Research Methods

Research methods

Primary research

Primary research is where you gather information yourself from other individuals. This can be done via process such as interviews, questionnaires, surveys, letters, emails and phone calls.

ü  Great control.

ü  Interviews can easily be recorded and you can take detailed notes throughout the process.

ü  Questionnaires allow you to retrieve information quickly, able to identify patterns and trends.

ü  You are able to address person directly using letters and they are formal.

ü  Emails are an easy and cheap means of communication, and you can send them to multiple recipients.

ü  Phone calls allow you to talk directly to peoples and your able to get hold of phone numbers from around the world.

×          In interviews, people may not know how to answer the question and may not answer it at all. It is also time consuming.

×          Answers from questionnaires may not be detailed and people may not return their questionnaires or may just ignore them.

×          Letters can get lost in the post, people may not respond, or they might get sent to the wrong person if it is an old address.

×          Emails may be sent to a person’s junk mail or they may just delete it. It is also hard to find peoples emails.

×          Phone calls are expensive and can lose connections or people may hang up.

Secondary research

Secondary research is gathering existing information from someone else by looking at magazines, newspapers, books, TV/radio, and internet web pages.

ü  Magazines are interesting and easy to read.

ü  Newspapers often formal and easy to put your point across to the audience.

ü  Easy access to books.

ü  TV/Radio is a modern form of technology that is improving quickly so you have many viewers/listeners.

ü  Internet is modern technology and expanding rapidly and it is easy to use.

×          You would have to find the right type of magazine, targeted at the right audience.

×          Not everything in newspapers is true and only appeal to one target audience.

×          Books can be boring/complicated and time consuming to read through.

×          Not everyone has a TV.

×          The internet can be confusing and not everyone has access to the internet.

Quantitative research

Quantitative research is statistical/numerical information in peoples responses about something.

Qualitative research

Qualitative research is information about people opinions of feelings about something.