Overview
The intention of the Introduction to Market Research to curate, develop and share the steps to undertake a market research project in a Canadian context. This resource has been developed to be used as a complete course of ten modules or as individual modules, as your context requires. The ten modules are as follows:
- What is market research and why does it matter?
- Steps to designing a market research project
- Indigenous market research
- Types of market research
- Identifying a market research problem
- Identifying target population and sample
- Quantitative research and how to design a survey
- Qualitative research and how to design a focus group
- Data analysis and presenting the research findings
- AI and market research
Project team
Lead: Julie Fossitt
Contributors: Abraham Francis, Paul Carl
Course auditor: Julie Sullivan
Project background
Market Research is a core component of any marketer’s tool box, and is included in Ontario-based college curriculum for many diploma and certificate-level courses. The development of this open educational resource is intended to provide anyone – both instructors and students – looking for open tools to learn more about market research in a contemporary Canadian context.
Accessibility features
We are actively committed to the accessibility and usability of this textbook. Every attempt has been made to make this OER accessible to all learners and is compatible with assistive and adaptive technologies. We have attempted to accessible learning activities and alternative text.
The web version of this resource has been designed to meet Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0, level AA. In addition, it follows all guidelines in Appendix A: Checklist for Accessibility of the Accessibility Toolkit – 2nd Edition.
If you are having problems accessing this resource, please contact us at jfossitt@sl.on.ca
Please include the following information:
- The location of the problem by providing a web address or page description
- A description of the problem
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Abstract
Market research is information that helps marketers understand customers, competitors, and changes in consumer behaviour to help make more informed decisions. The goal of this resource is to help new and emerging marketing students to understand why market research matters and to understand the components of identifying a marketing research problem, designing a research framework, executing the research, and analyzing the data with the ultimate goal to be able to make data-driven decisions. This resource will cover primary and secondary research tools as well as qualitative and quantitative approaches within a Canadian context. Over the course of nine modules, students will learn basic market research skills that will help them design a market research project.
Learning objectives
After completing this course, participants should be able to:
- Define the steps to design a market research project
- Describe some ways to approach research with Indigenous peoples
- Identify a market research decision problem.
- Explain the difference between primary and secondary research
- Compare quantitative research tools describe how to write a survey
- Recognize qualitative research tools and best practices for focus groups
- Illustrate how to use and share research findings to inform recommendations
- Evaluate AI tools for for use in marketing and market research.
Resources
This open education resource includes resources copyrighted and openly licensed by multiple individuals and organizations. At the bottom of each chapter, all references are listed for copyright and licensing information specific to the material on that page. If you believe that any information included in this resource violates your copyright, please contact us.
Funding declaration
This resource funded by the Government of Ontario. The views expressed in this publication are the views of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect those of the Government of Ontario.
