2016年剑桥商务英语讲义阅读训练(1)

　　The object of market research is to “mange” sales: first to make possible, then to make them practicable, and, finally, to ensure they are profitable.

　　Many people make fun of market research. To begin with, it often seems to reveal the obvious, such as the case where a bakery chain spent 5,000 pounds discovering that people prefer fresh to stale bread. At other times, it comes up with information which is probably not true. On one occasion, the British Market Research Bureau discovered that one in five rugby players were female. Such investigations can, meanwhile, be very expensive; it is not unusual for an enquiry to cost tens of thousands of pounds.

　　How is market research done? Why is it often unreliable and expensive?

　　At the beginning, any piece of market research must be carefully planned. The first stage is to define the problem. For example, is it the customer who is not buying, or the shopkeeper? Are low sales used by a firm’s inefficiency rather than by faulty product design? At this point, it is important to get as many views as possible, and to examine all sales records thoroughly. Simply going through all the paperwork at this stage could trace(追踪;查出)the source of the problem.

　　After this has been done—and assuming that the source of the problem has not been revealed—the organization can move to “external” research: looking at various materials published by government bodies, trade associations and so on, to see what these reveal about consumer habits and trends.

　　However, most people associate the term “market research” with survey(调查) work, and this is where the major expenses lie. Why is this kind of research so time consuming and expensive? Basically, because it involves several stages, each of which can take quite a while.

　　The first stage is to decide on a sample, since it is obviously not practicable to survey all possible consumers of a particular product or service. This is the business of statisticians (统计学家). There are a number of different kinds of sample: random, area, quota.

　　Following this, a questionnaire (调查表) must be devised and there are many problems in making sure that this is clear and that the questions are likely to elicit (引出) helpful responses. Before the questionnaire is given to all the sample, it tried out on a small group. This is called a “pilot” survey. The responses are used to revise the questionnaire.

　　( T ) 6. Market research aims to bring about and promote sales.

　　( F ) 7. The discovery made by the British Market Research Bureau is trust-worthy.

　　( F ) 8. Market research is carried out in the form of survey work only.

　　( F ) 9. The questions in questionnaires should be so designed as to elicit expected responses.

　　( T ) 10. Enquiring sample customers is the last stage in market research.