USING THE SNOWBALL METHOD IN MARKETING RESEARCH ON HIDDEN POPULATIONS

Abstract

Following the classical sampling theory, the researcher selects samples of people, businesses or others, in order to obtain the desired information. Drawing the samples is usually done by randomly selecting from a list representing the target population. In practice, this list is often not available. There are cases in which the population of interest is not fully known, not well defined and fully listed, and creating a sampling frame is difficult or impossible for the researcher.The solution to this situation comes from the snowball sampling method, the best way we can study hidden populations in marketing research. In this paper we are approaching the snowball method as a mean of accessing vulnerable and more impenetrable social groupings revealing the latest advances of this technique.

Keywords

• market research
• survey
• hidden population
• snowball method
• non-probabilistic sampling