Descriptive Research:

Descriptive studies as their name implies are designed to describe something for example the characteristics of users of a given product the degree to which product use varies with income age sex or other characteristics or the number who saw a specific television commercial. A majority of marketing studies are of this type.

Despite the emphasis on description it should not be concluded that such studies should be simply fact gathering expeditions. Unfortunately it is relatively easy to start a descriptive study with the vague thought that the data collected will be interesting. As a result many descriptive studies are made with only hazy objectives and with inadequate planning. Much of the data collected in such studies turns out to be useless.