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Research Methods There are two main categories of research methods. Secondary research uses research that has already been done by someone else. For example, marketers often find information compiled by the U.S. Census very useful. However, in some cases, information specific enough to satisfy a firm’s needs is not publicly available. For example, a firm will have to run its own research to find out whether consumers would prefer that more vanilla taste …

…are common in the U.S. (e.g., Tide) were not impressive to the Japanese, who wanted a name of a major firm like Mitsubishi or Proctor & Gamble. Observation may help us determine how much time consumers spend comparing prices, or whether nutritional labels are being consulted. Physiological measures are occasionally used to examine consumer response. For example, advertisers may want to measure a consumer’s level of arousal during various parts of an advertisement.