Market research used to rely primarily upon asking questions. The tools of the trade were surveys, in-depth interviews, focus groups, in-store shop-alongs and some observational techniques derived from academic ethnographies. Of course, there were also occasions when it was possible to work directly with purchase data or with passively-measured media exposure data, but the lions share of research involved asking people direct questions about their behavior and attitudes. The best research practitioners refined their questions through experimentation to improve accuracy and reduce potential biases.
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