Business To Business

Marketing
Marketing Intelligence
Learning Objective
• Assessing Market Opportunities

• The Marketing Intelligence System

• B2B Marketing Research

• Research Process

• Demand Analysis.
Assessing Market Opportunities
Assessing Market Opportunities

Process of synthesising market research and client

data

Identify opportunities for growth in a

specific market or business area

Formulate an actionable strategy to realise this

growth.

Identify  Target  Action

 Assessing Market Opportunities
What type of market opportunities are there?

Grow existing business Create new Business (es) Grow the periphery
Details Of Market Opportunity Assessment
Identifying growth opportunities

Market assessment

TAM SAM SOM Trends Market and

(Total Available (Serviceable Available (Serviceable Obtainable & performance
Market) Market) Market) drivers modelling

Quantifies the total Quantifies the segment of Quantifies the segment of Understanding Model future
market demand for a TAM within an SAM that an organization is how the market market
product or a service organization’s likely to capture with its will perform movement and
geographical reach and products and services over the next growth
targeted by its products 2-5 years
and services

Bringing together all

available data pertaining to :
Markets  assessed Market assessments can TAM SAM SOM have different •Client
in value & volume be conducted purposes: •Market
•Bottom up
•Competitor
•Top down SOM  short term sales potential •Trend & Driver
•Blended SOM / SAM  target market share to model an organisations
TAM  potential at scale. future growth
 The Marketing
Intelligence System
 The Marketing Intelligence System

• It is a systematic collection and processing of

data and converting them into information
from all the relevant sources.

• It gives an insight to the changing trends in

the marketing environment.

• The marketer with the help of the channel and

organization members gathers data from all the
available sources and process these into
meaningful information in order to make
critical and useful business decisions

• An effective marketing information system uses

not only information developed by market
research but also information that exists both in
internal and other data sources
B2B Marketing Research
Need For Market Research
Marketing Research - Definition
• Marketing research is the process of defining a marketing problem
& opportunity, systematically collecting and analyzing information,
& recommending actions to increase an organizations marketing
activities.

• It is the function that links the consumer (customer) and public to

the marketer through information.
Marketing Research - Definition
• Need to approach the research in a logical manner.
• Difference between good and bad research can depend on the
quality of the inputs.

Must be conducted in a systematic manner

Involves a series of steps/processes
Data may be available from different sources
Research applies to any aspect of marketing that needs information
Findings must be communicated to the appropriate decision maker
 Consideration Consumer Business to Business
Small. Fairly limited in total
Large. Dependent on category under population and even more so if
Universe
investigation but usually unlimited within a defined industry
category.
Difficult. Usually only during
Fairly easy. Can interview in malls at working hours at plant, office,
Respondent
home, on the telephone, via the or on the road Respondent is
Consumer accessibility
Internet or using mail techniques usually preoccupied with other
priorities
v/s A major concern. Due to the
small population, many

B2B Respondent
Over the years has become more
and more difficult, yet millions of
respondents are being over-
researched. The purchaser and

Marketing cooperation consumers have never been

interviewed
decision makers in the business
firm are the buyers of a variety

Research of products and services from

office supplies to heavy
equipment.
Usually much smaller than
Can usually be drawn as large as consumer sample, yet the
required for statistical confidence statistical confidence issample,
Sample size
since the population is in the yet the statistical confidence is
hundreds of millions. equal to the relationship of the
sample to the total population
 Consideration Consumer Business to Business
Somewhat more difficult. The
user and the purchasing
decision maker in most cases
are not the same. Factory
Usually fairly simple. Those aware of workers who use heavy
a category or brand, users of a equipment, secretaries who sit
Respondent category or brand, demographic on office chairs, etc., are the
definitions criteria, etc. The ultimate purchaser users and, no doubt, best able

Consumer is also a user for most consumer

products and services.
to evaluate products and
services. However, they tend
not to be the ultimate

v/s purchasers and in many cases

do not have any influence on
the decisionmaking process.

B2B Can usually be easily trained. They.

are also consumers and tend to be
Difficult to find good B2B
interviewers. At least a working
Interviewers somewhat familiar with the area knowledge of the product class
Marketing under investigation for most
categories.
is essential. Preferably more
than just a working knowledge.

Research Key dictators of cost are sample size

and incidence. Lower incidence
Relative to consumer research,
the critical elements resulting in
significantly higher per-
usage categories (for example, users
interview costs are: lower
of soft moist dog food, powdered
incidence levels, difficulties in
breakfast beverages, member of the
Study costs locating the “right” respondent
etc.) or demographic or behavioral
(that is, the correct buying
screening criteria (attend a movie at
center or network) and securing
least once a month, over 65 years of
cooperation, time, and
age, and own a cat, etc.) can up
concentration of effort for the
costs considerably
interview itself.
B2B Research Process
The Marketing Research Process
• Determine information requirements
• Define the problem
• Determine appropriate managerial level requiring information
• Decide on type of decision Strategic Tactical
• Research design
• Establish clear research objectives
• Consider unit of research analysis Regions Countries Subunits within countries
• Determine sources of information
• Select appropriate research technique Design and/or adapt to each country
• Develop secondary data
• Develop primary data
• Domestic
• In-country
• Analyze data
• Present findings
Determine Information Requirements
• Most important step is to determine clearly what information is needed.
• In order to do this, a firm must anticipate how the information will be used.
• Will the decision be strategic or tactical?
tactical
• Will it have major or minor cost ramifications?
• Some business marketing segments include only a few customers. It may be more
effective to discuss questions with key customers than to develop a formal market
research project.
• When marketing services,
services it is often less costly simply to try out an idea to see whether
the market reacts positively rather than spend the time and money fielding research.
• Within this step, the researcher must also decide what kind of presentation will be
required, whether highly technical or managerial in approach.
• Clearly, the most important aspect of this stage of research is the definition of the
problem. This is the step which causes the most problems and can lead a firm down an
expensive path toward poor results.
• Specific discussions must be held with all decision makers to clearly understand the
problem.
Research Design
• The critical part of this step is to establish clear research objectives.
• Research objectives must be measurable.
measurable
• “To determine why sales of laser printers are declining”  poor research objective.
• “To determine why buyers of laser printers are failing to trade in their printers for
new ones”  Better
• “To determine the market potential of a specific office chair in the India for next
year.”  Better
• Research will be designed differently if it is to be conducted across a
number of locations.
• More careful design must be undertaken to be sure results are
comparable from one culture to another.
another
Develop secondary data
• Researchers should develop secondary data before moving ahead to
custom or primary research.
• Secondary data are defined as those which have already been developed
for some other purpose.
• These data are available from many sources,
sources including governments, trade
associations, and publications.
• Nearly all of it has been put on the Internet in some place.
• A good starting point is usually a Meta search engine such as Google.
• Reason for proceeding with secondary data:
• Costs less
• Faster to complete

• Once this step is completed, it may be that the researcher has developed
all of the information necessary for a decision to be made and no primary
data is required.
Develop Primary Data
• Survey
• Personal interviews
• Focus groups
• Mail surveys
• Telephone surveys
• Internet surveys or focus groups
• Observation
• Watching how products are used, for example how factory workers use
machine tools
• Analyzing websites and other communications tools
• Observing employee behavior
• Experimentation
• Test marketing
• Trials of new systems or products at selected customers’ premises
Cost v/s Speed Of Surveys

Low Internet Mail

surveys surveys
Cost

Telephone Face-to-face
High
surveys interviews

Fast Slow

Speed
 Comparing B2B Survey Methods

Research Characteristics Of Advantages Disadvantages

Method Respondents
Personal (desk-side) - Few - Ask complex questions - Most costly method
interview - Geographically dispersed -Show/demonstrate product or concept -The most time-consuming method
- Difficult to reach -Get qualitative (why) answers -Risk of interviewer bias - Results
-High response rate usually not projectable to entire market

Focus groups - Moderate number - Cost efficient compared to - Relatively costly, though less per
-Geographically concentrated personal interviews respondent than personal
-Somewhat difficult to reach - Show/demonstrate product or concept interviews
-Identify with profession rather than - Faster than personal interviews - Possible moderator bias
employer - Get qualitative (why) answers - Dominance by one/few respondents
- Interaction can simulate real world decision - Relatively time-consuming
making - Usually not projectable to entire
market

Telephone surveys - Few or many - Lower cost than personal interviews or - Limits types and length of questions
-Geographically dispersed focus groups - Possible interviewer bias
-Relatively easy to identify and reach - Fast - Possible misinterpretation of
- Projectable with large enough sample respondent
- Inability to show concept or
demonstrate product
 Comparing B2B Survey Methods

Research Characteristics Of Advantages Disadvantages

Method Respondents
Mail surveys - Any respondents who can receive - Least costly of all methods - Control of qualified respondents
mail - Eliminates interview bias - Low response rate
- Relatively slow
- Inability to show concept or
demonstrate product

Internet surveys - Respondents with access to - May be lower cost than telephone surveys - Possible invalid sample
Internet - Fast - Control of qualified respondents
- Ability to show some concepts or products - Need to recruit and pay respondents

Internet focus - Moderate number - M ay be lower cost than traditional focus - Control of qualified respondents
groups - Geographically dispersed groups - Lack of face-to-face interaction
- Difficult to reach - Faster than traditional focus groups - Others, same as focus groups above
- Ability to show some concepts or products
SAMPLING AND VALIDITY
• In business markets, the number of individuals is usually limited.
limited
• In addition, Pareto’s Law often 80/20 rule applies  in many markets a
handful of corporations will buy most of the product.
• Because of this, random sampling is not frequently used in business
markets.
• Business marketers  stratified random sampling where a specific
subset of potential respondents is selected and then specific respondents
are chosen by chance from this subset.
• In some markets  few potential respondents who may purchase 100%
of the product  hence review of the population is possible.
• For e.g  Firm selling products to the commercial air manufacturing
business could interview Boeing, Airbus, Embraer, and Bombardier and
have the answers covering most of the market potential
SAMPLING AND VALIDITY
• Validity means a particular research measurement actually
measures what it is supposed to measure.

• Problems with validity arise when questions are vague or

misleading, or respondents attempt to be especially cooperative
and answer questions even when they have no information.

• Pre-tests of research instruments can help improve validity.

DEVELOPING QUESTIONNAIRES
• To write a good questionnaire is an art as well as a skill.
skill
• First, questions should be placed in a logical order,
order with the most sensitive
questions at the end of the questionnaire.
• All questions should relate to research objectives.
• For focus groups and personal interviews, open-ended questions are best
because they start discussion and lead to explanation by the respondent.
• For telephone and mail surveys, closed-ended questions are best.
best These are
questions which can be answered by selecting a measurement such as “always,
sometimes, never” or by a yes–no or some other simple choice.
• Avoid double-barreled questions  questions that ask for two answers at the
same time.
• A question such as “have you bought electronic equipment from us and are you satisfied”
might be answered yes. But in analyzing the results, one would not know whether the
respondent was saying “yes, we have bought equipment” or “yes, we are satisfied with the
equipment” or both.
• Do not use wording or jargon that the respondent may not know.
ANALYZING THE DATA
• Quantitative data
data researchers will assemble the information into
cross-tabulated tables which allows the examination of the answers
to the questions by sub-segment, such as years’ experience or
geographic location.
ANALYZING THE DATA
• Figure shows the respondents’ answers to a question about their Internet usage.
• As can be seen, the total of all respondents’ answers is given as well as answers by region, by
type of firm, size of firm, title of respondent, type of work, and whether they are heavily or not
heavily involved in designing single-family residential homes.
• Three Internet usage columns are the same as the classification columns on the far left. In this
case, we can see that 42.5 percent of respondents who work in large firms can be classified as
heavy Internet users vs. only 30.7 percent of those who work in medium-sized firms.
ANALYZING THE DATA
• Results may be analyzed using available software programs
• Significance tests (t-tests) are extremely important in determining how likely it is that the results
from the sample represent the opinions and beliefs of the entire population.
• Sophisticated researchers also undertake factor analysis in order to determine whether one
factor being measured is simply the same as another measured factor.
• The goal is to establish a list of important factors which would be independent from each other.
ANALYZING THE DATA
• Qualitative data analysis is by necessity more subjective.

• Usually, transcripts are made of focus groups or interviews from

recordings made during the interviews on focus groups.

• Powerful text analytics software, sometimes called computer-

assisted qualitative data analysis software (CAQDAS) allows
researchers to review word and phrase patterns in focus groups or
interview transcripts.
Present Findings
• In most cases, a firm will request a written report & an oral presentation.
• The advent of the Internet and presentation software allows a firm to receive electronic
copies of the written report and to view a presentation electronically which can then be
used for further presentation within the firm.
• Presentations must be carefully honed to keep the attention of top management.
• The use of graphics and even integrated “sound bytes” or video clips from focus groups
or interviews (if available) enhance the impact.

• The most effective presentations:

• No longer than one hour
• Concentrate on the conclusions to be drawn from the research
• Should suggest potential actions resulting from these conclusions.

•
Demand Analysis
 MARKET POTENTIAL AND SALES FORECASTS
• Market research is used by managers to estimate the market potential for a particular
product or product line and then to develop sales forecasts and quotas for the sales
force.

• Two overall strategic approaches to sales forecasting exist; break-down and build-up.
build-up
The break-down approach begins with the overall market for the product category and
seeks to predict what the firm’s share of that market will be.
MARKET POTENTIAL

potential forecast

SALES FORECASTS
 Common Sales Forecasting Techniques
Technique Explanation
Customer survey Typically, customers would be asked about their buying intentions over (say) the next 12
months. Often buyers would be unable to answer with any degree of certainty, but the average
of the responses is often fairly accurate, depending on the industry involved
Salesforce survey Salespeople are asked how much they expect to sell. This has the drawback that they may be
over-optimistic, or (on the other hand) may fear that they will be held to their forecast and will
deliberately under-estimate.
Distributor survey A variation on the salesforce survey, used when the company has a substantial network of
distributors.
Delphi approach This is a method of eliciting expert opinion from a panel of those involved (sales managers,
marketing executives, distributors, etc.)
Time-series analysis Using the company’s past sales records to predict the future. Time-series is unable to take
account of the unexpected, and of course looks at comparing the current situation with the past,
rather than comparing the current position with a projection of where the company should be.
Test marketing Launching the product in a limited market, either geographically or in terms of customer groups,
can be very effective in developing an estimate of overall sales following roll-out to all
customers. The main drawback is that it telegraphs the company’s intentions to its competitors.
 Time-series analysis
Type of Analysis Description
Trend analysis Focuses on aggregate sales data collected over a long period to determine
whether sales are rising, falling, or staying level.
Cycle analysis Here the forecaster examines the sales figures from a number of years to
see whether there is a cyclical pattern; perhaps a response to the economic
boom-and-bust cycle. This method has been largely discredited for most
markets, since the cycles do not follow a regular pattern.

Seasonal analysis Sales figures are analyzed on a monthly or even weekly basis to see whether
there is a seasonal cycle operating.
Random factor analysis In any analysis there will be figures that do not fit the pattern; random
factor analysis seeks to attribute explanations for these abnormal findings.
For example, a spell of unseasonal weather might have affected one
month’s figures.