Society. Primary marketing research tools

An attempt to clarify terminology based on a review of publications did not produce noticeable results due to the fact that the authors focus on considering the specifics and classification of secondary data and their sources, in most cases without affecting the methods of collecting data from desk research (Tables 10.1 and 10.2).

Table 10.1

Clarification of terminology and definition "desk research" »

Analysis of the table 10.1 shows that the concept of “desk research” is defined through the characteristics of secondary information. As can be seen from table. 10.2, scientists associate the main pros and cons of desk research with the advantages and disadvantages of secondary data.

Desk research has received significantly less attention than field research, although many scholars point out the need to begin any research with a search for secondary data. However, the possibility of using desk research methods is practically not noted when it comes to organizing information arrays obtained by field methods. This means that desk research can be the final step rather than the initial step. It is worth noting that the process of collecting primary unstructured information (within qualitative research) is focused on the respondent’s willingness to provide and formulate this information. Thus, the information received reflects the goals of the response

Explanation of the concept of desk research by different authors

Table 10.2

dent, his intention and desire to talk about himself; For the purposes of the study, this data is relevant but secondary. To bring the information array into a form that would fully correspond to the objectives of the study and allow one to draw appropriate conclusions, desk research is also used.

Taking into account the specific features of desk research, we can formulate its definition:

Desk research is a set of methods for collecting and evaluating existing marketing information obtained and structured in accordance with other purposes.

Summarizing the data in table. 10.2 and taking into account the characteristic features of desk research, we will clarify their pros and cons (in Table 10.3).

Table 10.3

Advantages and Disadvantages of Desk Research

Using multiple sources Due to the possible fragmentation of information

which allows you to compare data, identifying the data collection process can be

develop different approaches to solving the problem, including processing large arrays

~ , semi-structured information

Combining the processes of collecting and analyzing information

formations

Scope of use of secondary informationis broad and covers the following tasks:

• clarification of the current state of the problem under study and formulation of preliminary hypotheses;
• identifying more advanced methods for studying the issue;
• providing a regulatory framework for comparing indicators;
• studying the experience of leading industry manufacturers;
• demand assessment and forecasting;
• studying the behavior of competitors;
• market segmentation and selection of target segments;
• monitoring of environmental factors.

Methods for collecting data from documents are extremely diverse and are constantly being updated and improved. However, the study of specialized literature has shown that in all this diversity, two main types of analysis can be distinguished - formalized and informal. Among the formalized methods, content analysis is considered, and among the non-formalized methods, traditional document analysis is considered (for more information about these methods, see Chapter 16).

Documents usually include any materials from the press and other printed publications, radio and television programs, films, answers to open-ended questions in questionnaires, materials from focus groups and free interviews, as well as consumer complaints, statistical reports, administrative instructions and other documents. The methods for classifying documents as data sources are varied and reflect the conflicting views of authors on the specifics of secondary information. A detailed classification is given in the work. The most common division of sources is internal and external. These two groups have significant differences, so the popularity of this classification is not surprising; further detailing helps to streamline the search for the required information and improve the methods of its registration, without affecting the methods of evaluation and gaining access to the source. Table 10.4 reflects the main approaches to classifying sources of secondary information.

Table 10.4

End of table. 10.4

Working with external sources to a greater extent requires a preliminary assessment of the information they contain.

There are many reasons why data may be irrelevant or too inaccurate to be useful. Most researchers point out the need to evaluate secondary data to conclude its suitability for the purpose of the study. Table 10.5 gives an idea of criteria for evaluating secondary information from external sources.

Table 10.5

Criteria for assessing secondary information from external sources

End of table.10.5

The problems with using internal secondary data are not as great, but deficiencies in the accounting system and data defects often have a negative impact on the possibility of desk research.

Typically, existing accounting systems are not designed to meet the information needs of marketers. As a result, the format in which the data can be provided is not flexible enough to allow the information to be used for marketing decisions. Often, accounting data is presented with insufficient detail and does not provide information on key management areas such as geographic markets, customer types, or product types. In order to break down sales and profits into various management objects, a significant investment of effort and time may be required. It is also possible that the time period covered by internal indicators will not correspond to the periodicity of external data.

Inside information can also be unreliable if the person providing it has motives for distortion. For example, the number of visits that a sales agent reports in his reports is often overstated when this indicator is used to evaluate his performance. Meanwhile, the well-known “optimism” of sales agents can influence all information received from this source. Accounting data is subject to similar errors. For example, when a company offers particularly liberal conditions for the return of purchased goods, the figures contained in the invoices cannot be fully trusted. In general, if you have a long distribution channel with multiple inventory locations, the orders received or invoices issued may not correspond to actual sales.

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There are a number of advantages of conducting desk research: it is carried out quickly and inexpensively, it allows you to get acquainted with the industry, track the main market trends, obtain data that the company is not able to collect on its own, it often uses several sources, which allows you to compare data, and identify several approaches to solving a problem.

There are also negative aspects of desk research. They are associated with deficiencies in the quality of the information used. Desk methods of collecting information use sources of secondary information. What are sources of secondary information? These are subjects who provide information about other objects in processed form or from other sources intended for other purposes of studying the object. As a rule, it is difficult to verify the accuracy and reliability of secondary information; it may be out of date.

Information from different sources may be contradictory, since different sources of secondary information use different object classification systems and measurement techniques. Not all study results may be published, so the information may not be complete.

In order to ensure the quality of secondary information, the following techniques are used:

1. To ensure comparability of information, the used units of measurement of the indicator, classification of data, value intervals, methods for measuring the indicator, and publication dates are compared.

2. To ensure the reliability of information, the purpose of the publication, the source of the message (the reputation of the author, his qualifications and his ability to collect the necessary information), methods of collecting information and their correctness, consistency of information with data from other sources, and the degree of primacy of the source are assessed.

The degree of primacy of the source of secondary information means proximity to the original source, the source of origin of the data. The primary source of secondary information, as a rule, reveals the research methodology on the basis of which primary information was collected and summarized, indicators were calculated, and contains the necessary links and comments.

Secondary sources provide information based on publications from other sources; they are not direct collectors of information. At the same time, the accuracy of the information provided is reduced, since there may be inaccuracies and errors when quoting, abbreviations, and the method of collecting information is not indicated. Desk research can be used to study sources such as newspapers, magazines and other printed publications, radio and television programs, films, questionnaires, focus groups and free interviews, instructions and other documents.

Obtaining information from secondary sources is carried out using various methods - methods of document analysis. Obtaining quantitative information already in the document does not require special knowledge and techniques. This is the simplest and most obvious way. Therefore, document analysis methods are understood mainly as methods for studying qualitative information, which, as a rule, is “blurred” within large amounts of text. Identifying this information and processing it into a form convenient for use in marketing, preferably in quantitative form on some scale of measuring information, is the task of document analysis methods.

The set of document analysis methods can be divided into two large groups:

Traditional analysis

Formalized analysis.

The first group of methods is based on the assumption that the expert studying the document is able to process information arrays of documents and can determine the content of the main information.

The second group of methods is based on the premise that the intuition and experience of an expert cannot be trusted and it is necessary to formalize the search and identification of information to the maximum extent possible.

Let's look at each of these methods in more detail.

Traditional document analysis

Traditional document analysis is carried out by a highly qualified expert who gives his own interpretation of the studied material. This method is based on the researcher's intuition and is therefore subject to the danger of subjective biases in the perception and interpretation of materials. In addition, different experts can interpret the same information contained in the text differently and give it different degrees of significance.

At the same time, no formalized analysis will allow one to obtain the information contained “between the lines.” This is the prerogative of traditional document analysis only.

For maximum objectivity of the results of traditional document analysis, they try to formalize it as much as possible. For this purpose, a strict procedure for document analysis has been developed.

There are two stages of document research: external analysis and internal analysis of the document.

It should be noted that in the practice of marketing research, in the vast majority of cases, marketers immediately begin internal analysis of the document. The fallacy of this approach should be pointed out.

External analysis is necessary in order to study the reason for the publication of the document, the reliability of the material presented, the qualifications of the author of the publication, and, therefore, the validity of the conclusions and information contained in the document. It is this part of traditional document analysis that makes it possible to determine the need for further analysis of the document and the possibility of using document materials for the purposes of the intended marketing research.

Internal analysis constitutes the main part of the study. It is difficult to formalize, but there are still some recommendations that should be followed. First, it is necessary to briefly and clearly formulate the purpose of document analysis, that is, to determine what exactly interests the researcher in it, and write down the resulting formulation before starting document analysis. When analyzing a document, a written statement of purpose should be constantly in front of the researcher’s eyes so that he can always check the criterion for assessing the content of the document.

Secondly, before studying the text, it is marked by an expert in such a way that, using text identification symbols, the researcher can easily find any section of the text. Most often, paragraph numbering is used for this. In this case, two numbering methods are possible - continuous numbering and page numbering. The first method is used when analyzing small texts.

Thirdly, when studying a document, it is necessary to highlight paragraphs that contain information relevant to the stated goal. It is assumed that correctly composed text is arranged so that each individual paragraph contains a complete thought, or self-sufficient information. Therefore, the expert, after reading a paragraph of text, having identified its meaningful meaning, makes a decision about whether its content corresponds to the purpose of the study. If doubts arise, the expert returns to the research goal previously formulated in writing and checks his opinion about the content of the paragraph with the selection criterion, which consists in the formulated goal.

Fourth, after identifying the paragraphs that contain information relevant to the formulated goal, the expert must formulate their summary in terms of the research goal. This formulation is obviously carried out in writing. In this case, the expert indicates the paragraph number.

A brief summary of the essence of the information contained in the highlighted paragraph allows you to compress the content of the information to the limits that are amenable to more thorough analysis.

Fifth, after studying the text and recording brief information on the selected paragraphs of this text, the essence of the marketing information obtained in a condensed form is analyzed and a final document is prepared on the results of the analysis of the document.

As a result of such formalization of the results of the analysis of the content of documents, their conclusions become as objective as possible. In addition, both the documents themselves and the results of the examination can easily be subjected to re-examination. To do this, you can set some control points in the text of the report, for example, highlighted and numbered paragraphs of the document and subject these paragraphs to re-examination with the help of another specialist. If the results coincide, we should talk about the high objectivity of the document analysis. In another case, the document is sent for re-examination. However, despite the significant formalization of the text, it is still not possible to achieve an objective examination of the text. This is due to the fact that the information contained in the document is studied and assessed by an expert whose psychology is very individual. Therefore, the perception of the text and its content by each expert is different, just as the emotions that the text evokes are different. Subjective and poorly controllable factors such as the expert’s well-being and his mood have a significant impact on the objectivity of the analysis results. In addition, the expert must carefully and completely read the text, so the speed of information processing is low, and the costs of obtaining marketing information from the text are very high. At the same time, it is impossible to require an expert to read the text “diagonally”, since the main advantage of traditional document analysis is the expert’s ability to identify not only the information clearly contained in the text of the document, but also the information that is “between the lines” of the document.

Methods for formalized document analysis

The essence of formal analysis methods is to find easily recognizable features and properties of a document that reflect a piece of information related to the purpose of the study. The most common method of formalized document analysis is “content analysis.”

The term “content analysis” itself, as well as the first attempts to make statistically accurate measurements of the content of mass media materials, originate from research in the field of American journalism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. One of the first works in this area was carried out by J. Speed ​​in 1893. He analyzed Sunday editions of New York newspapers for the years 1881 - 1883. By comparing the content of materials from these two years, he found out what changes had occurred in the New York press during this time. J. Speed ​​classified the content of materials by topic (literature, politics, religion, gossip, scandals, business, etc.) and measured the length of newspaper columns allocated to cover these topics. After comparing the data over the years, he came to a number of conclusions. Thus, the New York Times newspaper began to publish much more materials containing retellings of various scandalous stories, gossip and rumors. This was the reason that the readership of the newspaper expanded, its circulation increased, and the newspaper was able to reduce the price for each issue by a third (from three cents to two cents), while increasing its total volume.

The success of the study marked the beginning of a rapid growth in the number of works devoted to the practice and theory of content analysis. Already by the beginning of the 30s of the twentieth century, the basic principles of the theory of content analysis were formulated. In the Soviet Union, content analysis began to be put into practice and developed only in the late 60s. There are three important elements in the procedure for carrying it out.

The first element of the procedure is the development of categories of analysis. Categories of analysis are understood as concepts in accordance with which the selection and sorting of units of analysis will be carried out. These categories, in turn, can be the subject of analysis (decomposition into component parts). Such categories may include, for example, income. The system of analysis categories should be built in such a way as to make it possible to make comparisons between various sources containing the required information, that is, the analysis categories are subject to the requirement of universal comparability, high standardization of categories, which allows the use of statistical methods of document analysis.

When formulating categories of analysis, care should be taken to ensure that they fully describe the information identified as a result of the analysis and the information required, and also do not leave room for unclear gradation. The system of analysis categories should provide maximum accuracy and reduce the element of subjectivity to a minimum.

The second element of the procedure is the selection of units of analysis. From a methodological point of view, the question of the unit of analysis is the starting point when constructing a methodology for any specific content study. Each selected category of analysis is divided according to some criterion into indivisible units of analysis. It is these units of analysis that are identified in the process of studying the document. Here it is necessary to remember that they act as a kind of score indicators, which means they must be clearly formalized and easily defined. So, if income was chosen as the category of analysis, then the units of analysis can be: low income, low income, average income, high income and ultra-high income.

In a text, a unit of analysis can be designated by a word or phrase; in the most complex case, it may not have a terminological expression; its presence is determined by its hidden meaning. Typically the units of analysis include:

A concept expressed by a single word or phrase

The topic expressed in individual judgments, paragraphs, pieces of text,

Common nouns or names of events.

The third element of the procedure is the allocation of units of account. Counting units can be the number of occurrences of units of analysis, the number of lines with these units, the number of paragraphs, square centimeters of area, columns in printed texts, etc.

Once all the specified elements have been selected, the document can be analyzed. As a result of isolating and counting content elements, a model of text content is created, which can serve as an object of analysis. When models of all analyzed texts are obtained, they can be compared with each other and trends in changes or preservation of the content of texts over time, in various sources of information, etc. can be traced. A comparative analysis of such models allows us to identify the most characteristic trends in the movement of information.

Sometimes other ways of processing the results of document analysis are more informative; for example, a very important indicator may be the ratio between the volume of information of interest to a marketer contained in the text of the document and the volume of the text itself, and some other statistical indicators.

The general structure of content analysis can be modified in several different ways. American sociologist R. Merton identifies six types of content analysis.

The first type of content analysis is based on the elementary selection and study of units of analysis contained in a document. This is, of course, very important information that characterizes, for example, the importance of the analyzed information for the compilers of the analyzed document. You can highlight other properties of the document (for example, by comparative analysis). This type of content

analysis is very simple in practical application during marketing research, but its results are far from complete comprehensive knowledge about the object of analysis.

The second type of content analysis is a complicated modification of the first type. It is sometimes called “classification by relation.” Units of analysis reflect not just the presence of the required information, but also the attitude towards it - they are classified in a favorable and unfavorable aspect in relation to the object of study.

The third type of analysis is analysis by units of analysis. When using this type of analysis, the main and minor units of analysis are identified from the perspective of the research being conducted. Units of analysis can be classified not just into major and minor, but a complex system of hierarchy of importance of units of analysis can be built for the purposes of marketing research. Thus, the document model turns out to be richer in its research properties.

When there is a need to determine the combined meaning of a number of parts of the analyzed document, the fourth type of content analysis is used - thematic analysis. To a certain extent, it allows us to identify the explicit and hidden purposes of publishing a document and give a complete picture of the content of the document. To do this, the set of categories of analysis is expanded in such a way as to cover the entire set of topics related to a given subject of study. Each category of analysis is fully described by units of analysis. The resulting set of data most broadly represents the content of the text, and it is easy to trace its thematic content, changes in topics, their relationship and interdependence.

The fifth type of content analysis - structural analysis - is general in nature and its name is associated not with the method of obtaining information, but with the purpose of the study. Since its main goal is to analyze the relationships between various topics and relationships in the analyzed text, that is, to analyze the structure of the document, it received the appropriate name.

The sixth type of analysis is associated with the study of a set of documents prepared by one source or several related sources. This type of content analysis is called propaganda analysis, since a set of documents devoted to one topic pursues some goal, and this goal can be fully revealed only in the case of a meaningful analysis of the entire set of documents. At the same time, a model of each document is built, and the general direction of the documents, the system of cause-and-effect relationships between documents and document topics, trends and methods of presenting information in the identified direction are identified.

The high degree of formalization of the procedure allows the widespread use of computer technology for its implementation. This leads to the fact that the number of documents processed using content analysis and the volumes of secondary information studied are several orders of magnitude greater than the number of documents and volumes of information studied using traditional document analysis. A marketer can use special software for these purposes, but can also use other software.

The disadvantages of formalized analysis include, first of all, the fact that the content of a document can be revealed by expressions that are not among the easily recognizable properties. For example, a document written in good literary style contains a significant number of synonyms, some of which may be missed. The second fundamental drawback is the fact that very important, but isolated messages about the object of research may not be covered as a result of content analysis or simply ignored in a large array of information. This drawback can be eliminated by using traditional document analysis.

Desk research is a set of methods for collecting and evaluating marketing information contained in sources (statistics or reports) prepared for some other purpose.

Desk methods of collecting information rely on secondary sources and are therefore often called document methods. The documents are materials from both secondary (external and internal) sources and primary documents: answers to open-ended questions in questionnaires, materials from focus groups and free interviews. In addition, works of art, scientific and monographic publications, film, video, photographic materials, etc. are considered as documents.

Desk methods are used in the preparation of field research (as they allow preliminary familiarization with the object of research, the industry), in the formation of working hypotheses, in the collection of statistical information to justify sampling procedures, in the verification and interpretation of information obtained using field methods. Desk methods are also used as independent methods of collecting information when researching the market, studying traditions, the dynamics of public opinion on any issue, when studying advertising stories and incentives aimed at activating consumers.

Document analysis methods are divided into two main groups: informal (traditional) and formalized. Non-formalized methods do not use standardized techniques for isolating units of information from the content of documents; they require painstaking analysis of each source; therefore, they are more often used for processing individual (unique) documents or a small array of documents, when there is no need for quantitative processing of information. Traditional analysis can serve as a prerequisite for formalized document analysis.

Formalized methods use unified (standard) methods for registering document content elements. Standardization of information collection methods freed researchers from labor-intensive registration procedures and subjectivity in data interpretation; made it possible to switch to automated registration and processing of information using special computer programs. However, other problems arose: difficulties in developing unambiguous rules for recording the necessary elements and the impossibility of exhaustively disclosing the content of each individual document.

When conducting desk research, the traditional (classical) method of document analysis, information-targeted analysis and content analysis of documents are most often used.

Content analysis is a formalized method of collecting data from secondary sources and qualitatively and quantitatively analyzing their content. Conducting content analysis is based on the following principles:

• 1. Principle of formalization - it is necessary to set unambiguous rules to identify the required characteristics of the content;
• 2. The principle of statistical significance - the content elements of interest to the researcher must occur with sufficient frequency.

The traditional method includes the usual perception of text (image, sound), highlighting semantic blocks of ideas and statements in accordance with the goals of analysis. Methods of traditional analysis of qualitative information are largely based on the intuition of the researcher, so subjective biases in the perception and interpretation of the content of the document cannot be ruled out.

Table 1. - Methods used in desk research

Information-targeted analysis reveals the content-semantic structure of the text and correlates it with the intent of communication, which makes it possible to detect possible deviations in the interpretation of the text on the part of other participants in communication, i.e. evaluate the success of communication.

Advantages of secondary information: low cost of work, since there is no need to collect new data; speed of material collection; availability of multiple sources of information; reliability of information from independent sources; possibility of preliminary analysis of the problem. Disadvantages: not always suitable for the purposes of the study due to its general nature; information may be out of date; the methodology by which the data was collected may not be appropriate for the purposes of this study. To obtain primary information, the media are most often used, including specialized Internet resources, industry directories, State Statistics Committee data (including the latest population census), results of marketing and sociological research conducted earlier (open and published), internal company documentation and etc. The results of desk research allow us to:

• · Analysis of the enterprise's potential, competitor analysis,
• · Assess the market capacity, the size of the target audience,

Determine directions for further research, that is, methods, volumes, etc.

Desk Research is one of the three main types of marketing research, based on the study, collection and systematization of secondary information. Also, the result of conducting desk research is a formed idea of ​​​​the path for further detailed study of the market, which already involves the mandatory use of both qualitative (focus groups, in-depth and expert interviews) and quantitative (various types of surveys, monitoring, etc.) methods. Desk research is the search, collection and analysis of existing secondary information (“desk research”). Secondary information is data collected previously for purposes other than those currently being addressed. The main advantages of working with secondary information are: low cost of work, since there is no need to collect new data; speed of information collection; availability of multiple sources of information; relative reliability of information from independent sources; possibility of preliminary analysis of the problem. The obvious disadvantages of working with secondary information are: the frequent inconsistency of secondary data with the purposes of the research being conducted, due to the general nature of the latter; information is often out of date; The methodology and instruments used to collect the data may not be suitable for the purposes of this study. In this regard, desk research is often supplemented by the parallel conduct of several expert interviews to increase the validity of the information. As sources of secondary information we use:

Publications:

• · Published data sources
• · Mass media (periodicals, magazines, national, local)
• · Government publications (federal, state, local)
• · Special editions
• · Special reports

Legislation:

• · Federal laws
• · Local laws

Electronic sources:

• · Database
• · Internet

Official information from government agencies:

• · Ministries
• · Industrial associations
• · Local administrations
• · Associations

State statistics

• · The results of desk research allow us to:
• · Market potential analysis
• · Analysis of the competitive environment
• · Situational analysis of market behavior
• · Assess the market capacity, the size of the target audience
• · Determine a set of further studies for the project

It makes sense to start any marketing research with desk research. It is quite possible that with the help of desk research it will be possible to obtain all the necessary marketing information for decision-making. For example, with the help of desk research you can study the marketing activities of competitors (by analyzing their advertising in the media). Internet companies use the following sources of information for desk research.

Desk research can be used to study sources such as newspapers, magazines and other printed publications, radio and television programs, films, questionnaires, focus groups and free interviews, instructions and other documents.

Desk methods of collecting information use the traditional (classical) method of document analysis, information-targeted analysis, and content analysis of documents.