Appendices There are two appendices to this document.

The first is an example drawn from the market research discipline to show the processes of research. The second contains some important explanations of the differences between quantitative and qualitative research. Both appendices are intended as supporting information to help you in your thinking when you write your research proposal.

APPENDIX 1
Stages in the Marketing Research Process Define the Problem - from a marketing audit assessment - from a review of whether initial marketing objectives were met - from exploratory research to clarify problem areas or as a precursor to a full-scale survey Problem Solving & Cost Benefits to the Client Evaluation

Specify Research Process Formulate the research objectives or hypotheses

Problem Solving Will the research outcomes help to solve the problem?

Formulate the Research Proposal - devise the research plan - estimate time and costs

Data Search Specify information requirements. Explore available resources from individuals & organisations. Search for information from secondary sources (published & on-line) and primary sources.

Cost/benefit analysis Justify costs of the research undertaking & establish the benefits to the client.

The Research Design Create a research design: descriptive, diagnostic, predictive. Choose an appropriate data collection method survey, observation, experimentation. Sampling: decide on sampling technique - probability or non-probability. Data collection & processing Data analysis interpretation of findings Research conclusion: evaluating & presenting results.

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Define the Problem A typical starting point for the research process is the problem definition stage which sets out what choices an organisation is face with in its marketing activities in a particular situation and what it wants to achieve or to solve. - Companies, which have periodic and systematic formal marketing audits, will have updated qualitative and quantitative assessments of their internal organisational and external business environments (For descriptions of marketing audits see McDonald5). A S.W.O.T. (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) analysis can supplement the audit to determine the organisational strengths and weaknesses of the organisation commissioning the research and to identify opportunities and threats to its business from external environmental forces (e.g. political, economic and social forces). - A review of whether past marketing objectives have been met can be determined from an assessment of organisational activities which will assist companies in setting out their new agendas for research, such as the commissioning of market surveys and to set out new research objectives. - Exploratory research can be used to clarify the problem areas for research. As an example, initial qualitative research as a pre-cursor to an expensive full-scale quantitative survey can be undertaken if a company wants to undertake a risk assessment about whether resources for the survey should be spent and whether the original marketing objectives need modifying. Specify The Research Process Problem definition does not necessarily have to be about identifying threats to a company's business and how to resolve them. A company can be faced with how to plan its growth because of the desire to diversify into new products or new markets or to acquire new brands and new distribution outlets by merging with or acquiring other companies. Such changes to a company's marketing efforts or operational status will require new studies of its market to be carried out since previous information may become inadequate or inappropriate in the changed circumstances. In this context, new research objectives will have to be set. These should be clear, measurable and achievable. An example of a research objective can be to establish whether there is an opportunity for a new brand in a particular product field. Research investigations can then be carried out on a brand name for a product and the associations which potential customers can make towards the brand image. The brand image can then be developed in advertisements and in all the other communications associated with the product, including its packaging for the market. Hypothesis testing starts with a hypothesis in a null form, which means formulating a statement that a population parameter has a particular value or set of values. If for example, the managers of a cinema pondered on the problem of attracting larger audiences to its film shows and wanted to start with an investigation of its target market, they would need to know what the mean age of its cinema goers was. If the managers thought that the mean age of its cinema goers was 23 years old, the null hypothesis (H0) would be: H0: = 23 The managers would then set out to test whether this hypothesis can be accepted or if rejected, what alternative hypothesis can be accepted. As another example, one can hypothesise that the level of sales in a number of retail outlets within a given geographical region will rise by a stated amount in proportion to a commensurate amount of discount or incentive schemes.

In simple terms, the major purposes of marketing research are to find the information for marketing decisions and the solutions to marketing problems. So the necessary questions at the outset are: Do we need this piece of research? Will the value of the research more than pay for itself? What is the type of research to be carried out? When should this piece of research be done and concluded? Who are the people who will carry it out? What additional resources are required to carry out the research?

The Research Proposal If the answers are yes to the first two questions, then the Research Proposal should have some answers to the last four questions. The research proposal will contain an outline of the research requirements. It contains the blueprint for the proposed creation of a systematic and logical research activity, which will include time and cost inputs, the equipment and computing software when required. The Research Proposal is more like a guide so that both parties, the research agency and the client know where they stand and what they have in principle agreed to. In the course of conducting research it could transpire that more resources are needed at different stages. In general, researchers should aim to keep the costs of research within the budgeted constraints, though in practice this might not always be the case. The people responsible for bidding for the work from the client need to take account of client personalities and objectives in presenting their proposals, both to convince the client and to win the contract for the research proposal to be put into practice. Careful planning in the initial stages of the research process will be of benefit in guiding decision-makers in problem solving. This will reduce the difficulties between the research agency and the client, and the risks involved if business decisions do not work out as planned. Data Search Having made the decisions about why the information is sought for in the first place, the data search stage is important to determine what information critical to the problem at hand may exist within the organisation and outside of it. Secondary and primary sources of information are investigated. These are explained in Chapter 3. The Research Design The research design consists of choosing the survey method to be adopted, sampling technique, data collection, data analysis, interpretation and evaluation of findings and the presentation of research work to a client organisation. The research design stages constitute a big part of the research activity. The research design stages are set out at the beginning of Chapter 4 and explained there. This chapter also contains the discussion of the data collection methods.

The process of Sampling and its techniques are explained in Chapter 5. Having decided on the sample researchers need to approach the sample populations. The different techniques in asking questions are presented in the chapter on Questionnaire Design, see Chapter 6. The analysis of the data, using spreadsheets nowadays, is becoming more commonplace. Chapter 7 on the Use of spreadsheets in marketing research explains the different types of spreadsheets and their applications, which aid the analysis, and presentations of results. Cost/Benefit Analysis Did the outcomes justify the expenditures and time involved of both parties, the client and the research supplier? The costs and benefits of the research to the client company can be determined to see whether the research outcomes have significantly aided the client company or organisation in its problem solving. It is important to provide constructive feedback to the client. If the client organisation is kept aware of research developments periodically and the research is carried out according to client expectations, as agreed in the research brief with the research supplier, then the supplier will have an easier task of convincing the client of the merits of the research and of accepting the research recommendations. Problem Solving Was the client satisfied with the outcomes? In other words, did the outcomes aid in problem solving or solve the problem? Evaluation of the research outcomes is an important part to help in assessing whether the financial and human resources used have met the expectations of the decision-makers from the client organisation. If the research activities have been useful in helping them in various ways e.g. meeting the objectives for problemsolving, re-formulation of marketing plans and strategies; adaptation of their marketing campaigns for segmentation, product differentiation and positioning purposes in the effective application of the elements in their marketing mixes then the whole research process would have been invaluable. There are different time factors involved in evaluating such work as the outcomes expected (through systematic research work) and unexpected, (such as greater competitive activity or changing customer demand) may not be immediate. For example, sales promotions are easier to measure than mass advertising because customer returns of money-off coupons from labels and customer enquiries can be attributed to particular types of promotions. However, the effectiveness of advertising can be notoriously difficult to measure and its effects may be more long lasting or shorter than predicted. People advertise because increased advertising should normally have an effect of raising sales, but the outcomes may not be as hoped for. The monitoring function is also important because it is aimed at reducing uncertainty when plans are being made (whether these relate to the marketing operation as a whole or to individual components, as in advertising) and keeping an account of performance after the plans have been implemented. (Source: The Marketing Research Process by L.T. Wright and M. Crimp., (2000), FT Prentice Hall, 5th edition, p4-8).

APPENDIX 2 1.7 Divisions of research: Qualitative and Quantitative

There are, generally speaking, two main groups of market researchers, those who use the methods of quantitative research and those who conduct qualitative research. There are others who use both types of research so the distinctions between the two groups can be blurred, and rightly so. There are merits in both approaches and they should be seen to be mutually supportive rather than to exist as the exclusive domain for the adherents of each type of research. Since quantitative research has the advantage of reliability in numbers, that is aiming to produce the statistical evidence for a study, qualitative research can sometimes have a bad press because of its informality and exploratory nature. However, there is a richness in qualitative studies in throwing much light on the way respondents think, feel and behave, rather than the quantitative analysis of people as reliable estimates subjected to being measured in terms of statistical calculations. 1.7.2 What is Quantitative Research?

Quantitative research is carried out to investigate how many people have similar characteristics and views. When there are large numbers of people to be studied, it is more cost effective to carry out a quantitative survey to collect the data, often by questionnaires, which could be posted, faxed or put out to respondents on the computer. The broadest example of the collection of data is the tradition of having full scale census surveys which are quantifiable, to collect information for governments all over the world, particularly within the developed economies, to aid their planning and forecasting. A census provides reliable statistical information about population characteristics and householders for all parts of a country. The United States census is akin to a huge motherload of data. Not all countries have censuses because of the problems associated with civil strife, high levels of poverty and illiteracy, and spread of populations across difficult to access terrain, for example, mountainous regions and large numbers of islands. For example, there are reputed to be over seven hundred islands in the Philippines. The census in the UK is carried out every ten years, since 1801, apart from 1941, and the next one would be in 2001. It is impossible for many organisations to draw data from every member of the population in the way a census does. This is because respondents can refuse to participate and there would be huge costs involved. A sample survey would draw data on a portion of the population though we could obviously lose something when we sample because of uncertainties in the data. For explanations of how to conduct sampling, see Chapter 5. A truly representative sample should have the same distribution of relevant characteristics as a census. Quantitative research is appropriate for the examination of specific data from large numbers, for testing hypotheses, leading to statistically rigorous analysis, which nowadays have been helped by the development of computer aided simulations and database applications for marketing.

So quantitative research by taking in large samples of the target population answering very structured questions so that the findings can be statistically analyse with precise estimations, has the result of being considered valid and reliable. Since it deals with hard data, as contrasted to soft data for qualitative research, reponses to questions are processed to create proportions of people in different categories based on the sample drawn. For example, in geodemographic profiling where profiles of target customers are created by matching household locations and size with peoples lifestyles and habits so that marketers can direct their efforts at attracting such groups. The degree of statistical significance is normally attributed within a known margin of error. Quantitative research tends to focus on what is now, that is what respondents intuitively know and have the facts of, including what respondents have done. So it can be akin to a snapshot. Its strength lies in the way the science of mathematical analysis and modelling can be used to explain marketing phenomena by showing the key constructs, their inter-relationships and their relative strengths within these inter-relationships. Marketers can base their decisions on statistically proven facts with known margins of error. Quantitative data can be easier and cheaper to collect by post, telephone or computer aided interviewing systems than qualitative data which would be costly for the same number of people. However, quantitative research has been criticised for scraping the surface of peoples attitudes and feelings. The complexity of the human soul is lost through the counting of numbers. The advantage of qualitative research over that of quantitative work is that it guards against the sin of omission, that is, the failure to research a topic in greater detail through probing and understanding of respondents attitudes, motivations and behaviour. Qualitative research attempts to go deeper, beyond historical facts and surface comments in a snapshot approach, in order to get to the real underlying causes of behaviour. Many factors and influences affect people in their everyday lives so that qualitative research to seek out and to understand the complexities surrounding the underlying causes of behaviour is in such cases, more appropriate than quantitative research methods. For example, while quantitative data can be gathered about how much is bought, when and where? qualitative research seeks to discover how people intend to purchase and what factors would change their attitudes. The research should try to find out how their behaviour has been modified by personal and social experiences or by adopting/not adopting the values of their peer and reference groups. The validity of research methods in both the quantitative and qualitative approaches is ultimately down to the integrity of the researchers concerned. The issues of validity and reliability are of fundamental importance. By entrusting the researchers with their projects and their money, client organisations need to know that they can rely on the researchers findings and that the results are valid for making crucial managerial decisions about their marketing strategies and their markets. Qualitative market research methods using in-depth one-to-one interviewing and focus groups are popular. Other examples of qualitative methods are consumer panels, personal observations, microcameras, mystery shoppers and tape recordings. The problem for qualitative researchers is that the validity of their findings can be called into question by a variety of experts taking different stances or who approach the problem of research from different perspectives or disciplines. Psychologists, sociologists, behaviourists, marketers, economists and statisticians, for example, will use different ways of measuring attitudes and opinions. Validity is proven where the concept or characteristic has been capable of being measured by the method used in a

systematic way. Since it is dependent upon the skills of the interviewer or the moderator in the charge of a focus group, qualitative research can be call into question if bias, misuse of stimuli and mistakes of interpretation are present. For example, if focus group members are not able to formulate their own thoughts and articulate their motivations the hope of achieving an objective viewpoint is lost. The problem for qualitative market researchers is that whilst there is much good work, as exhibited by the growth of the market research industry as a whole, any adult can set up as a qualitative researcher and a bad press about rogue qualitative researchers can tar the good name of the industry. In the final analysis interpretation relies on the judgement and integrity of the qualitative researcher. The quantitative researcher is fortunate in being able to count on the safety of numbers. The two approaches, quantitative and qualitative should be seen as mutually supportive, since there are core strengths in both approaches in benefiting the problem-solving and decision-making processes for clients. (Source: Extract taken from The Marketing Research Process by L.T. Wright and M. Crimp., (2000), FT Prentice Hall, 5th edition, p18-19).

2.2

Differentiation of Qualitative Research from Quantitative Research

Despite this diversity, however, there are distinctive features about qualitative research in general, which clearly differentiates it from the other survey discipline, quantitative research. Both seek to understand and explain what is happening in the market place, but whereas quantitative research uses measurement and number, qualitative research uses description by words and pictures. Quantitative research is a science, with clearly defined parameters of what is good and what is unacceptable practice. Qualitative research tends to be more of a craft, where the quality of the findings is largely dependent on the skills of the individual researcher, and is often judged in terms of its utility for the client. The difference between the two is most immediately seen in the difference between the type of reports that each produces. A typical quantitative report consists of numerical data and analysis and a brief commentary, whereas a qualitative report usually consists of a descriptively written report, often with consumer verbatim, and illustrations. Underlying each is a different conceptual framework. Quantitative research is carried out within the framework of a scientific method, an approach that uses objectively agreed criteria and procedures to achieve results that have statistical reliability. It achieves this reliability through the use of large sample sizes, large enough to represent certain sectors of the population and usually involving hundreds or thousands of respondents. Standardised questionnaires are used to collect the data, which are then formally analysed and presented in a numerical format. Qualitative research is focused on trying to represent the consumer and their world as accurately as possible, and in such a way that helps decision-makers in marketing or social policy. The qualitative researcher acts as an interpreter between the consumer and the client.

What this means in practice is that the qualitative researcher finds out about the consumer and the market place through some form of contact and then represents the consumer back in the clients world: in the advertising world its known as bringing the consumer into the agency. There are various different ways of making that contact. Most of todays qualitative research involves face-to-face interviewing, either with individuals or groups of respondents. But the types of questions asked and the tasks employed (such as product sorting, collage building, role-playing, etc.) during those interviews vary from job to job, and can produce very different sorts of information. Observational techniques are also gaining in popularity, particularly participant observation, which allows the researcher to experience the consumers world and, thereby, be able to represent it in a more empathetic and accurate way to the client. Data collection can also take place by the telephone (sometimes augmented by the fax for showing new materials) and, increasingly, by interviews and discussions on the Internet. The underlying discipline is not a statistical method, but problem-solving through the use of a wide number of data-collection methods and the application of diverse conceptual frameworks. Moreover, in qualitative research the attitudinal stance is as important as the intellectual approach used. Quantitative research is constrained by the explicit discipline of statistics; qualitative research has to be more self-regulatory. Honesty and objectivity, at whatever cost, should guide the qualitative endeavour. The primary goal of the qualitative researcher is to be honest in adhering to the formal contract set up between him or herself and the client, and the informal contract between researcher and respondent. (The Market Research Society of Great Britain in their publications Qualitative Research Guidelines and their more general Code of Conduct are converting this informality into a more explicit code). The objectivity of the qualitative researcher is more difficult to achieve, many would say impossible; any qualitative study must be subjective, because the data collection and the analysis is determined by the researchers themselves, not by any explicit discipline. It is, after all, often described as a people business. In theory, the researcher cannot remove his or her influence from the research. But in practice, qualitative researchers understand the problem and try, as far as is humanly possible, to separate out their own preferences and values from those of the respondents they are representing. Even more importantly, objectivity means to reality-test hypotheses and prejudices, and be prepared to modify or abandon favourite theories in the face of the evidence of the data. The data must be evaluated in terms of their quality, but always respected. If they dont fit the preconceptions, then that misfit must be (1) acknowledged and (2) examined and resolved. This representation of the consumer can be purely descriptive (although inevitably it will be selective) with the researcher providing reportage of the data. The great bulk of qualitative research these days is of this type. It is of particular value in communications research (say, advertising creative development), where understanding the general marketing context (the environment in which people use the brand, the way they are behaving, what sort of language is used about the brand, etc) helps the advertiser communicate with his or her audience. Or, the representation can not only describe the data but analyse it, using secondary constructs taken from the social sciences (or in fact any established body of knowledge) in order to provide an understanding. Its important to note here that when qualitative methodologies were first being developed, there was a strong reliance on the social sciences for providing a conceptual framework.

As research markets matured, and the basics about consumer behaviour were established and became widely known, so the body of knowledge generated by the research industry itself, contributed increasingly to the way the data were analysed. Few studies these days need to rediscover the basic dynamics of consumer behaviour, (such as theories about motivation, psychoanalytic theory, cognitive dissonance, etc). Much of this is already common knowledge taught in marketing schools. What is needed now is knowledge of these basic theories and familiarity with the theories in use within the marketing and research environment, such as the adoption process, the planning cycle, value studies, the different classifications of culture, etc. Moreover, many large client companies now have their own established body of knowledge about the behaviour of consumers in their own particular marketplace. It is common for the qualitative researcher to be asked to work within the clients constructs, for example, when working on needs-mapping or brand-positioning or assessing a global campaign. Thus, it is rare these days for a qualitative researcher to be valued who works only with the theories from his or her degree subject. The primary need today is knowledge of consumer marketing, and an ability to work with its many constructs. Nevertheless, many analytic rather than just descriptive researchers have qualifications and training in one particular social science, for example, psychology, sociology or anthropology. Although few are conversant with the theories of more than one discipline. Thus, the client should have some awareness of what sort of information they need for a particular study before deciding which type of analytic researcher would be most appropriate. Some small companies specialise in a particular conceptual framework, but the majority tends to have multi-disciplinary teams. Although the information from (well-conducted) qualitative research can be said to be useful and even valid (see Section 3), it does not have statistical validity. The reasons for this are three-fold: i. ii. The method of sampling, which in qualitative is purposive rather than representative. The size of the sample which are usually (but not always) too small to provide statistical significance. Typically a project might consist of data from 30-40 people. The approach to data collection, which in qualitative research is exploratory and non-directive, rather than pre-determined and standardised.

iii.

The quantitative interviewer works from a questionnaire, where the form of the questions, the sequence in which they are asked, and usually, the options in terms of what sort of answers can be given, are strictly predetermined. The qualitative researcher uses an interviewer guide, which identifies which topics should be raised and roughly in what order. But the guide allows the researcher/interviewer to vary the way in which they ask their questions and to follow up on any relevant new topics introduced by the respondent. Whereas the format of the quantitative interview is determined entirely in advance of fieldwork, the actual process of the qualitative interview is determined during fieldwork, by the interaction between interviewer and respondent.

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There are four important aspects about the history of qualitative research: Multi-disciplinary. It has diversified from being an application of psychology, to include, in more recent years, many other theories and disciplines. Growing diversity of application. Whereas its use was once largely confined to fast-moving consumer goods marketing, it is now applied to the marketing of many different goods and services, and also, in the non-commercial context of social research and public policy-making. Global Reach. Although it started in the USA, there are now practitioners in nearly every country in the world, and many countries have caught up, and some would say overtaken the USA in terms of the sophistication of their approaches. Consumer-driven. In highly competitive market places, methodologies are focused on recording what consumers do, rather than on what they say they do. (Source: Extract taken from The Marketing Research Process by L.T. Wright and M. Crimp., (2000), FT Prentice Hall, 5th edition, p374-376).

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