Using Market Research Strategies with Disability Research Results

NIDRR-funded researchers demonstrate high standards of innovation and scholarship in their research. Grantees can ensure that their research-based information influences the awareness and behavior of targeted users by developing an ongoing knowledge of their needs, desires, and ideas. Market research is an important tool for understanding the characteristics of target market(s) and for designing dissemination strategies that reflect those characteristics. Although some market research techniques may require additional resources, other techniques can be adapted and used by researchers to improve the dissemination and, ultimately, the utilization of their research information.

Market research is defined as "the function that links the...customer...to the marketer through information--information used to identify and define marketing opportunities and problems; generate, refine, and evaluate marketing actions; monitor marketing performance; and improve understanding of marketing as a process" (American Marketing Association, 1999). While business market research may focus on selling a tangible product, market research on the dissemination and utilization (D&U) of disability research looks for changes in user awareness and behavior, including development of new policies or services and utilization of new interventions or inventions.

Exploratory and Confirmatory Market Research

The goal of exploratory market research is discovery. The underlying questions are, What is new? and What are we missing? The goal of confirmatory techniques is resolution: Is this the right choice? What results can we expect? You conduct exploratory market research to open your eyes and broaden your vision. You conduct confirmatory research to narrow your options and concentrate your efforts along the optimal path (McQuarrie 1996, p. 7).

Exploratory and confirmatory market research techniques are used at different stages in a research project's decision cycle (Table 1). The decision cycle calls for sequential market research activities and questions as the research design and D&U strategy are developed and implemented. Each activity requires different market research techniques as the researcher's informational needs change from initial exploratory information (Scan the Environment) to final confirmatory information (Evaluate Success). The four decision cycle activities in Table 1 are further described in relation to each activity's objectives and suggested market research techniques.

Table 1: Four Decision Cycle Activities

Activity/Questions	Objectives	Techniques
Scan the Environment How are we doing? What's going on?	Identify, describe, monitor	Main: Secondary research, user visits Supporting: Focus groups, surveys
Generate Options What are the possibilities?	Generate, define, explore	Main: User visits, focus groups Supporting: Secondary research
Select an Option What is the explanation? Which option is best?	Evaluate, test, select, prioritize	Main: Experiments, surveys, choice models, usability tests Supporting: Secondary research
Evaluate Success What will we achieve? How are we doing?	Measure, track, assess	Main: Surveys, secondary research Supporting: user visits

Adapted from McQuarrie, 1996, p. 24.

Following is an overview of market research techniques with suggestions for adaptations by NIDRR grantees. These techniques fall under the categories of exploratory and confirmatory market research and include secondary market research, user visits, focus groups, experiments, choice modeling, usability testing, and surveys.

Secondary Market Research

Grantees may use secondary market research to identify potential user groups, describe their characteristics, and identify and monitor competing activities or barriers. "Secondary market research refers to any data gathering for one purpose and by one party and then put to a second use by or made to serve the purpose of a second party" (McQuarrie, 1996, p. 39). Although secondary market research may not meet the standards of primary research, it can provide the researcher with preliminary information that serves as a base for further inquiry.

For example, several NIDRR-funded projects present data on the employment status of people with work disabilities. These data include disability statistics and demographics for those persons who are employed and those not employed. Another source, the Social Security Administration Statistical Tables, provides data on the number of people with work disabilities who receive financial assistance through the Social Security Administration (SSA) in the form of Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and Social Security Disability Income (SSDI). Analyses of these combined secondary data provide information about the impact of federal financial assistance as a possible barrier to the employment of some people with work disabilities. This secondary market research data may illustrate the need for a D&U strategy that addresses users' concerns about losing their federal assistance while promoting the advantages of employment.

The expansion of the Internet and World Wide Web has simplified the acquisition and analysis of data for use in secondary market research, with information readily available at little or no cost. Following is a brief list of several NIDRR-funded projects that provide openly accessible nationwide statistics and/or information databases through their Web sites. Each project is listed by project name, type and availability of information, and URL on the World Wide Web.

Several secondary data sources, sponsored by the federal government, provide information pertaining to disability issues or include disability data with general population data:

• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: http://www.cdc.gov/
• Federal Interagency Council on Statistical Policy (FedStats): http://www.fedstats.gov/
• National Center for Educational Statistics: http://nces.ed.gov/
• Social Security Administration Statistical Tables: http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/STATS/statTab.html
• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: http://www.bls.gov/
• U.S. Census Bureau: http://www.census.gov/
• U.S. Department of Health and Human Services: http://www.dhhs.gov/
• U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission: http://www.eeoc.gov/index.html

Secondary market research is particularly useful during the environmental scanning stage of the decision cycle (Table 1). It is usually quicker and less costly to find answers to questions using secondary data than by conducting market research studies. According to Blankenship, Breen, and Dutka (1998):

...collecting data for marketing purposes has a basic rule: Never collect your own data (primary data) if the material has already been collected by someone else (secondary data). Doing your own thing in marketing research if you don't have to is not only like reinventing the wheel, but also expensive and time-consuming. So you always start by examining the secondary sources (p. 15-16).

User Visits

"Good social marketers begin by saying: 'I need to know everything I can about those whom I am supposed to influence'" (Andreasen, 1995, p. 76). This suggests that researchers should talk with targeted users in the environments where they provide or receive services, or where they live and work. Visits seek to elicit user's comments, pro or con, about the proposed activity without bias toward the researcher's point of view. Researchers should learn what users "fear and what they don't understand, what they want and hope for, what they listen to, and whom they respect" (Andreasen, 1995, p. 77).

User visits are conducted in a cordial and informal fashion, and should include individualized variations of carefully developed questions and comment-provoking statements to gather consistent information across the number of users visited. Researchers should visit with a representative cross-section of users to gain multiple perspectives, for example, with managers, direct service workers, and people with disabilities in a community living arrangement (CLA). However, responses of users in a particular setting may be unique and not necessarily representative of similar settings.

User visits add the perspectives of individual users to information from secondary market research and may promote ideas for further inquiry using other market research techniques. Information from user visits can help researchers configure their research-based information by gaining insight about users' content/media preferences and the place/context where they receive and interpret research-based information.

Focus Groups

The Focus group is a qualitative market research technique that is best used when the goal is to explore a particular research problem or dissemination strategy. Focus groups also may be used to generate research or dissemination options either before or during the initial phase of a research study or dissemination activity.

Focus groups are small groups of carefully selected people, brought together to discuss a topic that is defined and presented by a group moderator. Focus groups can help grantees obtain the perspectives and creative ideas of users, gain valuable information about additional user groups, and explore ideas for the development, conduct, and dissemination of a research study. Unlike the individual perspectives acquired in user visits, focus groups provide the researcher with more extensive information through the give and take of group discussions.

A focus group is typically composed of six to twelve people who share common relevant characteristics or interests, such as a focus group of people with disabilities, another of program managers, or a focus group of parents of people with disabilities. The focus group moderator should be a person who is adept at stimulating group interaction and familiar with the researcher's questions. Combining a focus group with common characteristics or interests with a skilled moderator facilitates the group's concentration on the topic and their open discussion of the researcher's questions (American Statistical Association, 1998).

Experiments

Experiments also are intended for use in option selection. In fact, their design corresponds exactly to the structure of many business decisions: that is, which of these options is best? (McQuarrie, 1996, p. 33-34).

Market research experiments are particularly suitable for NIDRR-funded researchers who have extensive training and experience in social science research. Experiments might include the testing of various dissemination strategies or materials to compare their effectiveness. For example, an experiment can compare users' perceptions about the usefulness of informal materials, including fact sheets and implementation guides, with more formal research reports and journal articles.

Choice Modeling

Any procedure that attempts to analyze how different factors combine to influence the choice of one product over another can be considered a kind of choice modeling (McQuarrie, 1996, p.101).

Researchers may use choice modeling to analyze individual attributes of a product, including research-based information, to choose and develop attributes that best meet the needs of users. The most applicable choice modeling strategy for NIDRR-funded researchers is direct weighting of attribute importance which analyzes a product by asking users to estimate the importance, or the weight, of the product's key features, perhaps with a Likert scale. In the example of a social marketing D&U strategy, the RRTC on Workplace Support plans to evaluate each informational session using a brief questionnaire which asks participants to rate the perceived value of key features of the session (see: Adapting the Marketing Concept to the Dissemination and Utilization of Disability Research).

Direct attribute weighting is useful in situations where the researcher wants to sort through possible improvements to the existing content and media of their research-based information so it will have the most impact on targeted users. As with similar sampling procedures, the characteristics of the sample, and bias in the attributes selected and questions asked, affect the validity of the information obtained by choice modeling.

Usability Testing

"Usability studies provide a way to test whether your model is correct by observing what happens when users actually attempt to use your product" (McQuarrie, 1996, p. 132). Usability testing is a powerful tool for directly analyzing research outcomes before they are disseminated. Grantees may benefit from usability testing by observing and recording how a sample of users interact with a prototype product or draft of research-based information. For example, a researcher provides a prototype of a new research-based assistive communication device, and a draft manual for its use, to a group of targeted potential users. Users can be videotaped, or data can be collected, during their first few tries at using the communication device. The users can provide comments about the device's ease of use during pilot testing and, after testing, respond to questions concerning whether they would use the device if it were available.

Usability testing can be performed with people who are resistant users or potential non-users, including people with competing self-interests, beliefs, or behaviors. Testing the usability of research-based information with this type of user can provide ideas about how to configure it for other similar users.

Surveys

Surveys have traditionally been the main-stay of market research--a fixed set of questions are asked of a large, carefully selected, sample of users. Surveys may play a supporting role in scanning the environment (see Table 1, above) in cases where quantitative data are necessary. However, "surveys are a confirmatory tool whose proper purpose is to limit, narrow, and specify; hence, this tool is largely incapable of expanding, broadening, and reconfiguring your understanding" (McQuarrie, 1996, p. 32). This is apparent in objective surveys that do not encourage users to add information or expand on their replies. Although surveys may be more costly, they are an effective market research technique for grantees who wish to confirm and analyze the utilization of research-based information when secondary market research data are not available.

Using Market Research Techniques with NIDRR-Funded Research

Researchers may determine at an early point in the decision cycle whether precise descriptive market data are needed. If so, a review of secondary research data may find valuable information. Qualitative information about the users' interests and their creative ideas can be obtained through other exploratory market research techniques, such as user visits and focus groups. Market research techniques that help in generating and selecting dissemination options, such as experiments or choice modeling, may be used as D&U strategies are developed and implemented. The decision cycle should culminate in quality measures that confirm utilization of the research-based information.

Not all of the market research techniques will be appropriate for each research study. Rather, researchers should determine which techniques to use by developing their own market research questions based on those presented in Table 1. Grantees may creatively adapt the techniques according to their time and funding constraints, and, if necessary, apply their adaptations with readily available users and user groups. The end result of market research should not be strict adherence to its processes, but valid measures of dissemination outcomes in the form of user awareness and behavior change.

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