Market Research — is it Worthwhile?

Abstract

The subject of the presentation is market research into the telecommunications industry. The reasons for doing market research will be discussed, and some of the prejudices against doing it will be identified. Having identified reasons, the paper will address the problem of definitions in market research, particularly of market content, geographic definition and price. In its simplest terms, primary research is the gathering of original new data from the industry in order to calculate market size, rank order of vendors, methods of channel distribution, user opinions and so on. Secondary research is the gathering of information which is relevant to the market from existing sources, in order to verify raw data gathered from primary research, and to provide input to the forecasting process. The paper will consider methodologies of primary and secondary research, and some of the problems that are encountered during these processes. It will demonstrate the ways in which secondary research can be used to validate raw data, and discuss some of the software tools that can be used to automate data entry and validation tasks. Finally the paper will consider the various approaches that can be used in making forecasts concerning the future market, and the degree of accuracy of these forecasts.