Introduction
Social media use is a new approach for creating awareness around product offerings or exploring new markets. Social media is the current trend in building a customer base because it helps businesses achieve extraordinary success.For instance, social media is an important tool for generating loyal brand supporters, leads, and purchases.
Although social media is pivotal for most businesses today, a business should conduct research before investing in a new market. Market research, which entails learning more about the target market and clients, is a fundamental component of corporate strategy. The information acquired through market research is crucial since it is precisely crafted to satisfy business needs. The paper evaluates the primary data collection methods and their appropriateness for the new market and social media. The primary data collection methods include interviews, surveys and questionnaires, observation, focus groups, and experiments.
Interview
A face-to-face conversation between two people conducted to gather essential data in a research context is known as an interview. There are three main categories of interviews: organized, semi-structured, and unstructured (Khan & MacEachen, 2022). Each category differs slightly from the others.
A structured interview is verbally administered and usually takes a short period because it lacks depth. Although it lacks depth, it is usually recommended for speed and accuracy. The semi-structured interview consists of several questions that adequately cover the scope of the area to be explored. Unstructured interviews are more in-depth and allow the researcher to gather a wide variety of data for a specific objective. It is more time-consuming but allows the interviewer to combine structure and flexibility.
Interviews provide in-depth information, flexibility, and accurate data, but they can be time-consuming and expensive. It may not be suitable for the new market and social media because of the need to interview several people to derive significant data. Interviews mainly require in-person or telephone interaction, which may be infeasible for a broad audience, like in the new market and social media context. On the other hand, interviews offer the flexibility and accuracy essential for market research and decision-making. Nevertheless, the cost and feasibility of conducting interviews with several participants make it undesirable in the new market and social media context.
Survey and Questionnaire
A survey is a research approach that collects data from a designated group of respondents using a questionnaire. It involves analyzing the responses to gain insight into the research topic. The survey often consists of open- and closed-ended questions, but closed-ended questions are the more common in surveys (Ebert et al., 2018). Since there is no limit to the type of data collected using surveys, it is more suitable for academic, business, and scientific research (Ebert et al., 2018).
A questionnaire is a research method consisting of a written set of questions and combines both open- and close-ended questions. A questionnaire will always be included in a survey; however, it may or may not be implemented as a survey. Questionnaires are generally preferred for product research, customer satisfaction survey, competitive analysis, and company evaluation.
The survey and questionnaire techniques are the better options for new markets and social media since you can quickly get feedback from respondents. It aggregates data from multiple respondents and makes it easy to draw broad conclusions from the research. The ability to conduct online surveys means the researcher can reach a broad audience through email, website, or social media. Besides, the survey and question alternatives are cheaper than interviews, free from the bias of the interviewer, and respondents have adequate time to give responses. However, it is a slow process, which is applicable if the researcher has sufficient time to do the market research.
Observation
The observation method involves acquiring information from the primary source by observing a phenomenon or things as they happen. It could be accomplished as either a complete participant, an observer as a participant, a complete observer, or a participant as an observer. When used as a method for data collecting, observation is typically carefully planned out and subject to checks and controls (Ekka, 2021).
The different approaches to observation include structured or unstructured, controlled or uncontrolled, participant and non-participant, or disguised approach. An observation process that involves the definition of subjects of observation, conditions, style of the observer, and selection of data is said to be structured and vice versa. Observation taking place in the natural setting is uncontrolled, while that involving a pre-arranged plan is controlled.
The observation technique is easy to administer, produces accurate results, and is a universally accepted practice. Nevertheless, it is only appropriate in certain situations and may be unreliable. For instance, a business placing an agent in a supermarket to observe customer interaction with a new product may produce accurate results.
However, it cannot be relied upon because bias may arise as its validity cannot be predicted accurately. For example, some phenomena, like a customer purchasing the product due to lack of alternative or pure admiration, are not open to observation. Therefore, the method is less suited for new market and social media research.
Focus Groups
A focus group is two or more people assembled to participate in a discussion to collect data based on the opinions and feelings of respondents. It helps seek open-ended thoughts and contributions from participants with similar characteristics or common traits. The focus group technique is common in market research, where a group of consumers converses with a researcher moderator to generate lead data on the feelings and perceptions of a product. A discussion group can be about a product that is about to be launched to seek feedback around structured questions. Although the focus group technique is like interviews, it involves interactions and discussions rather than questions and answers.
The interviewer does not have to discuss things with each person individually, as in an interview. Therefore, the approach takes less time and is more cost-effective than interviews. Since it is possible to target people with traits or characteristics, the technique is ideal for new markets and social media.
A discussion can take place physically or online platforms like Skype or Microsoft Teams (Khan & MacEachen, 2022). Therefore, an interviewer can interact with people across different regions to conduct market research and derive meaningful data from diverse groups. However, the technique is subject to response bias because group thinking does not reflect individual opinions. It can only be effective in a new market and social media research if participants share their opinions without fear of favor.
Experiment
Experimental research entails marking predictions about which marketing strategy will appeal to clients and gathering data to verify or refute them. An experiment examines the relationship between an independent variable (cause) and the dependent variable (effect) (Taherdoost, 2021). The technique is powerful because it allows a marketer to see the immediate results of a marketing decision and manipulate the cause to influence results. For example, if you start a new ice cream business, you may decide to try out different flavors to determine which one performs best. In this case, the ice cream flavor is the independent variable, while the sales income affected by the flavor is the dependent variable.
Regardless of the experimental research approach used, the goal is always to identify the approach that will allow the firm to perform better. The experiment method is the best for new markets and social media because it accurately determines which marketing activities appeal to customers. It is based on actual data and real-life situations for studying human behavior on a new product or service. The experiment approach may be expensive but yields dependable results and eliminates non-response bias.
Conclusion
The interview can be effective as a primary data collection, but it is less effective in the new market and social media context because it is time-consuming and expensive. Surveys and questionnaires offer a better alternative since questions can be shared with individuals through email, social media, and websites. The observation method is better suited for behavioral analysis; therefore, it can be used to evaluate customer preferences and behaviors for a new market and social media.
A focus group technique is used to seek open-ended thoughts and contributions from a group. It is frequently employed in market research, where a group of consumers participates in a conversation with a research moderator. The research technique is a structured study that evaluates dependent and independent variables to determine a strategy that helps a business improve its performance. The experimental method, followed by a survey and questionnaire, focus groups, observation, and interviews, is appropriate for new market and social media research in that order.
References
Ebert, J., Huibers, L., Christensen, B., & Christensen, M. (2018). Data collection methods and tools for research; A step-by-step guide to choose data collection technique for academic and business research projects. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 20(1), 1-24.
Ekka, P. (2021). A review of observation method in data collection process. International Journal for Research Trends and Innovation, 6(12), 17-19.
Khan, T., & MacEachen, E. (2022). An alternative method of interviewing: Critical reflections on videoconference interviews for qualitative data collection. International Journal of Qualitative Research, 21(1), 1-12. Web.
Taherdoost, H. (2021). Data collection methods and tools for research; A step-by-step guide to data collection technique for academic and business research projects. International Journal of Academic Research in Management (IJARM), 10(1), 10-38.