Abstract:

This section, as in earlier editions, concentrates on marketing research techniques. While the section is aimed principally at practitioners and students of market research, it may also prove useful to the market research user as a guide to the methods by which the answers sought are obtained. The section is written around the time sequence involved in carrying out a market research project. Thus, it starts with defining the problem and gaining the necessary background information before going on to techniques employed to solve marketing problems. An attempt has been made to cover all of the major research techniques now employed perhaps at the sacrifice of depth in the analysis of the use and limitations of each technique examined. Each contributor has attempted to show the purpose of the technique covered in the chapter, its advantages and disadvantages, how it actually operates and, in each case, where to look for further information.