighted (use a different type, or box them) In printed questionnaires: Use one side of the paper only Use good quality paper Always print more than you think you need

Coding The process of allocating codes, especially where open-ended questions require that this is done after fieldwork has finished. Filter questions A question designed to send a set of respondents straight to questions specific to them. For example: "Do you have a mortgage?" If YES go to Q4, if NO go to Q6.

Method
Questionnaires can be carried out via face-to-face or telephone interviewing or using selfcompletion forms. To find out what this involves click on the methods listed below: Face-to-face This involves interviewing people, either in the street or, for more complex projects, in people's homes. This was the traditional approach to data collection, and is still important. In-home work is particularly suitable for long interviews, or for some sensitive subjects. The rapport that can be established between an interviewer and a respondent helps to ensure that detailed and thorough information is obtained. Telephone This is a fast-growing form of data collection, it costs less per interview than face-to-face, and can provide data more quickly - in some cases, overnight. Telephone research is rarely suitable for long interviews, but it can be ideal for smaller-scale, fast turn-round projects both amongst the public and for business research. Both face-to-face and telephone research involve the most basic form of data gathering - talking to people. Self-completion This is the cheapest form of quantitative research, though it can take a relatively long time to gather data by post. This process can of course be speeded up by using e-mail and the Internet. Self-completion questionnaires can also be handed out, for example, at exhibitions, on aircraft, or in town centres, to get people's views.

Self-completion questionnaires must be kept simple and the researcher has little control over who, or how many people, return the form.

The usual order that a questionnaire follows would include an introduction, a main body and a classification section, to help to understand your sample profile. The introduction should cover everything from an explanation of the research and its credibility, to the recruitment process and any selection criteria. Each question gives a respondent a frame of reference for the next questions, so it is important to know of the general rules when ordering them: Easy to answer questions should be put at the beginning to give the respondent confidence in their ability to help you Questions likely to interest the respondent should also be at the start Questions should be asked in a logical order Filter questions should follow each other without being interrupted by other questions Use an introduction before each topic change to help the respondent make an easy jump Personal, emotional or complicated questions should be at the end to avoid people being put off answering further questions

There are five people's needs to take into account when designing a questionnaire: Client The client wants answers to their particular problem and even, on occasion, to have their worst fears shown up to be unlikely or improbable. Researcher The researcher needs to uncover information and balance the needs of three groups of people. She or he needs to ensure that the interviewer can manage the questionnaire easily, that the questions are interesting for the respondent and that the questionnaire matches the client's needs. Interviewer The interviewer wants a questionnaire which is easy to follow and which can be completed in the time specified by the researcher. Respondent Respondents generally want to enjoy the interview experience. They need to feel that the questions are phrased so that they can be answered truthfully, and so that they allow the respondent to actually say what he or she thinks. They may also want to know if they will receive anything in return for giving their opinion. Data-processor The data processor wants a questionnaire which will result in data which can be processed efficiently and with minimum error.

To write a good question you need to make sure that the respondents: Can understand the question

Are willing to answer the question Are able to answer the question You can find out how to achieve this by looking at the tell me more question How do I ask good questions? - in the Learning Centre.

Question language Make sure that you use: Simple language Keep questions as short and straightforward as possible and use one question for each point of information required. Intelligible words Use only words which the respondent knows and can understand easily. Explicit questions The aim of each question should be clear to the interviewer and the respondent. Each question should refer to one specific idea or issue only. Question type There are different types of questions that you can ask. To find out more about them click on each type below: Direct and indirect An indirect question usually disguises its true purpose, while a direct question is measuring exactly what it appears to be measuring. For example: Direct: "How do you travel to work each day?" Indirect: "Which tour operators have you booked holidays through in the past two years?" This indirect question will also give the interviewer some idea of how many holidays (if any) the respondent has taken over the last two years. Indirect questioning is usually used if it might bias a respondent's answers to reveal the true purpose of the research. Open-ended Open-ended questions let respondents present their answer in whatever way they want to. They have no pre-determined answers and the interviewer will simply record the respondent's response word for word. Open-ended questions are easy to design and they allow for full range, individual and detailed responses. This can be very useful when more qualitative information is required. Open-ended questions are often asked where there can be multiple answers or if it is difficult to guess the answer in advance. They are suitable when a subject is very wide ranging or you want to see exactly how people answer, the words they use for instance. For example "Why do you think legislation freeing up the use of cannabis might be a good thing?", "And why might it not be such a good thing?" Often probes are added to open-ended questions so that you get the maximum from each respondent. For the above example you might add, "And have you any other thoughts on this?" to encourage people to say as much as possible on the subject and encourage them to talk. However, these questions are time-consuming and expensive to both ask and process, as there is no way of controlling a response. This can make comparing different people's answers very difficult.

Closed Closed questions offer the respondent a range of predicted answers. A question can be a simple yes/no option or a multiple choice question (this type of question is often used as a filter question, for routing). The interviewer just has to indicate the chosen response which makes the whole process, from collecting to analysing data, easy, quick and cheap. Comparing individual's answers is very simple. Closed questions are harder to design than open-ended ones, and they also limit the range and detail of a response. Prompted and unprompted A prompted question is usually used to give a common framework for answer comparison. The answer options are printed on showcards, within the questionnaire or read out, and the respondent chooses one of them. An unprompted question allows the respondent to give their own answer in their own words. Prompted questions can help respondents to understand difficult subjects and make it easier for them to answer by indicating what's expected and prompting their memory. It also helps a researcher have some control over the scope of the answers. The drawback here is of course that the questions can become suggestive and leading, and they can also be complicated for the interviewers. Response formats To ask a meaningful question you first need to consider what type of data you would like to see as the answer! Responses usually come in one of three main formats: dichotomous, pre-coded or verbatim. Find out more about those by following the links below: Dichotomous This type of question produces only two possible answers, apart from "don't know" or "no preference". The interviewer simply indicates the chosen answer. Pre-coded This type of question has more than two possible answers, apart from "don't know", and at least some of the responses can be predicted by the researcher. The interviewer then records the response using the pre-codes: some kind of numbered list of the expected anwers, that includes a "don't know" and/or "another" option. Verbatim This is the type of open-ended question that is not possible to pre-code, as the answer or range of answers is unknown by the researcher. The interviewer records the response word for word, as far as is practical.

Questionnaire construction 1. Preliminary decisions 2. Question content 3.Question phrasing 4.Response format 5. Question sequence 6.Questionnaire layout 7.Pretest and revise Preliminary decisions Exactly what information is required? Exactly who are the target respondents? What methods of communication are used to reach these respondents? Question content Is this question really needed? Is this question sufficient to generate the needed information? Will the respondent answer the the question correctly? Are there any external events that might bias the response to the question? Question phrasing Do the words used have but one meaning to all the respondents? Are any of the words or phrases loaded or leading in any way? Are there any implied alternatives in the question? Are there any unstated assumptions related to the question? Will respondents approach the question from the frame of reference desired by the researcher? Response format Can this question best be asked by an open-ended, multiple choice or dichotomous question? Question sequence Are the questions organised in a logical manner that avoids introducing errors? Questionnaire layout Is the questionnaire designed in a manner to avoid confusion and minimise recording errors? Pretest and revise Has the final questionnaire been subjected to a thorough pretest, using respondents similar to those who will be included in the final survey? Market research in practice

Data collection
Qualitative data Audio Creative Holistic Paper Using computers Video

Quantitative data Electronic data workflow Software reviews

SPSS Workflow

In editing, we are largely concerned with identifying and correcting errors. Editing (just like with books) helps the finished article to be a better, more accurate product. Editors make sure silly answers or mistakes do not get through, and that everything is thoroughly checked. They are the support services - the police - the essential back up for good research! There are four main types of error. These are: No answer has been chosen, but one is required More answers have been chosen than is permitted An answer conflicts with a previous answer (eg when the respondent first says "I never buy this product" and, at a later question, says "I bought this product last week.") The wrong answer has been selected by mistake No editing technique can detect and correct all completion errors. However, there are a range of techniques which researchers can use to identify and correct as many errors as possible. Manual editing With manual editing, the researcher or an assistant will visually inspect each questionnaire to check that it has been completed properly. To help the editor, a researcher should write detailed editing instructions. These might simply be a marked up version of the questionnaire that identifies what is correct and/or what is an error, and lists the action to be taken if there is an error. For instance, a researcher might edit a questionnaire by asking for all the open-ended questions from the first 50 questionnaires to be coded up, so that they can look at the early responses. They might also ask for questionnaires to be thrown out if someone has answered a question, where a figure that should add up to a total of 100%, adds up to more than that etc. Report editing In report editing, the editor works with keyed-in data, not physical questionnaires. The data is corrected by altering it on screen, or using another programme to carry out the corrections. These editing processes are time consuming and labour intensive. This makes them expensive so most researchers only use them for key values. Automated editing In automated editing, the researcher's editing instructions are programmed into a computer and the editing is carried out by specially-designed tabulating software. In most cases, force cleaning only changes the values being used to show the results in the final tables. It does not usually change the values in the data themselves. When a questionnaire is designed, code values will have been assigned to all closed or pre-coded questions. This means that each question or part of a question must have a code associated with it so you can add up things! For example if a question has five possible answers, a researcher will want to know how many people choose each answer. Open-ended questions cannot be coded until the answers have been seen, this process is sometimes called post-coding.

A code frame is a summary of the most frequent written responses to an open-ended question - each response being given a unique code. It is then used to classify the entire range of responses ready for quantitative analysis. There are a wide variety of computer programmes that can help with data entry, and lots of specialist companies who will enter market research survey data for you. Data entry can be a major source of error and there are two common ways of dealing with that: Validation Data entry with validation makes sure that the person entering the data can only enter data that is one of the range of codes expected for the question. For example a yes/no question using codes 1 and 2 would not let anything other than 1 or 2 be entered. The operator will use a special over-ride key if there is no valid data to enter. Validated data entry can also help with filter questions and routing by automatically skipping sections that will be blank because of an earlier response. Validation removes most keystroke error (human error using keyboards!), but too much validation slows down the process considerably. Verification When data is verified it is entered twice, by two different operators. The results of each entry are then compared. If there is a difference between the two sets of data, the second operator will double check the numbers. Three-step model Exploration While you carry out data entry, editing and coding you will start to notice trends and patterns in the data. The most common tool for further exploration is the cross-tab, either working from printed reports, or using a tabulation tool. Looking at cross-tabs (sets of computer data looking at different sample breakdowns, like Total, Men, Women, 18-34, 35 plus etc) forms the basis of a lot of the checking that researchers need to do. At this stage the questions to ask are: Does the data support or disprove any hypotheses, or the basic research proposition? Are you seeing what you would expect? If not, how can the differences be explained? Do you see any differences, if you break down the answers by classification characteristics like age, sex etc? Are these differences significant? NOTE: Basically significant, in research terms, means a result which shows enough difference between figures that it is not just written down as a coincidence - so it is worth examining further. Measuring significance is important when small differences are important. For example in large social studies where small differences in opinion and/or behaviour can mean a great deal. It is very important to query information that is not conclusive or not meaningful. Researchers should look for the reasons for poor data: could it be that the data entry person made a mistake? Could it be that the question was asked in a way that was not clear, leading to some peculiar

answers? Almost always, if data looks funny or inconsistent, there is an explanation. The important thing is to find it. Data WILL be wrong sometimes and a good researcher should smell a rat and find out why! Refinement and reduction The process of keeping some findings and removing the rest, during the exploration phase, effectively takes you into the final phase of your analysis. You are trying to decide what the key findings are and what recommendations you might be making. Instead of breaking things down further and further, you might start to combine items, or leave things out so that the audience for your research sees a manageable amount of information. The most common mistake is to present people with too much unrefined information. At this point, you usually introduce any other background data that supports your conclusions, or to help explain variations and differences you have seen. Sometimes multivariate techniques (like clustering) can be used to reduce large sets of data, but they are usually only used in complex research. A day-to-day example of refinement and reduction might be reading a newspaper. There is a mass of information there and you only take in a small amount. Editors can make things easier by including clear headlines, newsflashes, pictures and graphs - making a mass of separate data more manageable and accessible. This is exactly what you need to do as a researcher; reduce huge data sets to things which are meaningful and accessible and highlight what is important and take out what is not. Confirmation The purpose of confirmation at this stage is to make sure that, before you start to draw any conclusions from the data, you are satisfied it contains no errors, or if there are errors, that you can control and limit their effect. For example, if a question has not been answered by enough respondents you might decide to remove it from the research. During the confirmation phase, these are the kinds of questions you need to answer: Am I using the correct or latest set of data? Do I have the total number of respondents I wanted? Do I have the right balance of respondents in the sample? Is there evidence that the data has been coded correctly? Is there evidence that the editing and cleaning has been done correctly? Do the answers to each question make sense? Do I need to apply weighting? And if so are the weights meaningful?

Analysis methods
Nominal data Nominal data is classified using a set of codes and is used to show the difference between categories. Market research surveys usually contain a lot of nominal data. This will include data from yes/no questions, questions with any pre-coded list, for example a list of newspapers read in the last week, single or multiple choice questions, and also post-coded questions (questions coded after the research has finished). Though nominal data is usually represented by a number, the value of that number on the questionnaire is completely irrelevant. The numbers or codes used are chosen at random. For example in the pre-coded list question mentioned above you might say that Daily Mirror=1, Daily Telegraph=2, Times=3 etc. Nominal data is normally presented in sets of summaries, these give us a total for each answer that is known as a frequency. So the pre-coded list question might have had 100 number 1 answers, 400 number 2 answers and 250 number 3 answers etc. You can use a cross-tab to break down the answers to the question against other variables, for example the age of the purchaser. This would normally be presented in a table with the papers listed down the side and the various age ranges listed along the top:

When someone talks about a Standard Break this means a breakdown of a sample by the main geo-demographic variables, which are age, social class, region, gender and income bracket. To see some examples of ways that nominal data might be looked at, follow the links below: Base and percentages

It can be difficult to get a clear picture of what is going on in a distribution by using frequencies alone. Converting the frequency to a percentage, that is, the frequency expressed as a proportion of 100, can help you interpret the data. For example, 20 people called the helpline of PC Whizz six or more times. Imagine that you were comparing PC Whizz with FastTech Computers. Asked the same question 50 people in the sample of FastTech owners said they called the FastTech helpline six times or more. Does this mean that owners of FastTech computers are more likely to call the helpline than owners of PC Whizz computers? If we convert the frequencies to percentages of the total number who answered the question, we can make a better comparison by comparing like with like. 20 out of a total of 400 PC Whizz owners called the helpline six times or more: converting this to a percentage gives us a figure of five per cent. 50 out of a total of 1,000 FastTech owners called the helpline six times or more, giving us a figure of five per cent. So the proportion of owners of each make of computer who called the helpline is the same. So at further glance FastTech owners are no more or no less likely than PC Whizz owners to have called the helpline six times or more. The total is the total number of people who answered the question, 'How many times in the first month that you owned the computer did you use the helpline?' This total is often called the 'base'. Each respondent could only give one answer to the question, this is known as a single response question. In a single response question the total or base is the sum of all the frequencies. Multiple response Single response allows for just one answer (eg Yes/No) whereas multiple response allows for a number or range of answers. Most questionnaires include both types of questions. One way of looking at multiple response data is to consider each answer as a separate value - like a mini yes/no question where you have only recorded the yes responses. (So you take all the other answers and group them together under no). Some statistical packages, like SPSS, will evaluate the data in this way. People who said they had been shopping for clothes in the last three months were asked, 'The last time you went shopping for clothes, who did you go with?' The table below shows the responses expressed as frequencies and as percentages for everyone in the sample, and for male and female respondents separately. Total Total 608 Went on my own/alone 104 17% Partner or family 441 73% Friends 252 41% Don't know/can't 7 remember 1% Total mentions 132% Men 296 76 26% 206 70% 118 40% 2 1% 136% Women 312 28 9% 235 75% 134 43% 5 2% 129%

The total mentions tell us that many respondents gave more than one answer to this question. For example, they may have gone shopping with their partner or family and friends.

Cross tabulation Setting responses out in a table like the one above is known as cross tabulation. A cross tabulation or cross tab allows you to see the responses of the total sample and the responses of whatever groups within the sample that are of relevance to the research or business problem. In the cross tab above the responses of men and women have been separated out for comparison. The percentages have been calculated among each of the different groups, the total and the men and the women. This layout plus the use of percentages are very useful tools in analysing and interpreting data. Averages There are three figures that can be described as 'the average' of a distribution: the mean, the mode and the median. The mean is found by adding together all the numbers in a group and then dividing the total by the number of numbers. The mode is the most frequent response. There may be more than one mode. If there are two modes, for example, the distribution is described as bimodal. The median is the middle value when the distribution of values is arranged in order. People who had bought a personal computer in the last six months from PC Whizz were asked how many times they had contacted the helpline for assistance in the first month of ownership: Number of contacts to helpline 0 1 2 3 4 5 6+ Total Frequency 24 62 78 80 78 58 20 400 Order of frequency 2 4 6 7 5 3 1

Mode Median

The mean can be found by dividing the total number of calls made by the number of callers. This is made difficult in this case because 20 people made 6 or more calls - so we don't know exactly how many calls were made.

Ordinal data If there is a pre-determined order to the responses, so that you can make assumptions from the position of a respondent's answer in relation to the others, this is ordinal data. Five, seven or ten-point rating scales are good examples of ordinal data. Also any numerical data coded as intervals or ranges, like age (20-29) or income (under 10,000). Ordinal data can be analysed in cross-tabs in the same way as nominal data. It is also possible to use a range of descriptive statistics, which give you measurements like means, medians, modes , standard deviations and standard errors. Interval data Attitudinal scale data can be analysed as interval data. This type of data response is usually a continuous range of numbers, for example 1-5, that not only shows order but also describes that order. For example a question offering the response options Very Good, Good, Average, Bad and Very Bad, offers an order of response and also assumes that the distance between each of the responses is equal. This data does not allow you to have an absolute reference, because people's perceptions vary and what one person thinks of as zero may not be the same as zero to someone else! A good example of this is temperature. Statistical techniques that you can use on interval data are the arithmetic mean, range, standard deviation, correlation, analysis of variance, t-tests and multivariate analysis. These techniques allow you to check out the significance of the findings. Ratio data There are lots of techniques for analysing ratio data but it is unusual for most market research surveys to contain much of that kind of data! Ratio data is different from interval data because it is based on an absolute scale with a zero point, for example length or weight. Behavioural data, from data warehouses or sales data from corporate databases can often be treated as ratio data. Again this data is analysed using complicated statistical techniques like factor analysis, regression and correlation. Data collection methods Secondary data Desk research usually involves three steps: secondary data collection, secondary data reduction and data analysis. Secondary data can cover market characteristics, historical trends, competitor analysis and customer profiles.

Collecting secondary data involves being able to successfully pinpoint any relevant documents. This can be done on the Internet, where search engines are very useful. Also knowledge that you build up over time, as you work in an area, such as knowing who to call up for further detail can be important. Reducing data involves organising material effectively, so that you can judge on similarities and essential differences between the data you have collected and the context of that data.

Qualitative data collection Group discussion Individual interview Observation

Quantitative data collection At-work surveys Electronic measurement Face-to-face surveys Mystery shopping Observation Self-completion surveys Telephone surveys

Reporting and communication

Reducing data Rounding Presenting a bunch of numbers on a page makes it very difficult to identify any trends or relationships. It is easier if you provide some basis for comparison. For example, presenting percentage figures for set time periods (days/months/years), rounded off to the nearest whole number, would immediately allow someone to spot any changes or trends over time. One of the barriers to communication is noise, and this does not always mean sound! It can be anything that gets in the way of communication, for example too many numbers. When long numbers are read aloud, it is easy for the listener to lose track. For example, when you tell someone your telephone number quickly, you usually have to repeat it at least once. The same is true with complex figures. If, during a presentation, the presenter tells you that the change has resulted in a 23.723% increase on last year's results of 19.463, you are unlikely to remember all the figures. However, if the figures had been rounded to 24 and 19.5, they would have been much easier to remember. It is also important to think about what is lost though. The effects of rounding can be significant. If you were to round up the figure 1.992 to 2, the percentage change you are imposing is 0.04%. If, however, you were to round up the figure 2.8 to 3, the percentage change you are imposing here is 7%.

For most market research purposes rounding to whole numbers or percentages (eg 5 or 15%) makes sure that the numbers are more easily recognised by people than even rounding to one decimal place (eg 5.8 or 15.6%). On the other hand often one decimal place is used for reasons of accuracy. Use your judgement and think about the abilities of the audience, whether there is a need for ultra accurate data, and the nature of what you are reporting on.

Tables There are four major aspects to think about when you draw up a table: Size How can you reduce the size to provide only the essential and important information? If a large table cannot be reduced then put it in an appendix and just highlight the important details in the text of your report. Vertical reading Most people find it easier to compare items read across a table rather than down. However they also find it easier to add or subtract things vertically rather than horizontally! You have to find a happy compromise that illustrates the main point(s) of your data best. Comparability A reader should be encouraged to explore the findings and take ownership of the data. Some ways of achieving this are: - Numbers for comparison should be near to each other - Avoid too much space and irregular spacing - Look for grouping opportunities, but keep subgroups separate - Label each table clearly Summary A table of figures is meaningless without an introduction or explanation. You want to lead the reader to find the major patterns and exceptions. Presenting the findings is not enough - you must interpret the data and provide the client with the information they need to solve their research problem. Tables can be improved by showing clearly what the totals are as against the subgroups, by grouping things together (top 20% versus the rest), by filtering (using separate tables for men aged 18-35 and men aged 35 plus), and by adding things like mean score or total answers given where appropriate. Anything you can do to collapse the data down into meaningful groups is helpful. Example table showing the results of a customer survey for some European airlines:

Graphs Graphs and charts make simple patterns clear and memorable. They help to communicate complex data by collapsing it down into bite-sized chunks and showing it more visually. You can re-order data to highlight best or worst performances, or relative importance, however graphs are usually not as good at communicating quantitative details or very complicated data. Television news reports often use charts and graphs as they have a big impact and are visually exciting - especially with the help of computer graphic packages! It is very easy to present this kind of data with just a few words and let the shape of the graph do the talking. It can be helpful though to add some explanatory text - using boxes of key messages placed on the charts, or by providing a separate page summarising the main points from the graph. If your audience does not regularly use numbers then a word summary can be a great help. There are lots of different types of charts. Bar charts show bars of different data side by side; pie charts are a round pie cut up into bits (usually percentages); line graphs show lines up and down; quadrants show data divided into four quarters; and spider charts look like spiders webs! Using these different charts can add variety and interest to your data; and using clear colours, and small amounts of data in each graph can make a difference in making it easily readable and understandable. Drawing conclusions Where to start? Come up with a method that works for you. For example, one approach is to start with the overall picture then focus in on the detail. Look first at the total column of a table, take it in and then try to decide whether there appears to be anything particularly interesting about the data. Look to see if anything is different to what you might expect. Now look at the rest of the table. Are there any major differences between subgroups? Are there similarities where you expected to see differences? What has gone into the table?

Make sure you understand the table, and take note of who or what it is based on. You might want to refer back to the survey to check the exact wording of questions. Look at whether the question allowed multiple responses. Look to see if the question was spontaneous or prompted (prompted questions usually produce much higher figures than spontaneous ones). Be wary of vague words or phrases such as "a shopper" or "a tourist" - check their definitions and make sure that the definitions you use are the ones that were used in the questionnaire. Make sure you know which direction the percentages go. Are they horizontal or vertical? Was it 40% in 1993 and 47% in 1994 or the other way round? Understand how to read a figure Again, take care over which direction the percentages go. Be aware of whether the sample has any bias, what quotas were set and whether the data was weighted. Think about whether the data is factual/behavioural or judgmental/perceptive. Many apparently factual questions have an element of judgement or guesswork involved, for example the length of time that someone says they spent shopping. Finally, look for any ambiguity in the original question wording, and be aware of the possibility of a respondent completely misunderstanding a question. Decide which differences are real If you see something odd or remarkable, check to make sure that the table has been drawn up correctly. Do the figures add up to the totals given? Did you expect there to be a difference? Do you believe that the difference you are seeing is real? Would you feel confident explaining this difference to your client? You can use statistical tests to help you decide - if a difference is not statistically significant, you should tread more carefully. For example it might be too small a number to take notice of. Always look to see whether any other data, either from the same survey or from another source, supports the differences you have found. Look for patterns Make connections between the various elements of the survey. Look to see whether attitudinal differences seem to correspond with behavioural differences. For instance, do those buying new generation mobile phones tend to be those who also like being ahead of the game with other technology? (If you found the reverse, you would wonder if there was something fishy with the data!) Try to develop stories or themes based on a number of factors or questions, and not just around one. It is much easier for people to understand data if it is put in ways that they can access - stories, themes or patterns. So look out for stories, ask yourself "What is the main message or story here?" This might be, for instance, that a product should not be launched, or that the main target group likes a product but no-one else does. At each step, try to decide if what you have found points to a particular marketing strategy or action, or positively helps you understand an issue, or just provides information that is nice to know, but not important. Norms/benchmarks In many situations, you can decide whether a figure is a good score or a bad score by looking at the norm or benchmark. For instance, imagine that a customer satisfaction survey, has an average figure for customer satisfaction of 7.5 out of 10. It would be very helpful to know, and would put this result into context, if you could say that the last time research was carried out the average

rating was only 6.6, or that usually customers surveyed for this type of market give around a 5.5 average rating. If you added this information, you would then know that 7.5 was a very good score. Without knowing the other figures, or the context, you might have thought it was low. Usually a norm or benchmark is based on experience from similar studies, or where a particular target or action standard may have been set. NB An action standard is where clients usually decide in advance where to draw the line (eg to launch a product or not, to adopt a new advertising campaign or not). Has it told you what you need to know? Always think about whether your findings and conclusions have answered the research objectives. In many situations, the research might only be able to shed a little light on an issue rather than provide a full answer. Your first set of analyses might raise new issues which need more investigation. Be pro-active in following these up - do not wait for your client to ask you for this information. You can point out why it would be useful and offer to carry out more research! Percentage difference To calculate a difference as a percentage you need to follow these steps: Assume that you have 50 brown rabbits. You would like to say what percentage that is of your original 1000 rabbit sample. Quite simply this means that you want to say what percentage 50 rabbits is, out of your total 1000 rabbits. To do this you use the following calculation: (50 rabbits/1000 rabbits) x 100 = 5.00% So 50 brown rabbits is 5% of all your rabbits. Another example where you would like to know what percentage 25p is of 6.30 (or 630p) would be calculated: (25p/630p) x 100 = 3.97% (to 2 decimal places only) Preparation pitfalls Lack of explanation Increasingly, the researcher's task is not simply to present information but to help the client interpret it. For example, a survey of shoppers in a supermarket may show that Friday evening is the most popular time for grocery shopping. The client is likely to want to know why this is the case, and how this might impact on his business. Being able to provide extra insight into this will make your research more valuable. Length = quality It is important to achieve a good balance in your final report. If the report is overlong and full of figures, clients can feel overloaded with information. On the other hand, if you produce only a short summary, they may feel that they are not getting enough information for their money.

If your report is long then provide an executive summary. You can also place numerical details in appendices, and simply summarise their main points in the main body of the report. The main thing is to ask the client how long they expect the report to be - up to 10 pages long or up to 50? This will help you to deliver what is most appropriate for them. It is good practice to include the topic guide (for qualitative research) or the questionnaire (in quantitative research). Then the reader can refer back to the exact question asked where they need to. This can be important for an accurate interpretation of the findings. Be prepared to simplify Many clients want to be sure that they fully understand how results were obtained. This means that they may ask questions about the techniques used to analyse the data. However, it is important that the researcher realises that clients may not have the background needed to fully understand technical explanations. Being able to describe your methodology simply and concisely can help the client see how thorough and useful your research is.

Faliure to answer the question You will have said time and again that you must work to fulfil the agreed research objectives. But then, it's always difficult to remember that your objective was to clean the swamp, if you're up to your neck in alligators! This is why the proposal is so important at the start. It is worth keeping the proposal near to hand and referring to it on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. Once you veer from the agreed path, you are as good as lost! Consider using the research objectives as titles or headings for chapters in your reporting. Then it will be clear whether you are answering the questions that were asked. Report writing

Objectives Giving a clear description of the reason for and the purpose of the research, and even itemising the key management decisions it was intended to help with is important. For some types of projects, like continuous studies, or for supporting reports, you might also need to describe the intended purpose of the report itself. Introduction You should describe the business or environmental/social background to the research, and perhaps explain why the research was commissioned. Research method You should describe the population of interest for the research (the universe), how and when the data was collected, the number of interviews intended and the number actually achieved, whether any data weighting was used, whether any respondent incentives were used, and the names of any organisations or individuals to whom significant parts of the project were subcontracted. For example:

This research was conducted between April 3rd and April 30th this year with 200 buyers of lubricants across the whole of the UK. Respondents were found and were interviewed face-toface using a 30 minute structured questionnaire. Interviewing was conducted by MFQQ Research Ltd on behalf of Mobiliser and an incentive of 3 was offered to each participant in the survey. This section should usually be kept short (four pages or less). Any further technical details (as required by the MRS Code of Conduct or by ESOMAR) should be placed in the appendices at the end of the report. Summary Usually the summary comes next, and this should be a brief description of the highlights from the findings, and a set of conclusions. In the conclusions the researcher should stand back from the data, re-examine the original objectives of the research, and try to advise the client on the actions that should follow on from the research. Not everyone wants you to make recommendations from the findings but the current trend seems to show that more and more clients do want researchers to come off the fence and say what they would do in their position. You should get this clear with the client and find out just how far they want you to go here, before you write your summary. Do they want you to simply stick to the findings, or do they want you to go into a bit more detail about what the implications of the research are. The summary section of the report should be written after you have had time to consider the implications of your findings. For many clients, this will be the most useful part of the report - it will give them most of the key information which they need without spending a lot of time going through the bulk of the document. Therefore, you should spend time ensuring that this section really does provide a clear summary of the key findings and recommendations. Getting two pairs of eyes to look over the summary is always good practice. It can be very helpful to make sure that the director on a project has a hand in writing or overseeing this critical section. Findings This should be a description, in words and figures, of the main results, and is often the main bulk of a typical report. The content and layout can be varied according to the researcher's, or better still, the client's tastes, or to suit the technical complexities of the project. Some of the options used are: A word description of what the numbers say, with the appropriate tables, charts or extracts in a separate section at the back (you should provide proper index references to these). A word description of the findings, with mini-tables highlighting relevant data and cross analyses. For qualitative reports, quotes can be used to illustrate a point. If this "storytelling" approach is used, it is a good idea to provide a full set of data tabulations, a full set of transcripts or a set of illustrative quotes, in a separate volume. A left-and-right format, where each left-hand page has a word description of the data, usually shown in a table, on the right-hand page. This is a neat format and it lets you use more word description than the "story-telling" approach. But be aware that it can

get untidy if the amount of text or the size of the table runs over onto a second page. Again you should put the full data tabulations in a separate volume. Do divide the findings into bite-sized chunks if you can - there is nothing more off-putting than pages and pages of information that dribbles on. Make sure you use clear headings, lots of sections, not too much information on one page, and as many pictures and illustrations as possible to keep your reader awake and on their toes! Data tabulations These are generally provided separately, especially if the data runs to more than, say, 50 pages. However you provide them though, it is important to make sure that you include a list of key definitions. For example a list of the breakdown categories, which can be very confusing in crowded tables and of course the tables should carry proper details of the bases (or sample breakdown) used. NOTE: Quantitative research reports often include tabulations. These are usually at the back in the appendix, but smaller tables or charts with key data might be used to illustrate points throughout the report. Qualitative research reports are more likely to include illustrative quotes throughout the report, or lists of useful verbatim answers in the appendix. The appendices These should contain, in accordance with the relevant code of conduct, any information not already provided in the research method section at the front of the report, or in the main body, including: Details of the survey, universe or population of interest Size and nature of the sample, both achieved and intended Any weighting methods used Response rates achieved, and a discussion of any bias possible through non-response Details of any response incentives offered Dates and geographical coverage of fieldwork and, if the client wants it, a detailed list of the sampling points used, and the times of day and/or days of the week when the fieldwork took place Field-force(s) involved at any stage Sub-contractors used for major parts of the research Recruitment methods for qualitative research Sources of any secondary or desk research Any technical appendices (explaining techniques used) The topic guide or questionnaire used in the research Any other background material or references that are too large to go in the body of the report, but which might be useful additional reading for any detail addict! Oral presentation Them - the audience In order to present effectively, you need to know who you are presenting to. Use your research skills on the audience. Do a bit of research in advance: Who are they? What do they want to know? What do they have to do as a result of the presentation? What are the politics of the situation? Is there a "hidden agenda"? Examine the audience carefully:

How big is it? How much time have they given you? Are the members all similar? How much do they know about the research issue? How familiar are they with research? What do you want them to remember from the presentation? You should also take a look at where you will present: Physical conditions Size and shape of the room Lighting Layout Visual aids Equipment available Where the electric sockets are Is IT help is available if it is needed? If you've mastered PowerPoint and you are going to present the findings directly from your laptop, always take a spare disc and a hard copy of the presentation - Murphy's Law always strikes when you least expect it! If you are presenting using an overhead projector (less usual now but sometimes necessary), take acetates with you and again, hard copy as a back-up. It is amazing how often technology lets you down!

You - the presenter Anyone can be a good presenter - good presenters are not born. You know the subject matter best and everyone in the audience has come to hear what you are going to tell them about your research. Everything is in your favour. Recognise your personal style and know what you are best at. Be aware of your limitations. Your voice is a very flexible instrument, you can use it to stress interesting points. Remember that you will communicate non-verbally too, so be aware of what your body language is saying. For example, do not cross your arms as soon as you are asked a question as this makes you appear defensive and disinterested. Many research companies give training on presentation skills - these courses can be really useful in giving you confidence. Preparation, authority, confidence, clarity and passion are all attributes that help to build compelling presentations. Look out for role models (speakers who have impressed you) and see if you can pick up some of their tips. The message - the content Presentations should be informative, but that does not mean that they cannot also be entertaining! Sometimes they need to be persuasive, but the most important thing they should be is useable. Keep your presentations: Clear Concise Well-structured Interesting Usable

Being well-structured means telling a clear story - not necessarily in the same order as the brief. Simple things like summaries and layout can make findings a lot clearer. If you have collected an enormous amount of data remember that you do not have to show it all! If it does not help you make a point or reach a conclusion, leave it out. Many people store and file things in their brain as pictures, so you should try to communicate in as visual a way as possible. Graphs, charts and pictures should be used wherever appropriate. Modern day software and computers are extremely useful in adding extra interest to presentations - movement and sound etc. Make sure though that you do not let the tail wag the dog - if the audience leaves saying "Great presentation. What was it on? " then you have wasted your time!

Checklist The following items should be included in any research report (or oral presentation), though not necessarily in this order: 1. Report objectives 2. Background to the research 3. Methodology employed 4. Results - usually in the format of tables 5. Summary of the results 6. Conclusions 7. Recommendations The first three items should not take up too much time/space. The critical thing in any reporting is to concentrate on what you have learnt from the research and so this is where the emphasis should be. Results not process! Results, in the format of tables and summaries, are normally included within the section that they refer to. So you usually take each section and integrate the relevant tables, charts and findings as you cover each subject. Communication skills The ability to see the wood for the trees is always very useful in getting the key messages across. You need to highlight the general points that you can identify from the research findings rather than stressing each individual point. The ability to write clearly, using signposting, helps to highlight your key messages. Signposting involves telling people what you are about to say, then flagging up how far you have got every so often, and telling them what is coming next! The ability to relate to people helps you to understand how to communicate best with them. The best communication uses the ability to write simply but colourfully, using quotes, anecdotes or stories, and anything else that might liven up the information. Short sentences and bullet points covering the key messages also help.

Essay writing Good essay writing needs: Good preparation of data and pulling together of resources Clear signposting at the beginning, middle and end An understanding of who your reader is Good analysis of the data and a clear statement of conclusions A separation of what is research fact (the findings) and what are writer's hypotheses or ideas Good editing (no typos, no sloppy grammar) A glossary of terms, or clear definitions, if abbreviations or jargon are used

Market research roles

Research roles Research Executive Junior Research Executive Research executives are the people involved of the design of research projects to meet the clients research needs. In smaller organisations, research executives may be responsible for all aspects of a research project. In larger organisations, executives may have the opportunity to specialise in one type of research. At junior level, research executives will share responsibility for a limited number of tasks within the design and development process. Who becomes a (junior) research executive? Research executives are generally graduates drawn from a wide range of disciplines. Most research agencies will provide their own training programmes for new executives. However, they will be looking for people with excellent communication skills (both written and oral) and good organisational skills. Depending on the type of research which the employer undertakes, research executives may need to demonstrate excellent interpersonal skills (eg for qualitative research) or analytical skills (eg for quantitative work). Senior Research Executive With 1 to 3 years' experience in a research role, executives may be able to take on a senior role. Senior research executives generally take a greater role in the design of research projects and may be responsible for managing some or all of the research project. Data Analyst The role of the data analyst is to use a range of tools and techniques to analyse and interpret the data produced by quantitative research in order to provide accurate and reliable information for the client. Who becomes a data analyst?

Data analysis requires good numeracy skills and an understanding of statistical processes. As much of the analysis of data is done using specialised software packages, data analysts also need to be effective users of IT. The majority of data analysts are graduates with a background in science, maths or IT. Research Director The role of the Director or Associate Director is to liaise directly with the client, to find out their needs and to discuss and plan how the research agency can help meet those needs. The Director or Associate Director will also brief the team responsible for devising and carrying out the research. Who becomes a Research Director? People taking up Director or Associate Director roles normally have substantial experience as research executives. Having a wide range of experience across the range of the research process helps them to understand exactly how clients needs can be addressed. Client-Side Researcher Researchers may work for research agencies or they may work for the clients who commission research. Client-side researchers work in companies or organisations which commission research or which use the results of research to support their business decisions. The role of the client-side researcher is to provide research support inside the company or organisation. They may devise and carry out programmes of research (often secondary research) as well as preparing research briefs and advising on the strengths of proposals submitted by research agencies in response to the research brief. Who becomes a client-side researcher? Client-side researchers often begin as research executives in research agencies then move to the client side once they have gained sufficient experience. Alternatively, the research role in a client company or organisation may develop within the marketing department, and a member of the marketing team may train in research skills. Operations roles Market Research Interviewer (Field Interviewer) Interviewers play a vital role in collecting and recording data for research surveys. This data collection can be done face-to-face, in street, home or hall interviews. It can also be done via the telephone, with interviewers using CAPI equipment to record the information. Who becomes an interviewer? Most face-to-face interviewers work part-time or occasionally, depending on the range of projects available in their area. As this work involves approaching the public to ask if they will participate in the research project, face-to-face interviewers tend to be confident and outgoing. Much of their work may also involve travel within their region. Telephone interviewers tend to work from a central location and are more likely to be employed on a full-time or shift basis. An engaging, professional telephone manner and excellent organisational skills are pre-requisites for this type of field work. What training is available?

Research agencies are responsible for training their own field force, or groups of interviewers. Many agencies now participate in the MRSs Accredited Interviewer Training Scheme, which enables interviewers to achieved MRS-accredited status. Field Manager The Field Manager is responsible for the support of new recruits to interviewing. They also act as an intermediary between the researchers who have designed the questionnaire and the interviewers who have to use it. Field supervisors are generally responsible for briefing interviewers before they begin work on a project to ensure that they are aware of any requirements which the researcher may have. Who becomes a Field Manager? The majority of Field Managers started working in market research as interviewers. The role of Field Manager allows the individual to develop new skills, including management and training skills. Data Processor Effective market research depends on accurate data. The data processor is responsible for coding and entering data into the project or agency data base to allow it to be analysed appropriately. Who becomes a data processor? Data processors require effective and accurate IT skills and an eye for detail. Operations Manager The Operations Manager is responsible for the management of all aspects of data handling and for ensuring that these aspects of the project are run on time and to budget. The role of the operations manager is vital in ensuring that the design of the data collection and processing within the project is both appropriate and achievable. By providing feedback on the design of questionnaires and other data collection tools, the operations manager can ensure that researchers are aware of ways to make questionnaires manageable and useful. Who becomes an operations manager? Operations managers need to have substantial experience of working in an operations role, and need a good overall understanding of research processes. Excellent communication skills are needed as the operations manager must liaise with all groups involved in the research project, from field interviewers to clients.

Mock exam Section C data This is the data table needed to complete section C of the mock exam.

Weblinks
Market research bodies The Market Research Society (MRS) With over 8,000 members in more than 50 countries, The Market Research Society is the world's largest international membership organisation for professional researchers and others engaged or interested in market, social and opinion research. The site offers introductory information on market research, guidelines for specific areas based on the MRS Code of Conduct and covers other useful issues such as events, training and publications. You will also find links to a very helpful online directory of market research companies. ESOMAR ESOMAR (European Society of Opinion and Market Research) is now known as the World Association of Opinion and Marketing Research Professionals. They offer members seminars and conferences, professional publications on aspects of opinion and marketing research, and training and education via workshops and distance learning. The site also has details of their codes of professional and ethical conduct and guidelines of best practice. The Association Of European Market Research Institutes (AEMRI)

The professional interests of individual researchers have been served by national and international research societies for many years. There has been a distinct absence of an association which would represent the corporate and business interests of European market research agencies - one whose main aim is to help you win more business. To fill this gap, 32 independent research agencies founded the Association of European Market Research Institutes (AEMRI) at a meeting in Bruges in early 1991. By 2002 the Association had grown to over 94 members in 36 countries. AQR Founded in the early 1980s, AQR is a recognised and respected organisation in the marketing services arena. Its remit has also grown over the years. First and foremost, it represents the interests of its members, currently some 1,150 individuals, who are directly involved in qualitative research: not just researchers, recruiters and field managers but also clients, academics, ad agency planners, etc. Market research companies These are the leading market research companies in the UK, by turnover for 2000, according to the BMRA: Taylor Nelson Sofres Taylor Nelson Sofres is one of the world's leading market information groups providing continuous and custom research and market analysis in over 80 countries.

Kantar Group Quote from their website: Kantar Group is the information and consultancy division of WPP Group plc, one of the world's leading communication services companies. Collectively they are the world's largest survey research company providing both syndicated and custom research. In addition, we invest in and own related information and consultancy based businesses that help our clients better understand and deliver value to their customers, clients and shareholders. Aegis Group Quote from their website: Aegis Research provides clients with cohesive global support and a comprehensive suite of leading market research products. Aegis research is present in 43 countries across the world. NOP Research Group Quote from their website: NOP Research Group is part of NOP World, one of the worlds largest market research and business information companies, offering both custom and syndicated research, as well as research-based consulting, and analytic CRM services around the world.

Research Buyer's Guide The Research Buyer's Guide (published by MRS) is a directory of over 750 market research organisations throughout the UK and Ireland. It includes details of research markets, services, locations, senior contacts and an overview of each organisation's activities. You can use a free online version of the website. Find it by clicking on the logo link below:

Useful market research sites MrWeb - MrWeb aims to be the online home of the market research industry. Their website includes information and advice on research suppliers and desk research sources, up-to-date listings of vacancies and careers in the industry, and daily research news. FT.com - In market research it pays to be as up-to-date as possible on what is going on elsewhere - good current affairs knowledge, both business and political, will help put any research into perspective. Desk research sources - This document is extracted from indie, the newsletter of the Independent Consultants Group. It is a list of useful websites, as suggested by their readers. National statistics - This is the official UK statistics site. You can view and download a wealth of economic and social data free from here. MRS Code of Conduct (revised July 1999) The MRS Code of Conduct is designed to help everyone carrying out market or social research to maintain professional standards. It applies to all MRS members who carry out consumer, business to business, social opinion or any other type of confidential survey research. The Code is supported by a number of guideline documents that help with the practical application of the Code. The Code and guidelines are backed up by the MRS disciplinary procedure. These mechanisms make sure that respondents and clients are protected from unethical research and they are the recognised basis for self-regulation in market research.

References and further reading

This is an alphabetical list of all the books and authors referred to in the content of this course if you have followed a link from a page to find out more about a source, just scroll down to that author to read further details. Bartram, "Presentation and Report Writing" in Birn, Hauge & Vangelder, A Handbook of Marketing Techniques, (Kogan Page, 1990)

Cooper & Braithwaite, "Qualitative Technology, New Perspectives on Measurement and Meaning through Qualitative Research" (Proceedings of the Market Research Society Conference, 1977) Goodyear, "Qualitative Research" in Birn, Hague Vangelder, A Handbook of Market Research Techniques (Kogan Page, 1990) Gordon & Langmaid, Qualitative Market Research: A Practitioner's and Buyer's Guide (Gower, 1988) Hague & Jackson, Market Research: A Guide to Planning Methodology and Evaluation (Kogan Page, 1996) Jaeger, Sampling in Education and the Social Sciences (Longman, 1984) Kirk & Miller, Reliability and Validity in Qualitative Research (Sage, 1986) Lazer, "Market Research: Past Accomplishments and Potential Future Developments" Journal of Marketing Research Society (Vol 16, No 3, 1974) McGiven, The Practice of Market & Social Research: An Introduction (FT/Prentice Hall; p.34 2002) Miles & Huberman, An Expanded Sourcebook: Qualitative Data Analysis (Sage, 2nd edition, 1994) Mouncey, "Postal Research", Birn, The Handbook of International Market Research Techniques (Kogan-Page, 2nd edition, 2000) Proctor, Essentials of Marketing Research (Prentice Hall, 2nd edition, 2000) Robertson & Conway, "Face-to-face interviewing" in Birn, The Handbook of International Market Research Techniques (Kogan-Page, 2nd edition, 2000) Strong, The Psychology of Selling (McGraw Hill, 1925) Tull & Hawkins, Marketing Research (Macmillan, 4th edition, 1987)

Useful websites Tina Berrys article in the June Indie on Browsing for Marketing Wisdom has triggered a flurry of suggestions of useful websites. Many thanks to all those who contributed. And here is a list of websites for starters.

But we need more to make this a regular feature so please join in and add your suggestions. Lets keep them coming please! Search engines

www.google.co.uk OK so everyone knows Google by now, but just in case this is the best search engine on the web (Roy Graham) www.kartoo.com Meta search engine (Philippe Rut-tens) Information sources www.statistics.gov.uk Government statistics site (Roy Graham & Janet Lang) http://news.bbc.co.uk/ Searchable news site, locate articles over the past few months easily - I have this as my home page (Roy Graham) www.freepint.com/ Free Pint is an email newsletter, packed with tips on using the Internet for serious research, twice a month. This worldwide community of information re-searchers has grown to 50836 since its first edition in 1997. (Janet Lang) www.browneyedsheep.com is a commercial web site that seeks to make information on well known companies that are active in Britain available to people both in Britain and abroad. Currently, no charge is made for viewing, but is an amalgamation of information from various sources. (Janet Lang) www.rocketnews.com Market and competitive intelligence search engine (Philippe Ruttens) Travel www.streetmap.co.uk Type in a postcode, and it will

produce a map showing the exact location street by street, totally useful (Roy Graham & Julia Gartside-Spink) www.multimap.com Need to find out where the client or venue is? Just type in the post code, or town name and this site returns a map and can give directions. (Mike Parslow) www.viamichelin.com Michelin website which gives you driving directions, maps, hotels, restaurants, weather, tourist attractions, etc for UK and main European countries (Tim Williams) www.hotelbook.com www.hotelworld.com For international travelling, two websites to find hotels (Julia Gartside-Spink) www.hardens.com Restaurant directory - the entries come from folk like us who send in reports on places they have found while travelling. You can add your views to and get onto the mailing list (Mike Parslow) www.easyjet.com www.go-fly.com www.flybmi.com For budget airlines, worth checking out for European flights (Julia Gartside-Spink) www.1click4flights.com Cheap flights can give you lower prices on scheduled flights which can be cheaper than budget airlines (Tim Williams) Money http://fxtop.com/en A fast and practical money converter

that covers Euro and all European currency. Translates instantly in ALL currencies in one click... (Yves Marbeau) www.xe.net For currency conversions (Julia Gartside-Spink) Images www.webshots.com The best source of pictures I know and also an engine to continuously maintain rotating wallpapers and screensavers ! (Yves Marbeau) Marketing www.cyberatlas.com and www.emarketer.com

Marketing tips, statistics and links (Philippe Ruttens) www.marketingsherpa.com Marketing case studies and tips (Philippe Ruttens) www.warc.com WARC: World Advertising Research Centre. It contains a large range of advertising, media and marketing information. The main services are subscriber-only (expensive for an indie at 995 but maybe one of your clients subscribes) but there is also some useful free information, including 15,000 abstracts of articles, case studies and conference papers. (Guy Consterdine)