Consumer demand is dynamic i.e. it keeps on changing frequently. For any company, it is important that is stays updated with the consumer demand, so that it can make the necessary changes (if required) in the product. Market research is not as easy as it looks like. It requires special skills and experience and that is why most of the business firms hire market research companies, as they are experts in carrying out all these activities.



Market research companies commonly use methods like sampling and sample surveys to collect market research information.

Before the company moves forward with conducting the interview, it has to first choose a target market. It needs to interview only those people towards whom the product is targeted. It is useless and monotonous interviewing the entire population.

Of the target audience, a small group of people is interviewed for the market research. You can choose your respondents through ‘probability sampling’ (a mathematical approach) or ‘non-probability sampling (a non-mathematical approach).

Probability sampling methods:

Simple random samples—in this method, the number of people whom you want to interview are listed and out of those a small number are selected for the interview. This selection can be done manually or through computerized means.

Systematic sampling—it means that we select the respondents following a certain sequence. For example if you have listed 100 people and you decide to interview every 5th person, then you shortlist people whose names are against 5, 10, 15 and so on numbers.

Multi-stage samples—this means that the people are selected in a level wise way. For instance if you wish to conduct the market research in UK, you decide to first choose the southern country for interview. And then stepwise select the country, street and then collect the people for interview from that particular region.

Non-probability samples:

Convenience sampling—in this method, the researcher questions just anybody that he comes across. Even though this method of conducting market research is cheap, it cannot be entirely relied upon. The results may not be reliable.

Quota sampling—this involves interviewing that group of the market fro which the product is designed. For instance, if you are designing for women aged between 20-30 then interview only that segment not the other.

Dimensional sampling—in this, the researcher takes into account factors like, income, age and gender while conducting the research.

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