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Table of Contents

  1. Topic pack - Marketing - introduction
  2. 4.1 The role of marketing - notes
  3. 4.1 The role of marketing - questions
  4. 4.2 Marketing Planning - notes
    1. Marketing planning
    2. The marketing mix
    3. The Total Product Concept
    4. Ethics of marketing
    5. Marketing audit
    6. Porter's five forces
    7. Porter's five forces - activities
    8. Marketing objectives
    9. Market research - introduction
    10. The role of market research
    11. Primary and secondary research
    12. Primary research - information gathering techniques
    13. Observations - case studies
    14. Group-based market research
    15. Market research - summary
    16. Questionnaires
    17. Sampling
    18. Methods of sampling - introduction
    19. Main methods of sampling
    20. Sampling errors
    21. Market segmentation
    22. Consumer Profiles
    23. Types of segments
    24. Demographic segmentation
    25. Psychographic segmentation
    26. Psychographic segmentation - case study
    27. Geographic segmentation
    28. Industrial markets
    29. Targeting
    30. Positioning
    31. Corporate image
    32. Position/perception maps
    33. Unique selling point/proposition USP
    34. Marketing strategies and tactics
    35. Sales forecasting
    36. Qualitative forecasting/data
    37. Forecasting and correlation
    38. Forecasting techniques
    39. Constructing time-series analysis
    40. Moving average
    41. Four point moving average - worked example
    42. Identifying the seasonal variation
  5. 4.2 Marketing planning - questions
  6. 4.3 Product introduction - notes
  7. 4.3 Product - questions
  8. 4.3 Product - simulations and activities
  9. 4.4 Price - notes
  10. 4.4 Price - questions
  11. 4.4 Price - simulations and activities
  12. 4.4 Promotion - notes
  13. 4.5 Promotion - questions
  14. 4.6 Place (distribution) - notes
  15. 4.7 International marketing - notes
  16. 4.7 International marketing - questions
  17. 4.8 E-commerce - notes
  18. 4.8 E-commerce - questions
  19. Printable version

Sampling

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It is normally too costly and almost certainly impossible to ask everyone in the target population. So, firms have to sample a proportion of opinions.

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Sample


A sample is a group that is selected for study which is representative of the total population for a given experiment. The study is normally conducted to understand how the population will react to an item by first testing it on a sample that represents the population that the item will target.


Sample fish.pngIt is important that answers given by the selected sample will reflect the whole populations' opinions as closely as possible. In research, the term 'population' is used to represent all the market, but for a major corporation it may the majority of the population of the country. Obviously, by asking fewer people the firm cut costs, save on time and resources. But the results may not be statistically significant. In other words, the firm cannot rely on the results representing the views of the entire target population. If it does not, any marketing decision based on the results may be flawed. For example, if you ask all your friends what they think about a television programme, their opinions may be similar, but are unlikely to be representative of older age groups.

Advantages of sampling

Sampling has a number of advantages over a full census of a population and these include:

  • Saving time - sampling involves a lot less time than a full census and this will enable the firm to produce results faster and therefore react quicker to market trends
  • Resources required are fewer - if less time is required then this will reduce the resources required to manage the sampling process
  • More cost-effective - costs will be relatively lower when just a sample is taken
  • A sample is more reliable as there is a concentration on fewer units

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