Market research glossary

Fashion and style market research is dedicated to clothing, shoes, accessories, and cosmetics. Fashion research can involve interviewing consumers of fashion brands extending from high fashion to fast fashion, or B2B research with workers involved in textile production and decision makers within major global fashion brands. FieldworkHub have a large amount of experience in this field, from arranging research sessions on a new footwear brand due to launch in the UK to multi-method ethnographies and shop-alongs with teenagers on personal style.

Field and tab refers to the process of data collection (fielding) and tabulating quantitative results in market research. It dates back to at least the mid 20th century when these were two very distinct processes: data was usually collected face to face and recorded on paper forms, while tabulation occurred in a central location and involved going through the forms to count responses by hand, or later, transferring the data from the forms to punch cards that could be read by a computer. Nowadays data is typically entered straight into a computer at the time of collection and tabulation is automatic.

The part of a market research study that involves collecting data from external sources, e.g. through interviews or focus groups. It is useful to think of fieldwork as the middle stage of a market research study, preceded by a stage where the objectives of the market research are defined, and followed by a stage where the findings are analysed.

Financial services market research is centered around the financial services sector. It may involve interviewing both consumer audiences on topics such as banking preferences and user testing sessions of new FinTech developments, to B2B research on working processes and policy changes. One of FieldworkHub’s specialities, we have successfully recruited high net-worth individuals for qualitative app testing sessions, Moroccan expats for a qualitative focus group on banking preferences, and conducted a quantiative research study with tax and accounting advisors uncovering insights to their working processes.

A planned group discussion (typically involving 6 to 8 carefully selected participants) led by a moderator which aims to find out the respondents’ perceptions and opinions about the topic under discussion, for example, a brand or a new product. In a focus group, the respondents can interact with each other as well as the moderator, which may generate more, or different, insights to interviewing them individually. A focus group can be held face to face or online and  typically lasts 60 to 120 minutes.

The dynamics within a focus group refer to the interactions and relationships that are formed between participants in a focus group setting. A moderator is able to encourage these dynamics and allow participants to bounce off of each other to allow for deeper, thoughtful data to be gathered.

Food and drink research is used for assessing how successful an edible product is within its intended audience. Taste testing, brand positioning and packaging preferences are all hypothesis that may be tested during qualitative food and drink research. FieldworkHub have conducted many successful food and drink research studies, from interviews with beer drinks in Belgium on brand preferences to buyers of premium gin in South Africa to help assess the market for a craft gin brand.

A freelance market researcher is not employed by a particular agency, but works as an individual moving ad hoc between different companies on different projects.

In the market research space, frequency refers to the amount of times an individual response occurs within data collected through a survey. It it useful for identifying how often opinions of a particular product or service appear.

A detailed report from a market research study, explaining the methodology used, the sample selected, and containing detailed analysis of all of the findings as well as the conclusions and recommendations. A full report can be expected to contain much more detail than a Topline Report and will accordingly take longer to produce.

A full-service agency have the capabilities of delivering a market research project from the initial planning stages to the final analysis. While some agencies specialise in stages of the fieldwork, such as recruitment or data analysis, a full-service agency provides support throughout the entire process, including method selection, recruitment, fieldwork, and report delivery.