Marketing information services
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Page updated 5 Aug 2001
copyright Sheila Webber
Department of
Information Studies
Sheffield University

Market research

In 1960, the American Marketing Association defined market research as:
The systematic gathering, recording and analysis of data about problems relating to the marketing of goods and services.
(Nowadays, the word 'challenges' would no doubt be preferred to 'problems').

More recently the same body defined it thus:

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 method for collecting information, manages and implements the data collection process, analyzes the results, and communicates the findings and their implications. American Marketing Association c. 1995.
(As an aside, there is probably scope for a research study, to demonstrate the percentage growth year on year in terms of wordage for various marketing definitions)

The UK Market Research Society also has a brief What is market research section.

Market research is supposed to be a systematic activity - orderly and impartial. Information scientists and librarians have been undertaking market research for many years, but tended in the past to call this 'user studies'. This term has become less fashionable as it has been realised that it is as important to study non-users.

The cycle for market research normally involves:

  1. Defining the problem (eg 'Department X scarcely ever asks me for information')

  2. Developing a hypothesis (eg 'They don't realise how much relevant information I could access')

  3. Deciding how to test it (using either secondary data, or primary data - see below)
  4. Information gathering

  5. Collation and interpretation

  6. Decision making

This is a deductive approach to research. It is also possible to use an inductive approach: start by examining a variety of evidence, then form a hypothesis based on that evidence (which you would probably want to test deductively in turn).

Problem and hypothesis

One danger to be avoided is making too many assumptions about what is causing the problem. In the above example, it might be wrong to assume that the potential users were unaware of what you had to offer. It could be that they knew about it, and didn't think it very useful, or that they were obtaining better information elsewhere. Therefore it can be useful to brainstorm at the 'Hypothesis development' stage. Starting out with a hypothesis (as opposed to deciding to 'find out what users want') should help to focus the research on the questions that you really need to know the answers to, and helps to avoid asking unnecessary questions.

Research and analysis

It is important to decide how you are going to analyse the results of your research, and how you are going to use this analysis in the decision-making process, before finalising your research method. Anyone who has been involved in original research will know that planning, data collection and analysis can take a great deal of time. You therefore only want to collect information you are going to be able to analyse properly, and only analyse information you will use to make decisions.

Secondary data collection involves collecting material relevant to the problem, but not gathered specially for it: i.e., existing data. This can either be internally or externally produced, and is the part which information scientists should be able to do rather better than some market researchers.

Primary data is collected specifically to help with the question you are addressing. It is normally collected through observation or surveys. There may also be more rigidly controlled experimental research, but this tends to be carried out more often on the captive audiences of the information science schools. If you have lots of money you may be able to commission commercial market research consultants to do research for you.

  • Observation This has been used to examine, for example, people's use of catalogues, or of reference materials, or the amount of time they have to queue at the issue counter. One relevant point is that if people know they're being observed, their behaviour may change.
  • Surveys Interviewing, either on a one to one basis, or in groups, is one survey method. Written questionnaires are probably the type of survey instrument used most frequently by information and library professionals. There are various techniques that can be used to improve response rate, such as incentives and follow-up.
If the target population is too large to be surveyed in toto, sampling (choosing a limited number of people to represent the whole population) is the usual approach. Ideally you should try to eliminate bias (which might, for example, be introduced if you just surveyed users who happened to come into your information centre) by using:
  • Random sampling (e.g. contacting every nth person on an alphabetical list)
  • Stratified sampling (dividing the population into representative groups and sampling each of them)
  • Quota sampling (aiming to get a certain number of people in different categories e.g. of age and job type)

Bluffers will take the time to mug up on one technique in marketing textbooks. You can then lure fellow information professionals into talking about their use of this technique, and demolish them by proving that what they were doing couldn't be counted as research at all. Focus group research is quite a good choice for this, since it is a term used loosely by some people to describe any group of users who get together for a chat.

Library research examples

The University of Queensland, Australia, has a detailed report of the customer survey it carried out in 1999:
University of Queensland Library (2000)Report of the 1999 Library Customer Survey Brisbane: University of Queensland.
http://www.library.uq.edu.au/about/rodski.html
The background to this survey is discussed in:
Schmidt, Janine; Taylor, Chris and Todd, Heather. (1998) Reflecting on Success and Failure: Managing for Better Client Service. Presented at: ALIA 5th Biennial Conference and Exhibition Adelaide, 25-28 October 1998. http://www.library.uq.edu.au/papers/alia1.htm

Worth studying in this context is also the huge amount of work that has been done on library and information performance indicators, and library service quality. A couple of sites/documents which provide background/links on this topic are:

Market research books and links

There are many books about market research, or specific aspects of it. Useful examples are:

  • Trochim, William M.K. (2001) The Research Methods Knowledge Base. 2nd Edition. http://trochim.human.cornell.edu/kb/index.htm
    This is a complete, free, online textbook, and is written in approachable language.

  • Kinnear, T. and Taylor, J.R. (1996) Marketing research: an applied approach. 5th ed. McGraw Hill.
In addition, there are books aimed specifically at information scientists and librarians, such as:
  • Egghe, Leo and Rousseau, Ronald . (2001) Elementary Statistics for Effective Library and Information Service London: Aslib. ISBN: 0851424511. There is some further information on the Aslib site e.g. the introduction.

  • Gorman, G.E. and Clayton, P. (1997) Qualitative research for the information professional. London: Library Association Publishing. ISBN 1-85604-178-6

  • Stephen, Peter and Hornby, Susan. (1997) Simple statistics for library and information professionals 2nd ed. London: Library Association. ISBN 1-85604-220-0

And also ones dealing with specific aspects of research, e.g.:
  • Koontz, C. (1997) Library Facility Siting and Location Handbook. Greenwood Publishing. ISBN 0313286825
ESOMAR (European Society for Opinion and Market Research) has a searchable Glossary of market research terms
Contents | The Marketing cycle | Definitions | Some marketing jargon | The Marketing cycle | Mission | Reviewing your position | The marketing mix | Services marketing| Services marketing | List of readings and links about marketing library and information services | List of links about marketing in general
Send an email to Sheila Webber at s.webber@sheffield.ac.uk

Sheila Webber.