Self-study
Market research traditionally entails surveying consumers about why they buy and use particular products and brands. █████████████ ███████████████████ ████████ █████████ ████████ ███ ███████████ ████ █████████████ ███ ████████████ ████ ██ ██████ ███████████ ██ ██████████ ████████ ██████ ███████████ █████ ████ █████████████ ████████ ██████ ███████████ █████ ████████ ████████ ████ ███████ █████ ██████ ████████
Summarize Argument
Market researchers claim to get information from observational research, which involves watching customers while they shop, that they can’t get from traditional survey-based market research.
Notable Assumptions
Market researchers assume it’s not possible to formulate traditional surveys in a way that allows them to gather the sort of information they claim is only obtainable through observational research.
9.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ ████████ ███ █████████ ███████ ███ ███ ██████ ████████████ ██████
a
Even consumers who ███ ██████ ██ ███████ █████ ██████████ ███ ██ █████████ ██ ██████████ ██████ ██████ █████ ██████ ████ ███ ███████████ ██ ███████ ██ ███ ███████ ████ ████████ █████ ████ ███ █████████
This explains why observational research provides information that survey-based research doesn’t. It allows researchers to observe what products consumers consider before buying, even when consumers can’t provide that information on surveys.
b
Market researchers find ████ █████████ ███ ██████ ██████ ███████ ██ ███████████ ██ █████████████ ████████ ███ █████ ███ ████████ ██ ████ ██ ███ █████
This is irrelevant. It says nothing about the information participants provide during observational research, and it draws no comparisons between observational research and survey-based research.
c
Consumers are becoming ████████████ ██████████████ █████ █████ ██████ ███████ ███ ████ █████████ ████ ███████ ██████ ████ █████ ████ ████ ████████ ████ ██ ████
This is a phenomenon market research might explain—it doesn’t explain why observations give researchers some information that surveys don’t. It doesn’t imply consumers are more likely to misrepresent their behavior on surveys than in observational studies.
d
Market researchers say ████ ████ ████ ██████████ ████ █████████ ██ █████████████ ████████ ████ ██ ██████ █████████ ███████ █████████████ ████████ ████████ ████ ████████ ████████ ██ █████ █████
This is irrelevant. It doesn’t matter how much researchers enjoy observational research unless that enjoyment somehow gives them more information about consumers—and there’s no indication it does.
e
Consumers are more ██████ ██ ███████ ██ ████ ███████ ████ ████ ███ ██ ███████ ██ ███████ ███████████████
Both oral surveys and questionnaires are surveys, and thus belong to traditional non-observational market research. This suggests traditional research might be more effective with oral surveys, but does not address observational research at all.