Research Methods
Observation methods for researching consumer behaviour are widely used. This type of method also includes the use of mechanical/technological means and scanning.Observation is, as it sounds, a research method used by observing/monitoring individuals/groups of consumers in order to evaluate various factors and areas of a business plus consumer behaviour."Observation involves the personal or mechanical monitoring of selected activities."Essentials of Marketing Research - Tony Proctor - 2nd ED - 2000"Observing how people behave in different surroundings or how they handle pieces of equipment is valuable in helping a company meet a specified aim, such as entering a new market, and in developing products to meet future needs that consumers have not yet recognised."Financial Times - Alison Smith - 5th December 1997Observational research is increasing in utility, due to the progression of technology, allowing for advanced surveillance material/technology to make it easier to both obtain and analyse relevant data."Dorothy Leonard, writing in the current issue of the Harvard Business Review, identifies five types of information available from observationKthe triggers that prompt people
There is also an ethical consideration with confidentiality, due to the very nature of diaries being kept private. A very dominant negative side to observational research is that the observed often manipulate results for near endless reasons. This type of change from „normal' behaviour is not too dissimilar to the change of behaviour noticed in the „Hawthorne Experiments'. "Hague and Jackson - 1996"The information is usually obtained under normal or near normal conditions and the researcher intervenes only to gather, not to alter the environment. Interviews have a high potential to lead into the irrelevant and much time can be spent on information which has no bearing. "« The diary method is open to errors occurring that could be a result from incomplete recording of data and sample selection bias. Interview as well as diary lack this physical side but are increasingly aware of a consumers mental issues, such as the reasons of purchase and the view on the purchase. The period over which the subject should be expected to write the diary is debatable. Although all are affected to certain degrees, observation, on the outset, seems to be the one most effected by this as events are only interpreted through the researchers eyes. Observation also enables the observer to see, first hand, the methods progress and manipulate research into relevant information, minimising the obsolete. The software being used to do this is relatively new and not without its teething problems. The results after analysis of an in-depth interview cannot be generalised to the whole population. It must be seen that timing is essential in research methods.
Common topics in this essay:
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Alison Smith,
Tony Proctor,
RESEARCH METHOD,
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Hague Jackson,
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financial times,
times alison,
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2nd ed 2000,
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proctor 2nd ed,
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tony proctor 2nd,
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