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4.4 Market research

Unit 4.4 Market research

Learning outcome

Market research refers to the range of marketing activities designed to determine the opinions, beliefs and feelings of existing and potential customers. It consists of primary and secondary market research, used to help identify and anticipate the needs and wants of customers.

Marketing is a systematic process of gathering, organizing and interpreting information and data about the market and current trends. Essentially, market research is carried out so that the organization can get a better understanding of its customers, competitors, and markets.

For those new to IB Business Management, please note that this is another relatively large unit with a lot of content, so the learning outcomes (see below) need to be planned very carefully. It is also useful for students to study this section of the syllabus prior to their Internal Assessment, as HL students will need to use field research (primarily or exclusively) whilst SL students will need to use desk research sources  (primarily or exclusively) for their Internal Assessment (IA).

The learning outcomes (or assessment objectives) for this section of the IB Business Management syllabus are:

  • Why and how organizations carry out market research (AO2)
  • The following methods/techniques of primary market research (AO2):
    • surveys
    • interviews
    • focus groups
    • observations
  • The following methods/techniques of secondary market research (AO2):
    • market analyses
    • academic journals
    • government publications
    • media articles
  • Ethical considerations of market research (AO3)
  • The difference between qualitative and quantitative research (AO2)
  • The following methods of sampling (AO2):
    • quota
    • random
    • stratified
    • cluster
    • snowballing
    • convenience
  • Results from data collection (AO2)
Top tip!

Market research is vital to the completion of much of the IB Business Management assessment, including the Internal Assessment and Extended Essay. Students must therefore be aware of market research techniques (covered in Unit 4.4).

In addition, they need to be aware of the market research requirements related to ethics and sampling methods, such as the moral and mindful treatement of interviews, surveys, and questionnaires that might be undertaking for their research.

The November 2019 Subject Report (available in full on My IB / the PRC) stated:

"Unfortunately, it was evident that many candidates lacked a real grasp of research principles and as a result did not collect the necessary data, or collected superfluous data that did not relate directly to the research question. Some candidates relied far too much on secondary data, almost ignoring the primary data in their appendices. Those candidates who collected primary data, which was appropriately referenced and focused on their research question, were able to access the higher mark grades." (page 4)

InThinking Business Management resources

Click the hyperlinks below to access the InThinking resources for this particular section of the IB Business Management syllabus.

Return to the Unit 4 Marketing homepage

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