As a marketing researcher for SoundSense, Nancy Bales has been asked to gather preliminary information that will help create a research hypothesis about EasyPlay, the new music player by SoundSense. Nancy has the task of conducting first-hand research about the characteristics of the target group that would buy EasyPlay, which the company believes to be superior to i-Pods and cell phones in terms of audio quality. Nancy Bales should conduct ________ research at this stage. causal experimental secondary internal exploratory

Explanation: In simple words, exploratory research refers to the research which is conducted for problem that involves knowing what is going on in the current situation. These researches results in development of conclusion that is completely new.

In the given case, Nancy bales has to make a research about a product that is new to the market. She has to conclude if that item is better than the i-pod or not.

Hence we can conclude that Nancy has to perform exploratory research.