INTRODUCTION TO MARKETING

RESEARCH
 CONCEPT OF MARKETING RESEARCH
 According to Henry Mintzberg, a manager
performs interpersonal, informational & decision
making or disturbance handling roles. But in
absence of exact accurate information, there are all
the more chances to have taken a wrong decision.

 “ It takes years to get a customer and it

takes second to lose one. ” 

 In Second words of marketing research

means gathering, recording, collecting,
analyzing and interpreting the data collected
are the activities done in marketing research.
 Definitions:

Marketing is the activity, set of institutions

and process for creating that have value for
customers, client, partners and society.

The word ‘Re’ in search suggests the

continuity required for research effort, as market
evolves, changes, discards, adopts, newer futures in
the product offerings, answering customers
choices is again a task of marketing research IMRB
international, TNS India and Synovate India are
some of the top market research companies.
 Marketing wants precise answers & emerging
trends on
1. Who ( The target customer )
2.Why ( Features, decision process, role of
influencers & information )
3.What ( Product choices, element of
individuality & loyalty )
4.Where ( Distribution channel made use of,
impact of relations etc. )
5.When ( Trends in purchase pattern
– seasonality, cyclicality, irregularity or
festival impact of social events )
6. How ( Choices of all four Ps )
 FUNCTIONS OF MARKETING SEARCH.

It enables getting information for
effective decision making.
 It helps in preserving historical records
and marketing knowledge.
 Managing research process in totality.
 Becoming light bearer in terms of market
expenditure.
 Making market intelligence available to all
the departments as a central resources.
 Ensuring research design to be in line with
research objectives.
 Integrating research activities, so that all the
departments can avail crucial relevant information
 FEATURES OF MARKETING RESEARCH
 Features of marketing research are as follows.
 Variety of methods.
 Art-Science Scientific basis of collection and individual
ability or art in finding solutions.
 Applied research.
 A Package.
 Phases.
 Process cum tool.
 Fills and links the market gaps.
 Advantage : Company – Consumer.
 Strategy or Trade Secret.
 No Auto mode – Self corrections.
 New borne – Wide acceptance.
 Systematic, Objective & accurate.
 IMPORTANCE OF MARKETING RESEARCH

 Large spending & inbuilt expectation of return

on investment expenditure
 Confident step forward

 Meeting marketing objectives

 Helps in decision making

 Finding solution to marketing problems

 New markets or avenues

 Key questions get answered

 SCOPE OF MARKETING RESEARCH

 Scope of marketing research is very wide & broad.

 Sales Research.
 Market Research.
 International Marketing Research.
 Product Research.
 Pricing Research.
 Distribution Research.
 Advertising Research.
 Media Research
 Consumer Research

 Packaging Research

 Motivation research

 Policy research
 Sales Research:
Data compared between inter-territorial zones &
intra-territorial zones. Its shows change in tastes
and preferences of customer.
Survey of Sales people and future demand,
change required in selling method etc. can
be known through such research.

o Market research:
A firm operates in a market environment which
consist of competition. Different prices, strategies
of competitor & result impact in sales etc. are
assessed through market research. Sales territories,
sales quotas and sales targets can be fixed with such
research.
 International Marketing research:
Opportunity in one country may die down,
whereas the same product in other country can be
high demand. Environmental threats and
opportunity profile can be created and SWOT
analysis for entering various global markets can be
prepared.

The decision can be achieved through

international marketing research by studying
consumption patterns abroad, competition,
consumers from foreign countries, governmental
role and impact on sales, alliances or full fledged
operations.
 Product Research:
It studies the impact of change in product
design, colour, size, shape, quality, packaging,
brand name, price sensitivity, accessories,
attachments and price of product on sales.
Innovation, modification, product life cycle
based strategies, classification of products as per
BCG matrix facilitated through product research.

o Pricing Research:
It is studies of pricing of product. It selects a
suitable method of pricing. It fix the price of the
product. It compares the company’s product price
with price of competitor's. It also fixes the discount
& commission which are given to middlemen.
 Distribution Research:
It includes answers of questions such as
1. How the product reaches to the customer ?
2. Are there region wise prefers ?
3.Do they prefer to purchase products from retailer
or do they go for online purchase or do they have
any prefers for distributors ?
o Advertising Research:
it is studies about advertising of the product. It
fixes the advertising objectives. It also fixes the
advertising budget. It decides about
advertising message, layout, copy, s l o g a n  ,
headline etc. It selects a suitable media for
advertising
 Media Research:
In media research Ad. budget, campaigns,
promotional strategies & its impact on sales is
assessed of media like TV, Radio, Newspaper,
Magazines, Internet etc. Media cost, media
planning and sales promotional planning are
facilitated with it. Effectiveness of media, timing of
advertising are answered with this research.
o Consumer Research:
Consumer’s needs changes in them cyclicality,
seasonality, irregularity, like-dislike, awareness
level, interest & desire in purchase action,
purchasing attitude, impact of demographics like
age, gender, income, location, buying motives etc.
 Packaging Research:
Ease, attractiveness, level of value creation, packaging
cost and relevant packaging material gets decide due to
packaging research. The packaging should be for better
handling or storage. Customer prefers packaging for
ease and its attractiveness.
o Motivation Research:
Buying motives, rationale behind buying influence
and impact of sales promotion on sales is measured
through marketing research.
o Policy Research:
marketing polices, inventory polices, sales
policies, distribution policies, pricing policies etc
allows a company to from streamlined policies
MARKETING
RESEARCH
PROCESS.
Define the Data Data
Problem. Collection Processing

Primary Sample Analysis of

Survey Respondents Data

Finalising Preparing Drafting

Objective Questionnaire Research Report

Presenting
Sourcing Research finding for
out Design decision,
following
Data
 Define the problem:
The first step in a marketing research process is to identify
the problem or opportunity. The problem may be about
decrease in sales, increase in competition, expansion of
market, etc.
 Primary Survey:
It makes a point to ask a question, whether the problem is an
outcome or is it a cause. even if it being a cause its aggravation
could be due to several other serve factors. Stopping at out comes
does not help in digging out the exact problem or concerns.
 Finalising objective:
After the survey, the researcher comes to know the cause
behind the situation. In this stage its like a flow chart which is
finding result of various causes and its varying level of impact
leading to problem.
 Sourcing out data:
The researcher first collects secondary data. This
is because it is easily available and less costly. It is
collected by Desk Research. Desk Research can be
internal for e.g. collected from company's records or
external i.e. acquired from libraries, trade journals,
government sources, etc. If the secondary data is
not sufficient to solve the marketing problem, then
primary data is wheeled.
Collecting primary data is very costly and time
consuming. It can be collected by using survey
methods, i.e. by doing personal interviews,
telephone interviews and mail surveys. It can also
be collected by using observational method and
experimentation method.
 Research Design:
Research design is a plan for conducting a research. It
guides the researcher in data collection. It gives proper
direction to the research.

 Preparing Questionnaire:
In this stage, primary data is collected with the
help of a questionnaire. So the researcher has to
prepare a questionnaire. A questionnaire is a list of
questions. These questions are asked to the
respondents for collecting data. The questionnaire
must be suitable so that the require data is collected
easily, quickly and correctly. It is used for
conducting person interview, telephone interviews
and mail survey. The researcher must decide about
the type of the information required, the type of
questioned to be asked, the wordings of the
questionnaire, its order, etc.
 Sample Respondents:
Ensuring no lapses in structure or wording of
questionnaire, a dry run or rehearsal is attempted.
This stage is also known as pilot survey.

 Data Collection:
Data can be collected such as mail survey
method, with help of trained interviewers in case of
personal interview method. Collected data should
be reliable, magnifiable, sufficient & complete.
 Data Processing:
collected data is processed for drawing out
larger picture. Classification of data, scrutiny of
data, editing, coding etc are done in this stage. It is
arrangement & processing of data for analysis.

 Analysis and interpretation of data:

In this stage, the researcher analyzes and
interprets the data. That is, he studies the data very
careful and draws conclusions from it. These
conclusions are then used to solve the marketing
problem.
 Drafting Research report:
In this stage, the researcher prepares the final research
report. This report contains a title of the report, method
used, findings, conclusions and suggestions about how
to solve the marketing problem. The language of the
report must not be very difficult. The report must be
submitted to the marketing executives for
recommendations and implementation.
o Presenting finding for decision, following:
Finally, the last step in a marketing research process is
to do a follow up.
In this stage, the marketing executive makes changes
in the product, price, marketing policies, etc. as per the
recommendations of the report. Here, the researcher
should find out, whether his recommendations are
implemented properly or not. He should also figure-out,
whether the marketing problem is solved or not.
 LIMITATIONS OF MARKETING RESEARCH.

 Limitations of Marketing Research are as follows:

 No Auto mode or readymade solution.

 Not a one size fits all.

 Data dependent.

 Not Dynamic as the world out there is.

 Can avoid a risk, but not without a cost .

 Not an effective prediction.
 Dependence on skilled researcher.
 Customers and competitors make the environment
 Applicability is the key.
 Old data = No data.
 Communication is Important
 Urban – Rural disparity
 Back to square one
Managing Marketing Information Systems and
Marketing Research
Why Small Businesses Need Marketing Information
System?

The advantages of having an effective information system are

1. Organized collection and storage of data in the Organization
2. Reduced information searching time and cost
3. Speed up obtaining relevant information sufficiently to make
decisions
4. Ability to forecast future market status
5. Provides a competitive advent
 What is an Information System (IS)?

An information system is a set of interrelated

components that collect, process, store and
disseminate information to the parties who make
decisions regarding the business.
 Marketing Information System (MKIS)

A marketing information system is a kind of information

system which gathers and stores data on marketing.

A Marketing Information System (MKIS) is a collection of

people, equipment's, and procedures to collect, sort,
analyze, evaluate and distribute needed information in
timely and accurate manner to the marketing decision makers
(Kotler & Armstrong, 2013).

This consist four steps.

• Access information needs
• Develop needed information
• Analyze information
• Distribute information for decision makers
 Internal Records System

In a small business organization, the records are kept about

• Orders
• sales prices of the products
• customer complaints
• receivables from debtors and
payable to the
creditors.
These records are called as internal records. These records
can be maintained either manually or using computer data bases.

Ex-:You may have seen small grocery shops maintain

small invoice books as record of sales. That is one
example for maintenance of an internal record in a
small business.
 Marketing Intelligence System

 Internal records system provides data for day today decision making.

 But a Marketing intelligence system provides predictive data relating

to a particular situation.

It is defined as a system which produces everyday information about the

changes in the marketing environment.

the sources of marketing intelligence system

 Newspapers
 Magazines
 trade publications
 talking to customers
 suppliers and distributors

A small business organization can keep manual records of data

generated through this type of system for effective decision making.
 Marketing Decision Support Analysis

The next component of MKIS is “Marketing Decision Support Analysis”.

These are tools which can be used to analyze to make effective marketing
decisions.

Marketing decision support analysis tools include computer software

like Geographic Information System (GIS) to track inventory
details of the product dealers.

Further, this includes statistical tools like time series sales modes,
linear programming, elasticity models (price, incomes, demand,
supply, etc.), spreadsheet 'what if models’.

These information help marketers to make decisions on market

segmentation, pricing policies, budgeting, etc.
 Marketing Research System

The purpose of conducting a marketing research is to

gather information regarding a specific marketing
problem of the business.

• An organization can conduct research by using a

research team in the organization itself or
outsourcing it to the research firm.
 Marketing Research Process

Marketing research is a process of systematic

design, collection, analysis and reporting of data
relevant to a specific marketing situation.
According to Kotler and Armstrong (2014) marketing research
process has four steps which can be briefly discussed as
follows.

• Defining the problem and research objectives

• Developing the research plan to collect information
• Implementing the research plan - collecting and
analyzing the data
• Interpreting and reporting the findings
 01.Defining the problem and research
objectives
 This is the first and most often the hardest step in the marketing research
process.

 Most often the business owners may be aware that something is wrong,
but they may fail to know the exact cause for the problem.

For example,
Would a 10 percent decrease in the price of a product result in attraction of
more customers to offset the impact of price reduction?

 Therefore, in such a situation the determination of research

problem and objectives will guide the entire process.
 It is very important to identify the real problem apart from symptoms of
the problem.
 02.Developing the research plan to collect information
• This plan should basically outline the sources of information, contact
methods, sampling methods and the tools that should be used to
gather new data.

When collecting information, businesses can refer both primary

and secondary data sources.

• Primary data includes the information collected for a specific

purpose at hand whereas.
• secondary data includes information that has been already
collected for any other purpose. survey method, observation,
interviewing customers, mystery shopping are the methods used to
collect primary data.

• The secondary data can be collected via referring paper articles,

magazines, data from department of census and statistics, central
bank reports, trade journals, etc.
 03.Implementing the research plan - collecting and
analyzing the data
• This is the stage in which the research plan is actually put into
action where the actual data collection and analysis would take
pace.

• In this step the organizations will be able to uncover some of the

problems that might have happened in the previous stage such
as problems of interacting with the respondents, quality of
participants’ responses, mistakes happened in the interviews etc.

Accordingly, after analyzing the collected data the business owners

will be able to identify and isolate important insights which will be
helpful in decision making.
04.Interpreting and reporting the findings

• Interpretation of the findings is an important but tricky task.

• This is mainly because the interpretation of the analysis will

depend on a number of factors such as the knowledge of the
interpreter regarding the subject and the accuracy and
relevance of information.

• Thus, it is advisable to take the advice of the experts in interpreting

the results and drawing conclusions based on them.
Obstacles of Maintaining an Effective
Marketing Information System in a Small
Business

But maintaining an effective information system in a small-scale

business is not an easy task due to many reasons.

• Lack of knowledge on importance of MKIS among small

business owners
• Lack of human resources to maintain an effective MKIS
system
• Short term business focus .
• Lack of awareness on how to maintain a MKIS system.
Promotional Mix

41
 Integrated Marketing Communications

Advertising Personal selling

Sales promotion
Public relations

Direct marketing

BASIC ADAPTABLE

42
Setting the Promotion
Mix
Reach
Reach Many
Many Buyers,
Buyers, Repeat
Repeat Message
Advertising
Advertisin Many
MessageTimes,
Many Impersonal,
Times, Expensive
g Impersonal, Expensive
Personal
Persona Personal
Personal Interaction,
Interaction, Relationship
Relationship
Selling
l Building,
Building,Most
MostExpensive
ExpensivePromo
PromoTool
Tool
Selling
Sales
Sales Wide Assortment ofof
Tools, Rewards
Wide Assortment Tools,
Promotion
Promotio Quick Response,
Rewards QuickEfforts Short-Lived
Response, Efforts
Short-Lived
n Public
Public Very Believable, Dramatize a Company
Very Believable, Dramatize a
Relations
Relation or Company
Product, Underutilized
or Product,
Underutilized
s Direct
Direct Nonpublic,
Nonpublic,Immediate,
Immediate,Customized,
Marketing
Marketin Interactive
Customized,
Interactive
g

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Factors in Setting Promotion
Mix
 Buyer State
 Liking, Preferences, and
Conviction
 Purchase
 Product-Life-Cycle Stage
 Introduction
 Growth
 Mature
 Decline

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 Advertising

Advertising is Any Paid Form of

Nonpersonal Presentation and
Promotion of Ideas, Goods, or
Services by an Identified Sponsor.

45
 Advertising

Its function is to inform

consumers about product
differences, new products and
application possibilities.

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Advertising
It plays a role in the competitive
process by firstly bringing
differences in products or
services to the attention of the
consumer.
Secondly, it persuades consumers
to prefer on company’s product
to those of another.
Thirdly, It creates value by its
communication strategy.

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Main Advertising
Objectives
 Informative
Advertising
 Persuasive Advertising
 Reminder Advertising

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Characteristics of
Advertising
 One way communication
 It deals with thousands of
consumers and each one receives
the same mesage.
 Depends on symbols: brand logos
 Low-cost mass communication
 Persuasive communication

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Advertising
media

Newspapers
 Magazines
 Television
 Direct
mail
 Radio
 Etc…

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Personal
Selling
 Involves Two-Way, Personal
Communication Between
Salespeople and Individual
Customers:
 face to face,
 by telephone,
 through video conferencing,
 or by other means

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 Personal Selling

A personalized form of
communication in which a seller
presents the features and benefits
of a product to a buyer for the
purpose of making a sale

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Personal Selling

Roles:
 Increase marketing intelligence
 Locating and maintaining customers
 Generating sales at point of
purchase
 Relationship marketing
 Provide detailed and up-to-
date information to the travel
trade

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Personal
Selling
Objectives
 Sales volume
 Cross-selling, Up-selling, and
Second- chance selling
 Marketing share
 Product-specific objectives

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Personal
Selling
 Cross-selling
 offering a customer the opportunity to
purchase allied products that go beyond the
obvious core products

 Up-selling
 upgrading price and profit margins by
selling higher-priced products

 Second-chance selling
 trying to sell additional services to a customer
who has already booked services

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Personal Selling: Sales management

 The management of the sales force

and personal selling efforts to
achieve desired sales objectives
 Roles include:
 recruiting
 training
 motivating/rewarding
 sales planning
 evaluating sales performance

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Personal Selling
disadvantages
 Can only deal with a small number
of potential customers.
 More costly on a per-
customer basis.
 A bad salesperson can
damage a relationship

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Sales
Promotion
Sales Promotion consists of
short- term incentives to
encourage the purchase or sales
of a product.

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 Sales
Promotion
It’s a blend of marketing activities and material that are designed to
intensify the efforts of the company’s salesforce, induce intermediaries to
stock and sell the company’s product, and/or persuade consumers to buy
the product limited in time period

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Sales
Promotion
 A technique used to increase the
value of its product by offering an
extra incentive to purchase the
product
 Short-term incentives to encourage
the purchase or sales of product or
service
 Directed at consumer (samples,
coupons, rebates, contests,
demonstrations) and trade (free
goods, contests, family trips)

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 Sales Promotion

 Increase short-term sales or help build

long-term market share.
 Get consumers to try a new product

 Attract customers away from a competitor

 In general, sales promotion should focus on

consumer relationship building.

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 Sales Promotion

Sales promotion methods are

aimed at three target groups,
namely consumers (consumer
promotion), salespeople
(salesforce promotion) and
intermediaries (trade promotion)

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Consumers Trade Salesforces
Netwo
rk
Price cuts Extra Bonuses
Sales commissio and other
offers ns Prizes money
Discount incentives
Free gifts
vouchers Gift
incentives
Coupons Parties Travel
Disguised incentiv
price cuts es
Prizes
Additio
nal
2
services 3
Effective sales
promotion
 Short duration
 Dificult to imitate by competitors
 Difficult to predict
 Directed at and restricted to
specific segments

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Effective sales
promotion
 Short duration: customers must
not be able to postpone buying
decisions . If the promotion is too
long, customers will also perceive it
as part of the standard price.

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Effective sales
promotion
 Difficult to imitate by competitors
– for example airlines that
arranege co-operative promotions
linking a particular hotel, car
rental company or restaurant…

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 Effective sales

promotion
Difficult to predict – if customers can predict sales promotions, they may
simply postpone their buying decision.

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Effective sales
promotion
Directed at and restricted to specific
segments – this is to avoid the diluition
of total sales revenue which occurs if
unnecessary incentives are offered to all
customers, some of whom intended to
buy without the added incentive. For this
reason airlines that offer sales
promotions on overseas trips would
specify a minimum stay at the
destination (often 7 days or more), to
avoid having business travellers using
the promotion.

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 Public
Relations
Public Relations Involves Building Good Relations With the Company’s
Various Publics by Obtaining Favorable Publicity, Building Up a Good
Corporate Image, and Handling or Heading Off Unfavorable Rumors,
Stories, and Events.

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 Public
Relations
The activities that a tourism or hospitality organization uses to maintain or
improve its relationship with other organizations or individuals

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Public Relations

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Functions of PR
Departments
 Establishing corporate
identity
 Government relations
 Crisis management
 Internal communications
 Customer relations
 Press Relations
 Product Publicity
 Corporate Communication
 Lobbying
 Counseling

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Public
Relations
 Build Awareness, comprehension,
positive attitude.
 Build Credibility
 Stimulate the Sales Force and
Channel Intermediaries
 Sales-and-Profit Contribution

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Public Relations Techniques Available to the Tourism
and Hospitality Industry

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Public
Relations
Read Public relations
text….

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Direct
Marketing
It’s the use of advertising
methods (for example, mail, mass
media, telephone or intecative
devices) to handle all or some
portion of the selling process
handked by personal, face to face
contact.
Consider Internet Impact

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Direct
Marketing
Direct marketing is an interactive
system of marketing which uses
one or more advertising media to
effect a measurable response
and/or transaction at any location.

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 Mass Marketing and Direct
Marketing
Most Mass
Marketing Involves
One-Way
Communications
Aimed At
Consumers.

Direct Marketing
Involves Two-
Way
Interactions 78
With
Advantages of Direct
Marketing
 Precision targeting
 Personalization
 Flexibility
 Privacy
 Measurability
 Low cost
 Detailed knowledge of
consumers
 Fast or immediate response

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Forms of Direct
Marketing Face-to-
Face
Selling
Online
Telemarketing
Marketin
g

Kiosk Direc
Marketin t
g Mail
Direct-
Catalo
Response TV
g
Marketing

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Direct
Marketing
Read direct marketing
text….

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