Data

How to Ensure Proper Data Cleaning in Excel?

May 11, 2020

In Research, the emphasis is on the report writing because a good report comprehensively explains all the stages with the relevant outcome and valuable way forwards.

Reports are the product of data gathered either from secondary or primary sources and it is, therefore, very important for the data to be authentic, reliable, and up to date. In order to ensure the reliability of data, it has to be processed for omitting any error or mistake. And before we can work with our data, we need to make sure it’s valid, accurate, and reliable.

In the age of Big Data, companies may spend just as much or more on maintaining the health and cleaning their data as they spend on collecting it in the first place. Consider the issues that can stem from missing or wrong values, duplicates, and typos. The validity, accuracy, and reliability of your calculations depend on your ability to keep your data up-to-date, this is also evident from Ace Research’s projects.

To prepare data for later analysis, it is important to have a clean data table.  Depending on the origin of the data, you may need to do some of the following steps to ensure that the data are as complete and consistent as possible.

  1. Assign unique code to your fields

Unique codes are very useful while sorting and cleaning data because at any stage if trouble arises you can sort out the data from your database with the help of unique codes already assigned to the data set.

  1. Maintain separate sheets if you are working on a huge data set

Often the data is very large and you cannot work on the whole data set at the same time, so it is preferred to maintain separate files for each change you make. This helps when you refer back in case you missed anything at any step.

  1. Get rid of extra spaces

Extra spaces are painfully difficult to spot. While you may somehow spot the extra spaces between words or numbers, trailing spaces are not even visible. Here is a neat way to get rid of these extra spaces

Excel TRIM function takes the cell reference (or text) as the input. It removes leading and trailing spaces as well as the additional spaces between words (except single spaces).

  1. Select and treat all blank cells

Blank cells can create havoc if not treated beforehand. We often face issues with blank cells in a data set that is used to create reports.

You may want to fill all blank cells with ‘0’ or ‘Not Available’, or may simply want to highlight it. If there is a huge data set, doing this manually could take hours. Thankfully, there is a way you can select all the blank cells at once.

  1. Select the entire data set
  2. Press F5 (this opens the Go to dialogue box)
  3. Click on the Special button (at the bottom left).
  4. This opens the Go To Special dialogue box
  5. Select Blank and Click OK

This selects all the blank cells in your data set. If you want to enter 0 or Not Available in all these cells, just type it and press Control + Enter (remember if you press only enter, the value is inserted only in the active cell).

  1. Remove duplicates

There can be 2 things you can do with duplicate data – Highlight It or Delete It.

Highlight Duplicate Data:

Select the data and Go to Home – Conditional Formatting – Highlight Cells Rules – Duplicate Values.

Specify the formatting and all the duplicate values get highlighted.

Delete Duplicates in Data: 

  • Select the data and Go to Data – Remove Duplicates.
  • If your data has headers, ensure that the checkbox at the top right is checked.
  • Select the Column(s) from which you want to remove duplicates and click OK.

This removes duplicate values from the list.

If you want the original list intact, copy-paste the data at some other location and then do this.

  1. Highlight errors

There are 2 ways you can highlight Errors in Data in Excel:

Using Conditional Formatting

  • Select the entire data set
  • Go to Home –Conditional Formatting – New Rule
  • In New Formatting Rule Dialogue Box select ‘Format Only Cells that Contain’
  • In the Rule Description, select Errors from the drop-down
  • Set the format and click OK. This highlights any error value in the selected dataset

Using Go To Special

  • Select the entire data set
  • Press F5 (this opens the Go To Dialogue box)
  • Click on Special Button at the bottom left
  • Select Formulas and uncheck all options except Errors

This selects all the cells that have an error in it. Now you can manually highlight these, delete it, or type anything into it.

  1. Change text to lower/upper/proper case

When you import data from text files, often the names or titles are not consistent. Sometimes all the text could be in lower/upper case or it could be a mix of both. You can easily make it all consistent by using these three functions:

  • LOWER () – Converts all text into Lower Case.
  • UPPER () – Converts all text into Upper Case.
  • PROPER () – Converts all Text into Proper Case.
  1. Parse data using text to column

When you get data from a database or import it from a text file, it may happen that all the text is cramped in one cell. You can parse this text into multiple cells by using Text to Column functionality in Excel.

  • Select the data/text you want to parse
  • Go To Data –Text to Column (This opens the Text to Columns Wizard)

Step 1: Select the data type (select Delimited if your data is not equally spaced, and is separated by characters such as comma, a hyphen, dot.). Click Next

Step 2: Select Delimiter (the character that separates your data). You can select pre-defined delimiter or anything else using the other option

Step 3: Select the data format. Also, select the destination cell. If the destination cell is not selected, the current cell is overwritten.

  1. Spell check

Nothing lowers the credibility of your work than a spelling mistake.

Use the keyboard shortcut F7 to run a spell check for your data set in Excel.

  1. Delete all formatting

In my job, I used multiple databases to get the data in excel. Every database had its own data formatting. When you have all the data in place, here is how you can delete all the formatting at one go:

  • Select the data set
  • Go to Home – Clear –Clear Formats

Similarly, you can also clear only the comments, hyperlinks, or content.

  1. Use find and replace to clean data in excel

Find and replace is indispensable when it comes to data cleansing. For example, you can select and remove all zeros, change references in formulas, find and change formatting, and so on.

Report Writing

Steps In Report Writing – Market Research

April 30, 2020

Report Writing involves many steps but in this blog areas which are very important in every report will be explained. Report Writing normally contains headings such as Introduction, details about secondary Research and/or Primary Research, Analysis based on any of the two research types i.e. qualitative and quantitative followed by recommendation and Conclusion.

The introduction of the report provides an overview of the purpose of conducting any research and also its objectives.

This is followed by Methodology i.e. secondary research, primary research, or a mix of both. Simultaneously, research can be quantitative or qualitative. Secondary research can be quantified using simple statistical operations. Whereas Primary research is based upon qualitative attributes seeking opinions, views, and ideas from respondents. Each has its own way of interpretation.

In this blog, you can find details on how to prepare a very comprehensive report with a step by step guide on Quantitative and Qualitative Research Report Writing as followed by Ace Research.

Quantitative Research

Secondary Research      

  • Make Headings/Sections

If the data has to come from secondary sources make sure you make proper heading and sections for each category of secondary data. Secondary research contains data that is obtained from online available information such as, previous reports, scientific journals, online articles or organizational databases.

  • Search Relevant and Up to date Data

Secondary data should not be more than two years old, except in those cases where data is not available older data not more than 5 years can be cited/ used for reference. Too old data may net help in generalizability and cannot be used to infer outcomes.

  • Proper Referencing is important

Always maintain the record of sources from where you acquired the secondary information. Use authentic sources and double check the validity of data across different data sources if available. It is recommended to use APA format for referencing.

Primary Data

  • Compile Data in Excel

In quantitative research you compile all data in excel, either it is online or paper based. Remember when designing a questionnaire you will have to maintain logic against each question and answer. The proper scale should be adopted for quantification of responses, otherwise if systematically not designed, after gathering all the data you might struggle as to how to arrange the data for extracting meaningful information or cross analysis.

Data Cleaning

Data cleaning comes after when you have exported and compiled data in Excel. When you get the data it might have human errors although in the training phase emphasis is placed to ensure minimum errors in data.

To clear the errors you must have to check all the responses against any spelling/grammatical mistakes, numerical errors, wrong responses, blank responses etc.

  • Adjust Blank Responses

Blank’s data/incomplete data have to be assessed critically. If you have lots of blanks in any question you can either discard them if the information provided is not very meaningful. Similarly, in case of a few blanks questions you can depict the trend of responses by responding and it can be filled accordingly. Remember, this holds true only if trends can help you in filling those blanks otherwise state N/A.

  • Make Individual Excel sheets

For each question in the questionnaire you can create separate sheets as it helps to make analysis easier. This will be done after you have completely cleaned the data.

  • Maintain Separate Files for Complex Questions

In case some questions are complex or have multiple layers of response you may analyze them separately. This is helpful because if you made too many sheets in a single file, analysis can become very difficult.

  • Use a pivot table in Excel

A pivot table is best for quick analysis. If you have questions in which you have to analyze the trend between two variables uses a simple pivot table. You can use a variety of charts to analyze your question. For this you must have Excel 2013 or latest.

  • Make Graphs

Graphs are really helpful in analyzing the situation and if you have made graphs it is suggested to use 3d bars with percentages so you can reflect the assessment in a precise and clear manner.

  • Highlight Information in Graphs

For clarity, you can highlight important information in the Graphs. For instance, the highest bar in the histogram can be highlighted.

  • Copy Graphs in Ms. Word

Once you have run all the operations in excel, now it’s time to embed the workings in the report. For this, you will copy all the graphs into word files with proper labels and headings.

  • Comments on Each Graph

For each graph, you can put comments to explain your analysis.

Qualitative Research

Secondary Research      

Follow the same steps as described in Quantitative analysis.

Primary Research

  • Transcripts (IDIs / FGDs)

Make headings and sections for transcript, this will serve as an outline for transcribing recorded interviews.

Once the interview is conducted you must draft a document in which sections should be maintained for each of the discussion areas and after this, each response from respondents i.e. either a single respondent in case of IDI or group of respondents in FGD should be carefully written adhering to the sequence of discussion.

  • Highlighting Main points

Make a table that consists of very brief and relevant response against each question by respondent. Once you have transcribed all the recordings now you can assess them for the individual’s response. For IDI’s it is easier as there is only one respondent but for FGD as there are many respondents you can make a grid and record each respondents response against questions asked. Remember in this stage you are highlighting important points only.

  • Extract findings and recommendations

While extracting important points from a transcripts highlight relevant findings and recommendations, maintain heading for both at the end of report

As you have prepared a transcript for the whole session and also highlighted each individual’s response in case of FGD now you can extract all relevant findings and recommendations from all discussions for Report Writing.

Final Report Glimpse

  1. Make the content outline
  2. Enter data (Follow the Aforementioned sequence)
  3. After Analysis is performed and Final Draft Prepared, review thoroughly for spelling mistakes, grammatical mistakes or/and any contradictory statements.
  4. Revisit Deliverables of the report and match with the content of the report before submission to the client.
IDI

Conducting Online In-depth Interviews (IDIs)

April 22, 2020

A Focus Group Discussion (FGD) is a group discussion used mainly for assessing the gaps identified by companies/ a company to streamline activities with their overall objectives. Assessment derived from FGDs let companies plan future actions. The group’s composition and the group discussion are carefully planned where people are free to talk openly. Participants of this discussion are actively encouraged to express their opinions.

In Pakistan, Ace Research has conducted many Focus Group Discussions in a variety of projects and the main purpose was to extract information from respondents in length. FGD is a handy approach for assessment of clients, consumers and end users of products and services. Development as well as the Corporate sector can seek benefits of FGDs. Retailers, Banking sector, Telco’s, FMCGs can utilize this tool to get an insight about the expectation, perception and value derived by their end users from products and services.

Designing Objective Questionnaire

The research is always based on some objectives and these objectives are in line with problem statements developed after assessing underlying gaps in activities performed by any organization. Research Objective will determine the structure and pattern of the Questionnaire. Therefore, the first and foremost important factor prior to conducting any research activity is assessment of problems followed by preparation of research instrument i.e. Questionnaire. This instrument plays a very vital role in probing factors lurking behind problems identified.

Questionnaire preparation must be carried out with keen eye for events and arguments associated with the problem. Also, previous instruments used for similar researches can be consulted and with little or no modification if it serves the purpose can be utilized

Designing Manual & Script

Once the Questionnaire has been prepared and consent of all research stakeholders have been obtained, the next step is to design a manual for moderators. This manual serves as the guideline for conducting any Discussion in light of the designed questionnaire. This manual helps moderators to assess the required information effectively.

Script is the detailed version of manual which supplements moderator with minute details such as, probing point for open-end questions, outlining theme for each section with brief description. This allows the moderator to grip hands on whole the questionnaire and during discussion he/she will not face any problem at all. Also, the manual and script are so effective that if they are supplied to the moderator with no prior experience and he/she studies it thoroughly they can conduct any session with ease without any difficulty to understand anything. With the Aid of Manual and Script FGD is initiated with respondents and now another important need of FGD is Good Moderator.
Your moderator will determine the success of your group. Moderators should have some experience of conducting FGDs in the past. Engaging participants in the discussion is very important otherwise precious time can be lost in lengthy unnecessary discussions.

Views of the participants have to be respected and moderator has to remain neutral throughout and must only steer the discussion as per guidelines. Moderators can come across a variety of participants or maybe participants have a lot to share from various perspectives, enlightening the moderator with a large pool of information. For instance one of the FGDs conducted by Ace Research for IT board attracted respondents from diverse fields that included politicians, Expert IT technicians, IT investors, CEO of IT companies etc. the discussion was very fruitful and many questions were sufficiently responded by participants but steering this type of diverse FGD has to be managed very effectively. You have to listen to everyone and at the same time everyone must understand and stick to the agenda of discussion.

Arranging Target Audience

FGD can be arranged in a simple yet organized way. First Step toward arranging any FGD is to identify your participants. The Projects often clearly indicate the characteristics of their participants otherwise with consultation from client this can be sorted out.
Respondents of Projects seeking B2B assessment via FGD’s can be arranged by referrals from client or snowball sampling. Whereas respondents of B2C can be arranged by referrals or Random sampling.
You can find participants by acquiring information from clients or available online data bases such as companies offering IT services to be involved in FGD related to IT companies have been located via secondary research. In other cases, when you have figured out some companies with reference from a client or online database you may seek their reference to approach other IT companies respectively.
Participants initially get a telephonic call where you brief them about your intention to carry out FGD. Once you get their consent you can send them an email with all necessary details. In your first email or the next you can share details about venue, timings, agenda, moderator of interview and any incentive accompanying this discussion. Although, the respondents might confirm their availability but due to unwanted reasons maybe some of them won’t join you in discussion. So it is very important that suppose if you want to hold FGD of 8 members you must approach 20-25 respondents. Among them many might not be available for discussion or may share some kind of reservation. You might get confirmation from 12-15 and again all of them may not be available on days of discussion past experiences suggest, it is therefore encouraged to approach more people for any FGD group.

Conducting Focus Group Discussion

Step 1: Making Venue arrangements (online. Zoom, team viewer, Skype)
If the FGD is taking place offline, it is important to note that the venue must be arranged somewhere convenient and accessible to all respondents. Prior to finalizing your venue you can drop an email to respondents about desired venue location and if the majority have a problem of accessibility it can be changed.
Similarly, Online FGD is easy and accessible for all respondents. All that is required is good internet connectivity. Group Discussion can be arranged on a variety of online platforms such as Zoom Meeting Room, TeamViewer, Skype etc.

Step 2: Inviting Audience
Audience consent to join FGD will be followed by invitation to session. Offline session invitations/ an offline invitation shall include venue location, description about FGD, moderator, refreshments included, and etc.
Online Invitation will also be sent via email, it will contain links/ a link to any of the desirable online discussion platforms along with the description of FGD.

Step 3: Recording Arrangements online
In offline FGD, recorder can be set with the permission of respondents while, in online session recording can be turned on again after consent from Respondents.

Step 4: Actual Discussion
Once the Respondents are all at the venue or have joined an online session, the FGD is good to begin. Moderator will introduce himself and agenda of discussion, after this manual and script will be followed to conduct the session. Assistant moderator can assist moderator in conducting this session.

Step 5: Concluding refreshment
In offline sessions, refreshment can be served to respondents after completion of FGD. Whereas, during online discussions a letter of appreciation can be sent to respondents for sparing their precious time for this session.

Reporting

Step 1: Keeping summary notes during the discussion
It is important to take notes of key points during discussion. For this Assistant moderator can be tasked to carry out this activity of taking notes.

Step 2: Writing Transcripts
Transcripts of FGDs are very crucial and important for extracting relevant information. All the discussions have to be written down either during session or later (if recordings taken) for Reporting and Analysis.

Step 3: Make Summary of each discussion
Summary of all responses by each participant has to be extracted from transcripts and a comprehensive report will be created for highlighting key areas which can include improvement areas, core problem areas, opportunities, threats, strength and weaknesses.

Step 4: Topline Report
Based on the summary topline report will be prepared, it contains all the important points identified by respondents which are directly related with Objectives of FGD.

Step 5: Analysis
Based on overall discussion and topline report an analysis is drawn to conclude the outcomes of the discussion in line with Objectives of carrying out this discussion. Analysis is shared with Client and thereupon necessary actions plan can be prepared to address the problem.

Research

Digital Research ‘Lifeline for The Survival of Industries”

April 22, 2020

Effect of coronavirus on Businesses

The novel coronavirus has disrupted nearly all operations across the globe. Industries in general and business, in particular, are the victim of this virus. This virus which affects the respiratory system of the victim has to date killed many innocents globally, with highest deaths recorded in Italy i.e. around 10k.

Traveling has been put to halt and as a matter of fact all human to human interaction has been minimized as this virus is contagious. Social distancing is the only approach effective so far to mitigate the far-reaching effects of coronavirus.

Impact on businesses

As per Moody’s assessment industries that will bear the biggest brunt of this pandemic are; Textile, automotive, consumer durables, gaming, lodging/leisure and tourism, airlines, retail (non-food) and shipping. Those getting moderately affected include, beverages, chemicals, manufacturing, media, metal and mining, oil and gas, property developers, agriculture, services, steel and technology hardware. Industries that will bear the lowest impact are construction, defenses, equipment and transportation, rental, packaging, pharmaceutical, food, telecom and waste management.

Potential positive impact will be upon, internet services companies, retail online and gold mining.

Why conventional research is not an option now?

Conventional research involves field surveys and human interaction is involved but given the circumstance this cannot take place now but instead online means can be adopted effectively to conduct research. In recent stats it is being revealed that internet usage has increase significantly and people are spending more time online.

Digital research has seen a shift from conventional paper and pencil research in recent times and with ever increasing use of online platforms companies are using digital means to assess needs and preferences of their customers. It has been observed that FMCGs and Telecom are affected with less by coronavirus and this is good time or such industries to analyze the shift in demand of their customers and be prepared to meet the with maximum productivity.

How to conduct Digital Research

Online Market Research is a research method in which the data collection process is carried out over the Internet.

Online Market Research can be either Qualitative or Quantitative.  Qualitative Online Tools include Video Ethnography and Market Research Online Communities (MROCs).  Quantitative Online Methods include mobile and app surveys.

This research can evaluate the performance of a product or service and may allow companies to glean insight into consumer purchasing behavior. With the rising use of the Internet, digital research has become a popular tool among market research firms.

Digital research can provide additional information about a buyer, such as her prior purchasing history. Digital research projects can be carried out by a company itself or by a hired research firm. There are several ways that may be effective for carrying out digital research. Quantitative research can be carried out via online questionnaires and web-based experiments.  Qualitative research can be carried out via online in-depth interviews, online focus groups and participant observation, in which a researcher acts as a part of a community to observe behaviors.

Online questionnaires and online polls are some of the most popular digital research tools. Online questionnaires may need to be carefully designed in terms of format and length. Some of the key digital research models Ace Research offers include;

1. Brand Heath tracking

Brand Analysis: Brand research has similar profiling features (“Who uses this brand?”) and also aims at identifying the reasons for brand loyalty or fickleness.

Scanner Research: Scanner research uses checkout counter scans of transactions to develop patterns for all manner of end uses, including stocking, of course. From a marketing point of view, scans can also help users track the success of coupons and to establish linkages between products.

2. Consumer research

Audience Research: Audience research is aimed at discovering who is listening, watching, or reading radio, TV, and print media respectively. Such studies in part profile the audience and in part determine the popularity of the medium or portions of it.

Product Research: Product tests, of course, directly relate to use of the product. Good examples taste tests used to pick the most popular flavors-; and consumer tests of vehicle or device prototypes to uncover problematical features or designs.

Psychological Profiling: Psychological profiling aims at construction profiles of customers by temperament, lifestyle, income, and other factors and tying such types to consumption patterns and media patronage.

Database Research: Also known as database “mining,” this form of research attempts to exploit all kinds of data on hand on customers-; which frequently have other revealing aspects. Purchase records, for example, can reveal the buying habits of different income groups-;the income classification of accounts taking place by census tract matching. Data on average income by census tract can be obtained from the Bureau of the Census.

3. Pre/post campaign evaluation

Post-sale or Consumer Satisfaction Research: Post-consumer surveys are familiar to many consumers from telephone calls that follow having a car serviced or calling help-lines for computer- or Internet-related problems. In part such surveys are intended to determine if the customer was satisfied. In part this additional attention is intended also to build good will and word-of-mouth advertising for the service provider.

4. Monitoring and evaluation

M&E can be conducted using a wide array of tools, methods and approaches. These include, for example: performance monitoring indicators; the logical framework; theory-based evaluation; formal surveys such as service delivery surveys, citizen report cards, living standards measurement surveys (LSMS) and core welfare indicators questionnaires (CWIQ); rapid appraisal methods such as key informant interviews, focus group discussions and facilitated brainstorming by staff and officials; participatory methods such as participatory M&E; public expenditure tracking surveys; rigorous impact evaluation; and cost-benefit and cost-effectiveness analysis. With the aid of digital research all these facets of M&E can be conducted online.

5. Online Discussions (Focus Group and In-depth)

Another common practice for online surveys is the use of online panels. An online panel is a group of selected individuals that have agreed to participate in digital research projects for a particular company at specific intervals over a period of time. These participants are selected through a screening process according to their demographics, lifestyles and habits, and are usually rewarded for their efforts by the research company regularly. Online panels may allow companies to glean insight into creating long-term relationships with their customers.  These panels may also allow customers to give direct feedback about products and services without the potential reluctance that may occur in face-to-face interactions.  Online panels may also mitigate bias caused by peer pressure to agree on a certain viewpoint, a phenomena that may occur in face-to-face panels.

Benefits of Digital Research

Amid the outbreak of this virus, businesses are widely affected and we all hope for better results with least damage in coming days to people and businesses alike. Nonetheless, once things get settle down the businesses have already borne the wrath of this virus and revenues are dwindling. So in these circumstances it is crucial for companies to closely monitor their clients and consumers so after this virus settles down, a strategy based on factual research can be devised immediately to recover the losses effectively.

To sum up, we have following advantages of conducting digital research.

  • Cost advantages
  • Speed advantages
  • Data collection in real-time
  • Advanced analytics
  • Efficient global and multi-country survey management

Conducting digital research can be a complex procedure and may require considerable expertise on the part of researchers in obtaining accurate data.  It may be challenging to recruit participants in digital research for several reasons.  Recipients may be reluctant to participate in digital research because they may be afraid that the privacy and confidentiality of their personal information may be violated.  Since the identity of the researcher cannot be verified completely, people may find it difficult to trust such research methods.  Researchers often present participants with some monetary or non-monetary rewards for their participation

FGD

Conducting Online Focus Group Discussions in Pakistan

April 20, 2020

An In-depth interview (IDI) is a qualitative research technique that involves conducting individual interviews with respondents to explore their perspectives on a particular idea, program, or situation. For example, we might ask participants, staff, and others associated with a program or certain situation about their experiences and expectations related to that particular event. Their views about program operations, processes, outcomes, and about any changes they perceive in themselves as a result of their involvement in that particular event or program.
There are numerous areas where one can undertake IDIs for example, for consumer’s feedback and opinion on product or advertisement. In Pakistan, particularly in metropolitan cities such as Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad customers are very conscious about the type of product they are using and therefore their valuable feedback can help companies to devise strategies accordingly.

Designing Questionnaire

The research is always based on some objectives and these objectives ought to be in line with problem statements developed after assessing underlying gaps in activities performed by any organization. Research Objective will determine the structure and pattern of the Questionnaire. Therefore, the first and foremost important factor prior to conducting any research activity is an assessment of problems followed by preparation of research instrument i.e. Questionnaire. This instrument plays a very vital role in probing factors lurking behind problems identified.
The Questionnaires will help in assessing to what extent respondents are aware of the event under probe and if questionnaires are not designed with an ultimate purpose in mind, the whole purpose of conducting this activity is lost.
Questionnaire preparation must be carried out with a keen eye for events and arguments associated with the problem. Also, previous instruments used for similar researches can be consulted and with little or no modification if it serves the purpose can be utilized

Designing Manual and Guide for Interview

An interview protocol is very crucial, the rules that guide the implementation of the interviews. These are the instructions that are followed for each interview, to ensure consistency between interviews, and thus increase the reliability of the findings. Clear instructions for the interviewer should be included in the manual for conducting IDIs. The manual address following concerns i.e. What to say to interviewees when setting up the interview; What to say to interviewees when beginning the interview, including ensuring informed consent and confidentiality of the interviewee; What to say to interviewees in concluding the interview; What to do during the interview likes, Taking notes or using Recorder or Both?
The Interview guide is a checklist that carries questions or issues to be explored during the interview. There should be no more than 15 main questions to guide the interview, and probes should be included where helpful.

It is also important to note that you will likely need interview guides for each group of stakeholders, as questions may differ. Where necessary, translate guides into local languages and test the translation.
Arranging Target Audience Identify stakeholders who will be involved i.e. what information is needed and from whom. List the stakeholders to be interviewed. Identify stakeholder groups that are associated with the objectives of your IDIs. Suppose you are conducting IDI’s for the IT sector, and you want to identify what possible strategy could be adopted to address gaps in meeting revenue targets. For this you will be interviewing stakeholders such as associations working for the IT sector, government institutes involved in regulating IT sector activities, CEOs of IT companies etc. Data acquired from all the stakeholders in turn will help in analyzing the issue from a wide angle.

Similarly, if you are seeking an assessment from the target audience which is the general population again IDIs can play a very vital role. For Example, the baby products by P&G and Unilever are widely used for kids and thereby, mothers can be interviewed exclusively for gathering their opinion and experience about product’s utility. Customer perception is key in analyzing the effectiveness of any product the moment it lands on their shopping cart.
IDIs are normally directed toward those from whom very relevant and up-to-date information can be sought and also they are involved with significant stakes in activity under investigation. Therefore, referral or snowball sampling is the best method to approach stakeholders for IDIs.

Conducting In-depth Interviews:

Step 1: Making Venue arrangements (Online i.e. Zoom, Teamviewer, Skype)
If the IDI is taking place offline, it is important to note that the venue must be arranged somewhere convenient and accessible to respondent, normally the interviews are conducted in the respective office of Respondent. Prior to finalizing your venue you can drop an email to the respondents about the desired venue location and after getting their consent Interview can be arranged.
Similarly, Online IDI is easy and accessible for the respondent to attend. All that is required is good internet connectivity. The Interview can be arranged on a variety of online platforms such as the Zoom Meeting Room, Team Viewer, Skype etc. Also, for IDIs other options like WhatsApp video, iPhone’s facetime, and Facebook video chat can be utilized as well.

Step 2: Inviting Respondents
Respondents consent to take an interview will be followed by an invitation for an interview. Offline session invitation shall include, venue location, description of IDi, moderator, etc.
Online Invitation will also be sent via email, it will contain a link to any of the desirable online platforms along with a description of IDI.

Step 3: Recording Arrangements online
In face to face Interview,recorder can be set with the permission of the respondent while in online session, recording can be turned again after consent from Respondent.

Step 4: Actual Discussion more points
Once the interviewee is at the venue or has joined an online session, the IDI is good to begin. Moderator will introduce himself and the agenda of discussion, after this manual/interview guide will be followed to conduct the session. Each question has a set of probing points and in case the respondent does not comprehend the scenario a hint can be given which are marked as probing points with a moderator. Also, it is crucial for the interviewer to pay attention to what the respondent is telling and follow-up questions should be asked if clarity is required for any of his/her responses. If in case the respondent feels offended due to any question don’t stress on it and instead move on to the next question.

Step 5: Concluding Interview Session
After the interview ends a letter of appreciation can be furnished to the respondent for sparing his/her precious time for this session.

Reporting

Step 1: Keeping summary notes during the discussion
It is important to take notes of key points during the discussion. For this Assistant moderator can be tasked to carry out this activity of taking notes.

Step 2: Writing Transcripts
Transcripts of IDIs are very crucial and important for extracting relevant information. All the discussions have to be written down either during the session or later (if recordings are taken) for Reporting and Analysis.

Step 3: Make Summary of each discussion
Summary of all relevant and important responses i.e. Question wise has to be extracted from transcripts and a comprehensive report will be created for highlighting key areas which may include improvement areas, core problem areas, opportunities, threats, strength and weaknesses.

Step 4: Topline Report
Based on the summary topline report will be prepared, it contains all the important points identified by respondents which are directly related to Objectives of IDIs. It is preferred that topline report should be a grid with questions on one axis and precise response by respondents on other providing a very clear glimpse of the overall discussion.

Step 5: Analysis
Based on the overall discussion and topline report analysis is drawn to conclude the outcomes of the discussion in line with the Objectives of carrying out this discussion. The Analysis is shared with the Client and thereupon necessary action plans can be prepared to address the problem.

MARKET RESEARCH

Long Term Benefits of Market Research

February 26, 2020

Market research should never be underestimated. Many successful new businesses enjoy longevity because their owners conduct regular market research to understand their target market, identify consumer problems and pinpoint realistic competitors. In Pakistan, companies undermine the long term benefits of market research. Least weightage is assigned to market research when deciding relevant markets for products and services. Companies do have provision for market research but are reluctant to invest in getting a real-time market assessment and as a result, often their strategies and policies are ineffective in capturing a true market share of forecasted targets. This leads to inconsistency in growth, earning and customer retention in the longer run.

Market Research is the simplest way for entrepreneurs to keep up with market trends and maintain a competitive edge by sizing up your business opportunity.

Market research can be carried out at various stages of a business life cycle, from pre-launch and beyond. Having a greater understanding of your marketplace from the very start will enable you to create a sound business strategy to establish and grow your brand into one that’s better than the competition.

Market Research Objectives

The scope of the market research you’ll undertake is influenced by your overall objectives – what do you want to learn about your market and the external factors influencing it?

The objectives will also determine the types of market research that you need to undertake in order to be successful: Research could be Primary market research or Secondary market research.

Long term Benefits of Market Research:

  • It helps businesses strengthen their position.

Knowledge is power. Use market research to gain a better perspective and understanding of your market or target audience and ensure that your firm stays ahead of the competition.

  • It minimizes any investment risk.

This is a simple but vitally important and often business-critical consideration. Spending what is often only a small proportion of your investment in researching and testing the market, product, concept or idea makes sound business sense.

  • It identifies potential threats and opportunities.

Both primary research (fieldwork) and secondary research (desk research) can be utilized as an insurance policy against both obvious dangers on the road ahead. Coupling this with some qualitative research for deeper probing can highlight certain opportunities or warning signs that may otherwise have been missed.

  • It helps to discover yours and your competitor’s strengths and weaknesses.

It’s vitally important to adopt an ‘eye’s wide open’ approach to any market research project which is why it’s often advised to work with a market research agency to ensure completely unbiased reporting. Use research findings to adapt and learn from your weaknesses whilst capitalizing on your new-found knowledge from competitor analysis to take advantage and forge ahead of the pack.

  • It facilitates strategic planning.

What is the foundation of your business strategy? If it’s evidence-based and you’ve taken the time to invest in your own (and hopefully ongoing) research, you can be confident that you’ve given yourself the best chance to achieve your business goals.

  • It helps in spotting emerging trends.

Staying ahead in business is often about being the first, being the best or doing something that no-one else has thought about. Regularly taking the ‘pulse’ of what’s hot and what’s not in your industry is a key discipline. Speak to your research agency or research consultant about the range of techniques you can employ to spot and exploit these trends.

  • It assists businesses to stay ahead of the competition.

Being the best demands a relentlessness to keep getting the basics right combined with a curiosity and willingness to innovate. Knowing how to leverage the findings and insights you extract from market research, audience research and data research are the keys to both getting ahead and staying ahead.

  • It provides revenue projections.

A market forecast is a core component of a market analysis projecting the future numbers, characteristics, and trends in your target market. Potential customers can then be divided into segments. You want to focus on the best market – which is not necessarily the largest one or the market with the highest growth – it will be the one that matches your company profile.

  • It focuses on customer needs and demands.

There are so many important reasons to keep your customers at the center of all that you do in business and the same goes for research. With so many ways to reach customers using online panels, web communities, telephone surveys, depth interviews, and focus groups, market research keeps you attentive to where you can improve your proposition, customer service or product offering.

  • Target Audience ‘Core Essential for Business Growth’

Most new businesses will encounter three different types of customer i.e. the ‘savvy’ purchaser;

A ‘savvy’ customer is someone likely to be aware of all the prices offered by your major competitors. Another type is of the industry influencer, someone that is not only highly knowledgeable about your target market; they can also influence other prospective customers that trust their opinion. Last but not least the end-user; they are a type of customer that will use your products or services on a day-to-day basis.

  • It helps to evaluate the success of business against benchmarks.

An International survey found that companies that benchmark achieve 69% faster growth and 45% greater productivity than those that don’t. Use market research for competitor research, employee engagement surveys, and to highlight performance or knowledge gaps and areas for potential growth. This will open your company up to thinking about new methods, ideas, and tools to improve your business effectiveness.

Why Market Research is important for Government Organizations?

February 26, 2020

Research

While it’s tempting to rush to market as you transform your great idea into a reality, a lack of reliable market research can doom your dream. Know your market before you go to market.

The term “information age” defines our world today. All businesses require accurate and timely information to be successful. Whether your company is large or small, financing, equipment, materials, talent, and experience alone are not enough to succeed without a constant flow of the right business information.

Many large companies make market research into a very sophisticated and lengthy process so they can find out everything possible about their customers.

Similarly, government institutions must not disengage from research and development. Research helps in designing a sustainable policy to attain long term growth and prosperity. Government departments, particularly in Pakistan, have a long history of failed policies promulgated without prior research. State departments such as education, IT, climate, science, and technology, etc. must conduct a fresh assessment of the market by means of the third party to identify the gaps in the market. Otherwise, objectives set on unrealistic data do no validate any progress.

While you probably can’t afford a separate marketing research department to gather and monitor all the information that could possibly help you, all institutions must know their markets, competitors, the customer wants and needs, and “what it takes to be competitive.” It is not enough to know the answers to what, where, when, and how questions about our policies. We also need to know why people would endorse our ideas. You should expect to budget at least a minimal amount of time and money for research, especially if you are funding a new project or empowering the existing one.

Innovation is central to the rapid development of any country. Advanced economies of the world are only making progress because they are highly skilled at innovating and developing new products which give them a competitive advantage over developing nations. The rise of Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, IoT has been termed as the Fourth Industrial revolution which will bring opportunities as well as challenges and those countries who are not prepared for this next wave of the industrial revolution are doomed to fail. Innovation stems from generating new ideas, by making research-based products, making or building new business processes and generating new as well as efficient ways of doing the same thing. According to the global competitive index, Pakistan stands at number 122 out a total of 138 nations which indicates it is a clear backbencher. According to the global innovation index, Pakistan stands at number 113 while India stands at number 60 and China stands at number 22. This gives rise to a very pressing question that despite having the best brains, why are we lagging behind the world in innovation? We turn the blind face toward research and assessment of problems existing in the country. Lack of mechanism to promote research and development Pakistan is unable to set directions for growth.

For government agencies, market research will provide information on the following:

  • Capable sources, including small businesses
  • Commercial practices
  • Competitive market forces
  • Current laws and regulations
  • Existing products
  • Generalized pricing information
  • Successful acquisition practices of other organizations
  • Support capabilities
  • Varying levels of product performance and quality

Aftermarket research has been concluded, and the information is understood by the agency, it’s important that they provide documentation of all the findings.

How Organizations are Using Research to Build Relationships?

October 23, 2019

 

If an organization wants to improve and develop its customer relationship; then it should focus on its market research functions. And to enhance customer experience there are certain grounds for the organization’s awareness.

Customers Research Experience Is Associated with their High Expectations

Research and survey experience is not assessed along other surveys rather customers are assessing every contact they have made with your brand with the best brands in that class. So, you not only have to take account of customer’s time and attention but also simultaneously, you will be competing against big developed brands around you.

With the awareness about market research that how it judges and monitors the customer’s perception of your brand, the customer’s are now looking for highly personalized interaction on every point of their experience.

The data acquired has now become very sensitive. It means customers are aware of the fact that what value it carries to share their information with you, risks associated with it and nevertheless, they want to learn about the product of the information they have provided.

Organization Have Realized the Essentials of Market Research for the Whole Setup

The traditional approach of data utilization is evolved into the in-depth analysis-oriented function of data across organizations. Instead of single point data accumulation for different cores of an organization, a holistic view of the customer is generated by market research.

To enhance customer relations, information from across the organization can be acquired by the researcher to address the problems. Ace Research having hands-on researches of all kinds reveals that the access to relevant big data gives a thorough insight to the researcher which was unattainable before and therefore, the hawk eye’s view shall break the data barriers and silos.

‘Insight’ an essential core for developing strong customer relationships

As the sales process carries vital importance for the customer service functions, similarly market research function that is instilled with insight into customer relationship and research techniques is an integral part of customer experience assessment.

As it is an integrated part, and has a role to play and it should carry the positive impact on customer experience and this will ultimately have an impact on the perception of a customer about your brand. An insight-driven organization realizes the need to develop customer relationship and for that purpose, it uses the research process to enrich it.

10 Ways of Doing Customer Research

October 23, 2019

Business exists for customers and the way you deal and respond to your customer will determine how productive is your business as well as its ultimate impact on customer retention. Ace Research proposes that the information you acquire from your customers, help you grow your business. The research method you will opt will depend upon the type of your business and the kind of information you need to acquire. And it can be done internally by assigning a task to some individuals or you may hire a consultant to conduct perhaps more transparent research for your organization.

Although several Customer Research methods can be combined to achieve certain customer research objectives but following are the main Customer Research methods businesses usually incorporate to assess customer’s perception and expectations.

Advertisements and Promotion Evaluation

The impact and effectiveness of your advertisement and promotions can be gauged efficiently with the information collected regarding; the response of your customers to your adopted strategy, it can be done by means of focus group discussions. Also, the analysis of your promotions i.e. the past trend and future plans with respect to sales volume in that given time period. These sorts of research are also categorized as activation evaluation and pre-post campaign evaluations.

Customer Satisfaction Surveys

You can observe the degree of customer satisfaction by informal approaches like a questionnaire that will target old and new customers and also a conversation with staff and the evaluation of product and services scorecards.

Factors influencing Consumers Decision Making Process

A market research, survey, or by means of the questionnaire you can determine that what factors are motivating your customers and influence their decision criteria also, what is the decision-making process they adopt.

Concept testing 

You can ascertain that either your customers consider your product as useful or it carries rational benefits. Also, by means of personal interviews and focus group discussions, you can also determine how they respond to your marketing strategies.

Positioning research

How your customers view your product against your competitors can be observed via this approach and also the revenue earned from each of your market segments and the attitude of your customer in that respective market segment will open various avenues of improving customer relations.

Brand Testing

The feelings of your customer about your brand and product names can be assessed in brand testing. The emotional responses of consumers via focus group and surveys can be determined and also, the brand performance can be tracked by allowing the brand researcher to evaluate your brand using existing available brand research.

Price Testing

The price change testing helps in understanding that how sensitive is your customer to fluctuation in price. You can do it simply by multiplying the number of items sold at the price of each item. And this will show either your revenues increased or decreased. Also, this will determine that what affect your pricing had on your product demand.

Customer service audit

Assessment of either you are providing adequate customer service can be done through, feedbacks, customer surveys, conducting customer panel and phone surveys.

Mystery shopping

To check quality control of your stores, you can designate a mystery shopper to carry out the assessment as an anonymous customer in your store. The mystery shopper shall report, behavior and attitude of sales staff, customer service approaches and sales techniques and strategies adopted by the team.

Social media monitoring

Social media engagement and feedback is a great tool for monitoring your customer’s feedback about your services. Customers are now using social mediums like Facebook to share their experiences and complaints, therefore it is becoming a very important element of business marketing. And if you have managed it productively it can serve as one of the very effective and meaningful research tools for your business.

10 Steps to Create an Effective Customer Survey

October 23, 2019

Organizations that are planning to launch a new product or those who are wondering to acquire the feedback from their customers about their product and services can take benefit from customer surveys. This will lead to gain considerable insight into what your customers think about you and your brand.

Customer Survey can be conducted in different ways and with the influx of digital access, this has become more meaningful, time-saving and easy to plan, design and implement. One way can be through customized online dashboards.

Ace Research is a renowned research company of Pakistan that provides this facility of the online dashboard to its clients for easy and real-time data access to surveys with meaningful reports and analysis of data.

How to get started with Surveys, Here are some tips.

Set your Goal

You must have a very clear picture of what actually you want to derive out from your survey. Is it a customer perception of your brand? Or do you want to have the feedback about your recent product launch? So, the expected outcome needs to be defined otherwise you might not be getting what you desire.

Decide a Survey tool for your study

As you can find many online survey tools for carrying out the surveys, Ace research dashboard the most up to date and customized survey platform that can be accessed for state of the art survey results, quality assurance, instant feedback and reports, real-time access of data to client, online and offline data recording by surveyors from field, etc. The simplest yet not so customized way of carrying out the survey is through email.

Designing a template

With the rapid increase in the demand for surveys, you can find a pre-designed template for your surveys online that will save your time on designing it from scratch altogether. And with the flexibility of customization, you can modify the templates according to your needs and desire.

Questions asked should be very clear

Once you have decided upon the design and theme of your survey now it is a time to create questions that align with your goal, i.e. the need for survey. Don’t mix things together, ask one thing at a time. Your questions should be simple, specific and well understood. Too many questions annoy the respondents try to ask a few questions as possible.  Responses to questions can be based on multiple-choice scenarios, comment boxes, drop-down menus, and sliding scales. The type of scale you adopt should be consistent throughout.

Review your survey

Once the survey is prepared for the target audience to make sure you proofread it and run a trial test of it. And if certain errors arise make changes accordingly. Once reviewed; now you can float your survey to generate a response from your target audience.

Survey invitation should be effective

Your invitation should be attractive, friendly and should contain all necessary information regarding the purpose of the study, the duration of this activity and why the subject’s response is vital in this regard. It should have warm greetings, incentives attached to surveys and a quick close as lengthy descriptions are left unread.

Instructions for completing the survey

Instructions should be clearly specified and the process must be as seamless as possible.

Define the target audience

If sending by email, you should segment your list accordingly as in some cases you might want the survey to be directed only to those who have recently bought your product or avail any particular service etc. this will fetch the most relevant response from your target audience.

Review all steps and send it to respondents

Once you have executed all the steps now you may schedule the survey for your recipients. And once sent don’t forget to send a reminder after some time. So those who haven’t completed the survey yet may get the notification.

Collect data and analyze the responses

Once you started getting the responses, you have to collect the data appropriately and know you may analyze the data to get the relevant information from it and utilize it in your decision making.