Cambridge A Level Business 9609

Market research

Market research collects information about a market — its size, growth and competitors, and what customers want — so decisions rest on evidence rather than guesswork; the exam’s recurring question is how far that evidence can be trusted.

Primary against secondary, quantitative against qualitative, why a sample is needed and why it can mislead: those distinctions carry the short-answer marks. On Paper 2 the case can give you survey results to interpret — and ask why they may not be reliable.

Updated 1 October 2026

How much it is worth

Market research: 75 marks across 36 real Cambridge 9609 AS papers — 4.2% of the total, on 12 of the 36. How that ranks against every other 9609 topic →

What market research is for

Research identifies the main features of a market — its size, growth and competitors — and the characteristics, profiles, wants and needs of customers. Its value is reducing risk: a business launching a product with research behind it is less likely to make something nobody buys.

Primary and secondary research

Primary (field) researchSecondary (desk) research
MeaningNew data collected first-hand for this purposeData that already exists, collected for another purpose
Methods / sourcesQuestionnaires and surveys, interviews, focus groups, observation, product trials, website analyticsGovernment statistics and census data, trade journals, market research reports, competitors' accounts, newspapers, the business's own sales records
StrengthsSpecific to the question, up to date, not available to competitorsQuick, cheap or free, often large-scale
WeaknessesExpensive and slow; quality depends on the researcher's skillMay be out of date, not exactly relevant, also available to competitors

Most businesses start with secondary research — cheap, and it shows whether a market is worth investigating — then use primary research to answer the specific questions it leaves open.

Sampling

A business cannot ask every potential customer, so it asks a sample — a group intended to represent the whole target market. Sampling saves time and money and is often the only practical option.

Its limitations are the marks:

  • Unrepresentative samples — if the sample differs from the market (all asked online, all asked on a weekday morning), the results describe the sample, not the customers.
  • Sample size — too small, and chance variation swamps the result.
  • Bias — in who is chosen, in leading questions, or in respondents saying what they think the researcher wants.
  • Sampling error — even a well-chosen sample never matches the population exactly.

Quantitative and qualitative data

Quantitative data is numerical — 34% prefer lemon, average spend $12 — and can be analysed statistically and shown in tables, charts and graphs. Qualitative data is opinions, feelings and reasons — why customers prefer lemon — from interviews and focus groups. Qualitative data explains behaviour that numbers only describe, but it is hard to summarise, time-consuming to analyse, open to the researcher’s interpretation, and usually drawn from small groups.

How reliable is the data?

Reliable data would give the same answer if the research were repeated. Ask of any research in a case: who was sampled and how many; were the questions neutral; how old is the data; who collected it and why; and does it measure what the business needs to know. A large survey of the wrong people is less useful than a small survey of the right ones.

Worked example: reading survey data

Worked example

A snack maker surveyed 2 500 shoppers outside one supermarket on a Saturday: 46% chose its spicy flavour and 18% the salted. How many chose one of the two? Give one reason the result may not be reliable.

46% + 18% = 64%; 64% of 2 500 = 1 600 shoppers. (Or 1 150 + 450 = 1 600.)

One reliability point, applied: everyone was asked at one supermarket on one day, so the sample misses weekday shoppers and customers in other towns — the people who buy most of the firm’s snacks may want something different. Naming why this sample may differ from the market is what turns a generic “sample may be biased” into an application mark.

How Cambridge asks it

On the 36 AS papers Quanta holds, 19 question parts test market research, on 12 of the papers (7 on Paper 1, 12 on Paper 2). The command words they open with:

  • Explain × 7
  • Analyse × 4
  • Identify × 2
  • Define × 2
  • Evaluate × 2
  • Calculate × 2

By tariff — each size has its own technique:

Terms candidates have been asked to define or explain on this topic:

qualitative data · primary research · primary market research · sampling

Common mistakes

  1. 1.Secondary research defined as “research done second”

    Secondary research uses data that already exists, collected for another purpose.

  2. 2.Qualitative and quantitative swapped

    Quantitative is numbers; qualitative is opinions and reasons.

  3. 3.“The sample might be biased” with no reason

    Say how this sample could differ from this market — that is the application.

  4. 4.Assuming a bigger sample is always reliable

    Size reduces chance error; it does nothing about asking the wrong people.

Common questions

What is the difference between primary and secondary market research?

Primary research collects new data first-hand for a specific purpose; secondary research uses data that already exists, collected for another purpose.

Why do businesses use sampling?

Asking every potential customer is too slow and expensive, so a sample is chosen to represent the target market — quicker and cheaper, at the cost of some accuracy.

What are the limitations of sampling?

The sample may not represent the market, may be too small, may be biased in who is chosen or how questions are asked, and always carries some sampling error.

What is qualitative data?

Data about opinions, attitudes and reasons, usually from interviews or focus groups. It explains why customers behave as they do but is hard to measure and summarise.

Market research on real papers

The papers that leaned on it hardest, as a share of the paper. Each one has its own page on Quanta with the full topic breakdown:

9609/22/O/N/2514 of 60 marks9609/21/M/J/2412 of 60 marks9609/12/O/N/246 of 40 marks

Every 9609 past-paper question on market research

19 questions across 12 papers, 89 marks in all, newest first. Open a paper to sit it on Quanta and have these questions marked.

PaperQuestion (marks)
9609/21/M/J/26Q1(b)(ii) (3), Q2(a)(ii) (3)
9609/13/O/N/25Q5(a) (8, choice)
9609/22/O/N/25Q1(b)(i) (3), Q1(b)(ii) (3), Q1(c) (8)
9609/23/O/N/25Q2(b)(i) (3), Q2(b)(ii) (3)
9609/23/M/J/25Q1(c) (8)
9609/22/F/M/25Q2(a)(i) (1), Q2(a)(ii) (3)
9609/11/O/N/24Q2(a) (2), Q2(b) (3)
9609/12/O/N/24Q6(b) (12, choice)
9609/13/M/J/24Q3(a) (2), Q3(b) (3)
9609/21/M/J/24Q2(d) (12)
9609/12/F/M/24Q5(a) (8, choice)
9609/22/F/M/24Q2(a)(i) (1)

“Choice” marks a Paper 1 Section B essay — candidates answer one of two — so the “how much it is worth” figure above counts it at half its marks.

Practise market research against real mark schemes

Quanta has real Cambridge A Level Business 9609 past-paper questions, with the case study beside the answer boxes, every answer marked automatically against the published mark scheme objective by objective, and the reasoning shown — and it tracks which skills you’re missing. Free for individual students.

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