What are the different market research techniques that you are proficient in? How conversant are you with new trends in data mining and analysis?

Quite comfortable with Sampling, clustering, peer interviews, and then trasncripting those in a survey result format. One can run statistical tests to see how best the trend will match market expectations and sometimes to judge - for how long. Data mining and analysis is entirely a different set of knowldege. One can use: decision trees; networking; association rules and case-based methods to analyze each trend. For instance, the World Bank approach is based on CPM-PERT analysis which is a combination of financial, social and economic appraisal of data/project.

1.The type of information you want to gather about your customers, market or competitors will influence the research methods you choose. There are different ways to gather information (from primary or secondary sources) and different types of information to gather (quantitative and qualitative). You may use any combination of these research approaches to get the results you need.