Market Research Design and Data Identification

About this course

Learning objectives

After completing this course you should be able to:

1. Lead a discussion with clients to define major business problems they are facing, and probe to discover obstacles, challenges, opportunities, and threats.
2. Determine what the clients already know and what they must know in order to take the most informed actions.
3. Identify appropriate secondary research and apply data analysis in defining the business problems and research objectives.
4. Translate essential business problems into cogent research objectives that are tied to specific business actions and success criteria.
5. Determine the appropriate level and depth of information required for decision-making, differentiating “nice-to-know” information from “need-to-know” information. Determine what is practical within the time and budgetary constraints
6. Understand what business problems are “researchable” and which are not.
7. Describe the processes and approaches to research design and methodology and how these may differ by region in global projects.
8. Describe the role of primary and secondary data, the differences between them, and how they can be applied in a synergistic manner to address the business issues.
9. Explain the differences between qualitative and quantitative methods, the types of business problems addressed with each, and how the boundaries between the types of methods are blurring.
10. Identify and distinguish between the three basic research designs: exploratory, descriptive and causal.
11. Create proposals that clearly articulate the business need/context for the research, research design and methodology, analytical processes, project milestones, costs, and timelines. Explain the relationship between cost and time variables and the research process.
12. Discuss the ethical issues researchers face when developing a research proposal.

Who should attend?

• Entry-level researchers looking to learn about research design and how to select the approach that will satisfy business needs.
• Research sales teams seeking to understand decisions their clients face and to write better proposals.
• Experienced researchers looking to catch up with the latest developments.
• Corporations seeking professional development options for their internal training portfolio.
• Supplier-side researchers seeking courses for new-employee onboarding.
• Researchers who lead or contribute to project design.
• Analysts needing to understand the pros and cons of new research methods and technologies.
• Client-side researchers responsible for writing RFPs and evaluating proposals.

Continuing Education Information

Students successfully completing graded components earn a Digital Badge (Opens in a new window) and 0.9 University of Georgia Continuing Education Unit (Opens in a new window) (CEU) from The University of Georgia.

As a graduate of the course you will be recognized by industry associations, employers, peer groups and other professionals as understanding how to translate your research findings into reports and presentations that grab your audience’s attention, address the business decision your client needs to make, and offer sound and useful recommendations. This recognition will help you advance in your company and the industry.

CAIP Canada (Opens in a new window) also recommends the course for candidates looking to fill in the gaps or gain a refresher in specific areas.