Market Research Cheat Sheet 2026

The 30 highest-yield Market Research facts, distilled from real exam questions. Print it, save it as a PDF, or study it here — free, no sign-up.

1. Secondary data differs from primary data in that secondary data: → Was previously collected for another purpose
2. What is 'unaided brand awareness' in survey research? → Respondents recall a brand without being prompted
3. The Net Promoter Score (NPS) is calculated by subtracting the percentage of 'Detractors' from the percentage of which group? → Promoters
4. Which type of research design tests a cause-and-effect relationship between variables under controlled conditions? → Experimental research
5. What is 'price-value mapping' in competitive analysis? → Plotting brands on a matrix showing their perceived value relative to their price point
6. What is 'respondent fatigue' in the context of qualitative research? → Participants losing engagement or giving superficial answers due to lengthy sessions
7. A company wants to test whether a new product concept resonates with its target market before full launch. The MOST appropriate research approach is: → A concept test with target consumers
8. A market researcher notices that participants change their behavior when they know they are being observed. This is known as: → Demand characteristics / the Hawthorne effect
9. Which measure of central tendency is most affected by extreme outliers in a dataset? → Mean
10. What is the primary goal of ethnographic research in market research? → To observe and understand consumer behavior in natural contexts through immersive study
11. Which research approach involves studying a phenomenon in its natural setting without manipulation? → Naturalistic observation
12. What is the primary purpose of a 'pilot test' before launching a full survey? → To identify confusing questions or technical issues before wide distribution
13. Which statistical technique is used to identify underlying dimensions that explain correlations among a large set of survey variables? → Factor analysis
14. Which qualitative method involves a researcher joining a community and participating in daily life to gain insight? → Participant observation
15. Which sampling method ensures every member of the population has an equal chance of being selected? → Simple random sampling
16. Which research method would best reveal the unconscious or subconscious motivations behind consumer decisions? → Projective techniques (e.g., word association, sentence completion)
17. In a between-subjects experimental design, what happens? → Different participants are assigned to different conditions
18. What does the acronym 'CAPI' stand for in market research data collection? → Computer-Assisted Personal Interviewing
19. What is 'ethnographic research' in the context of market research? → Observing consumers in their natural environment
20. What is 'perceptual mapping' used for in market research? → Visualizing how consumers perceive brands relative to competitors on key attributes
21. Which term refers to the process of assigning codes or labels to segments of qualitative data during analysis? → Coding
22. What does a 'confidence interval' represent in market research? → A range of values within which the true population parameter likely falls
23. What does 'incidence rate' mean in the context of market research recruiting? → The proportion of the general population that qualifies for a specific study
24. What is a key advantage of in-depth interviews (IDIs) over focus groups? → They reveal individual perspectives without group conformity bias
25. What is 'benchmarking' in competitive market research? → Comparing a company's performance metrics against industry leaders or key competitors
26. Which qualitative research method involves asking participants to organize items (such as product images or concepts) into groups that make sense to them? → Card sorting
27. What is 'discriminant analysis' used for in market research? → Predicting group membership based on a set of predictor variables
28. A brand tracker study is typically conducted to measure which of the following over time? → Brand awareness and perception
29. What does 'brand equity' measurement in consumer research assess? → The added value a brand name gives to a product beyond its functional attributes
30. What is 'price sensitivity research' designed to measure? → How consumer purchase likelihood changes in response to price variations