This document discusses different types of research including quantitative, qualitative, primary, secondary, and self-generated research. It explains that quantitative research uses measurements while qualitative research seeks insights through verbal data. Primary research involves collecting your own data through surveys or interviews. Secondary research uses other people's findings from sources like books or the internet. Self-generated research involves documenting events yourself through photos, video, or audio. The document also outlines purposes of research like audience, market, and production research. It provides examples to illustrate how different organizations conduct and apply various research methods.

1. Importance of Research
By Sarah Innes

2. Quantitative and Qualitative Research
How Students Go About Doing This
Definition: quantitative and qualitative research
Qualitative research
A body of research techniques which seeks insights through loosely structured, mainly verbal data rather than measurements.
Analysis is interpretative, subjective, impressionistic and diagnostic.
Quantitative research
Research which seeks to make measurements as distinct from qualitative research
This research is important for students and other people researching topics to complete because of it helping back up any queries
that you may have before creating a product or carrying out an event. In Jeff Nash’s blog, ‘How To Be A Good Product Manager’ it
states ‘If you want to be a good product manager, utilize both quantitative and qualitative research for decision making. Numbers
are good, though on their own they can not tell the whole story. Quantitative research is especially useful in product development as
a way of confirming findings through qualitative research… You may want to conduct a survey of a wider group of customers to
confirm your findings and get more input on specific aspects …To generalize, qualitative research is usually better for exploring,
understanding, and uncovering, while quantitative research is generally better for confirming and clarifying.’ This blog helps verify
the knowledge that research of all types especially Quantitative and Qualitative is a key importance for a successful project, it shows
how you know what the target audience wants and that your creation is going to work in that that field.
To show the research of Quantitative and Qualitative research is
putting the findings in a chart, clearing showing your result from
a questionnaire of an interview. This will help structure the
feedback into different category's such as good, bad and
improvements. In this example table it shows a set of results
which a person has drawn up summarising the research they
completed about which way was the best to read a textbook
, the results will help the school change the way they hand the
text book out in digital form or not.

3. Methods and Sources of Research
Definition: Primary and secondary research
Primary research
A type of research which you have gone out and researched yourself such as a questionnaire
or a interview.
Secondary research
A type of research which you have gathered using somebody else's research as back up found
from a book or on the internet.
This research is important for students and businesses to complete as this type of research is
crucial to any successful researching stage to any project as it gathers information from the
public and information which other researchers has gathered from previous years . This will
help many people compare results from now to a few years ago, making sure they have
enough varied results go back and complete the project. Many businesses use primary and
secondary research to help them connect with there customers to help their business grow
and develop. ‘Marketing research is the function that links the consumer, customer, and public
to the marketer through information - information used to identify and define marketing
opportunities and problems; generate, refine, and evaluate marketing actions; monitor
marketing performance; and improve understanding of marketing as a process. Marketing
research specifies the information required to address these issues, designs the methods for
collecting information, manages and implements the data collection process, analyzes, and
communicates the findings and their implications.”American Marketing association - Official
Definition of Marketing Research. This marketing research manager believes that this research
helps link the businesses and the customers together ending in a more successful company.
This survey was composed by the shop Shoe Zone, this survey was made to help gather
feedback from the shopper to help improve the service of the store. This survey is an example
of primary research due the company gathering more information about their customers to
help improve the company due the getting to no the wants and needs of the buyers of there
products.

4. Data Gathering Agencies
Definition: Data gathering agencies
Data collection is a term used to describe the process of preparing and collecting data. Data collection is used to obtain
information to keep record of information to make it is to make important decisions as the information is clear displayed.
People use data gathering agencies to help make their data easier to see, it shows the information clearly in a form of a table or a
chart, labelling the different data accordingly. people use data gathering agency to get specialist information. An example is a list
of companies in a particular market sector, People would recommend data gathering agencies if it was proven that they could
provide accurate data to help back up information you may have researched using primary methods.
Many companies use data gathering agencies such as the Nokia phone company, they use this to help their customers gather data
using mobile phones instead of paper forms, PDAs or laptops. ‘Nokia Data Gathering offers organizations a fast, accurate and cost
effective way to collect data using mobile phones. Jump to wiki for accessing Nokia Data Gathering resources including the
software, manuals and source code or discussion to submit your questions and take part in the discussion.’

5. Research Board (BARB), Radio Joint Audience Research Ltd
(RAJAR)
Definition: Research board and radio joint audience research ltd
Research board
BARB (Broadcasters’ Audience Research Board) is the organisation responsible for providing the official measurement of UK
television audiences.
Radio joint audience research ltd
RAJAR stands for Radio Joint Audience Research and is the official body in charge of measuring radio audiences in the UK. It Is
jointly owned by the BBC and the RadioCentre on behalf of the commercial sector.
People would use BARB and RAJAR for many purposes, because these companies are government run it allows the users to be
comforted in knowing that the facts they find are reliable and not biased which you may find in books. People would use these
websites to research into viewing figures of different radio stations and TV shows. People would be interested in knowing these
figures for to gather information on what their target audience may watch and listen to understand their likes and dislikes for a
product they may want to create. Producers might turn to this website to find out what TV shows attract the eye of their target
audience to help them develop a new TV show or help them come up with ideas for a movie to target these people. The research
they will gather is a vital stage in any start to a project, it helps the creators develop an idea which the public will like and will be
instantly attract to, if they get the correct information in the start of the project it will save a lot of time and money as if they did
not carry out the correct research about their audience they creation may fail.
The pie chart is an example of the type of work BARB does, the chart shows combined
share of viewing for different television companies in the UK.
Figures from http://www.barb.co.uk/report/weeklyViewingSummary?_s=4

6. Self-Generated
Definition: Self-generated
(own video, audio or photographic records of events)
Self-generated research is the research you have produced your self, taking photos at an event to help you capture the moment to
explain the event at a later date.
Many people use this type of research on a daily basis, the most common use of this is having the job as a journalist. An example
of this would be needing to write up about a festival, they would need to research into the event before they wrote about it, they
would start this by going down to the vent and documenting it. They would do they by using a video camera, photo and audio
recorders to capture the different parts of the festival documenting peoples reactions and the events taking place. This would help
their writing process as it would let them look back at the photos or video as a permanent documentation of the event to help
them develop different stories for the article with the knowledge that the information is reliable.
This journalist from the Henley Standard film their interviews to then later write up in written form to the publishes in that
weeks Standard. The later uploaded the videos onto the website to show the viewers the rest of the more detailed interview if
they wanted to find out more about the views of the public.
In this video they are asking the Henley public about their reaction to the What do you think about the Queen visiting Henley as a
part of the Jubilee celebration?

7. Purposes of Research
Audience research
Audience research ensures that the people they reach are the ones that their certain product is aimed at, this is to insure that the
product is aimed at the right audience. Audience research can provide the necessary changes to a product ensuring it is tailored
to the target market as it make sure that money is not being wasted, the industries which may be effect by poor audience
research would include the different media industries due to the marketing being targeted at the wrong audience.
Market research
Many people would under go market research to help generate revenue, the purpose of a market research company's report is to
conduct good research that people want to buy or use the product. Producing poor quality reports may lead to a lower revenue as
buyers become less satisfied with work produced by the market research company and refuse to purchase additional reports.
Different way to complete market research:
Qualitative marketing research – Used for exploratory purposes; examples include focus groups, in-depth interviews, and
projective techniques
Quantitative marketing research – Used to draw conclusions; examples include surveys and questionnaires. Techniques may
include choice modelling, maximum difference preference scaling, and covariance analysis.
Production research
Production research is used to ensure that a product is produced according to demand in the marketplace and that the product
has sufficient quality to please consumers. The research stage begins with a research and development phase, inventors create a
prototype, the prototypes get studied for the pros and to begin making refinements and adjustments. Each prototype is refined
making the product closer to become the finished product.
An example of a constructed focus group, this session is being
filmed to help the company look back at the feedback they
have gathered from the selected people.

8. Bibliography
• Introduction to social research: quantitative and qualitative approaches by Keith F. Punch,
Keith Punch
• MRS: http://www.mrs.org.uk/mrindustry/glossary.htm
• How To Be A Good Product Manager by Jeff Nash:
http://www.goodproductmanager.com/2008/01/22/understand-qualitative-vs-quantitative-
research/
• Market Research, Primary and Secondary:
http://www.businessteacher.org.uk/markets/primary-secondary-market-research/
• Nokia, Data Gathering: http://projects.developer.nokia.com/ndg
• How to do your research project: a guide for students in education and applied social
sciences by Garry Thomes
• BARB: http://www.barb.co.uk/about/tv-measurement
• RAJAR: http://www.rajar.co.uk/
• Self-Generated research, Henley Standard journalist work:
http://www.henleystandard.co.uk/media/video_flv/index_player.php?id=gbrowers.flv#
• Research methods in applied setttings: an integrated approach to design and analysis by
Jeffrey A. Gliner, George Arthur Morgan, Nancy L. Leech
• Audience Research, Ratings analysis: the theory and practice of audience research by James
G. Webster, Patricia F. Phalen, Lawrence Wilson Lichty
• Market Research by Robin Birn, Patrick Forsyth