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Lesson 2: The Marketing Research Process and Research Design

2.4 Exploratory Research

The purpose of exploratory research is to familiarize the researcher with any potential marketing problems. This type of research is typically informal and relatively unstructured; there is often no fixed number of respondents or a fixed method that is used. You can obtain information by searching the Internet, talking with people, observing people in a store, focus groups, etc.

 

A man testing an umbrella in windy conditions.
© Eelke Dekker (some rights reserved)

For example, suppose you need a sturdy new umbrella. You could go observe people’s behavior on the street on a rainy and windy day. Are people using umbrellas? What are the different types of umbrellas? Do any umbrellas break because of the wind? Are people uncomfortable holding their umbrellas? Are some people more successful in protecting themselves from the rain? And so on. 

 

Gerwin Hoogendoorn, an industrial design engineering student, did this when three of his umbrellas broke within one week. He decided to observe how people used umbrellas in windy conditions, and devoted his graduation project to desiging umbrellas. Check out the result on his company’s website.

The Purpose of Exploratory Research

Exploratory research has several uses: 

  1. You can use it to simply collect background information about a problem.
  2. You can use it to define the various terms and concepts relevant to a project. For example, when the department interviews students to collect feedback on course offerings, it might learn about how students evaluate the course offerings (relevance, interest, fun, etc.).
  3. You can sharpen the research problem. Exploratory research can be used to gain a better understanding of the research problem and to formulate formal hypotheses for the research project.

Examples of Exploratory Research Methods

Later in this course you will examine the various exploratory research methods in more detail. For right now, you'll be introduced to some of the most common exploratory research methods to develop your understanding of this type of research. Click on the headings to get more information about each method. Note that the first "View All" tab allows you to see all four examples at once.

1. Focus Groups

A personal interview conducted among a small number of individuals simultaneously; the interview relies more on group discussion than on a series of directed questions to generate data. It is also called an "group in-depth interview." In a focus group, participants can build on each other’s arguments and express agreement or disagreement to a certain extent; this often leads to deeper insights than doing one-on-one interviews.

2. Case Analysis

A review of an earlier case that has similarities to the current research problem. Finding a case that has some or many similarities to the research problem at hand may provide valuable insights on the current problem. It can prevent a lot of work. However, you need to be careful in acknowledging the differences between cases. For example, a case from ten years ago may deal with consumers who did not heavily rely on the Internet to obtain product information, as compared to people today.

3. Experience Surveys

A series of interviews with people knowledgeable about the general subject being investigated. For example, when investigating potential uses of a new drug, it would be helpful to survey some doctors with a lot of experience with the specific drug and with related drugs.

4. Secondary Data Analysis

Screenshot of the Google Alerts search field. Image links to the Google Alerts website. The analysis of data not gathered for the immediate study at hand, but for some other purpose. These data are available on the Internet or from the company's internal databases. For example, you can use Google Alerts to keep yourself up-to-date on any new articles that mention the words "umbrella" and "wind."


 

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