Question

We live in a highly populated and diverse world. Understanding how consumers find, buy, use, judge, and throw away the things they purchase requires multiple avenues of data collection.

What do you believe are the THREE most foundational and significantly important data collection instruments (can be either qualitative or quantitative) and WHY?

Please references also

Answer 1

In my views, following are the most important data collection sources:

• Interview:
  • Face to face interviews help in gauging the reaction of the respondents
  • More clarity of thought can be perceived through this tool
  • Can be qualitative or quantitative
  • Detailed questions can be asked to gain deeper understanding
  • Quite flexible data collection method
• Focus Groups:
  • Useful for investigating complex datasets
  • Perception of the group as a whole is determined
  • Potential solutions to the problem can be identified based on group’s reaction
• Questionnaire:
  • Wide coverage of respondents can be covered in small amount of time
  • Very less resources required
  • The data response can be analyzed quite scientifically
  • Results can be analyzed quite quickly and effectively