How can Greggs improve the validity free essay sample

How can Greggs improve the validity of the information gathered from Market Research In order to answer this task, I will suggest methods of how Greggs can improve the validity of the information gathered from primary and secondary research. First I will briefly explain the different types of information that Greggs could gather for market research. Primary Research Primary data is when you collect and gather the data first hand in the form of a questionnaire, survey, telephone or interview. This data is specific to the company and did not exist beforehand. Sometimes referred to as field research. Advantages; Specific to the needs of the company Collected for a purpose, Applicable It is up to date and reliable Disadvantages; Expensive to gather Time consuming to gather and process Not immediately available/accessible Secondary Research With secondary data, it has already been collected by someone else and is available to your company through books, internet, statistics, accounts or independent forecasting groups. We will write a custom essay sample on How can Greggs improve the validity or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Sometimes referred to as desk research. Advantages; Inexpensive Easily accessible Can be used to predict financial problems Quickly becomes out-dated Not specific or applicable Unreliable Choosing the type of research So which type of data is better for Greggs; Primary or Secondary? In order to make an informed decision, they would need a mix of these types to get good valid research. However there are advantages and disadvantages to both methods. Primary data is good because; it is specific to the needs of Greggs so it can be used for a purpose or used to answer a specific question and it is up to date. Also, this data was collected by Greggs and for Greggs alone. This would give them a competitive edge over other rganisations because they do not have access to the same information. Primary information can be expensive to gather and it is not easily accessible once gathered. It needs to be processed so it can be used for decision making, and this can take a relatively long time. Secondary data is a lot cheaper to gather then Primary because the information already exists. This makes it easily accessible and will lower the costs of processing the data. Also, if Greggs looks at past secondary data, they could analyse it and it could alert them to future financial problems. The main problem information is usually available to the public which includes competitors. The data is not specific to Greggss needs and may not be applicable at all. So both types of information are needed in good primary research. Greggs should find a balance between the two. Some types of information are more appropriate for certain purposes. For example, if Greggs wanted to find out about demand for a new product or services, primary data would be more appropriate. This is because they can actually ask the customers whether or not they would buy/use the product/service. Secondary research may be able to tell Greggs about certain trends or patterns in the market, but it will not tell them directly whether there is a demand or not. Data can also be Quantitative or Qualitative. Greggs can improve their market research methods by choosing the appropriate types for certain tasks. Quantitative Typically numerical data. Hard data used to measure or quantify e. g. 10 people buy a.. Qualitative Attitudes, perceptions, beliefs, opinions. More complex data, sometimes called Soft data. Companies gain quantitative data through Sales fgures and government tatistics. Greggs, for example, might want to look for trends in sales by analysing sales fgures, or gauge the external labour market by using Government statistics for unemployment etc. This data is represented numerically and has to be processed before used for decision making. This quantitative information is often used during market research when gathering information in huge quantities. It will then be processed and displayed in a chart or graphically, to make it more accessible for the user. It is a lot quicker to gather quantitative information than it is to gather ualitative information. For example, if Greggs carry out a questionnaire, most of the questions should be designed to gather quantitative information. An example of a quantitative question is Would you buy this product? or How many times do you visit Greggs per week? . This information is designed to be gathered on a large scale. Due to the quantitative nature of the questions, it needs to be carried out on a huge scale to get an accurate respresentation of the market. This can be difficult and expensive for Greggs, but if they want valid primary information this is what they ust do. Greggs will collect qualitative data through interviews and focus groups. They might use this when dealing with peoples opinions and beliefs related to a new service they are offering or a new product development they are planning to release. This specific feedback will directly help Greggs make decisions regarding these new ventures. However, due to it being harder and slower to gather than quantitative information, Greggs will not be able to take information from large amounts of people. This increases the risk of bias in the feedback and may not accurately epresent the overall market. This research cannot be carried out on a huge scale, due to the complex nature of the answers. For example, if an individual is giving a complex opinion, that answer is completely unique to that one person. If there is thousands of interviewees, each with their own answer to the question, it would be extremely hard to collect and then analyse. The risk of bias is increased due to the relatively small scale of the research, and the interviewees could be influenced by the into a table or spreadsheet. Greggs will need some sort of qualitative data, however. Greggs must gather both types of information to get a good picture of the market, and to ensure the validity of the research. As said earlier, some types of research are more appropriate for certain aspects of market research. Greggs will need to use an effective mix of these types to gather valid research. For example, if Gregg wants to find out how much customers will pay for the product/service, they will need primary research. Secondary research is not appropriate because it does not gather from the actual target audience and it will not apply to Greggs. After deciding on primary esearch, Greggs need to choose between quantitative and qualitative data. Qualitative data is beliefs, opinions and attitudes; so it is not appropriate for finding out the price that customers are prepared to pay. Quantitative is used when gathering large amount of information on a large scale, and is suitable for analysis using conventional methods e. g. Spreadsheets, charts. Quantitative is the ideal type of information for this research because it has all of the appropriate characteristics that Greggs require. So the information gathered for this question will be both Primary and Quantitative. A situation where Greggs might need to gather qualitative information is when asking the question; What do you think about the product? . Obviously, this answer cannot be represented numerically. This is also hard to carry out on a large scale, because it is hard to analyse large amounts of complex information and opinions. This information cannot be analysed using conventional methods such as graphs and spreadsheets. The information gathered by this method will give Greggs exclusive access to research which is specific to Greggs.