Why is the mode often more important than the mean (average) for marketing research? why do marketers like the mode so much??

The mode is one of the main measurements of the central tendency of a sample or a population, along with the mean and the median. In market research, this mode is especially important because it is the only measure of central tendency that is applicable/ relevant to any data set. When analyzing categorical data, such as car models or soda flavors, for which a mathematical average median value can not be determined based on ordering, thus, mode is most useful as a measure of central tendency. The mode is a type of descriptive statistics widely used by researchers to classify the data from their studies.

Marketing research helps to identify possible risks and opportunities with respect to the marketing planning function, produces alternative courses of action, offers information to encourage marketing managers to analyze those alternatives and advises on the implementation of the alternatives. Therefore, marketers like the mode so much because of the following reasons;

• The mode is easy to identify and calculate.
• Extreme values do not influence the mode.
• In a data set and in a discrete frequency distribution, the mode is simple to define.
• For qualitative data, the mode is useful.
• In an open-ended frequency table, the mode can be computed.
• It is possible to locate a mode graphically.